Holiday not as promised- Sect75?

couponwagon

Hi there everyone.
In April I agreed to take my family of four to a theme park, a world of adventure.
I was not at all keen due to a lesson learnt from a previous experience that a theme park is not much fun during school holidays.
But I was won over by the prospect of the swimming pool in the hotel which my little daughter and I could retire to when the park was too busy. My wife even showed me a print-out of the resort website about the swimming pool which was due to open on 06April.
Long story short, rides queuing time was one to two hours, and I checked into the hotel, but could not find the pool. Upon which I was told it was closed for renovation(!)
It was even more strange that I saw three other people in the elevator who confirmed that they too were under the impression that the pool was open.
My question is: can I claim back the amount of our stay(which was paid by credit card). If so, how?
Thank-you.

elsien

Did you put in a complaint at the time/on your return to the company that you booked with? Was it ABTA/ATOL/booked as a package?

Buzby

I wouldn't think so - the pool was just one service, you took advantage of all the others. Twice I've been to locations where pools were unavailable, when the Ph levels were wrong and it was closed for 48hrs to rebalance, and when someone found a turd floating... It was then shut for 24hrs.

A pity, certainly - but a refund? Not a chance - maybe a free ice cream for the disappointment.

p00hsticks

couponwagon wrote: »

My question is: can I claim back the amount of our stay(which was paid by credit card). If so, how?

You won't get the full amount back, but you could try for a partial refund or some sort of other compensation such as a discount off another holiday - obviosuly for the latter you'd be better off complaining to the holiday company (if there was one) rather than the credit card company as they will have more leeway on what to offer you.

Hopefully you lodged a complaint to the hotel/ holiday company (preferably in writing) as soon as you were aware there was a problem ?

If not you need to do so now, detailing all the things that weren't as described. If they said that there would be a pool in the brochure/on the website and there wasn't, then I'd say that definitely deserves something back, but unless the holday company made any promises about short queueing times for the theme park then I think that's just the luck of the draw and not something you can hold them accountable for.

TBagpuss

You won't be entitled to a full refund, for the reason Buzby gives.

Did you complain when you were there, to see whether the hotel (or holiday company of it was a package) could arrange access to a pool elsewhere. If you ended up paying to use a different pool you may be able to claim back those additional costs.

It may also depend on how the holiday was sold - if they sold as on the basis that you're on the spot for the theme park and the pool is just an added extra then you are less likely to get any significant discount/refund than if the pool was a really major selling point.
Did either the hotel or the company contact you at any point before you left to tell you the pool would not be open?

couponwagon

Wow!
Thank-you all for the helpfull replies!
We booked the holiday directly with the theme park(their hotel).

My grump is that on the website it said the pool would be open as of 6April. When we got home we checked again and it had been altered to say "early spring." Crafty.

The hotel was lovely otherwise, but the park was tad far far too busy. Especially when you have a tired two year old (and dad).

As for a discount to go there again- I dont think it was worth the 12hr drive.

I should have demanded a complimentary ice-cream!

Perhaps we shall pursue a partial refund (but proving they changed the website would be impossible!)

eskbanker

couponwagon wrote: »

proving they changed the website would be impossible!

Not necessarily, there are sites like http://archive.org/web/ that record old versions of web pages so you can track what's changed and when. Not foolproof, especially if the content is dynamic, but potentially helpful....

Whiner

couponwagon wrote: »

Hi there everyone.
In April I agreed to take my family of four to a theme park, a world of adventure.
I was not at all keen due to a lesson learnt from a previous experience that a theme park is not much fun during school holidays.
But I was won over by the prospect of the swimming pool in the hotel which my little daughter and I could retire to when the park was too busy. My wife even showed me a print-out of the resort website about the swimming pool which was due to open on 06April.
Long story short, rides queuing time was one to two hours, and I checked into the hotel, but could not find the pool. Upon which I was told it was closed for renovation(!)
It was even more strange that I saw three other people in the elevator who confirmed that they too were under the impression that the pool was open.
My question is: can I claim back the amount of our stay(which was paid by credit card). If so, how?
Thank-you.

I see plenty of people asking for compensation on this board, but this is one of those times I think personally that it might be justified.

Good luck!

lisyloo

In general you won't get very far where a facility such as this is closed.
You will find that you contract is specifically for accomodation and possibly food.
There will be terms and conditions that state they cannot guarnatee the availability of other facilities even if advertised.
I do realise how dissapointing this can be especially if you booked a holiday specifically for such facilities, but from a contractual point of view I think you'll find it's an optional extra.

Your best bet in such a situation would be to find alternatives and then try to claim back the extra you spent.
Although it might not be on your doorstep (which is what you'd ideally like) it's not that difficult or expensive to find an alternative swimming pool, so it's hard to claim this ruined your entire holiday.

As I said I'm pretty certain you'd find your complaint had little contractual basis although I really do appreciate the dissapointment factor.

You won't be able to claim for mis-representation either.
If the pool was closed for health & safety reasons or not open due to building work delays which were not known about in advance then there is nothing that can be done.
Unfortunately this can happen if you go close to an opening date.

As for the business of the park - well I'm sorry but I'm afriad that's tough.
If you want tranquility book a desert island and not a theme park.

duchy

I think the only day really to consider a theme park with school age kids if you want to avoid crowds is to plan it for a training day,

Did you seriously leave your wife with 4 kids to supervise in a busy theme park whilst you sloped off for a quiet swim?

couponwagon

duchy wrote: »

Did you seriously leave your wife with 4 kids to supervise in a busy theme park whilst you sloped off for a quiet swim?

Good heavens no! I was going to take myself and our 2year old off for a swim.

I did not expect tranquility. But I expected there to be a swimming pool open as advertised.