Thomson's Brochure Error No Kids Club available on Honeymoon

03029174

Hi everyone, sorry for the long post but wanted to provide a lot of info

My wife and i have recently returned from a week’s honeymoon in Dominican Republic. We have a 2.5yr old daughter who we love to bits and wanted to take her along (providing there was a kids club so we got to some time to relax together). There were plenty of destinations we looked at but couldn’t book because kids clubs were for older kids. Eventually we found a Thomson’s holiday which stated the kids club was for 2yr+. This was a deal breaker for us so we contacted the hotel direct who agreed she was allowed into kids club, we checked with Thomson’s agent at time of booking and double checked a second time a week before departure. Obviously the catalogue and website both said 2yrs+.
We landed in the Dominican and received the paperwork from the reps, this also said 2yrs+, so far so good. The next morning we asked the rep where the kids club was and was told she was too young and they don't accept children under 4 years old. This had a huge impact on the trip and made it really hard work not having a break during the day. The first half of the holiday I spent a lot of my time trying to chase down reps but towards the end of the holiday (last 3 days) we were told the hotel would provide a babysitter for 2 hours a day. This turned into us dropping her off at kids club for “babysitting”. We were called back to pick her up early on the first day because she kept crying and she wouldn’t settle the remaining days which isn’t surprising because they were not setup to cater for children of her age, had no age appropriate toys and also no other children to play with (under 4)
I wrote a detailed letter explaining how disappointing it was that we paid 3k for our honeymoon and felt let down by Thomson’s considering that we had gone to so much trouble to ensure the kids club would be available to us.
We have received a letter from Thomson’s stating they have contacted the hotel and their brochure team to make the amendment. They have offered us £420 in vouchers or £280 in cash.
Has anyone been in a similar situation with a tour operator? This error had a huge impact on the holiday and we would not have booked a Caribbean holiday if we knew she couldn’t her into kids club, we would have gone somewhere closer and a fair bit cheaper. Also I didn’t pay with vouchers and am not sure I want to book with Thomson’s again (the reps were USELESS) So essentially they are offering us £280 cash (about 9%) on a £3k+ holiday which I don’t think is a great deal since Thomson’s have failed to deliver the holiday I booked. I have 28 days to reply but would really appreciate any advice on people I should contact (small claims / citizens advice?) and how I should respond to Thomson’s offer.
Hopefully I won’t get a lot of responses “why did I take my child on my honeymoon”
Thanks for reading
Pete

hollydays

I'd think about small claims.
Of course you'd want your child on holiday with you at this happy time.

somethingcorporate

How much do you want to fix the situation? Have you told Thomsons this number?

hollydays

I'd want three quarters of it back.

03029174

Well i've done some research online tonight and was thinking about pushing for at least 50% back. It seems other people have received support from local trading standards so i plan to call them first thing tomorrow.

somethingcorporate

Seems unreasonably high in my opinion given that the kids club would not be for three quarters of their time on the holiday.

I think they stand more a chance of not having it rejected outright if they can put some logic to their requests.

If the kids club was for 8 hours a day a third plus a bit more for the hassle would seem reasonable. Asking for 75% when they still managed to enjoy a family holiday seems high.

Edit: Cross-posted with the OP. I agree that 50% probably seems a reasonable starting point.

Tigsteroonie

Interesting that you're being offered anything for cancellation of an additional optional service ....

On a MUCH smaller scale, when we booked Butlins Skegness at the very start of this year, they had a guest Nursery at which we would be able to pay to leave our son for a couple of hours on a couple of days - we'd used a similar service in Minehead the previous summer. We booked it having checked that Skegness accepted guest children (not just staff). By the time the holiday rolled round in June, Butlins no longer offered that guest Nursery service at any of their sites.

Did we get compensation? Did we heck

Oh, and for those who are about to say "Why go to Butlins and then put your child in Nursery?" ... We have our reasons, which are many and complicated. That's not the issue. The issue was that we booked expecting a service to be available, and then the service was withdrawn.

03029174

Thanks for the replies somethingcorporate & hollydays, i really appreciate the help

03029174

Hi Tigsteroonie

Thanks for the reply and taking the time to read my post, personally, i did not think the Childrens Club was an optional service since it was included in the price. I think my situation is different because the service was running and was misrepresented by Thomsons. Thats why i checked the week before so we had half a chance of changing hotel if the service was no longer available

gettingtheresometime

03029174 wrote: »

Hopefully I won’t get a lot of responses “why did I take my child on my honeymoon”
Thanks for reading
Pete

well I took our son on our 'honeymoon' but that was because we couldn't afford a honeymoon when we got married so ours was delayed a good few years lol!

Seriously though I think you have to look at this pragmatically - there was no guarantee that she would have settled even if they had been set up to look after her - what you have done then? When you say the reps were useless was that because they couldn't magic a kid's club that would accept your daughter?

Is there a chance that once upon a time they did accept children as young as your daughter but for some reason now no longer don't but forgot to update the paperwork?

Personally if you're never going to book with Thomson again I would opt for the cash.

hollydays

I once booked a holiday when myself and my children had been through trauma, and were really in need of a break. It was about £750 for a city break. On the way to the airport the holiday company rang to say we needed to go to gatwick not heathrow. As a result of this stress I claimed three quarters of the cost back at county court and got it. I don't see your situation as terribly different.