Package holiday that wasn't.

eskbanker

Sicard said:

They don't compensate for a lot of stress in the UK. In the US it could be a different matter.

While it's true that in general there's no legal basis on which to claim for stress as such, there is precedent for holidays being treated differently, on the basis that holidays are bought for relaxation and so loss of enjoyment is in itself a legitimate head of damages - the landmark case is Jarvis v Swans Tours, and it, plus many others, is discussed on sites like:

https://www.dekachambers.com/2020/06/09/general-damages-in-holiday-claims-a-recap/

It does sound likely that any claim OP has (assuming UK court action is viable) would be very much at the lower end of the scale, so it's far from clear that a court would award anything more than the £250 they've been offered for some inconvenience at the start of the trip.

ButterCheese

You got your flights, and you knew what time you'd be landing, so the "arrived exhausted" bit is irrelevant to the complaint.

You got your Hotel rooms which were paid for.  The only aspect of this complaint is that your rooms were on opposite sides of the Hotel.  For which £250 I think is a reasonable amount.  Being on different sides of the Hotel was unlikely to cost you actual money (althoughI accept it is not ideal), but again, £250 would pay for quite a few family meals out if you want to make up the time you lost. 

Put it this way - this has happened to my family a couple of times in the UK.  We just organised things around it and didn't let it spoil the holiday.  We were not offered any compo for this, and we didn't seek any.  £250 might not sound a lot in relation to what you paid overall for the holiday, but I do think it is reasonable

Grumpy_chap

Vizard said:

A well-known holiday company sold us a package holiday to the UAE at the price of £8k for 4 nights.

Overnight flights meant we arrived exhausted, only then to find that the holiday company had not booked the hotel. They had asked for a quote, but not booked it.

Fortunately, the hotel was able to find us some rooms. But they were on opposite sides of the hotel and this was a family holiday. I also had to pay for them, albeit that the hotel was able to obtain payment from the holiday company and I was refunded.

So, I paid for a package and did not get it. I was also given a world of stress at a time when I was trying to relax.

The holiday company has offered £250. I think that is far from fair.

Anyone have any knowledge about how to attack this please?

If the OP thinks £250 is not fair, what does the OP think would be fair?

The OP was always going to arrive to the same level of exhaustion following the overnight flights, whether the hotel room was booked or not.  This element does not seem to be relevant in the case.

Following an overnight flight, it is not uncommon to find that the hotel rooms are not immediately available if arriving before the normal check-in time.  It can mean some hours of waiting around.

There had been an admin error by the package holiday provider and it seems as though this admin error was swiftly corrected.  
The OP suffered a seemingly small amount of extra inconvenience in using the CC to secure the rooms while the back-and-forth communication between the hotel and the package holiday company resolved the issue correctly.

Did the OP suffer any further loss as a result of the admin error?
 - Was the OP ever guaranteed adjacent rooms?
 - Had the OP paid extra for adjacent rooms?
 - Did the OP receive the same room grade as originally covered via the package holiday?

Unless the OP confirms otherwise, it seems as though the package holiday company did provide the package that was booked, albeit with a small amount of faff following the original admin error.

This seems to be more in the realms of "goodwill gesture" than "compensation".
The £250 seems reasonable as a "goodwill gesture" - it would be a nice meal out for the group of four holidaymakers.
Maybe, the holiday company would have been better offering a voucher for a meal out (or similar) rather than a monetary value.
I think, based on what we know, the £250 is a fair amount for a goodwill gesture.