Love Holidays - arrived to no booking

JLaw1982

Where do I start? Booked a package deal with LH on 29th Feb this year to Croatia. 4 nights in Royal Blue hotel Lapad. 

On 19th June received an email stating meeting point (their supplier) had gone into insolvency and room had been cancelled. We were due to fly on 26th June. Told they were sorting it. Heard nothing by 20th, called on 21st told couldn’t help we just had to wait. Called again 22nd then received an email confirming they had rebooked the exact same hotel room through another supplier and not to worry, enjoy the holiday. 

We flew out on 26/06 arrived at hotel. No booking in our name.

was told by hotel the room was originally cancelled on 5th June. We were not told until 19th June. The room had never been rebooked. We were told other customers of love holidays had been arriving with exact same issue on 22nd and 25th. The customers had spent hours in their reception on phone to LH emergency line trying to sort it. One couple had to pay for a night in the hotel as LH had still not sorted anywhere else for that night. LH then found them another hotel miles away. 

Due to this we panicked being two females now in a foreign country we had never been too with no where to stay. Hotel were able to provide is a room for the 4 nights but in their more dated hotel (had 4 altogether in same place like a resort) we had booked sea views, balcony etc in newest one after much research and saving!! Had to call family to help us pay the extra €1221 for the 4 nights.

LH refunded us for the original hotel room. But we have been almost forced into staying in a place we did not book, would never have booked, for more than we originally paid and my issue is that they knew this was an issue as people on 22/06 and 25/06 had raised it with them. 

They have offered us £100 LH voucher and an apology when we have stated we wish to receive a refund for the hotel. They say it was issue with supplier but in my eyes it is on them for failing to stop us flying when they had days of knowing there was an issue.

Any help/advice that can be offered here would be greatly appreciated.

we have all evidence from hotel with dates of cancellations, details of all issues with others (without personal data) and photos etc just don’t know how best to proceed. 

moneysaver1978

Did you pay with credit card? And do you have travel insurance?

silvercar

They have offered us £100 LH voucher and an apology when we have stated we wish to receive a refund for the hotel. They say it was issue with supplier but in my eyes it is on them for failing to stop us flying when they had days of knowing there was an issue.

Both are true. No doubt it was an issue with their supplier. If they had notified you correctly, then you may have cancelled the whole trip and they would have lost out. By letting you fly and refunding you the hotel they have kept the profit on the flights.

What compensation depends on whether it was booked as a holiday or separate parts. 

It is how the low cost holiday companies work. Of course the correct thing would have been to given you the option of staying in that hotel or another one and discussed the price difference. Or alternatively, to cancel the whole holiday, assuming it was booked as one holiday not parts. 

Now they will argue that you booking your own accommodation means you accepted the new hotel. I wonder if you had paid the higher price for the hotel you were originally booked to, they would have been obliged to refund the difference. I don't know.

Hoenir

You made no contact with LH when you arrived? As others had done.

Was the original hotel fully booked? Did they offer you accomodation? 

JLaw1982

Hoenir said:

You made no contact with LH when you arrived? As others had done.

Was the original hotel fully booked? Did they offer you accomodation? 

Yes we called them immediately on arrival and they told us they were looking into alternative options. But we were told by the hotel this had taken over 24 hours for another couple to hear back from LH with alternate hotel so they had had to book a room there also. 

The original hotel was fully booked as the LH booking we made had been cancelled back on 05/06. Although LH told us that the exact same hotel room had been rebooked this appeared to never be the case as the hotel never received a second booking. 

LH knew their second company had failed to book as at least two couples who arrived days before us had same issue and had complained and phoned emergency line

JLaw1982

silvercar said:

They have offered us £100 LH voucher and an apology when we have stated we wish to receive a refund for the hotel. They say it was issue with supplier but in my eyes it is on them for failing to stop us flying when they had days of knowing there was an issue.

Both are true. No doubt it was an issue with their supplier. If they had notified you correctly, then you may have cancelled the whole trip and they would have lost out. By letting you fly and refunding you the hotel they have kept the profit on the flights.

What compensation depends on whether it was booked as a holiday or separate parts. 

It is how the low cost holiday companies work. Of course the correct thing would have been to given you the option of staying in that hotel or another one and discussed the price difference. Or alternatively, to cancel the whole holiday, assuming it was booked as one holiday not parts. 

Now they will argue that you booking your own accommodation means you accepted the new hotel. I wonder if you had paid the higher price for the hotel you were originally booked to, they would have been obliged to refund the difference. I don't know.

