Hotel pool closed

[car1sberg]

Hi, looking for some advice.

My family have booked to stay in a UK hotel in a few days time, it was booked months ago (via a third party website using credit we had from a trip that we’d had to cancel) - a special occasion and more than we’d ever usually spend for 1 night but the hotel has a lovely pool our that children were very excited to use.

I went on the hotel website earlier to show the children some photos and saw that the pool is closed for refurbishment until next year! We’re gutted. We’d never spend this amount to stay there had we known the pool would be closed, it wasn’t at the time of booking, nor was there any mention that it would be in the future, and nor have we been notified at any point.

I contacted the third party and was told that we can’t cancel as the cancellation window ended a few days ago (a random 9 days before our stay) and to contact the hotel. The hotel said they can’t cancel it as it wasn’t booked directly through them.

Does anyone know if we have any legal rights here? We’d have cancelled before the 9 day window if we’d known but had no reason to check if the pool may be closing, it was only by chance I saw today.

Thank you.

I’d be gutted if a hotel room I spent £370 on didn’t come with the features I’d booked it for.

Good for you. It’s a lot of money for us, as I said for a special occasion, so it’s very disappointing. I agree not earth shattering - nobody said it was.

I mean in the grand scheme of things of course it’s not that big of a deal, but when you’ve spent the money and planned something special around something being there then yes it is something that can rile someone up. Not everything has to be ww3 for someone to be a bit miffed about something. If you’ve bought something then you are entitled to get what you’ve paid for and that includes the amenities at a hotel.

If it was just me and another adult no I would have let it go but if you have young children who were really looking forward to it particularly in the summer holidays I’d be incredibly pissed off.

This 100%

You should probably ask for a gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience. It’s a drag having to go elsewhere to use the pool.

Surely the small print in the booking contract covers this. They usually say something like facilities may be unavailable to cover themselves for having close them at short notice.

I swim daily so always book accommodation with pool. Over the years on many occasions I have arrived to find the pool closed, absolutely nothing I could do about it ( or so I have been advised, uk and over seas). Daily closures are often out of their hands. If it is a long term closure often there is an agreement to use a nearby hotel or spa pool, worth checking.

Normally within UK a minimum 2 or 3 day stay is required for insurance to kick in.

I would simply say to the hotel. We will postpone for a time the pool is open. Most hotels will do that. 3rd party or not and if not, ask to speak to the manager and nicely explain. Thats an extremely high one night hotel room. Is that with dinner and breakfast.

I had this with a warners hotel, they didn't say on the website at all that the pool was closed at their North Wales site, they only informed me when convientely to them I'd already booked and paid in full months later.

What kind.of.refurbishment. if the pool needs repairs then the hotel may.not.of.had a choice but to close.it on safety.grounds.

Unfortunately, booking through the 3rd party site means the hotel has limited liability to yourself and your claim would be against the company you booked with

I have no idea about legalities, but I think your fight will be with the third party that sold it to you. You could speak to ABTA if it is covered.
If no joy there and you are really unhappy then pay the excess and claim on the insurance.
One other option is to go with it and find another pool nearby you could use?
Maybe ask the hotel or third party to contribute towards costs as a gesture of goodwill.

My friends had this issue on a city break, they arrived to find pool was shut for the duration. Not mentioned at all on the third party site. The hotel themselves did the refund as booking dot com were useless, and the receptionist helped them find another local hotel with working pool. OP I would not be happy with just vouchers to go elsewhere for a swim, the high price point should include all amenities as advertised. I would request full refund and find somewhere else!