Holiday From Hell - How do I get a Refund?

consumer23

Hi,

Back in October I had the joy of booking and looking forward to a holiday of a lifetime to Egypt. Myself and my Girlfriend had paid for an all inclusive seven night trip to a 5* hotel in sharm el sheikh.

Unfortunately, we were booked into a disused hotel and spent most of the holiday trying to get out and into a proper hotel, however during this struggle, we had to suffer from lack of water/no water at times and little & no food as well as no facilities and total boredom.

The upshot is that we are looking to get a refund and compensation for our loss of enjoyment, and loss of/no facilities during our stay. Naturally we wrote a long complaint to the travel agent as soon as we returned, and received an acknowledgement that the matter would be resolved within 28 days, however well over six weeks later we have still not had a resolution as the travel agent is not cooperating.

Since then we have written to ABTA who regulate travel agents including the travel agent we booked through (Bookable Holidays), but unfortunately they got back to us stating that they could not enforce anything from the travel agent as the travel agent themselves had paid their principals for the service we had booked. i.e. they paid seperate organisations, so one organisation was the airline (thomson) and another was the agency that arranged the accommodation (Lowcost beds).

Due to this, the travel agent was supposedly not responsible for the mistake, it was the travel agents principal that is to blame, and ABTA do not regulate this principal.

Soon after a light bulb went on in my head as I remembered making the payment with a credit card, and thought I could use the section 75 to get a refund, however after reading the section 75 on moneysaving expert, I soon found out that as the agent (Bookable Holidays) I paid was not directly involved in making the arrangements for our trip, it would be excluded from section 75 refund as they merely just collected our money and passed it on.

So now I'm at a loss as what to do and how to go about getting a refund and compensation for this. Does anyone have any feedback or ideas?

P.S The official term to describe this type of holiday is a "Dynamic Travel Package"

malkie76

Another reason never to use a travel agent and book direct.

You've got no claim on 'loss of enjoyment' as no such thing exists.
If you paid for 5*, and given 3* then you've grounds for a refund.

Which were the two hotels?

Your refund comes from the agent you paid, but writing a long letter was unhelpful as its unlikely to get read - short and to the point is better.

Incapuppy

What do you mean by a 'disused' hotel? Which hotel was it?

knightstyle

Seen this in this site guide. "Importantly, from 30 Apr 2012, ATOL protection was extended to include flights and accommodation or car hire booked from the same company within a day of each other, even if they're not part of a formal package. This is a handy bonus, meaning these protected breaks are also worth looking into, in case they come up cheaper than formal package holidays. See the MSE news story ATOL Travel Protection Extended for info."

consumer23

The Hotel was the Sol Y Mar Riva Club. It was just one hotel.

Incapuppy

Sorry, I'm still baffled, what exactly happened?

consumer23

we were sent to the sol y mar riva club hotel which was disused, and after repeated attempts to be moved, we were left to sizzle at the sol y mar riva club hotel with empty swimming pools and luke warm left overs for breakfast lunch and dinner.

malkie76

Where should you have been?

Incapuppy

So was the Sol Y Mar Riva the hotel you actually booked? Did you check reviews before booking or travelling? The reviews on Trip Advisor are certainly dreadful!

Mr_Wang

consumer23 wrote: »

we were sent to the sol y mar riva club hotel which was disused, and after repeated attempts to be moved, we were left to sizzle at the sol y mar riva club hotel with empty swimming pools and luke warm left overs for breakfast lunch and dinner.

I arrived in Sharm from Cairo and rarely pre book accommodation wherever I travel. Generally I have a few places in mind and Sharm was one such place.
But what became very apparent, very quickly was that hotels in Sharm are nothing like they seem to be in the pictures. Additionally, Trip Advisor is near useless since most reviews are written by Jeremy Kyle throwbacks all annoyed they didn't get Fosters on tap.

Of al the places I have ever been I don;t think Ive ever been anywhere (other than Blackpool) quite as tourist oriented as Sharm and so I guess a decent place is luck of the draw.

That said, the hotel we stayed at was suffering really badly since it was off the main area and had no beach. IIRC occupancy was around 20% and we were offered free meals and drinks as a sweetener. Point being, Sharm exists wholly for tourists, rock up on a charter from the UK and expect to get shafted, but use it to your advantage and you can get some blinding deals - Even if Sharm isn't all its cracked up to be.

malkie76

website looks ok, but trip advisor is pretty clearly negative

http://www.jaz.travel/destinations/egypt/sharm-el-sheikh-hotels/solymar-riva-club%20.aspx