Online travel agent - ABTA

manlovestreet

Booked a holiday with an online travel agent (atol and abta registered) for my family from the UK to Turkey, £3k flights and £2k hotel all inclusive.

Flights outbound and return all ok, hotel was an issue, reported on the first day to the hotel manager and to the travel agent on the first day. Issue included incorrect numbers of beds in rooms, wasp nest on balcony, dirt in room upon entering, ac not working in a couple of rooms, cot provided was beyond use (no mattress and poor hygiene), some beds were one mattress on top another, one room was height restricted (1/3 of the room), booked as 5* but was more on par with 3*, undue stress especially with several children.

It was not until the second night they transferred us to another hotel paying an extra £1k. Upon return I lodged a formal complaint with the travel agent, no offer on first response, after a second email they responded with a 20% refund on original hotel cost as a goodwill gesture. This is minus the £1k extra I had to pay for the other hotel plus telephone costs while at the resort to the travel agents which cost £200.

As there isn’t too many positive reviews of abta, Should I accept this as the most I will get or complain to abta?

Voyager2002

Yes, of course you should complain to ABTA.

More to the point: presumably you paid for the hotel with a card, so contact the card provider to request a chargeback of the hotel cost on the grounds that the service was not of merchantable quality.

lea2012

Are they abta regulated? Not all online travel agents are so it's worth checking that first.

Initially I would respond to say that you aren't happy with their figure, and give them a realistic figure of what you want back.

If your complaint is mainly about the room and you still used the all inclusive element you will need to factor in that cost too, so a full refund maybe out of the question.

The way that it works with the OTA is that they pay for their hotels after you have stayed,not before. So they will not have paid for your room on your arrival and will be invoiced for it. Generally they don't book direct with the hotel either and will use a local supplier or accommodation provider to make the booking with the hotel.

Upon cancelling they will have had to pay the original hotel for the first two nights at least, plus any cancellation charges if there are any. The remaining money on your booking that you had already paid, would have gone towards your new hotel with a remaining balance of £1,000 extra as the new hotel was more expensive. As most of your original balance will have gone towards a new hotel, which you have used and have no complaints about, then you really only have a complaint against the first two days unfortunately.

Whilst 20% doesn't feel that good, and doesn't seem like a lot, it may be the best you will get. I'd personally go back and say that you are looking to get 50% of the accommodation costs back, and hope that they instead offer you 30% back as a final amount?

Ganga

Did it really cost £200 for telephone costs,seem a lot

NoodleDoodleMan

Who is the unnamed online travel agent ?

manlovestreet

Thank you for your suggestions.

I have emailed the ota asking for an increase in the refund and I am waiting to hear back from them.

The ota is abta registered and I did pay with my credit card. Depending on the reply from the ota, I will then proceed with abta and a refund via the credit card.

The mobile phone company I am with charge £1.50 a minute to not only make call but recieve them as well. I included my phone bill to the ota as well.

I will keep you updated in due course.

jaybeetoo

As this is a money saving web site, I think you should investigate a better mobile phone deal!