Not being informed of building works at UK hotel

supersaver21 · 21 September 2017 at 10:20AM

I was looking to find out if anyone knew the legal rights of an individual on the following issue. My parents have booked a UK short break with Titan Travel but they were not informed by Titan at the stage of booking (or any stage thereafter) that the hotel is undergoing a major refurbishment. I was of the opinion that a travel company, such as Titan, had an obligation to inform customers, at the time of booking or at least on their website, that the hotel is undergoing works. If my parents had known, they would not have booked that particular holiday break. My parents rang Titan about it but they did not receive any sort of apology for not telling them and a refund was not a possibility. Is this legal? My parents have still not taken this particular holiday as it is booked for 2 weeks time.

ThumbRemote · 21 September 2017 at 12:49PM

The key question is whether the building works affects their holiday. They may not even know work is taking place, if it's in a different part of the hotel. Alternatively it may be noisy and facilities that were advertised be closed. Any reputable hotel would be aiming for little or no disruption to their customers.

POPPYOSCAR · 21 September 2017 at 12:55PM

How did they find out the hotel is undergoing works?

supersaver21 · 21 September 2017 at 4:02PM

ThumbRemote wrote: »

The key question is whether the building works affects their holiday. They may not even know work is taking place, if it's in a different part of the hotel. Alternatively it may be noisy and facilities that were advertised be closed. Any reputable hotel would be aiming for little or no disruption to their customers.

Thank you. I understand what you are saying but I am just looking to find out if there is an obligation (legal or otherwise) on a travel company to inform their customers in this type of scenario. Hopefully, it will not disrupt their holiday but I have visited the hotel myself, following my parents booking it, and it is major works being carried out costing several millions and taking up to a year to complete. It is a very nice 4 star hotel. I asked the hotel if they had informed Titan of the works being carried out and they said that they had and that they had a duty to inform them. However, it was not their responsibility to inform Titan customers as this should be Titan's responsibility which I totally accepted.

supersaver21 · 21 September 2017 at 4:04PM

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

How did they find out the hotel is undergoing works?

I visited the hotel and saw it for myself. I'm not sure how this is relevant to my question though.

ThumbRemote · 22 September 2017 at 1:07PM

supersaver21 wrote: »

Thank you. I understand what you are saying but I am just looking to find out if there is an obligation (legal or otherwise) on a travel company to inform their customers in this type of scenario. Hopefully, it will not disrupt their holiday but I have visited the hotel myself, following my parents booking it, and it is major works being carried out costing several millions and taking up to a year to complete. It is a very nice 4 star hotel. I asked the hotel if they had informed Titan of the works being carried out and they said that they had and that they had a duty to inform them. However, it was not their responsibility to inform Titan customers as this should be Titan's responsibility which I totally accepted.

Short answer - no.

Long answer - the company have an obligation to provide what they were contracted to provide by the customer. Therefore if the building works affect this, it's the companies responsibility to provide what was agreed - for example if they advertised a hotel with a pool, and the pool was closed due to building works, then they'd need to do something about this. Similarly, if the building works were making a noise overnight, or caused no hot water in their rooms, that would be unacceptable to the basic purpose of a hotel room, and the company would need to rectify it.

However, if the building works don't actually affect what was agreed between the company and the customer, there is no obligation for the company to do anything.

Hence the two scenarios are:
1. The building work doesn't affect the contracted terms, in which case they don't need to do anything.
2. The building work does affect the contracted terms, in which case the company need to put that right. This may involve negotiating with the hotel, or offering a price reduction for the loss of facilities, or even changing hotels. They may need to contact the customer here, depending on what they decide to do.

(There is a grey area in the middle. The presence of a crane may not affect anything in a city centre, but if it was smack bang in front of your window in the Lake District when the hotel made play of the tranquility and the marvellous views, then you're probably not getting what you paid for. But then maybe there is still tranqulity and marvellous views from the front of the hotel but not from the rear - it's not a black and white issue)

supersaver21 · 23 September 2017 at 11:49AM

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Short answer - no.

Long answer - the company have an obligation to provide what they were contracted to provide by the customer. Therefore if the building works affect this, it's the companies responsibility to provide what was agreed - for example if they advertised a hotel with a pool, and the pool was closed due to building works, then they'd need to do something about this. Similarly, if the building works were making a noise overnight, or caused no hot water in their rooms, that would be unacceptable to the basic purpose of a hotel room, and the company would need to rectify it.

However, if the building works don't actually affect what was agreed between the company and the customer, there is no obligation for the company to do anything.

Hence the two scenarios are:
1. The building work doesn't affect the contracted terms, in which case they don't need to do anything.
2. The building work does affect the contracted terms, in which case the company need to put that right. This may involve negotiating with the hotel, or offering a price reduction for the loss of facilities, or even changing hotels. They may need to contact the customer here, depending on what they decide to do.

(There is a grey area in the middle. The presence of a crane may not affect anything in a city centre, but if it was smack bang in front of your window in the Lake District when the hotel made play of the tranquility and the marvellous views, then you're probably not getting what you paid for. But then maybe there is still tranqulity and marvellous views from the front of the hotel but not from the rear - it's not a black and white issue)

Thank you so much ThumbRemote for your response. That really tells me everything I need to know, so much appreciated. I will pass this information into my parents. All the best.

Not being informed of building works at UK hotel

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