Complaint about holiday accomodation

prs899

I'm making a formal complaint to a company who we booked holiday accomodation with. The accomodation had a number serious issues and we left after one night and requested full refund. The company have only offered a partial refund with their stance being they could have resolved any issues we had and we could have stayed on. I disagree due to the number and nature of the issues so have decided to make a formal complaint and ask again for a full refund. My view is the property was not as advertised on the web site and insufficent action was taken to ensure it was prior to our arrival. It doesn't seem like the property is being maintained or cleaned. My question is should I include a reference to any Law or Act when making the complaint? I've read about the Misreprsentation Act and Consumer Rights Act but which one, if any would be appropriate to reference in a scenario such as this. Thanks.

longjohnjohnson

You're going to have to explain to a judge why you think the issues could not have been remedied.

I suspect that given you did not even give them the chance to remedy it, you're going to lose.

MalMonroe

When you stay in any accommodation that you are unhappy with, you should tell the company or manager at the time. 

You say - "The company have only offered a partial refund with their stance being they could have resolved any issues we had and we could have stayed on." And I think that's very fair because if you HAD told them and stayed on, they probably could have resolved any issues, no matter how many there were. As it is, if you didn't complain until afterwards, they were unable to do anything but offer a partial refund. 

Prior to the pandemic, my family and I travelled and stayed in various hotels both in the UK and overseas. On a couple of occasions we've not been happy with the accommodation, complained and were either upgraded or given rooms in a different hotel. But if you don't say anything at the time, nobody knows there's a problem so they are unable to help.

There's no law or act which will be of any benefit to you in this scenario. You have been offered a partial refund when you didn't even give the company a chance to put things right. I think that's fair enough - and don't think you are likely to get anything else.

TELLIT01

By not giving the company the opportunity to rectify the problems you have greatly weakened your case.  There can be situations where it is very clear that the standard of the accommodation is so poor that it can't be fixed, but they must be given the opportunity.  Do you have photographic evidence of the problems?

What were some of these serious issues?

prs899

Thanks for the comments folks. Under different circumstances and if we had a few minor issues I would have contacted the operations team of the company to resolve if possible. The overall state of the accomodation was so poor and with so many issues to deal with some of which were a safety hazard. My Wife and child were so upset that we had made an early decision to go home. I do have photographic evidence of the issues and there are some of them that would not have had a short term fix. I'll have a go at the complaint but might just have to take this on the chin and move on.

It's first time I've encountred anything like this and decided to leave holiday accomodation so I've not had to do anything like this before. Appreciate you taking the time to comment.

TELLIT01

You still haven't provided any information on what the issues actually were.  Without that nobody here can provide an opinion on whether they think a claim for compensation is justified, or at what level.

prs899

@TELLIT01

Just to clarify, I wasn't looking for opinions on whether a claim for compensation is justified as I have already decided to make the formal complaint and try to claim the refund. The comments above have helped me set my expectations for success (pretty low)  so that is much appreciated.

In your comment you said "There can be situations where it is very clear that the standard of the accommodation is so poor that it can't be fixed, but they must be given the opportunity"

My position is that it was clear that standard of the accomodation was so poor that it would not be fixed and the property provided was not as advertised. I had a very upset wife and child who both wanted to leave and go home, unfortunately as we decided to leave without offering the opportunity to inspect and attempt to fix I'll have to accept how that affects the request for refund.

My ask was whether any Acts or Legisation would be of use when making the complaint. @MalMonroe touched on this in the comment above so I'll make the complaint as is and hope for the best. Unlikely to pursue things further than that. Lessons learned for me.

Diamandis

You're always best to tell them before you leave to give them the opportunity to fix things. However when you say it's not as advertised,  if they said it had a kitchen and it didn't then it would seem fair to leave and get a refund, but if it said there was a kitchen but the oven was broken it would be fair to give them the opportunity to resolve that.

Westin

Who is the letting company you booked with?
Is it based in the U.K.?

pinkshoes

prs899 said:

My position is that it was clear that standard of the accomodation was so poor that it would not be fixed and the property provided was not as advertised. I had a very upset wife and child who both wanted to leave and go home, unfortunately as we decided to leave without offering the opportunity to inspect and attempt to fix I'll have to accept how that affects the request for refund.

My ask was whether any Acts or Legisation would be of use when making the complaint.

If you didn't offer them any opportunity to fix it, then it is highly unlikely you will get any sort of refund. 

Your only hope of a refund is a letter before action (via a letter of complaint) making it clear that the issues were not fixable so you were unable to stay. They might argue back that they could have offered you alternative accommodation which was much better. You don't know that because you didn't ask... They're also stating the issues were fixable.

A court will listen to both sides and decide.

If you let people know what the issues were, then perhaps you would have a better idea on whether you have a chance at taking this to court for a full refund or not. 

RogerBareford

prs899 said:

Thanks for the comments folks. Under different circumstances and if we had a few minor issues I would have contacted the operations team of the company to resolve if possible. The overall state of the accomodation was so poor and with so many issues to deal with some of which were a safety hazard. My Wife and child were so upset that we had made an early decision to go home. I do have photographic evidence of the issues and there are some of them that would not have had a short term fix. I'll have a go at the complaint but might just have to take this on the chin and move on.

It's first time I've encountred anything like this and decided to leave holiday accomodation so I've not had to do anything like this before. Appreciate you taking the time to comment.

It sounds like a bit of a knee jerk reaction to just go home while you were planning to be away? Why didn't you atleast see if they had alternative acomodation or go and stay somewhere else?