ABTA Arbitration Advice Please/Chance of Success

silvercar

You were on a Greek island, it is normal for some frozen food to be used in preparation of some of the dishes. It shouldn't impact on your enjoyment of the meal. "We would never have booked this hotel if we had known they used frozen food" why not?

Hot countries rely on the sun heating the pool water. They moved you after a day. 25 degrees will take the chill off the water but nothing more. I think your expectations were unrealistic here, especially as you can't blame the hotel for the bad weather not heating the pool faster. I would have expected a bottle of wine or similar as compensation.

I think safety issues depend on the country. I would expect higher security in some African countries/ the middle east etc than in Crete. 

I would be annoyed about the temperature of the room.

We've done the same as you in the past, ie booked a holiday in a fairly standard 5* (let's be honest 5* can mean different things in different places) and then spent a lot upgrading to a very high standard room. You have to remind yourself that a lot of what has made the holiday expensive is the room chose. Our last holiday that would match this description, I would split the cost into thirds. It worked out a third for the flights, a third for the hotel and a third for the room upgrade. You have to remind yourself that the hotel and flights are going to be relatively lower standard than the room upgrade. 

If you want better outcomes, maybe look at holidays that aren't marketed by jet2 and fly with schedule airlines rather than charter.

DisneyTheresa

NoodleDoodleMan said:

I was curious and had a quick look at TripAdvisor reviews - Excellent 1539 / Good 423 / Average 169 / Poor 57 / Terrible 41.

These stats don't nullify bad experiences of course.

There is another negative comment about the Asian restaurant.

That's why we booked it. We have tried posting various reviews about the frozen food, no names, nothing about the room or the way we were treated when we raised issues but it still got removed. The extent of frozen food was a huge surprise especialy the sea food. One of the resturant managers told us that's what the Grecotel chain does. We checked on their website and on the Grecotel app and there was no mention of frozen food. We are foodies and some of it was tasteless and sub-quality. I know others liked the food - maybe they didn't spot the small *

Isthisforreal99

DisneyTheresa said:

NoodleDoodleMan said:

I was curious and had a quick look at TripAdvisor reviews - Excellent 1539 / Good 423 / Average 169 / Poor 57 / Terrible 41.

These stats don't nullify bad experiences of course.

There is another negative comment about the Asian restaurant.

That's why we booked it. We have tried posting various reviews about the frozen food, no names, nothing about the room or the way we were treated when we raised issues but it still got removed. The extent of frozen food was a huge surprise especialy the sea food. One of the resturant managers told us that's what the Grecotel chain does. We checked on their website and on the Grecotel app and there was no mention of frozen food. We are foodies and some of it was tasteless and sub-quality. I know others liked the food - maybe they didn't spot the small *

Why are you expecting it to say on their website that they use frozen food? Plenty establishments will use it. A lot of seafood used in Europe comes from Scotland and will be caught, frozen then shipped.

DisneyTheresa

Isthisforreal99 said:

Why are you expecting it to say on their website that they use frozen food? Plenty establishments will use it. A lot of seafood used in Europe comes from Scotland and will be caught, frozen then shipped.

Transparancy! it's 5 star and Fine Dining does not use frozen food, hotel Website states fresh food. Clearly we differ on this

NoodleDoodleMan

DisneyTheresa said:

NoodleDoodleMan said:

I was curious and had a quick look at TripAdvisor reviews - Excellent 1539 / Good 423 / Average 169 / Poor 57 / Terrible 41.

These stats don't nullify bad experiences of course.

There is another negative comment about the Asian restaurant.

That's why we booked it. We have tried posting various reviews about the frozen food, no names, nothing about the room or the way we were treated when we raised issues but it still got removed. The extent of frozen food was a huge surprise especialy the sea food. One of the resturant managers told us that's what the Grecotel chain does. We checked on their website and on the Grecotel app and there was no mention of frozen food. We are foodies and some of it was tasteless and sub-quality. I know others liked the food - maybe they didn't spot the small *

AFAIK a hotel doesn't have the power to remove or censor a review simply because it's negative - only TripAdvisor - and only for breaches of their posting guidelines.

If other guests liked the food would it have mattered if they'd seen the asterisk or not ?

Isthisforreal99

DisneyTheresa said:

Isthisforreal99 said:

Why are you expecting it to say on their website that they use frozen food? Plenty establishments will use it. A lot of seafood used in Europe comes from Scotland and will be caught, frozen then shipped.

Transparancy! it's 5 star and Fine Dining does not use frozen food, hotel Website states fresh food. Clearly we differ on this

Or one of us has reliastic expectations of 'fine dining' in Greece. It's not a Michelin star restaurant, it's a package holiday hotel restaurant and by your own admission others liked it.

DisneyTheresa

Isthisforreal99 said:

Or one of us has reliastic expectations of 'fine dining' in Greece. It's not a Michelin star restaurant, it's a package holiday hotel restaurant and by your own admission others liked it.

No need to be rude. if others liked the food, they may not know any better, maybe they eat frozen meals at home. Don't advertise fine dining if it's not. Enough said on this, its not helping.