I believe they failed to notify us after issues arose with second booking as they did not want to lose money on the flights so they flew us out there knowi no we had no where to stay that’s what I have issue with.

had we have waited for them to book us alternate accommodation once we were there, we would likely have been sleeping on a sun lounger outside hotel as other customers with same issue waited over 24 hours for new hotel from LH. 

It was booked as a package with flights transfers and the hotel through LH

JLaw1982

moneysaver1978 said:

Did you pay with credit card? And do you have travel insurance?

No did not pay with credit card but do have travel insurance. Insurance company are saying the issue is with LH and we have to deal with them 

Ganga

You paid £1221 for the 4 nights ,how much was the hotel element of the original holiday ? How much did LH refund you?

bagand96

silvercar said:

They have offered us £100 LH voucher and an apology when we have stated we wish to receive a refund for the hotel. They say it was issue with supplier but in my eyes it is on them for failing to stop us flying when they had days of knowing there was an issue.

Both are true. No doubt it was an issue with their supplier. If they had notified you correctly, then you may have cancelled the whole trip and they would have lost out. By letting you fly and refunding you the hotel they have kept the profit on the flights

JLaw1982 said:

I believe they failed to notify us after issues arose with second booking as they did not want to lose money on the flights so they flew us out there knowi no we had no where to stay that’s what I have issue with.

Before we get too far down a theory about them conspiring not to notify you of the hotel booking problems so they could pocket "profit" from the flights, it's worth pointing out that there's very little profit at all in reselling flights, and often absolutely nothing!

Sounds like your original booking was cancelled as part of the collapse of German Tour Operator group FTI.  When LH told you there was a new booking did they send you a replacement accommodation confirnation/voucher?

You need to look into the Package and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 and your rights under that. I'm not sure they can get away with just refunding you your original booking, they should be refunding you the cost of your replacement accommodation if it was more expensive so you're not out of pocket.

If it was a lesser standard than booked then potentially some compensation too, but note being "dated" may not count under the PTRs. Generally they would deem same official star rating in the same resort to be considered comparable.

JLaw1982

bagand96 said:

silvercar said:

They have offered us £100 LH voucher and an apology when we have stated we wish to receive a refund for the hotel. They say it was issue with supplier but in my eyes it is on them for failing to stop us flying when they had days of knowing there was an issue.

Both are true. No doubt it was an issue with their supplier. If they had notified you correctly, then you may have cancelled the whole trip and they would have lost out. By letting you fly and refunding you the hotel they have kept the profit on the flights

JLaw1982 said:

I believe they failed to notify us after issues arose with second booking as they did not want to lose money on the flights so they flew us out there knowi no we had no where to stay that’s what I have issue with.

Before we get too far down a theory about them conspiring not to notify you of the hotel booking problems so they could pocket "profit" from the flights, it's worth pointing out that there's very little profit at all in reselling flights, and often absolutely nothing!

Sounds like your original booking was cancelled as part of the collapse of German Tour Operator group FTI.  When LH told you there was a new booking did they send you a replacement accommodation confirnation/voucher?

You need to look into the Package and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 and your rights under that. I'm not sure they can get away with just refunding you your original booking, they should be refunding you the cost of your replacement accommodation if it was more expensive so you're not out of pocket.

If it was a lesser standard than booked then potentially some compensation too, but note being "dated" may not count under the PTRs. Generally they would deem same official star rating in the same resort to be considered comparable.

I’m not saying they were gaining profit from it I’m saying that I suspect they did not want to have to refund us money for flights which they would have lost out on cancelling so late on.

in regards to room being dated that was not our main issue. We are not snobs. But my partner had spent time booking this for a special occasion. She booked a sea view room with balcony and views of the sunset which is a selling point of this exact hotel and why we booked it. 

We booked it early enough and confirmed with hotel that this is what we had.

thats our issue. The hotel we had to stay in was ground floor no balcony, right next to reception which was busy at all times of day and night which was probably why this was only room left in all four of the resort hotels. 

We are out of pocket for a room we would have never have booked. Then spent the next four days trying to sort it out and get photos etc they asked for. It ruined the holiday. Only being there for four nights. LH knew there was no room when we flew and were negligent in allowing us to fly there that is the issue! They should have cancelled whole trip when they knew the rooms were not booked at least 4 days before we flew! That is our issue but they are skirting over this blaming the supplier. 

It’s their duty of care and lack of due diligence after an issue arose which caused all of this