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kiwimedicuk

We love Wales and booked a cottage there for a week through the above. Chosen by another family member and more than we would usually pay, but it looked pretty good.
However, when we got there about 80% of the outside area was not available for use - which the owners had known well before hand.
To top it off, we all had awful sleep for a week as the duvet was a TOG 13.5 - in July.
We conteacted booking.com during the holiday, many times afterward as well, with numerous photos showing the issues. The outdoor area looked awful everywhere, and only a tiny seat at the front door if you wanted to sit in the sun to read, which I did!
I have a difficult job and wanted so.e good rest. This place far and away did not deliver. Is there an ombudsman that cover them I can complain to? Their idea of a refund on £1500 for a family of four sleeping badly and not being able to enjoy the outdoor space was £50

powerful_Rogue

kiwimedicuk said:

We love Wales and booked a cottage there for a week through the above. Chosen by another family member and more than we would usually pay, but it looked pretty good.
However, when we got there about 80% of the outside area was not available for use - which the owners had known well before hand.
To top it off, we all had awful sleep for a week as the duvet was a TOG 13.5 - in July.
We conteacted booking.com during the holiday, many times afterward as well, with numerous photos showing the issues. The outdoor area looked awful everywhere, and only a tiny seat at the front door if you wanted to sit in the sun to read, which I did!
I have a difficult job and wanted so.e good rest. This place far and away did not deliver. Is there an ombudsman that cover them I can complain to? Their idea of a refund on £1500 for a family of four sleeping badly and not being able to enjoy the outdoor space was £50

Did you stay there the whole week, or did you cut your holiday short/move to different accommodation? What did booking.com say when you phoned them during the stay?

JReacher1

Outdoor space is probably a valid complaint but complaining about a lack of sleep due to the fact the duvet was 13.5 tog is a ridiculous complaint 😃

if you stayed for the week and didn’t contact the owner (for a lower tog duvet) then £50 refund is probably the best you can hope for. 

marlot

In law, you're supposed to mitigate your losses.  I'd have either contacted the owner for a lighter duvet, or simply gone out and bought one.

Probably a valid complaint about the outdoor space.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Hello OP

Under Jarvis v Swans Tours Ltd [1972] you are entitled to claim loss of enjoyment for holiday experiences.

In Milner v Carnival plc [2010] some guidance was given on the level of damages to be awarded with a figure of between £83 and £876 (per person IIRC) for a standard holiday. I'm assuming it wasn't a honeymoon or a wedding, if it were a special holiday, e.g seeing family you haven't seen for years or something noticeably beyond a trip away for a week then awards can range between £264 to £1161. The value of your claim should be objective, however it is not limited to the amount paid for the holiday. 

Booking.com are an agent* who handled the booking and the contract for the experience is with the accommodation provider/owner so you would have to pursue them for any damages.

*I don't know if Booking.com offer a voluntary guarantee or such, if they do you'd have to check the terms. 

There's always an obligation to mitigate losses so for example the duvet issue, you would likely be expected to contact the provider and seek a resolution. An uncomfortable nights sleep due inappropriate bedding could be viewed as a valid claim, although it's unclear if this was just one bed, but I would suggest the main focus of your claim is the loss of amenity. 

You should send a letter before action to the holiday accommodation provider/owner to open up a dialogue and ideally seek to negotiate something rather than facing further stress by chasing this through small claims. 

Whilst 80% is a large number it would depend upon whether this was a postage stamp garden or acre of land.

It's worth noting awards for such damages tend to be on the lower end, a claim of £300-£500 for 4 people is likely to be more successful than trying to claim £3200. If any of the family are young children the accommodation possibly didn't affect their enjoyment of the holiday, as above you need to be objective  

Edited to add, services must conform to the contract and where a repeat performance isn't possible, such as in this instance, you'd be entitled to a price reduction under Section 56 of the Consumer Rights Act

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/56/enacted

Again depending upon the actual loss of amenity you'd be entitled to add an objective proportion of the booking value to the claim as a price reduction in addition to damages.

TELLIT01

Exactly what was stated on the description of the property regarding outside space?  If it simply said "set in an acre of land" for example that would be different to "set in an acre of landscape gardens".

PHK

I think we need more information about the enigmatic outside space (=garden, paddock, field etc) and what the other issues are.

eskbanker

kiwimedicuk said:

Is there an ombudsman that cover them I can complain to?

I don't think anyone answered this, but it's a 'no' - if you paid by card then you may be able to construct a 'not as described' chargeback case via the card provider, but to be honest I wouldn't build your hopes up....