Mis sold holiday

samie18_2

We recently travelled on holiday and before booking I contacted the company to confirm the room details. The brochure advertised twin beds and a sofa bed in the living room, a room with twin beds and a room with bunk beds.

On arrival we had a room with twin beds and a room with bunk beds and a sofa which was to small to sleep on.

There were 4 adults and a 3 year old.

The top bunk was not suitable for the child due to her age and no safety rail on the bed. We spoke to the reps and the room advertised doesn't exist. There was no bigger alternative so we spent a week with my husband on the top bunk and me in the bottom bunk with my 3 year old. The lack of sleep was horrible and ruined the holiday.

On return I sent a complaint to crystal and they never replied within the 28 days so I forwarded it to abta.

Crystal have now replied saying they are sending £250 in holiday vouchers.

I do not believe this is a suitable outcome.

I have tried to seek legal advise but am struggling to find someone who will deal in this field.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Caz3121

Much will depend on how it was dealt with whilst you were there
Did the hotel/apartments provider confirm that the description given was incorrect? did they have rooms/apartments with the description you had paid for?
Did you contact Crystal whilst you were there? what did they say?
If you waited until you returned to raise anything and did not give them the opportunity to rectify the situation you will find it more difficult to get anything

samie18_2

We contacted the rep on arrival they contacted crystal to inform them that the advertised room didn't exist (crystal have since changed the holiday description)

We tried to sort it by asking if they could get a bed rail....they couldn't. We offered to try pillows so someone was going to bring more over.......they never did. The rep then the decided there was nothing more they could do and was waiting to hear back from head office.....they never did!

samie18_2

I should add even if we got pillows they would not have been suitable as the mattress to the side was very shallow so she still could have easily fallen out.

lea2012

I am presuming you should have either had 3 bedrooms (2 twin rooms and a bunk room plus sofa bed) or you should have had 2 bedrooms ( 1 twin, 1 bunk) with a sofa bed and 2 extra twin beds in the living room?

If you were meant to get the 2 bedrooms, plus twin extra twin beds in the living room, was there actually any space to put these beds? Perhaps because you were only 4 adults and 1 child they realised that there were adequate beds for you ( 2 adults in the twin room, 2 adults in the bunks and the child on the sofa is how they would have calculated it) and therefore decided not to put the extra beds in? Had I read a room description that said twin beds in the living room, I would have thought that these would have been put me up / camp beds and that they wouldn't have been suitable for adults anyway, but maybe that's just me.

What would you find to be a suitable compensation or alternative to the £250? I think if it was a £250 refund I would find that very acceptable, and wouldn't really expect to get much more than that. If you want more than that then send them a letter back to tell them so and explaining why, but I would say from a legal perspective that you wouldn't get much more than that. After all they did provide enough beds for your party, you just chose not to utilise them in the best possible way.

samie18_2

Thanks for that but I wouldn't agree. The pictures were 2 full beds in the living room (as confirmed by crystal) so my parents would have had the room with the beds, myself and my husband were having the beds in the living room and my daughter was having the bottom bunk so they were going to be utilised properly, only on arrival there were no beds in the living room as they has mis sold the room.

The tour op should not be 'realising' who was on the booking we should get what we pay for.

Having a 30 year old man in top bunk for Whole week really isn't acceptable, plus separating husband and wife!

I'm not sure what compensation I want, but a £250 holiday voucher isn't much useful as it was a one off holiday!

hollydays

You could take them to the small claims court for " loss of enjoyment" I did this once and claimed three quarters of the holiday back

samie18_2

I'll have a look in to that thanks!

hollydays

Was this Croatia?

lea2012

If the pictures and confirmation from Crystal showed two full size beds in the living room then I can see why you are frustrated and feel misled.

Full size beds in a living room is rather uncommon as it would usually be just temporary beds that can be packed away during the day, but obviously some places do have them.

It wouldn't have been the tour op that realised you were a party of 5 it would have been the hotel, and they may have thought that you didn't need the other beds. Obviously when you asked they didn't offer them anyway so indeed the description was incorrect.

However, from a complaints perspective, I think Crystal will be able to defend themselves by saying that there were enough beds for you. When I say utilise, I didn't mean that you wouldn't have utilised all the rooms / beds if you had them but meant that you didn't utilise the beds that you did have. Crystal will likely say that it was your choice not to use the sofa bed, although you say it was too small to sleep on was it to small for the child to sleep on or for just one adult to sleep on? I understand not everyone wants there child to sleep in the living room, I don't think I would want that either but the fact is that there was a 'sofa bed' of some kind that you chose not to use.

A bed rail isn't something that would be provided as standard and once my daughter was out of a cot, I have never been to a hotel where we have been offered one or where I felt it was needed so I don't think they will take that into account either I'm afraid.

Archergirl

I do tend to wonder why the child didn't sleep on the sofa bed?
Do you have pics of the apt you had as oppesed to the one in the brochure?