Professional Report

tonydav43

I was wondering if anyone could help me or give me any advice?

I have already filed a charge back with my card holder for a holiday let not as described ad I had to leave 11 days early, which they have already credited the lost days amount to my account, they have sent the claim to master card, who in turn has sent it to booking.com who is the merchant. They have told me that the merchant has 45 days to refute the claim, and if they do, then I have 30 days to provide an independent professional report from you to proceed with the chargeback and it must :

- Be on letter-headed paper/email.
- Emails must be from a business-related email account, not a personal account (e.g. Gmail)
- The report must address how the goods or services provided by the merchant did not conform to what the business promised you. This must be more than just confirming that you are unhappy or dissatisfied.
- Show how the expert is qualified to provide an independent report (e.g. any qualifications or memberships of professional bodies).
- If you are disputing damage, the expert must show that the goods were provided by the merchant in that condition.

We understand that it is very unlikely that you will be able to provide this documentation, however, it is a Mastercard requirement should the merchant contest the dispute.

The host was not willing to assist at all, and neither were booking.com, I just need a professional body that can write a report based on the evidence that I have, that I should keep the chargeback for the lost 11 days, due to the failings of the host. I know booking.com is not  UK based entity, and the property was in Gran Canaria, it just needs to be a professional that writes the report, can anyone help or advice where to get such a report

Thanks in advance

Tony

flaneurs_lobster

Does it not depend on the reason(s) for you being unable to continue to use the property?

Presumably you documented the problems at the time (photos, video) and if the problems were, say, dangerous electricals then you would need a qualified electrician to examine your evidence and write a report that says "yes that's dangerous" (for a fee).

Difficult to know what to suggest unless you can share the nature of the property's failings.

tonydav43

Sorry its a bit long, but it does explain what happend :-)

When I originally booked this accommodation on 28th Jun 2025, it was advertised as having the following (along with other items which I am not disputing):

1.      Air Conditioning in guest bedroom – non provided.

2.      Fire extinguisher – listing has been removed.

3.      Smoke alarm – listing has been removed.

4.      Private beach – listing has been removed.

When we arrived at the property, we noticed that there was no air conditioning, I said to my wife that I had seen it, but it must have been in a different property that we looked at, and it was left at that. We looked for a smoke alarm, and we noticed a box on the kitchen wall that looked like it was a smoke alarm, but we did not look for a fire extinguisher.

We had issues with the apartment from day 1, but these were rectified over the first few days, but looking back, they should have been picked up by the host on a post pr pre inspection of the property, as the leaks in the upstairs bathroom were quite bad, and coupled with the fact that it was a tiled floor in the bathroom, meant the floor became very slippery, which meant we could not really use it, so we had to revert to the downstairs bathroom until the leaks were fixed and the silicone had dried.

The downstairs bathroom was better, but the drain was full of hair, and also there was missing grout and also a loose cracked tile, which had a sharp edge where you could cut yourself if you were not careful, luckily, the faults in the upstairs bathroom were fixed quite quickly, so we could use it again after a few days. Up until 08th I had been quite understanding, despite these faults being there in the first place, as these were not hidden faults that you needed to look for, but blatantly obvious.

On 10th Oct 2025 I reported to the host, that the past couple of days, when I went to turn a light off in the kitchen, the switch made a crackling sound, I turned it back on, but no sound, but it crackled when I turned it off again. She said that she would send the handyman over to take a look, at this point I also pointed out that the ceiling fans were really dirty and especially the kitchen one, which was full of grease, I told them that I had already cleaned them as it was a quick job, the response I got was it was because there were sandstorms it made the fans dirty, I explained that there had been no sandstorms since we arrived, and also, sandstorms don’t produce grease, they just had not been cleaned in weeks. The host said that if I had told them, then they would have sent someone round to clean them, the fact that they were dirty when we arrived, was not even addressed.

After I had reported the switch on 10th Oct 2025, I was speaking to the neighbours, who own the apartment next door, and I said about the faults and thank god we have a smoke alarm, we were in my apartment at the time, and when I pointed to what I though was a smoke alarm, turns out not to be a smoke alarm. They also pointed out to me a complex fire extinguisher that was on the wall next to their apartment, it was empty and had no inspection date either, but apart from that, there was no plan in the apartment where to find then anyway. I then contacted the host again, who told me that under local laws, they did not need to provide a smoke alarm and sent me a link to the local rules. In the local rules, it does say that what is listed is the MINIMUM that is required under local law. I pointed out that a first aid kit is part if the minimum equipment, but there was not one in the property, the hosts response to this was to replace it and not address the fact that it was not there in the first place.

