Advice needed on holiday complaint.

ssedd

Hello
We have still not heard anything back yet which I guess is no surprise it is a little soon yet as we were told by the travel company on the telephone that it would take 4 weeks for a reply (4 weeks seems a bit long but thats what they said).
In response to a couple of replies, On arrival at the airport we were not given a choice on a change of hotel we were just given an envelope with the hotel we would be going to and told which coach to get on. The hotel that we were put in was an acceptable hotel so it is not the hotel that is in question but the fact that we were sent to a different resort. At our original hotel the resort is quite low key with a few small bars and cafes and Loret is much busier with lots of bars and nightclubs. The other main problem was that we have been to Santa Susanna lots of times and because we knew the resort and where everything was we decided to only take one pushchair for our one year old as we thought the three year old would be ok walking (the beach is five minutes though an underpass at the back of the hotel). The beach at Loret was a twenty minute walk away which obviously caused problems with a three year old walking and so involved lots of tears and carrying.
The most annoying thing which really has nothing to do with the holiday but with the travel company is that we booked this holiday almost a year before we travelled but only got told there was a problem when we arrived.

Thanks to everyone who has replied but I was mainly wondering if anyone else has had a similer experience and what happened , did they receive compensation and how did they go about getting it.

jonesMUFCforever

You say that you were not given a choice upon arrival just a brown envelope - did you not speak to someone there to query this?
This has been the crux of my arguments in previous posts - you seemed to have accepted the 'new' holiday far too easily and it will be more difficult to get adequate compensation for you now.

richardw

In situations like this, if you just say no, we want the hotel we booked, what would they do?

Ali_UK

If there were no rooms then they'd say there was nothing they could do. If a room could might have bcome free a few days in they may have offered a move back (probably at your own expense).

I'm surprised they didn't try to offer you a different hotel at your original resort at an additional cost.

As a note regarding booking a year in advance - room manifests are only given to hotels about 4 weeks prior to your arrival so even though you booked way in advance your beds are only sorted a few weeks prior to your arrival. The tour operator obviously over-sold the guaranteed beds in an attempt to fill their flights and when this happens and other tour ops in the hotel, or even the hotel itself, have also sold lots of beds this results in overbooking. There's rarely any thought process as to who gets moved - you're just names on a list.

Be fully prepared for the first reply you get from the tour op to be the standard 'sorry you weren't happy here's a £20 voucher' type thing - you'll be needing to write to them again!

jonesMUFCforever

richardw wrote: »

In situations like this, if you just say no, we want the hotel we booked, what would they do?

This when you ask to speak to head honcho in resort and negotiate.
You get compensation for getting the wrong hotel or you tell them that you want to return home at their expense immediately.
With this last scenario the reps will know that there is noway they can keep it quiet and HO will know that they will have to refund whole cost of holiday and pay compensation on top.

I fear this did not happen according to what OP has said up to now.

ssedd

Unfortunatly I did not speak to the Rep on arrival at the airport my wife did as I was looking after the kids so I dont know exatly what was said but it was basically I dont know anything about it I have just been told to give these envelopes out. Then on the coach the Rep on the coach said she knew nothing about it; and then at arrival at the Hotel the next day the hotel Rep said he knew nothing about it but would speak to his manager and get back to us which he never did.
With regards not asking to be immediatly flown home there are two main reasons
1- We did not know at the time if the hotel we had been given as a replacement would be suitable for us or not until we had got there as we had no information about the hotel and knew very little of the resort having not been there before.
2- If we had flown home then that would have been it for another year as I would not have been able to have any other days off work.

jonesMUFCforever

So what you are basically saying is that you accepted the new holiday?

Please don't say or indicate this in any way to the travel company or they will throw out your complaint without paying you a bean.

ssedd

We have had a letter back that says they are looking into our complaint and will get back to us in the next twenty eight days. I dont really understand why it takes so long to ring the resort and ask their own staff what happened! Will now wait for the next month and see what they come back with.

ssedd

I have had a reply from the holiday company.
They have reviewed our holiday complaint and have found that we are entitled to nothing in the way of compensation. They have also said that they will not give us the money back that I had to pay to get a cot for our 1 year old when we arrived at the hotel even though cots were free in the hotel we were supposed to have been in. There reason for this was that in their brochure they say in the small print that cots will be requested but cannot be guaranted. This is a bit odd as the cot was available after I asked reception and paid for it!
Has anyone had a similar reply when they have had problems with holiday companies and have they got anywhere by writing to them again? I am thinking of perhaps involving ABTA but have been told by others that they arent really very helpfull. Any advice would be welcome.

ssedd

I had a idea to email the hotel company to see if they did indeed have any booking problems on the date we were due to stay. They have just replied to my email and told me that they have looked into it and definatly did not have any problems at the hotel on the dates we were due to stay. They have said that they have sent a copy to the area representitive so I am now going to send this reply to the holiday company over here and ask what they are now going to do as it would seem they have blatantly lied to us. What I cant understand is why they would do this and what they would gain as a company by sending people to a different hotel. Anyone any ideas?