Falsely advertised holiday with Hoseasons

PurplePow

I need some advice please, I hope this is in the correct place.

I booked a weekend away through Hoseasons, and the website AND brochure both state 'Newly refurbished for 2010. King Sized Bed.' etc and it's part of a range hand picked by Hoseasons to be the best of the very best.
Well, when we got there the lodge was a tip and not newly refurbished, however it seemed our lodge was the last one to be done and when we confronted the site owner he admitted he hadn't gotten around to refurbishing this particular lodge yet. The whole place was extremely dirty and I took plenty of photos, I won't go into detail. Someone I know had stayed at this lodge park in one of the refurbished lodges and it was gorgeous, and this was a big reason why I chose to stay at this site.

We rang Hoseasons whilst we were there, the owner said he couldn't move us into another lodge as the place was fully booked, and Hoseasons tried to resolve the issue with the owner but he was refusing to refund me. Hoseasons then said I needed to put this in writing to them. I came home the same day we got there as it was just awful.

I wrote a full letter to Hoseasons, pointing out they advertised this lodge as 'newly refurbished for 2010' and it didn't even have a king sized bed... That's not a huge issue but just proves the whole blurb was false. They responded within 28 days advising they were getting touch with the site owner and would respond to me in full when they had recieved a response.

I now have a response and they say the site owner is refusing to refund us, saying wedidn't give him a chance to rectify the problem. How on earth could he have refurbished the lodge for us?! Hoseasons also thanked us for pointing out it's not newly refurbished and have now changed the information.

I want to know now what my best action would be. I am refusing to budge on this but I want to know what official paths I can take, whilst they may have changed the website the brochure still states the 'newly refurbished for 2010' line. As Hoseasons are with ABTA can I go through them, or is this advertising standards agency? Any help is greatly appreciated!

isplumm

Try posting here - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28 or holidaytruths.co.uk - they have a holiday complaint forum.

Mark

shortchanged_2

My advice is to speak to Consumer Direct, they are usually good at putting you in the right direction.

This is their website http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/

Give them a ring as they can usually tell you the relevent pieces of legislation and tell you who to and what to write.

You definatley sound like you have a case possibly under the Sales of Goods and Services Act as by you description the accommodation certainly was 'not as described'.

I'm not sure if your claim is against the owner or Hoseasons because I'm sure if all else fails Hoseasons ultimately have some liability. Anyway try Consumer Direct I'm sure they will help. They also keep a record of your complaint so you can update your case.

unholyangel

If you paid by card you can always contact your bank.

PurplePow

Thanks for recommending that forum to me.