TUI incorrect hotel information after booking - before flying

Little_wanderer

We booked a hotel with TUI that we have booked with them many times in the past, which has the benefit of being able to use the facilities at the two sister hotels on the complex. When we booked this time, this was still correct according to TUI's website and shop. 2 weeks ago we got an email from them saying there have been some changes and we now don't have access to 2 restaurants (which is incorrect anyway because after contacting the hotel we lose access to about 7 bars and restaurants & 2 pools).

I don't understand why we weren't told when booking or told sooner because the hotel said the agents were made aware way before we booked our holiday. TUI have offered us a free private airport transfer (which saves us £130). I appreciate them offering something, however, we have lost WAY more than £130 worth of facilities for our two week holiday, when the price we paid originally should have been for all of it.

We do not fly until Jan 2026. 

Is TUI being fair offering us this £130 off our transfer, or are we entitled to more than this? It doesn't seem proportional to the amount of facilities we have lost.

eskbanker

Little_wanderer said:

I appreciate them offering something, however, we have lost WAY more than £130 worth of facilities for our two week holiday, when the price we paid originally should have been for all of it.

[...]

Is TUI being fair offering us this £130 off our transfer, or are we entitled to more than this? It doesn't seem proportional to the amount of facilities we have lost.

How are you quantifying the reduction in value?  It would obviously be simplistic to assume that access to x restaurants instead of y should result in a price reduction to x/y, so what sort of figure are you thinking of and how are you getting there?

Are you looking for a discount or the right to cancel for a full refund?

sheramber

How many bars, pools and restaurants do you now have access to?

TELLIT01

Tour operators claiming not to know of changes is far from uncommon, even when people contact the hotel direct and then pass that information on to the tour operator.  It seems that their line of thinking is that if they leave it late enough to inform people of changes, they will have no option other than to accept whatever is offered to them.

Westin

You haven’t mentioned the name of the hotel but is it possible that the ownership of the (three in the complex) hotels has changed. TUI may indeed not have been aware of any hotel sale or ownership transfer, or indeed changes in hotel facilities, when you booked.

sheramber

Westin said:

You haven’t mentioned the name of the hotel but is it possible that the ownership of the (three in the complex) hotels has changed. TUI may indeed not have been aware of any hotel sale or ownership transfer, or indeed changes in hotel facilities, when you booked.

OP’s first post

I don't understand why we weren't told when booking or told sooner because the hotel said the agents were made aware way before we booked our holiday. 

bagand96

Little_wanderer said:

Is TUI being fair offering us this £130 off our transfer, or are we entitled to more than this? It doesn't seem proportional to the amount of facilities we have lost.

Your rights will be covered in the TUI T&C's which must be compliant with the law, in this case The Package and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018.  The regulations state that if an operator makes a significant change to the package, then they must offer certain rights such as the opportunity to cancel for a full refund, choose an alternative etc.

Unfortunately in some areas the law is vague in terms of what changes are significant, and hotel facilities is one of those.  TUI are likely of the opinion that it isn't a significant change.

However given they have offered you something, that's a good starting point.  But to take it further you're going to need to quantify what you would like as a resolution and go from there.

Wonka_2

sheramber said:

Westin said:

You haven’t mentioned the name of the hotel but is it possible that the ownership of the (three in the complex) hotels has changed. TUI may indeed not have been aware of any hotel sale or ownership transfer, or indeed changes in hotel facilities, when you booked.

OP’s first post

I don't understand why we weren't told when booking or told sooner because the hotel said the agents were made aware way before we booked our holiday. 

But as with anything in the commercial world the hotel may consider they’ve ‘told’ TUI whereas TUI may consider it’s all part of a negotiation with the hotel. 

Given the OP has no contract with the hotel im not sure what they’re expecting to do with the information ? 

Grumpy_chap

Little_wanderer said:

We booked a hotel with TUI that we have booked with them many times in the past, which has the benefit of being able to use the facilities at the two sister hotels on the complex. When we booked this time, this was still correct according to TUI's website and shop. 2 weeks ago we got an email from them saying there have been some changes and we now don't have access to 2 restaurants (which is incorrect anyway because after contacting the hotel we lose access to about 7 bars and restaurants & 2 pools).

I don't understand why we weren't told when booking or told sooner because the hotel said the agents were made aware way before we booked our holiday. TUI have offered us a free private airport transfer (which saves us £130). I appreciate them offering something, however, we have lost WAY more than £130 worth of facilities for our two week holiday, when the price we paid originally should have been for all of it.

We do not fly until Jan 2026. 

Is TUI being fair offering us this £130 off our transfer, or are we entitled to more than this? It doesn't seem proportional to the amount of facilities we have lost.

What, actually, is the loss resulting from the reduction in the number of restaurants?
This is a genuine question.

We often travel to a 3-hotel complex "resort" and the headline for each hotel says we can share the facilities of the other hotels, so there are X restaurants and Y pools available.
In high season everything is open at all three of the hotels.
In low season, some of the restaurants and pools are closed.
However, this really makes no practical difference.
Of the X restaurants, there are 3 that are identical main buffet restaurants, all offering exactly the same menu so the fact there are 3 is really a practicality and capacity matter rather than a choice matter.
Similarly, there are 2 pool bars, both offering exactly the same choice and prices.
In low season, there are only 2 of the buffet restaurants open and 1 pool bar.
In reality, the impact on our choice is zero.  The more / less open restaurants is just managing capacity.

On the other hand, there could be a 3-hotel complex "resort" where the 7 restaurants are all actually different, offering different menus, prices, services, specialisms / themes.  If the seven restaurants are a tapas bar, pizzeria, general buffet, burgers, curry, oriental and premium waiter service then that is 7 different experiences available and you'd now only have 5 within the resort.  This is a bigger change than the simple capacity management of identical restaurants.  Even then, the "missing" options are possibly available just a short walk away so you can eat outside the resort if you chose (assuming not AI), or the menu options might still be available but combined into one of the remaining open restaurants.

Can the OP advise the actual hotel name so we can understand the normal restaurant options and how these have changed?