holiday in 5 days- just find out closed restaurant/building work

sweetcheekz

Hi,
We have an all inclusive holiday booked with Thomas Cook, going this Sunday to Tunisia. Today recieved an email to say that the restaurant is closed, another venue in the complex will be used, and there will be building work continuing although the Tunisian management are confident that it won't be a problem!

The email says we can change accommodation without the administartion fee's but paying any extra cost.
Given that we booked in Feb prices are now considerable higher, are we entitled to a hotel comparable at todays price?
What else are we legally entitled to, I don't mean compensation but at the moment they can't seem to change our accommodation without changing our flight back to Bristol (we are flying from Gatwick) some sort of booking glitch apparently
what happens if they cannot change our hotel?

Any help appreciated

mcfisco

Given that we booked in Feb prices are now considerable higher, are we entitled to a hotel comparable at todays price?

I'd say so, do your homework before you speak to them and tell them which hotels you'll consider

sweetcheekz

Thank you, I am waiting on them to get back to me, they need to go through a different system/dept because it is so close to departure date. At the moment its a case of "the computer says no"

Blinking pain in the butt to leave it this close before telling us about it.

jhe

you are entitled to an equal standard hotel acceptable to you,
its irrelevant what todays prices are. look for a hotel you feel is suitable and tell thomas cook. dont let them fob you off.
if they cant offer you something suitable you are entitled to find your own and send thomas cook the bill, this was the advice i was given by trading standards

sweetcheekz

Thank you, I wish I had got to the point of talking to someone who can actually change our hotel, I have been waiting since 1.30pm to work out how to do it! phoned 4 times now and still waiting for someone to phone back :mad:

jhe

did you book on line or with a travel agent?
i would be insisting on speaking to a manager.
we were informed last minute years ago that there was building work going on outside a hotel we had booked and were offered a change of hotel,we went ahead with the booked hotel and building work didnt bother us we hardly heard it, but obviously could be very different with you.this was a thomas cook holiday and they informed us just before travel.
the advice i gave in post 4 regarding trading standards was for a thomson holiday i had booked, different problem to yours but you are still entitled to equal standard hotel=location,facilities.
hope you manage to sort it out and enjoy your holiday

sweetcheekz

Well after much chasing up they have told us basically that they will change our hotel, but we have to pay extra now to get a comparable one.
We have to stay at the one we booked AI, or they will move us to a new one but the money we paid end Feb will now only get us HB.
Apparently its not their fault the building work has run on, they can't seem to grasp that its not mine either.

jhe

ring trading standards/consumer direct they will give you the advice you need.you can get a local number by going onto saynoto0870 website
like you say its not your fault,as i said in earlier post i was told by trading standards if in my case which was thomsons could not provide suitable hotel of at least equal standard i would be entitled to find my own hotel of equal standard and bill thomsons for it.
once i armed myself with the info from trading standards (who were very helpful)and quoted it to thomsons they started to be reasonable with me

Mr_Wang

We need a sticky on this forum for people to rant about how they have been treated by Travel Agents.
It's a daily thing and would give others an insight into how some TA's seem to have a could care less attitude.

giraffe69

Thomson changed our hotel as they no longer used one that had appeared in the brochure. They claimed "health" reasons although other operators were still using it. We moved to another comparable hotel which was slightly more expensive and they too said we had to pay the difference. The argument went on for quite a while and involved managers before they gave in. Be persistent is my advice

sweetcheekz

Thank you all for your help, I finally got to speak to a manager myself.
Their attitude is that because we could still go to the hotel I had booked, (they don't seem to think that closing the restaurant and serving in the snack bar, closing the pool bar, and the noise of building work to materially effect the holiday!), then If I chose to change hotel I could only have a hotel to the value of what we paid when we booked (so as such a penalty for booking in advance).
They also said that I had to pay the extra because the price had gone up, but, equally, it could have gone down, hmmmm if that was the case I don't think they would be refunding me money!

Anyway the upshot is, after complaining about them not telling me of the building work when I booked, which they must have know of, and quoting some ABTA codes of practise, they have found me what looks like a comparable package at a hotel in a different resort, which I have accepted but i have told them that I reserved the right to seek compensation if it is not.

Mr Wang- maybe we should have a sticky for each of the major tour operators/agents, then everyone could add their experiences good, or bad, i'm all for an informed choice when making a major purchase. Needless to say, having gone with a high street agent for the first time, hoping to avoid any stress, I will not be ever booking with Thomas Cook again.

Thanks for all the help, heres to a week in the sun :j