Advice pls on holiday from hell?

Question

Okay need some advice. Friend and I booked last min cheap holiday to a lively resort. We asked for it NOT to be 18 to 30 as that wasnt what we wanted and were told it wasnt by the travel agent.

When we got there we had the following probs

1, our room was uninhabitable, im talking blood staines on sheets and walls, unclean bathroom, snot on the walls.
2, we found out when we got there we were on an 18 to 30 style holiday with 18to30s competitor
3, we expected lively, as in being kept awake maybe until 3, but the music and noise and people coming back and shouting was going on until 9am in the morning, i kid you not.

When we asked to be moved room the hotel told us there were no spare rooms and started getting angry and shouting at us. Then, after waiting on the line until 6am in the morning with a thomson rep in the UK , a spare room magically became free.

However, after the second night we couldn´t stand the noise it was awful. Thomson offered to move us to another hotel if we paid the difference , however the only viable option they offered us was a hotel costing almost 700 pounds for just five nights. In teh end we booked a 4 star hotel ourselves for almost 250 pounds.

Anyway, sorry for going on, but what i was wondering was, are we entitled to any compensation for this? The person at thomson told us that we broke our contract with them because we left the hotel, and that basically they wouldn´t do anything for us because they moved rooms and that should have been fine. But the room they moved us too was pretty much filthy as well and I feel that we were misled as to what the holiday was, as the hotel was exclusively 18 to 30.

We took pictures to document the mess teh room was in. Any advice on what we should do next or what we should say in our letter to them?

Additional Details

Orla - ive stayed at youth hostels that have been cleaner than this place. When you had over money for a hotel, you ALWAYS expect a basic level of hygiene.

It was disgusting , loads of dried SNOT everywhere. I´ve never seen anything like that i didnt even know people did stuff like wipe snot on the wall LOL.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Your best complaint (the one with the greatest likelihood of a successful outcome for you) is the wish, prior to the holiday, not to go to an 18-30's hotel/holiday.

Did you express this at the time of booking? You say yes are you willing to stand up in a court of law and swear to this and will you friend do the same.

On realising you had been booked in to the kind of establishment you wished to avoid did you, as soon as practicable, complain to the rep being explicit about the complaint and mentioning your pre-booking desire not to be in this type of establishment?

You have obviously got evidence to support your complaint about the first rooom.

Go to see your travel agent - take all necessary evidence with you (allow them to take copies if they wish) do NOT hand them any of the evidence to keep. Tell them that they are in breach of European Union regulations governing package holidays in booking you a hotel that was outside the criteria set by you for your holiday and that you expect them to pay for your extra costs in moving to another hotel.

Tell them that you will take them to the small claims court if they do not recompense you, and that if you are forced to go down the small claims court route you will also advise the local trading standards office of the events leading up to your claim.

While with the travel agent remain cool calm and collected - they will probably try to wind you up so that you lose your temper - if you, or your friend, feel your tempers are about to go just tell the travel agent you have to leave and you will follow up the visit with a letter of complaint which will be copied into their Head Office, the local standard trading office and the local paper. Then leave - do not raise your voice, do not slam the door, do not be abusive however tempted you are to react.

If you think that a visit will cause you to become angry then do it all by letter copying in the Head Office and the Local Trading Standards Office.

Good luck and let us know how you got on.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Thanks very much for the advice :)

Answer 2

Well, you said it was cheap ..... as for compensation, read the small print.

You normally get what you pay for, you realise that?

Answer 3

I would suggest that you contact a citizens advice centre and take along the photo's, however i feel that you may well have to learn from your mistakes. Always check out your destinations and hotels before booking, read others opinions and advice, i suggest
holidays uncovered.com
trip adviser

I do not go anywhere without first checking out the resorts and know not to visit the more lively 18 - 30 destinations. Although you do get what you pay for i have booked a cheap deal holiday and have never experienced the sub standard rooms or service that you have. I would visit the above sites and place your own holiday report, include your photo's and let others know what to expect when booking a cheap deal at that accommodation. It will not help you but may well stop others from making the same mistakes.
Good luck for next years holiday

Answer 4

how can you tell if there's SNOT on the walls?! eww... ha ha i miss that programme holidays from hell... i went on a holiday to corfu with parents, and we had ants in our room. we told the staff and they said "don't worry sir, they will not hurt you"! i mean omg!!! then after about three days we finally got another room, right at the top of this great big massive hill. it took us about 45 mins to get to the top, i kid you not!!!! lol but they're re-doing it now. we never got compensation :(

Answer 5

Wow, how awful.
I don't know where you live but in Ontario we have something called TICO a government body which licenses and regulates travel agents. If you have something like that where you come from, tell the travel agent that unless you can come to some sort of reasonable compensation, you will report them to this body. It's ridiculous that you specified you didn't want a resort that caters to the young crowd and they sent you there anyway. That filth is unacceptable whether it's cheap vacation or not.

Answer 6

I have experienced similar problem on my holiday in Spain a few years back.
What I did: I did take plenty a pictures, i wrote complain to travel agent (saving a copy for myself and send another copy to Trading Standards Commissioner)

Travel agent that supplied me with bad deal was ABTA registered so I also submitted a written enquiry to ABTA.

It took me almost 4 months to get responce as all these institutions are overwhelmed with the complaints.

After all I had no better option but to address a specialist solicitor and after another 9 months I was lucky to receive full compensation.

I would call it an exceptional luck as my legal hassle could have lasted way longer and putting together all my dissatisfaction, time, effort and nerves spent I think it is not worth it, overall.

Shame to say but the current system isn't yet shaped to protect us, common people from abuse and mis-treat.

Great comment above- you can seek advise from Citizens Advice Bureau, but do excpect to wait long for anything to happen.

Source(s):

If the deal seems to be too good to be true, look for the catch (Thomson are famous for messing and pissing off a lot good people). I do comprehensive research well in advance. A tip: to plan your further holidays use www.virtualtourist.com they have a lot of useful reviews and unbiased information on many travel topics.

Answer 7

Citizens Advice Bureau will help you to know your rights, will phone the Head Office for you, maybe even write a strong letter for you. (CAB help is free, by the way).

Well done for getting photos etc. Did you also note the names of every Thomson rep you complained to? That will help. And it's disgusting that they try to fob you off and lie to you about your rights - if you can name the individuals who did that, maybe you can get them disciplined so as to be an example to the rest of the employees.