Holiday company offering 20% refund on awful holiday, should we accept?

CherryBurton

Hello,

Just looking for some advice please, we took a holiday in August which was a package including ferry travel and furnished tent. I sent the following complaint:

1. Our tent was only feet from a building site: it completely ruined the view, as we had expected a peaceful campsite in the xxx and found it marred with plant machinery. More importantly, the work was very disruptive, beginning at 6.30am on weekdays, which was utterly unacceptable. It was incredibly loud, woke us up daily, covered our tent, table and car in dust, preventing us from eating or sitting outside. This was not rectified, even after I asked for a resolution while I was staying there, as to be fair, the Xxx rep on site had only been there a couple of days, and as he couldn’t move us there was nothing else he could do for us. We were advised of the work before we travelled, however the extent of the situation was massively understated. We were told that the work was not on the site, and that no one staying there had been bothered by it. This, we feel, was extremely misleading, as can be seen from the evidence attached below.

2. In addition to the above, the state of the accommodation itself fell way below expectations. Everything in the kitchen was in a filthy, grimy state and needed to be washed before use. There was black mould in the freezer compartment on the ice cube tray, we had no kettle, several of the chairs were broken, the umbrella on the table outside had holes in it and the whole tent and fittings were very shabby.


They have replied, and while I can’t overemphasise the ridiculous amount of noise and disruption from the disruption, I feel their response is dismissive:

As mentioned in your email, you were advised prior to departure there would be building work taking place outside of the campsite however would be near the accommodation. I apologise the extent of the situation was understated to you on the phone and understand the disruption which was caused by being placed so close to the building works. Although this was a project out with the campsite, therefore out with the control of Xxx Holidays – I know this will have affected the enjoyment of your holiday.




It is then disappointing to read the tent itself did not meet the required standard with regard to cleanliness and general condition. In the first instance we ask guests to raise their concerns to the couriers. They are instructed to re-clean an accommodation and replace any broken or missing items where possible. With this taken into consideration the couriers should have replaced the broken chairs and parasol. I apologise this was not the case and this will be reported to the relevant department.


They’ve offered what I consider to be a fairly measly 20% off the price of the accommodation only, which I think is way below what is fair. So the question is, do I accept this, or take it on to ABTA? Do I have to give them another chance to reconsider? I have pictures and videos which quite clearly demonstrate that we were feet from a very noisy construction site and I know everyone else also complained. Or is the process long drawn out and stressful?

Thank you if you’ve read all of this...

Alan_Bowen

ABTA arbitration is not long and drawn out. It takes around 3moths from start to finish. As regards the level of compensation offered it is very difficult to answer, you could only get a full refund, including the cost of the ferry. if you could show you got no benefit from the holiday at all. Alas, none of us was there but from what you suggest, and you can produce photos in the arbitration process, it sounds pretty grim.

CherryBurton

Thanks Alan- yes, it was really grim.

Do we have to pay for arbitration through ABTA? I done want compensation, just a decent refund. If they hadn’t, lets be honest, lied to me on the phone about the extent of the work we would never have gone, we’d have cancelled or gone elsewhere.

jimbo6977

You do have to pay although your fee is refunded (essentially paid by the travel company) if ABTA finds in your favour.

CherryBurton

Thanks Jimbo. It’s a bit of a gamble then? I mean, I’m fairly sure that they would look at my videos etc and see that it was unacceptable, but in theory I could end up with a crap holiday, no refund and a bill for £109?

jimbo6977

In theory yes, however you only pay if:

1: the company rebutts your initial complaint that ABTA will forward to them and
2. You choose to proceed to ABTA arbitration at that point.

So you get the initial hit FOC, as does the travel company. Some companies cynically bat everything away in the knowledge that ~80% of people do not go further for fear of losing the arbitration fee.

I suggest reading the code of conduct on ABTA's website and calmly / objectively identifing where the travel company has breached the code. Maybe ask a friend etc who was not on the holiday to do the same based on the same evidence you could provide to ABTA.

CherryBurton

Ok - so a couple of months later and several more communications and the holiday company are now offering 50% of the accommodation cost back; £300 in cash and the rest as a credit to use against another holiday with them.

Does this sound reasonable? I think it's a bit rubbish but to be honest, I'm tired of this all now, and from what I've read about ABTA arbitration I may well not do better there.

I've also put in the forms to claim it back via my credit card company, although I imagine that will be glacial. But would I be better off waiting for that to claim the full amount of the accommodation in cash? Many thanks for any thoughts on this, I'm not sure what to do!

koalakoala

You can't claim back via credit card AND from the holiday company

Voyager2002

I am astonished that you did not being a credit card claim right in the beginning... In my experience this is pretty quick and easy.

Are you likely to want to use this company again? If not, then vouchers are useless so insist on the full amount in cash.

Obviously you cannot have both a settlement from the company and a charge-back from the credit card. In your situation, I would contact the company urgently, tell them what settlement I would accept and say that I have also submitted a charge-back claim and will allow it to proceed unless they agree to my proposal.

CherryBurton

Just to say I'm aware I can't claim via two channels - that was never my intention. I read a thread on here somewhere saying that you should put in a chargeback claim in addition to trying to deal with the holiday company and see which comes in, although it did say to be aware that the holiday company have 30 days to reverse the chargeback, so even if that comes through, there is no guarantee they won't try to claw it back that way?

I put in the claim with the credit card a couple of months ago and ironically that's only just really got going, the same week that the company offered their "settlement", they've literally just called me to ask for some further evidence, and I assume they're also contacting the company today.

I'm holding off on the ABTA claim for the time being to see what comes of this Tesco claim - I might quickly drop the company a line and explain this, as you suggest above Voyager2002, to see if that changes their position. Thank you!

CherryBurton

Sorry, it wasn't a thread on here, it was on Which:

"You don't have to reach a stalemate with the retailer or trader before you can contact your credit card provider - you can make a claim to both the retailer and credit card provider simultaneously, although you can't recover your losses from both"

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/section-75-of-the-consumer-credit-act