Section 75 - hotel only

lestergun

Hi

I booked a holiday through a company and my flights (low-cost carrier) and hotel were two seperate transactions. The trip was cancelled due to our flights being grounded due to the recent Icelandic volcano. The cost of the flights are being refunded by the carrier although the travel agent are telling us we are unable to have any of the hotel cost returned.

Both transactions were on credit card.

Has anyone in a similiar situation had any success using section 75 ruling for hotel-only transactions?

Thanks

Lester

ukbill69

I dont think you have a hope in hell. Not the hotels fault. You should have booked a packaged holiday, well I guess you know that now.

Quentin

Section 75 covers you for breach of contract.

There was no breach of contract by the hotel, who presumably had your room ready for you.

As already has been advised, a sect 75 claim for this would be a waste of your time.

lestergun

The hotel aren't refusing to return our money - it's the travel agent.

I have an email from the hotel manager saying that all reservations were cancelled without charge.

The holiday was described as a package holiday. I have a screen-print of the advert from the teletextholidays website that clearly states "Holiday type: Package".

The travel agent booked both the flights and the accommodation using my card details. Only when two seperate invoices arrived did I recognise what had happened.

I thought I could pursue this under 'goods not as stated' or similiar.

Would this be possible?

Thanks

Lester

bagand96

Are the travel agent registered with ABTA? If so I would complain to them.

However there is a process to follow, you will have to officially register a complaint with your travel agent, you can use the email from the hotel as evidence. Then if you still get no joy, complain to ABTA, again with all your evidence.

You could also complain to ABTA re the holiday being sold as a package when it was clearly not. Who is the agent?

Alan_Bowen

You have been mislead by the travel agent, pretending to sell a package when they didn't. It is however your word against theirs, did you book face to face or over the phone? If it was on the phone, most companies record all phone calls usually to protect themselves, but it can work in your favour. Ask for a copy of the call within 7 days, tell them you will report them to both ABTA and Trading Standards for misleading information but I don't think your credit card issuer will be interested.

If the card was debited by the travel agent, rather than some broker through whom the booking was made, your last resort if you get no satisfaction is to request a chargeback, then the agent will have to justify the charge, they normally have 14 days to do so, if they don't the money is refunded, but banks will only do this if there is evidence of a breach of contract and that, based on the written evidence you have may be difficult to prove, so chase the agent first

usignuolo

This seems to be a grey area, if a travel agent sells you a flight and accommodation, together, described as a package, with one invoice, then according to some posters here and elsewhere, that makes it a package.

I should have thought, if the OP had evidence (email) from the hotel that it had cancelled the booking and not received the cost, then there would be a clear case for a chargeback. Did the hotel then resell the room? Or is travel agent saying they did not cancel but paid the hotel anyway?

lestergun

I was not provided with one invoice but two (one for flights, another for accommodation).

The issue I have is that the advery for the holiday stated "Holiday type: Package" which it clearly wasn't.

The agent are olaholidays / ola holidays. They've told us that their accommodation provider (Jumbo Tours) are keeping the money we paid for the hotel. I don't personally believe that they have passed on the money we paid.

Since my contract is with Ola Holidays, would I be able to use Section 75 as Ola Holidays said in their advert that they were providing a package holiday but failed to provide a package holiday?

Also, we were due to fly on 19th April although received a call from Ola Holidays on the 18th April saying that due to the volcano issue, we were able to re-book at a future date at no cost to ourselves. It was only when I contacted Ola Holidays to re-book did someone tell me that nothing would be refunded.

Thanks

bagand96

This is a tricky one. How did you book and where was it advertised as a package?

Ola's T&C's http://www.olaholidays.com/Terms.aspx state that:

We, Ola Holidays Limited, a company registered in a company registered in England and Wales under company number 5833037 trading as Key Trips and Key Transfers, will act as agent in booking your travel arrangements. [LH] When making your booking we will arrange for you to enter into a contract with the principal (tour operator/airline/cruise Company or other supplier) named on your receipt. For most bookings we act as agent for the principal but we act as your agent when making a booking with most no frills airlines. Details will be given at the time of booking. As an agent we accept no responsibility for the acts or omissions of the principal or for the services provided by the principal. The principal’s Terms & Conditions will apply to your booking and we advise you to read these carefully as they do contain important information about your booking. Please ask us for copies of these if you do not have them.

It is pretty clear there that they are not selling package holidays. While your hotel has said no charge was made, Ola are claiming that the "principal", which in this case is Jumbo Tours are charging and you are bound by their terms and conditions.

You could try and find out who Jumbo Tours are and whether or not they actually are charging. I still don't think section 75 will count in this case.

If your case hangs on you believing you were sold a package when in fact you weren't I would go to ABTA, Ola are members so you ca complain through ABTA.

jimd-f

have you tried contacting your travel insurance company, as many are paying out to people in the same cicumstances as you.
i know natwest bank insurance were prepared to pay me if alpharooms did not refund me.

lestergun

bagand96 - I found the holiday on the teletextholidays website. On the advert it listed the holiday type as a package, a number to call and a reference to quote. I called the number (olaholidays), quoted the reference, gave my credit card details and the holiday was booked.

I'm unable to contact Jumbo Tours and can't find contact details for a UK office. And am too thick to learn Spanish. Yes - ABTA it is.

jimd-f - Our insurers failed in their sole responsibility and chosen profession. They said we were not covered against events outside of our control that prevent us from traveling. That was quite a significant part of their travel cover. If you pay to travel and you can't go for reasons outside of their control then their travel insurance doesn't cover it. They're useless. They're called flexi-cover and are underwritten by Axa.