Love Holidays Downgraded My Hotel - advice needed

PippaWookie

Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out for guidance regarding an issue with Love Holidays.

Three weeks ago, I booked a holiday through Love Holidays, selecting The Moon Palace The Grand as this is the hotel we got married at back in 2013 and holds lots of very special memories for us. I’ve been informed that my booking has been changed to The Moon Palace which I believe is a downgrade. If you book The Grand you can use all 3 sections of The Moon Palace but if you book either the Nizuc or Sunrise at the Moon Palace you can’t use any of the facilities at The Grand. 

Love Holidays  first claimed that their hotel supplier informed them that The Grand was no longer available so had to move us to The Moon Palace nextdoor. I  checked this on the Love Holidays website and they are still selling the Moon Palace The Grand but the price has been increased by £3000. I replied stating this and they now claim that the relocation is due to a “mapping error” on their website at the time of booking. This is clearly a pricing error which would mean I was entitled to a full refund as the price difference is more than 8%. I feel they are trying to mislead us and keep sending me the same response to my emails. They don’t have a complaints department and are no longer part of ABTA which is a huge red flag. I wish I’d known this before I had booked with them. 

They’ve offered me three options:

1. Accept the Alternative Hotel with a £300 Discount: Stay at The Moon Palace Cancun All Inclusive and receive a £300 reduction.

2. Retain Flights and Arrange My Own Accommodation: Cancel the hotel portion without charge and keep the flights.

3. Select a Different Hotel from Their Website: Choose another hotel, with price adjustments as necessary.

My Concerns:

• Quality Difference: The Moon Palace The Grand offers superior amenities compared to The Moon Palace. It doesn’t have the same facilities and if we wanted to go to The Grand for the day it’s around $100 per person for a day pass. 

•Price Increase: The substantial price hike for the original hotel suggests I might have been displaced for higher-paying customers.

I’ve emailed Love Holidays expressing my dissatisfaction, but their responses have been unsatisfactory. They keep sending me the same reply stating that due to the terms and conditions when booking,  I still need to pay for the flights even if we cancel the holiday with them. Even though this was their website error. 

Has anyone faced similar issues with Love Holidays or other travel companies? What steps did you take to resolve the situation? 

Are there other avenues I should explore to address this problem?

I appreciate any insights or suggestions you can provide.

eskbanker

What's your preferred outcome here?  If it was a genuine pricing error (which seems likely if it's now £3K more) then it doesn't seem likely that they'd be obliged to honour a booking in the decent hotel at the original price, but if they're effectively saying that to stay there would now be >8% more then you should indeed be entitled to a full refund (ignore their position on flights!), assuming you can quantify how the offered alternatives aren't of the same standard.

bagand96

Holiday Company T&Cs generally do allow them to change accommodation as long as it is in the same location (city/resort) and of the same rating (official rating).

The Package and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 don't exclude it either, they refer to significant/major changes to the package. This can be hard to quantify in terms of hotel facilities etc which is why most Tour Operators refer to star ratings (although this can be challenged and T&Cs don't override the law) 

So the first question would be is The Moon Palace The Grand a different official star rating to The Moon Palace? And what facilities are you now losing out on? Could any of those be deemed a significant change? 

FWIW Love Holidays are a dynamic package operator, they work with many suppliers to put together a package. It is feasible that there was an error with a suppliers hotel data/location etc especially with multiple hotels with similar names.  Was their price significantly lower than other providers for "The Grand"? 

Their T&Cs will state that they act as your agent and your contracts are with the suppliers. However as the package arranger they are responsible under the PTR's, which they do acknowledge on their own website! https://www.loveholidays.com/about-us/package-rights.html

It may depend on whether this is an accomodation change/error or a price change (8% rule). Given they got in touch and said "change to your hotel" and not "we're increasing your price by £3000" they obviously view it as the former. 

PippaWookie

Thanks for your responses. The outcome I’d like is a full refund as I know they will not honour the booking now the price has increased. I wouldn’t have booked the Moon Palace as we wanted to stay at The Grand as it’s where we got married. 

They are refusing to issue us with a refund and state that we will still have to pay for the flights which is around £2800. 

The Grand has much better facilities. The rooms are double the size with hot tubs. There’s a water park, day club and upgraded kids club not to mention all the different restaurants. If we stay at The Moon Palace we are unable to use any of these facilities. 

As this was an issue with their website at the time we booked it only seems right that we have a right to a refund. The holiday they are offering is not one we would have booked. 

I know it’s first world problems but it’s just so frustrating. 

eskbanker

PippaWookie said:

The Grand has much better facilities. The rooms are double the size with hot tubs. There’s a water park, day club and upgraded kids club not to mention all the different restaurants. If we stay at The Moon Palace we are unable to use any of these facilities.

Refund rights are only triggered by (>8% price increase or) a significant change, which is defined (slightly circularly) as a significant alteration to any of the main characteristics, including:

5.  The location, main features and, where applicable, tourist category of the accommodation under the rules of the country of destination.

6.  The meals which are included in the package.

7.  The visits, excursions or other services included in the total price agreed for the package.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/634/schedule/1

so if the alternative hotel is the same star rating, you'll need to convince them that the points you make constitute significant changes - 'upgraded kids club' and 'different restaurants' are weaker than the water park and hot tubs in rooms IMHO.

