Thompson Holiday Complaint - Do we have any rights ?

Mouthwash_2

To cut a long storyshort.....ish! (sorry!)

We previously travelled to ahotel in Kos that we loved so much we wished to return the following year.

We visited a Thompson shop aswe wanted to explain our requirements face to face to secure the right rooms inthe resort, we were aware there were rooms directly overlooking the mainoutdoor entertainment areas/stage, (block 7000) with small children we we clearunder no circumstances did we want this room type.

We had previously stayed in aquieter block overlooking the sea, we indicated where these rooms were and theblock numbers (3-4000). The Thompson rep advised we needed to book sea-viewrooms to secure the right room type/location. With this information, we feltconfident to book and paid over £4,400.

Upon arrival we were sent torooms in block 7000, the one area we didn’t want to stay in! No support fromThompson when we contacted them on the phone and in the resort. With the roomsoverlooking the stage, this was unacceptable with our children, we then spentover a day and a half resolving/moving rooms (ONLY with help from hotel, andnot Thompson). The hotel also advised the rooms Thompson should have advised usto book were 'frontal sea view'.

We had to take a downgrade toGarden rooms (a lot cheaper!) to move away to a quiet area as this is all thehotel could offer in the circumstances, we were forced to accept.

We have since complained toTUI/Thompson, explaining we were mis-lead as we were lead to believe we werebooking the right rooms to secure the location we wanted for our holiday, whichin fact was not the case. Due to their error and lack of knowledge about theresort/room types, we suffered the consequences on our one family holiday thatwe paid a lot of money for. It doesn’t seem fair they should keep our moneybased on the fact we didn’t get what we believed we were paying for.

I have followed the rightprocedure in complaining within the set timeframes, TUI's initial reply wasjust outside of 28 days (and they lied by predating the letter on the emailreply!), along with including a paragraph intended for an internal colleaguewithin the last reply I received!!!

‘’ Please see below the template for CB,the section in red may need to be taken out though as we aren’t reviewing thefiles so this could aggravate customers if they have some new questions intheir letter’’. !!!

Their responses so far have been very apologietic in terms of us not being happy, that they confirm we requested block 3000 or 4000 but under their terms and conditions it states 'special requests' for rooms cannot be guaranteed. And that as an agent, they do not sell the room type we requested (frontal sea view) therefore they were unable to book us into the requested block but did thier upmost with the hotel by requesting the hotel to allocate these rooms. ..

I need to take to ATOL, we have passed the second stage complaint process, and i dont think Thompson truley understand WHY we are unhappy, they are not listening. We know they cannot guarantee 'special requests' for rooms, the fact is they didnt tell us at the time that they were unable to book frontal sea view rooms and led us to believe we were booking sea view rooms to stay in the same area as the previous year. We were very clear we did not want ot book if we had any chance of staying in the block 7000 and would not have booked if they had given us the right detail.

Does anyone have any advice on this matter?

It would be useful if anyone has any advice either way, should we accept thissituation or do we have rights here as consumers, surely smaller companiescouldn’t get away with this? I feel I should stand up and fight this until thebitter end based on the amount of money we paid them!.

Thanks and sorry for rant!

Browntoa

As Thomson state they cannot allocate those rooms but are at the mercy of the hotel who allocate rooms

Not sure what you can do if the hotel had already allocate those rooms to other guests

visidigi

What exactly have you asked them for, resolution wise, in your initial discussions with them on the issue?

meer53

What are you wanting as a resolution ? You paid for a holiday, you got a holiday. Fair enough you didn't get the room you wanted but did you get a sea view from the room you moved from ? If you're looking for a full refund, dream on. They'll probably offer a discount on a future holiday at the most.

When my kids were younger, they slept through anything, especially on holidays. Entertainment, even late at night would never have affected them. It would have bothered me more than them !

bell123321

If you paid extra for the sea rooms compared to the rooms you got on arrival I think that amount should be refunded but I doubt your get much else. Not sure on advice to give.