ABTA arbitration

Marky90125

We booked a villa in Spain last summer, it was ok but quite dirty, we spent our first evening cleaning the kitchen, unblocking the waste and cleaning the dishwasher filter that was clogged with amongst other things, a large wad of human hair.  We contacted the holiday company who arranged for the owner to sort the blocked sink.  There were quite a few other issues, the villa was 'tired' and in places quite different to the photographs on the holiday companies website, which were obviously some years old.  When we returned, we complained to the holiday company and were offered some compensation which included a voucher against a future booking, but their attitude was pretty much 'so what' and the closest they got to an apology was being sorry that it hadn't reached our standards.

More out of anger than anything else, we took our complaint to the ABTA arbitration service; what a mistake that was and I've posted this as something of a warning for anyone tempted to do the same.

It's quite a long winded process and each time you make a submission the holiday provider gets the opportunity to respond, if you respond to their response they get another go and so on.

We included photographic evidence of the dirty pool, broken internal lights, missing pool lighting, dirty dishwashed, dirty bedrooms, taps etc in our submission and really expected these to be taken at face value.

To cut to the chase, each of the elements of our complaint which were either misdescription or poor maintenance /cleaning were cast aside on the basis of our holiday contract, which on reading the judgement, suggests that the description and photographs used on the website did not have to be accurate just indicative and because we did not complain during our time there about the issues listed other than the blocked sink, which was dealt with at the time, we had no claim.

To rub salt in, the arbitrator found that we should pay half of the holiday companies fee.

Yes, we were naive in thinking that the judgement would be based on fairness rather than the legalese of the holiday companies contract.

If you're thinking of going down the ABTA arbitration route, good luck, but make sure you have a good read of their rules first.

Westin

How much was your claim for? They will look at if ‘reasonable’. How much was the voucher for?

Alan_Bowen

The consumer success rate for ABTA arbitration is very high, over 90% was the last figure I saw, which suggests perhaps you were simply asking too much? 

eskbanker

Surely the role of the ABTA arbitration process is to determine whether the travel agent's response was objectively reasonable, rather than revisiting the entire detail of the complaint, in much the same way as FOS reviews the way a financial institution deals with a complaint?

In other words, if the ABTA member "offered some compensation which included a voucher against a future booking", then its trade association is probably likely to see this as appropriate, unless there were serious (rather than relatively cosmetic) issues with the property, i.e. enough to require moving elsewhere or instigating urgent remedial action....

Alan_Bowen

The arbitration is entirely independent and normally does not consider vouchers as a reasonable solution if there has been a breach of contract. A customer gets the fees back if he beats any previous offer made by the ABTA member, but if the arbitrator considers the proposals to have been fair and reasonable, the consumer must contribute to the operator's costs. 

lizh_3

I agree with Marky90125. Do not believe arbitration "fair". It is very technical and legal. Get a lawyer. I was under the impression the arbitrator would know travel law but learned it was up to me to state it chapter and verse. I did not go to appeal because after 6 months of being mis-heard I didn't trust anyone in the industry and thought another £360 would be good money after badly lost holiday. ABTA says it checks arbitration cases but do they? The ones that go badly for customers so good for their members?

jimi_man

Marky90125 said:

To cut to the chase, each of the elements of our complaint which were either misdescription or poor maintenance /cleaning were cast aside on the basis of our holiday contract, which on reading the judgement, suggests that the description and photographs used on the website did not have to be accurate just indicative and because we did not complain during our time there about the issues listed other than the blocked sink, which was dealt with at the time, we had no claim.

If you're thinking of going down the ABTA arbitration route, good luck, but make sure you have a good read of their rules first.

This is very much the heart of the problem, and it is key to highlight problems as soon as they are identified. Cleaning up yourself, whilst a solution to the immediate issue, doesn’t help in the long run and doesn’t give the other party the opportunity to redress the issues. Complaining after you got home is very much one persons word against another’s and there is often no proof either way. 

And yes, being aware of the rules of what they do and how they operate, is also key. Just to reiterate they are wholly independent   

Alan_Bowen

Yes, the arbitration service is provided by Hunt ADR which has nothing to do with ABTA itself. As someone who has defended a number of arbitrations over the years, I can assure you ABTA members are equally unhappy with the outcomes now as they seem in the main to be overly generous to consumers and many operators would now prefer to defend cases in the county court. Your mistake was not effectively complaining about the issues while you were on holiday, not only do the majority of booking conditions make this clear, but the law is also unambiguous

Regulation15 Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangments Regulations 2018 states

The traveller must inform the organiser without undue delay, taking into account the circumstances of the case, of any lack of conformity which the traveller perceives during the performance of a travel service included in the package travel contract.

eskbanker

Just to note, the OP of this thread hasn't been back since starting it a year ago so there's probably not much mileage in addressing him directly, although general observations will potentially be useful to other readers.

The poster who resuscitated the thread today just seemed to be having a bit of a vent but doesn't go into any detail of their case....

jimi_man

Ah, my bad!!

Carter33

I have just had an ABTA arbitrator dismiss my claim and order me to pay the respondent's claim fee of £108. I am shocked and appalled at the super biased and partial not to mention unjust decision that has been made. Not because it was against me but because my claim would stand in the civil court as a basic breach of contract law. The arbitrator has made an overtly biased decision in favour of those that pay for the so-called ABTA arbitration system. His decision is scattered with factual and grammatical errors and I was shocked to see that he had cited the wrong facts.  I was naive to think I would get a fair and independent decision. It has been a smack in the face and I would recommend that others consider going directly to the county court to seek a small claim rather than waste your time and money with a not-fit-for-purpose abta arbitration system. Total waste of time and money. Most importantly wholly unjust decision. The travel companies are getting away with treating customers very poorly. Shame on you all.