Wrath advice please - Holiday problems

I raised a complaint with a tour operator following a family holiday last summer.

It wasn’t anything disastrous – weren’t all struck down with food poisoning or anything - but was nowhere near as good as expected based on the description / photos online nor the star rating and price paid. Things like mould on the wall behind the headboard, room was dirty - when we moved our daughters bed to better fit it in the room, on the floor was a large sticky drink spill & an empty sanitary product wrapper, water damage stained ceilings, holes in the towels due to age & wear, we’d paid extra for a sea view but we were on the ground floor & in front of our room was a children’s playground encompassed in a picket fence, hairdryer in bathroom didn’t work etc. Changed rooms after 2 nights but in the new room maintenance had to come out twice as the toilet didn’t flush, pool didn’t seem clean, rooms tired & dated, grounds were unkept & just dried mud/brown scrub…..you get the gist

I complained last year providing details & photos. They took an absolute age to reply and when they did, whilst saying things like “we acknowledge things fell bellow expectations based upon the images on the website” and “I recognise why this would be disconcerting” and “I recognise why you would be disappointed” etc etc they offered a poxy £100 voucher for use against a future holiday with them as they “recognise there were quality issues with the stay”. The total cost of the holiday was a tad over five and a half grand.

I replied back to them in January advising that their offer wasn’t acceptable but in an attempt to resolve the issue between ourselves we’d accept a refund to the tune of 20% of the holiday cost and asked them to respond with a decision within 28 days otherwise we would pursue it further. They have now responded basically saying there’s no further offer as when looking again they’ve been “unable to find any failings on the booking as you received the flights, transfers and accomodationas booked” – which seems a bit bizarre to me, saying that the quality of the hotel is irrelevant.

I note from their website that the star rating for the hotel has now been downgraded, they’ve removed at least one photo they had when we booked – so possibly others – and they’ve changed the description they used from last year as I quoted one element in my original complaint letter and it’s not there. Annoyingly I thought I had pdf’d a copy of the website description & photos last year, but it seems not.

So my Q’s are…..

Is there any way I can search & find online their description/photos from their website from last year – i.e. what we had based our booking on, which would support our claim?

Has anyone made similar complaints following a holiday & how did you get on? And actually, am I over reacting? Just seems wrong to me that a long awaited family holiday could have these aggravations & disappointments and the tour company just shrug their shoulders.

ABTA has a dispute resolution service which is free. They don’t make any decision but I guess work with both parties to see if an agreement can be reached. Has anyone ever used this & if so is it worthwhile or just window dressing to make ABTA look good? They also have a binding Arbitration service which has a cost but I’d get that back if they decided to award me anything above the £100 voucher the tour operator has offered.

Finally is this something my Card Company / Section 75 could get involved with? I don’t really fancy going to the smalls claims court tbh.

Many thanks!

Posted By: Azteca, Feb 10, 10:44:14

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