Partial refund for bad Christmas holiday rental in UK

artemist

Hey there, could do with some advice.

My family and I rented a lodge in Dorset for a week over Christmas. It cost £3000 total. Our stay there was steeped in issues and we are seeking a partial refund. Some of the issues we faced:

1. The lodge was infested with thousands (no joke) of flies. Two of the rooms were uninhabitable due to this for many days, with guests sleeping on the sofas. I have videos and photos of hundreds of dead flies on the beds, floors, dining table, fridge, etc. They were dropping dead on top of us on a daily basis. We had two children in our party and it was genuinely a dreadful experience for all.
2. Lack of some fundamental appliances they advertised as having. Toaster and microwave weren’t given to us til day four, after frequent texting, emailing and phoning them the first four days to ask where they were. Map of where is safe to walk missing (important as it is a shooting estate and we had a dog which they directly told us NOT to walk in certain areas and advised we consult the missing map for info).
3. Washing machine flooded the bathroom during our stay.
4. Place was dirty - dish washer filled with old food, dust everywhere, bedsheet was torn, dirt on beds.

We’ve requested a partial refund and they have flat out refused. They’ve offered to send us some flowers as an apology. We paid by direct debit via their website that allows payments to be processed. Is there any course of legal action we can take, whether with them or via our bank? We paid the final instalment of £1600 at the end of November. I have read around Chargeback but can’t tell if it would apply in this case due to the nature of the complaint.

Thanks!

suki1964

Why did you even stay if it really was that horrendous ?

artemist

One of my brothers and his family flew from Taiwan to spend Christmas with us. My other brother took time off from his job in the army to spend Christmas with us. There were 12 of us total. There was no where else we could go that would house us all under one roof, but thanks for the helpful response...?

suki1964

artemist wrote: »

One of my brothers and his family flew from Taiwan to spend Christmas with us. My other brother took time off from his job in the army to spend Christmas with us. There were 12 of us total. There was no where else we could go that would house us all under one roof, but thanks for the helpful response...?

It was a serious question

I once took the children to a holiday camp and we were given a chalet that was absolutely filthy so was straight into customer services complaining and we were upgraded to a better standard to chalet and put onto half board FOC ( we were self catering)

That was all done within 2 hours of us arriving. If it hadn't been id have been back in the car and away home

Why did you allow things to take days???

Staying on and not kicking up a fuss makes it seem like it wasn't so bad, a few minor irritations. Seriously if the flies had been that bad, I wouldn't have stayed even one night - let alone the week you did

artemist

We did complain while we were there. They rarely replied or answered us. When they finally acknowledged the fly issue they said it was a common issue they faced and they’d send a handy man. He arrived and hoovered up some flies but they continued to die in the droves around us across the next few days. We very rarely get to spend time together as a full family, given our locations being spread across different countries. We had no where else to go. If we had left it’s quite clear we would still have been given no refund. We left a day early due to the flies, but that has made no impact on the refund situation. £3000 is a lot of money for us and we simply didn’t have the funds to hire somewhere else on Christmas Eve to host us all. We would literally have been on the streets. I don’t know what else to tell you.

Regardless of how much the issue impacted us and our decision to stay, we are surely due some form of partial refund. Whole rooms were out of use due to this issue.

candygirl

Sounds like an absolute nightmare. Were the flies being attracted to something dead? :eek:
Can You threaten them with small claims court?:(

Pollycat

I can't offer you any advice re refund but
thousands of flies?
at Christmas?
in Dorset?

Were there lots of flies when you went out of the property?
What sort of flies? tiny fruit fly type ones or bluebottles?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

From reading this board my understanding is you could claim for loss of enjoyment, you'd need to send the company a letter outlining the issues and advise they have 14 days to provide a remedy or you will begin small claims proceedings.

Be reasonable with your expectation of how much to ask for.

In my opinion I would leave out the toaster and microwave (you can make toast under the grill and a microwave isn't that important, padding out a claim with things which are trivial might not help your case).

The washing machine is one of those things that comes down to bad luck and a decent holiday owner would give you a bottle wine and some chocolates to say sorry if this was the only issue but it could be an area where you have to prove negligence to be awarded more than a few pounds.

Main focus should be on the flies and poor state of the accommodation.

Regarding the walking I would assume health and safety would require areas of an estate that are used for for shooting and public access to be clearly marked (in addition to any maps) and if they wasn't I would raise this with the local council.

DCFC79

artemist wrote: »

One of my brothers and his family flew from Taiwan to spend Christmas with us. My other brother took time off from his job in the army to spend Christmas with us. There were 12 of us total. There was no where else we could go that would house us all under one roof, but thanks for the helpful response...?

Where on earth did you find the property ?

Dish washer filled with food could have been sorted by just putting dishwasher on.

unholyangel

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

From reading this board my understanding is you could claim for loss of enjoyment, you'd need to send the company a letter outlining the issues and advise they have 14 days to provide a remedy or you will begin small claims proceedings.

Be reasonable with your expectation of how much to ask for.

In my opinion I would leave out the toaster and microwave (you can make toast under the grill and a microwave isn't that important, padding out a claim with things which are trivial might not help your case).

The washing machine is one of those things that comes down to bad luck and a decent holiday owner would give you a bottle wine and some chocolates to say sorry if this was the only issue but it could be an area where you have to prove negligence to be awarded more than a few pounds.

Main focus should be on the flies and poor state of the accommodation.

Regarding the walking I would assume health and safety would require areas of an estate that are used for for shooting and public access to be clearly marked (in addition to any maps) and if they wasn't I would raise this with the local council.

I'd include the toaster and microwave. It's a black & white breach/not as described. Black & white breach is always preferred to a subjective one, no matter how strong you think your grounds.

Tbh the whole set up sounds like someone doesn't care they are running a business and have certain obligations.

DavidFx

Pollycat wrote: »

I can't offer you any advice re refund but
thousands of flies?
at Christmas?
in Dorset?

Were there lots of flies when you went out of the property?
What sort of flies? tiny fruit fly type ones or bluebottles?

They are most likely Cluster Flies.
http://wiltshire.gov.uk/pest-control-cluster-flies