Question over changes to hotel, now receiving poor reviews

oellph

We booked at the end of April with TUI to a family run hotel in Greece which had lovely reviews. The family run nature attracted us given the quality of the food and the service. Today we've discovered reviews from the last few weeks where people have found the family sold up to the hotel next door (back in February) and the quality of the food and overall service has declined. TUI never updated their website to reflect this. I reckon I know the answer already.... I'm guessing we have no come back or recourse with TUI?  We're due to fly out in 21 days and maybe we'll be lucky and enjoy it, but now I'm somewhat dreading it.

elsien

You could see if is an alternative available that they can move you to, but there will very likely be an extra cost. 

bagand96

Your rights under the Package and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 are based around whether a change is "Significant" or not.  If a change isn't significant then your rights will be very limited.

Unfortunately the regulations are pretty vague on what is significant or not, as are Tour Operators T&Cs. They usually site certain examples (change of flight by 12+ hours, change of resort, change of acommodation to lower official rating, change of airport).

I don't think a change of hotel ownership would count. A change in review scores almost certainly won't. You say TUI didn't update their website? Did TUI specifically advertise it as family owned? Are the purchasers a family? 

TELLIT01

I don't think you will get anywhere by complaining about it being sold.  Although sold to the neighbouring hotel, that hotel itself may be family run.  You won't know if you agree with previous reviews about the food quality until you try it yourself.  If it is substandard make sure you speak to the TUI rep immediately.

If it's any consolation, a small hotel in a resort we stay in always had great reviews.  That was sold and for a few months the reviews went downhill.  It then recovered and has good reviews again.

NoodleDoodleMan

Perhaps the OP could identify the hotel to allow a look at the nature and more recent negative aspects of reviews ?

oellph

Thanks all.

It's this one: The Dream Studios Oniro in Tragaki | TUI.co.uk.  I think TUI have tweaked the page a bit to be less specific ("Often family-run").  Definitely was specific when we booked.

Fingers crossed it will still be nice! I feel for the staff left behind who probably felt quite unsettled with the sudden change (if it wasn't planned). I'll certainly approach them with that in mind.

Indout96

Just looking on TA and most reviews are still OK, just two main bad ones but the main bad one by someone called Alan C is the really bad one. Now I'm not saying their opinion is wrong but they only have two reviews on TA and both are pulling somewhere apart so in general I would not take their account as gospel.
On page one there are 10 reviews all apart from the last one are this summer so presumably the new owners.
5 are giving it 5 *
2 give it 4*
Of the two bad ones one is Alan C and the other is complaining of the size of the bathrooms and the furniture, all of which would not change with the new owners.
If I had booked here I would be looking forward to it.

NoodleDoodleMan

As I read through the more recent TA reviews - there has been a noticeable change of some opinions since the new owners took over, whereas previously they had been consistently positive.

bagand96

oellph said:

Thanks all.

It's this one: The Dream Studios Oniro in Tragaki | TUI.co.uk.  I think TUI have tweaked the page a bit to be less specific ("Often family-run").  Definitely was specific when we booked.

Fingers crossed it will still be nice! I feel for the staff left behind who probably felt quite unsettled with the sudden change (if it wasn't planned). I'll certainly approach them with that in mind.

The "often family owned" is part of the "Small & Friendly" banner which talks about the qualities of properties in that TUI collection. That's unlikely to have changed, that's how TUI have advertised that brand for a long time. A lot of the properties are family owned, but not all of them, hence "often"

However the Web Archive does have a copy of the TUI page for the hotel from July 2024 which starts "This family run hotel's great for peaceful getaways"

Today's version says "This hotel's great for peaceful getaways"

They'll have been notified of the change of ownership, although it is beyond their control. They have updated their website, hard to know when though (and we don't know when the actual change of ownership or TUI being notified was). For all we know they may have done it as soon as they were notified.

Tru and focus on looking forward to your holiday.  Of you go with a mindset of "it's not going to be as good" then you'll pick up on little things the whole time that in reality may not have bothered you before.