Due to fly out today but hotel closed - Nothing from travel agent

SCOTF

Hi All, 
Family are due to fly out today to Spain on a holiday booked late last year (all pre covid).
We found out in June that the hotel we were due to stay at is closed for the rest of the season - the travel agency has not responded to any emails since we found out. I have contacted my CC company about starting a chargeback but i dont know if this will be successful. Insurance company (again purchased pre-covid) arent interested.

Should I start this chargeback process before or after i am due to arrive? If i start it before, does it count as a 'cancellation' and therefore i lose any opportunity for a refund?
Thanks all in advance

Westin

Which hotel? Which travel firm?
Have you called the hotel to see what plans are in place with reservations? Perhaps moving guests to a sister hotel?

SCOTF

Yes I contacted the hotel in Spain and they confirmed that our hotel was closed and that we could be moved to another in the chain. 
But surely it is up to my travel agent (online - seems like lots of issues with them) to inform me of this. The online booking and voucher still shows for a closed hotel!!  We would have arrived at a closed hotel and known nothing of plans to transfer to another. It really is disgraceful communication. We have abandoned hope of going on holiday now. 
It is fairly reasonable to expect an email or update to the booking.
Are there grounds for a chargeback, as the insurance we bought (last year) doesnt want to know?

DCFC79

SCOTF said:

Yes I contacted the hotel in Spain and they confirmed that our hotel was closed and that we could be moved to another in the chain. 
But surely it is up to my travel agent (online - seems like lots of issues with them) to inform me of this. The online booking and voucher still shows for a closed hotel!!  We would have arrived at a closed hotel and known nothing of plans to transfer to another. It really is disgraceful communication. We have abandoned hope of going on holiday now. 
It is fairly reasonable to expect an email or update to the booking.
Are there grounds for a chargeback, as the insurance we bought (last year) doesnt want to know?

What do you mean your insureres dont want to know ?

So you explained the situation to the insurer and the response was ?
Were the flights still going ahead ?

Westin

You are right that of course the unnamed travel firm SHOULD have contacted you to notify you of the situation and offer an alternative hotel option.  Unfortunately, and put bluntly, there is a worldwide pandemic, thousand of cancelled flights and thousands more disrupted travellers and these firms simply can’t cope.  

Many of these online agencies offer cheap cobbled together holiday packages with a slimline business model which automates processes and does not factor in costs of human interaction has very limited post sale good customer service. Many have terrible reputations dealing with post sale matters in the best of times. In the current situation they just can’t cope as don’t have the staff.   One of the downsides many are finding with their cheap online holiday purchase not using reputable tour operators.

Given the current FCO advice you presumably won’t wish to travel.  If you have an ATOL certificate this will indicate you have a package holiday trip and certain rights under the Package Holiday Regulations.  

To try and recover your costs I would suggest you gather and obtain as much supporting documents as you can to show that the hotel is closed, how you tried to contact the unnamed travel firm, if today’s flight is operating or cancelled or not.  Contacting to try contacting the travel firm to give them the chance to refund. If this continues to be a problem then contact your payment card to seek their help for a charge back or section 75 claim. 

[Deleted User]

I think it is very reasonable to expect to be updated by your travel agency as to which hotel you would be going to.   (who are we speaking about?)    Was this a package holiday you booked?   Were flights going ahead?    Not sure a chargeback would work if flights went ahead t.b.h.   I fear this is going to be redirected to your travel agents to sort out and could get complicated (hope am wrong).    Keep on at them for a response.   If a chargeback is going to be successful, you will need to show you have tried with the agents first, similarly with insurance, you will need to show you have tried all other routes first.   Good luck.