PippaWookie

Thanks. The hotel they have offered doesn’t have a water park which I feel is a significant change. With our son being 10, the last few holidays we’ve  booked are hotels with water parks as he absolutely loves them. 

The rooms where we’ve been placed are half the size of the ones where we’ve booked. The hotel is much more run down compared to The Grand. They both have the same star rating but are not the same standard. 

eskbanker

PippaWookie said:

Thanks. The hotel they have offered doesn’t have a water park which I feel is a significant change. With our son being 10, the last few holidays we’ve  booked are hotels with water parks as he absolutely loves them. 

The rooms where we’ve been placed are half the size of the ones where we’ve booked. The hotel is much more run down compared to The Grand. They both have the same star rating but are not the same standard. 

Again, it's important to recognise the threshold that you need to reach, so one or more opinions about the hotel being 'more run down' (presumably from review sites) are less relevant than objective assessment of relative facilities.

The LH terms linked above paraphrase the legal situation as:

Travellers may terminate the contract without paying any termination fee and get a full refund of any payments if any of the essential elements of the package, other than the price, are changed significantly

but the legislation itself doesn't refer to 'essential elements' in that way and uses 'main characteristics' in determining if changes are deemed significant enough to grant cancellation and refund rights:

where, before the start of the package, the organiser—

(a) is constrained by circumstances beyond the control of the organiser to alter significantly any of the main characteristics of the travel services specified in paragraphs 1 to 10 of Schedule 1

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/634/regulation/11

Not sure if there's any mileage in debating the point about whether this change is actually caused by "circumstances beyond the control of the organiser", if the root cause is some sort of data mapping issue either by LH or one of their suppliers, rather than, say, a hotel being closed, so if they're still offering the hotel you booked then there is an argument that they haven't been 'constrained' to change your booking.  However, given the massive price difference between the original booking and the currently advertised rate, it does sound like it could have been a genuine pricing error - was the rate you originally signed up for suspiciously cheap when compared with competitor pricing?

bagand96

In addition to the PTR's 2018 that @eskbanker refers, it's worth quoting the LH T&C's Terms and conditions | loveholidays

10. Changes and Cancellations to your Travel Services

We and the Service Providers reserve the right to make changes to your Travel Services at any time. Most changes are minor changes and we and the Service Providers will endeavour to pass on to you information regarding any minor changes before you depart. Other than providing such notification, we shall have no further liability to you in relation to minor changes and if you choose to cancel your holiday, our usual cancellation charges set out in paragraph 9 above will apply.

Minor changes: A minor change made prior to your departure could, for example, include (but is not limited to) the alteration of your outward or return flight by less than 12 hours, changes to carriers such as airlines, or changes to aircraft or vehicle type. It may also include change of accommodation to another of the same or better standard with the same main features in the same resort destination, or changes to services available at your accommodation (including those envisaged in paragraph 1A in relation to COVID-19).

Significant changes: Occasionally, we may have to notify you of a significant change that we or the Service Providers are constrained to make to the main characteristics of the booking.

Significant changes made prior to your departure could include (but are not limited to) a change of accommodation to a different tourist area for the whole or a significant part of your time on holiday, or a change of accommodation to that of a lower standard/star rating for the whole or a significant part of the time you are on holiday. It may also include a change of your outward flight departure time (or the commencement of your other Travel Services) by more than 12 hours, or a change of UK departure airport, except between:

I've highlighted a couple of key parts. Under minor changes they talk about change of accommodation to "same or better standard with the same main features".  Under significant changes they only state "to that of a lower standard/star rating".  However by your description so far, you may be able to claim that the replacement hotel doesn't have the same main features (waterpark etc) therefore it is a significant change, triggering cancellation/refund rights.

The problem is that company T&C's as well as the law are pretty vague in this area and it can be hard to quantify "facilities" at hotels and whether they are significant or not.

It will be in LH's interest to resolve this as they've booked likely non-refundable flights, so letting you cancel is not something they'll want to do.  The problem is what to do next, unfortunately there's no industry regulator/ombudsman. You can only try and go back to them, state you consider it a significant change and you want to cancel.  After that you'd be into legal action.  Either notifying them you want to cancel, then trying to take legal action to recover lost payments.  Or booking the original hotel at your own cost and trying to reclaim from LH. Either route is risky. Do you have any legal cover on a home insurance policy or similar?

eskbanker said:
However, given the massive price difference between the original booking and the currently advertised rate, it does sound like it could have been a genuine pricing error - was the rate you originally signed up for suspiciously cheap when compared with competitor pricing?

I had the same thought although the OP didn't comment.  Not that it would make the situation any better for OP at this point, as they've entered into a contract with LH.  

Grumpy_chap

PippaWookie said:

They are refusing to issue us with a refund and state that we will still have to pay for the flights which is around £2800. 

Are LH saying they will refund the hotel part of the price paid?
How much would you be suffering financially if you kept the flights with LH and booked the hotel directly?
Obviously, it would no longer be a package holiday.

PippaWookie

Thanks ever so much for all of your help. I’m very happy to say after 3 long weeks of fighting back LH have finally agreed to giving us a full refund.  We would have had to pay £2800 for flights for a destination we didn’t want to go to. Really appreciate all of your input here. It’s been a great help! 

Thanks again.