Do I have grounds for a complaint?

[gdesign]

Apologies for the length of rant below but for anyone who can be bothered reading through the whole blurb can you let me know if you think it would be worth complaining to the holiday company?

 

We have just returned from 2 weeks AI 4* with Direct holidays.

 

Holiday/Hotel in general

 

Based on previous holidays with Thomas Cook/Direct Holidays in the same country at the same level of accomodation, the standard of the hotel was well below the 4*rating given in the brochure.

 

BARS - All drinks served in 200ml plastic cups - including wine in the inside bar in the evening. We were at first told this was due to health and safety issues due to the "entertainment" being based out at the pool area. It turns out that Health and Safety wasn't an issue if you were willing to pay for said drinks - all paid-for drinks were served in an appropriate glass.

 

ENTERTAINMENT - Entertainment was absolutely terrible. I have been to a few 4* AI hotels so I know not to expect anything great but this was really bad. One of the nights included a section of the entertainment were the crowd was split in two and there was a competition to see who could scream the loudest! On the few nights that there was outside entertainment brought it you were lucky if they done a 45 minute set.

 

In order to have an enjoyable holiday it meant we spent most nights outside of the hotel, spending considerably more than we would have expected on an all inclusive break. (more than we have spent on any other)

 

Our Specific Circumstances - Three rooms in 4 days.

 

Room 1

On returning to our room one evening we realised there was no electricity, reported it to reception eho sent the security guard to look at it. The air-con appeared to be overloading the electrics. Security guard instructed us to leave it off and report to reception in the morning.

Next morning (after very little sleep due to the heat) we reported it to reception and they said they would send maintenance to look at it. We waited around until 3pm and then received a call from reception to say we had to move rooms and could we pack our cases and be in reception in 10 minutes.

 

Room2

At first appeared fine but we could tell the AC wasn't as strong as the previous room - we shrugged this off thinking it was just because it hadn't been on long and headed out. On return we realised that the room was still not cool. So another sleepless night. We decided to rough it out for another night in the hope that it would improve - unfortunatley it got worse.... this time it wasn't that the air-con wasn't on - it was but now blowing hot air! - heating the room up further - Another sleepless night(probably the worst of the 3)

 

next morning (9:45 am)I spoke to the rep about it and she went to speak to reception - informing us shortly after, that maintenance were going to have a look. After being told at midday that the issue was resolved we returned to our room - the room still felt very warm and we decided to leave the AC on full and go back later. We returned at 5pm to find the room still hot - so off to find the rep again, who again spoke to reception and the general manager - who again sent maintenace to look at the AC. We waited from then until 7:30pm only to be told that we would again be moving rooms. So off we went to pack our cases again!

 

Thankfully the 3rd room was fine - we managed to finally get a good nights sleep and attempt to enjoy the remaining few days of our holiday....

 

At that point I wasn't going to complain but then we got speaking to a couple that had been in 5 different rooms in 5 different days. It turns out that they were moved from our second room just before we were moved into it after being told that the AC was broken beyond repair and was blowing hot air, so the hotel knew what they were moving us into.

 

If you've got this far... thanks for reading!!

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

Yes IMHO you should complain, with hindsight (we are all wise after the event) it might have been useful to have swapped addresses with the other couple.

Take a look at the ABTA and Which sites as they contain information on how you could word your complaint.

Home - ABTA

Getting compensation for holiday problems - Your rights - Which? Advice

 

Andy

[dorsetmokey]

Yes IMHO you should complain, with hindsight (we are all wise after the event) it might have been useful to have swapped addresses with the other couple.

Take a look at the ABTA and Which sites as they contain information on how you could word your complaint.

Home - ABTA

Getting compensation for holiday problems - Your rights - Which? Advice

 

Andy

 

 

Good luck. I am about to take a holiday company to court. They are getting increasingly rude and reneging on previous offers. They are now offering vouchers which are worthless to me as the mere thought of going on holiday with them again sends me into a panic. Any ideas what constitutes a loss for me in the court? Does the court view vouchers as a monetary offer from the other side? Many thanks

[happyowner]

No, the court does not see vouchers as money so you can insist of full refund of real monies.