 

 It was originally advertised as having smoke alarms and fire extinguishers on bookings site, but that had been removed, but I found the same property advertised on agoda.com, and on that site it did state that smoke alarms and fire extinguishers are provided. When I questioned the host on this the response I got was as follows:

"By the way, Agoda is a partner site of Booking — we do not directly advertise our properties there. Listings are automatically duplicated, so any information shown there must first be verified through Booking."

Using the hosts statement, it proves that it was originally advertised on bookings platform as having that safety equipment.

When the handy man turned up on 10th Oct, he replaced the switch, but not the whole assembly, as he said he would need to come back after the weekend, he never did return to replace the complete assembly. I expressed our concerns over the lack of a smoke alarm, as we would have no warning in the event of a fire and he gave us a smoke alarm off his own back and without the hosts knowledge, as I said I was going to town the next day to try to buy one. After a few hours, the alarm was beeping, I assumed it was the battery, so the next day I purchased a new battery, this did not fix the issue and at that point I noticed that the manufacture date was 2014, and the recommend usage for alarms is 10 years, so we were back to no systems to alert us in the event of a fire on the ground floor. I went into town on 13th Oct 2025, to try to buy a smoke alarm, I could not find a shop that sold one, so at this point, we started to look at the possibility pf leaving early due to us feeling unsafe. 

We had a few ants in the apartment from day one, but they were not bothersome. However, during the third week, we were infested with hundreds. I reported this and was told to provide video proof because apparently my word wasn’t enough. After supplying proof, I was told someone would fumigate, but that it was a problem throughout the whole complex. So why was it not an issue until I reported it? I was informed a fumigator would come, and I asked if he could visit our apartment first as we planned to go out. He did, expressing surprise at the number of ants. He performed a non-toxic fumigation and said he was only treating our apartment that day, with others to be done over the next few days. If it was a complex-wide problem, why wasn’t the entire complex fumigated immediately? The exterminator told me that the poison was non-toxic so we could stay in the apartment, and it works within a few hours. More than 24 hours later, we were still infested with ants, I again expressed our dissatisfaction with the hosts, and sent video evidence, but was told that as a non-toxic solution was used, it takes longer to work, this again is just an excuse as the guy who done the job said within a few hours. Where he fumigated, most the ants had gone, but a lot of them just appeared in another place in the apartment, the ants appeared to be coming from cracks in the walls, that had simply been painted over and not repaired, also behind a unit in the living room was a section of the wall that was water damaged and the plaster had bubbled, but again it had just been painted over and not repaired, again, that was where a lot of the ants were coming from as well.

At this point we were ready to call it a day and leave, but as we had reported all of this to the hosts and to booking, we thought we might be offered alternative accommodation for the remaining nights of our stay, this did not happen, so on 15th Oct, I booked the first available flights back home, which was 18th Oct 2025, and this cost ne an extra £580 (which I am not claiming for either). I did ask booking to request a refund for the lost 11 days, plus compensation for what we had been put through, this was refused by the host, and in the end, booking gave us travel vouchers to the value of €300.

I would also like to point out that under local rules a complaint book should be in the property, and I am sure that a plan of where fire extinguishers on the complex should also be on display in the apartment.

I also discovered that the licence number displayed on booking and agoda’s sites, was in fact not the correct licence number, as the hosts also managed a further 4 properties in the same complex, I checked then against the local licence register, here is what I discovered:

Beach Side Retreat - displayed licence number - VV-35-1-00257886 - real licence number - VV-35-1-0025788 (this has been changed recently but still not correct, and only after I told the host about it)

Modern Duplex - displayed licence number - VV-35-1-00201515 - real licence number - VV-35-1-0020151

Spacious Beachside - displayed licence number - VV-35-1-00260389 - real licence number - VV-0026038

Cura Marina - displayed licence number - VV-35-1-00242905 - real licence number - VV-35-1-0024290

Playa del Cura- displayed licence number - VV-35-1-00190394 - real licence number - VV-35-1-0019039

I can understand 1 licence having a typo, but to have all 4 in the same complex, that tells me that something is not right and needs investigating, also maybe the other properties managed by this family on Gran Canaria, as something does not seem right.  In addition, when I raised this with the host in a whatsapp message, their response was:

"Regarding the “Datos Abiertos” information you mention, I am not sure exactly where you are searching, but I can only say that if the license number we provide on Booking were not valid, the Booking platform itself would not allow us to continue renting out the property. This is regulated by law, which you can verify in the Boletín Oficial de Canarias, where you will also find many other regulations that all vacation rental property owners must comply with. 

I have informed the local authorities regarding this serious advertising of inaccurate information, and informed booking as well, as they could be liable for a heavy fine. I find it very strange that all the 5 properties that they host in that complex, have inaccurate information displayed on rental platforms, but also, they seem to think that if it was wrong, that the platforms would remove the bookings.

