Advice needed on holiday complaint.

jonesMUFCforever

The cost of hiring one bus to one resort with one driver and one rep as opposed to two of everything if they had to go to both resorts?

poet123

I would immediately send the company a letter telling them that you will be pursuing a claim via the SCC for breach of contract,loss of enjoyment and compensation for inconvenience. You will win in court,they know this but will try and fob you off. Especially in view of the email,which is great evidence

Fill in the forms and detail eveything you have said.

Make a point of saying you tried to be reasonable by waiting to see if the the move was acceptable before complaining.

Give every fact. ie resort was paricularly chosen,young children,no further leave due to holidays being booked well in advance,distance form beach which was the reason you chose resort,issue with cot etc.
No detail is too small.

Emphasise the loss of enjoyment of your one annual holiday,time looked forward to it.

I have taken 4 cases to the SCC over the years and won them all (personal ones) one was a holiday issue,where my case was actually not as strong as yours, and I was awarded the full cost back, for breach of contract and loss of enjoyment. They defended the case,but in most cases they know they will lose, so the sight of court papers will cause them to settle.

Another point is to appear reasonable and maintain your dignity if it goes to court,judges hate bad manners or shouting and will often find for you if you seem to have tried to resolve the issue amicably without resorting to nastiness.

The main thrust of your case is that you did not get what you booked so they are in breach of contract,regardless of whether the new hotel was better or worse. you chose your hotel and resort for specific reasons and it is not for a tour operator to arbitarily change that booking,especially in the light of the email.

Good luck.

feclmum

hi
have you been on or contacted www.holidaytravelwatch.com they are absolutely fantastic.
we used them 7years ago when my 3 son contracted salmonella in spain and was extremely ill,they are a charity and in those days didnt have a website but they found us a solicitor and also put 34 other guests from same hotel in touch with same solicitor who worked for us on a no win no fee basis and we sucessfully sued first choice in the biggest group action against a travel company to date!!!!
just had quick look at their website and it has advice on how to complain etc
if you want to know anymore about our experience pm me

ssedd

I have been in touch with a travel solicitor that was recommended on another travel website and am in the middle of getting everything together to send out, they will give a free assessment of the case on whether to pursue it and what I can expect to receive.

poet123

Good luck with the assessment,but dont go down the route of engaging a solicitor to act for you. You can do it yourself,as long as you cross the t's and dot the i's

Let us know what he says.

feclmum

if you use one of the solicitors holidaytravelwatch will put you in touch with you wont have to pay a penny!

ssedd

Just thought I would update everyone.
I sent all the details to the solicitors and we have now had a reply back from the travel company and they are offering us 50% of the cost back which we are going to accept.

TravellingAbuela

Well done!

beduffrich

ssedd wrote: »

I have just returned from a week in Spain booked with a well known holiday company.
On arrival at Gerona airport we were told that our hotel (Aquarmarina hotel in Santa Susanna Costa Brava), was double booked and that we had been booked in at the Hotel Olympic Hotel in Loret De Mar. The holiday had been booked in September last year so that we knew we would be at the resort and hotel that we wanted so it was annoying to say the least. We were given at the airport vouchers for money off any trips we wanted to book with the reps but as we have two small children we dont book on the trips so these were wasted. The rep on the coach could not give us any information as to what the probelm at the Aqaumarina was and the rep in the hotel claimed he knew nothing about it but would find out and get back to us but never did. When we booked into the hotel there was no cot in our room and we had to pay an extra 3.5 Euros a night for the cot, again I went to see the rep who told us he would speak to his manager about trying to get our money back but never did.
I am going to be writing a letter of complaint to the company but wondered if anyone else has had problems the same and what I should expect to get in the way of compensation if any and if writing to the company is the best way forward or is there another route?

One tip is to get your claim in quick. We had a problem on one of our Holidays and left it a couple of months before complaining, by which time they could not deal with any complaint for some reason