The source of the licence information is as follows:

Non-hotel establishments of the holiday home type registered in the General Tourist Registry of the Canary Islands - Non-hotel establishments of the holiday home type registered in the General Tourist Registry of the Canary Islands. (CSV) - Open data portal of the Government of the Canary Islands

 

To finalise, the apartment on face value was okay, as it had by the looks of it been recently renovated, but it seems that it is only a facade, and when you start to look, it I not as it should be. We felt very Insafe in the apartment after discovering electrical faults and the lack of s a smoke alarm, and felt we had to leave, but feel that this was not in fact by our choice, but by the lack of maintenance and inspections by the host, to that end, receiving back the lost 11 days, is the least that the host should accommodate. Finally, out of the 5 properties the host manages in the complex that I stayed in, my apartment was the only one that had the “smoke alarm and fire extinguisher” removed from the displayed safety equipment, and the other 4 still display as having a smoke alarm.

MyRealNameToo

I can honestly say I have neither ever looked at a listing to see if it mentions if there was a fire extinguisher or fire alarm nor checked a property for such things whilst on holiday. I generally would expect that things in different countries operate in different ways and to different standards than in the UK. 

You are predominately complaining about minor variants from the listings and a few technical issues. I believe bookings via Booking.com would be covered by the legal jurisdiction of the host and so you probably need a lawyer familiar with Spanish and Canaries law to consider if these cause a breach of contract based on the agreed terms. Most booking terms allow for modest variations from listings to cover the fact elements change, sometimes at short notice, but it doesnt damage the overall experience. 

user1977

It sounds like they'd need a relevant professional to verify the state of the apartment at the time you were there. Which I doubt you can do retrospectively.

I agree these sound like relatively minor quibbles rather than a fundamental failure to provide the accommodation.

tonydav43

I agree that the original things were minor, and at first did not bother us, but when it came to a lack of basic safety equipment (they state they are provided in all the other properties in that complex they manage), then as we had electrical faults and the building and the the electrics were old (the handyman told us that), then we did not feel safe in the apartment, and left as soon as we could. I am after a report simply to say that I was justified to leave and that the apartment was not as advertised. It is a report based on evidence provided, and not a physical examination of the property, if that helps :-) but thanks for the responses. In addition, I did on numerous occasions request a smoke alarm, and this was refused, quoting Spanish law, but it was still advertised on agoda as having them provided, so I was basically requesting what they say is provided, also air con, there was none and it is still advertised as having air con in the guest bedroom. I paid for 29 nights, and only got 18 nights as they would not provide what was advertised, to me what was standard safety equipment. Neither booking or the host offered alternative options, so I had a choice to leave 11 nights early, or possibly burn alive in the event of a fire on the ground floor (there were 2 floors). Hosts need to be made culpable for their lack of actions :-)

bazdvd

so you stayed for 18 nights without a smoke alarm, air conditioning in the bedroom or a fire extinguisher but then decided it was too risky to stay the remaining 11.
I think on that basis you will find it hard to justify it was that important to you.
You might get a small goodwill gesture for a lac of AC but they may just say it was an error on the website.
As you have already taken the €300 in vouchers it may hinder any more money.
You wont get compensation as you did not suffer any loss while you were there.

tonydav43

bazdvd said:

so you stayed for 18 nights without a smoke alarm, air conditioning in the bedroom or a fire extinguisher but then decided it was too risky to stay the remaining 11.
I think on that basis you will find it hard to justify it was that important to you.
You might get a small goodwill gesture for a lac of AC but they may just say it was an error on the website.
As you have already taken the €300 in vouchers it may hinder any more money.
You wont get compensation as you did not suffer any loss while you were there.

What we thought was a smoke alarm, turned out not to be a smoke alarm when the neighbours told us it was not, when we found out that it was not a smoke alarm, we requested one but the request was denied, despite it advertising as having one. 
If you read the response above, you can see that it was not a simple as we did not have air con etc, and also I have not accepoted the vouchers, they were simply put in a booking wallet and are still there. 

Finally, I was after information on obtaining a report, and I was not asking about how I get compensation  

bazdvd

you dont need the report unless the claim is refuted which so far has not been.
You will need to pay for a report to be done so wait and see what happens. You might get to keep the refund and have 300 in vouchers on top.

tonydav43

bazdvd said:

you dont need the report unless the claim is refuted which so far has not been.
You will need to pay for a report to be done so wait and see what happens. You might get to keep the refund and have 300 in vouchers on top.

I only have 30 days to obtain a report if it is refuted, and I am finding it difficult to find a person or organisation to provide such a report, hence the reason for the post to asking where I might obtain one in this instance, as I am sure that I am not the first person to come across this type of situation before