Holiday nightmare - legal advice help please!

[camberwell fox]

Dear all,

I hope none of you find yourself in the situation we are in right now. I will keep the names of the booking agent and hotel anonymous as I don't want to prejudice myself.

We booked a holiday to Italy (where we are now) through a UK agent. This is our second booking with this company as the first hotel they found us was out of this world. They specialise in top end boutique hotels abroad.

We booked with this agent and the overall agreed cost was 2.5k. We paid half in the UK to the agent as a deposit and the balance was to be paid to the hotel. When we arrived the 'cottage/appartment' was not as described by the agent but perhaps we missed something in the small print. We understood the cottage was within view of the hotel so we could sit outside the hotel and have dinner while watching our room with the baby asleep (should we want to do this). The cottage is 200 yards away therefore making this impossible. The cottage is no where near to the same standard as the hotel which is very nice indeed. The cottage does not have a bath which was vital as we need to bath our 15 month old son nightly before putting him to bed.

The agent sold us the cottage based on them telling me it was of a higher standard then when we used them the first time.

Needless to say we were extremely unhappy with the cottage and approached the hotel politely to see if we could be moved into the main hotel. They had nothing suitable only 1 bedroom which would have meant putting our son to bed at 7 and us sitting with the light off!

We decided to look elsewhere and cut our losses. We found a hotel in sorrento (the only one we could find with a suite) and have now moved out and had to pay a vast amount of money to stay here.

We decided to refuse paying the original hotel and after much negotiation they asked to see our booking form and to their surprise the agent was charging 100% commission (1.2k) as apposed to 15% commission. Therefore over inflating expectations. We agreed to pay the hotel 50% (1.2k) as we felt bad leaving them high and dry. They are now trying to recoup the 50% we recused to pay from the agent and are threatening to cancel all of their future bookings.

So, the question is can I persue them legally in the UK for the 2.5k plus our new hotel plus damages and stress and so forth?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Cheers all.

 

[drummindefender]

Seems like a case of misrepresentation to me, so may be worth pursuing it through the right channels

 

[bocadillo]

Does your UK agent have a rep at the hotel or nearby? If so, have you spoken to him/her? In the absence of a local rep, have you spoken to the agent in the UK about the problem? It's often said that a claim is more likely to succeed if you have given the agent every opportunity to correct the situation.

I've got to say that if the agent managed to charge you 100% commission, he must have 'seen you coming'.

 

[camberwell fox]

Hi bob,

They have no rep out here. I left 4 messages fir them on the first day they were open (Monday) and they did not call me back until the Tuesday by which time
we had already found a new hotel as I wasn't willing to wait for days for a reply.

They didn't even apologise or offer anything - just told us we had to pay the full amount or else.

Regarding the booking fee/commission, we were unaware that the deposit was all going to the agent. The same as the hotel we assumed 10-15% was their cut and the rest was going to the hotel. This all only became apparent once I sat down with the hotel staff and they said they only receive 1.2k and that the overall cost (direct with the hotel) would have been 1.8k minus 15%early booking discount. They were completely unaware (as I was) that they were getting 1.2k as well.

Make sense?

 

[bocadillo]

Make sense?

Yes, I understand the figures.

I suspect that a claim will be difficult to pursue. You could make your case in the Small Claims Court but in the end it will depend on what the agent says he offered you and what you say he offered you. I don't think you will be able to claim that the booking fee/commission was excessive; the agent probably charges it all the time and I don't think there would be grounds to claim that it is unreasonable.

In the absence of any written 'promises' from the agent about what you could expect from the accommodation, I suspect that you're going to have to put this one down to experience. In future I would recommend that you book with NottinghamFox Travel. I understand that he only charges 80% commission - that's what he's charging me on my flight to Sweden. I meanwhile am charging him 120% on his accommodation.

 

[drew]

Social media is very powerful leverage so make some threats if they don't play ball.

 

[bocadillo]

Social media is very powerful leverage so make some threats if they don't play ball.

I agree. You know a lot of people who wouldn't want to book with them after they hear your story.

 

[camberwell fox]

Thanks.

My thoughts on possible legal action would surround 'expectations' in the sense that I was expecting a 2.5k cottage and what I got was a 1.5k cottage due to the amount of money they pay to the hotel, therefore in contract terms have I been 'duped?'.

 

[drummindefender]

Thanks.

My thoughts on possible legal action would surround 'expectations' in the sense that I was expecting a 2.5k cottage and what I got was a 1.5k cottage due to the amount of money they pay to the hotel, therefore in contract terms have I been 'duped?'.

It would be an action relating to misrepresentation. If you have enough evidence you relied on those representations and would never have entered into the contract if they hadn't been made, they you may have a claim. However it depends how strong your evidence is etc.

 

[spionfox]

We understood the cottage was within view of the hotel so we could sit outside the hotel and have dinner while watching our room with the baby asleep (should we want to do this).

Sorry to read about your woes, but I hope you wouldn't have wanted to do that.

Has the McCanns experience really not made everyone think twice about that sort of thing, however close the room may or may not be?

 

[bocadillo]

Has the McCanns experience really not made everyone think twice about that sort of thing, however close the room may or may not be?

... always presuming of course that the "McCann's experience" was as they would have us believe.

There - I've said it!

 

[spionfox]

... always presuming of course that the "McCann's experience" was as they would have us believe.

There - I've said it!

You'll burn in hell for that comment.
































Or not!




Whatever your own views about that, no parents deserve to go through what they have been through and no child deserves whatever has happened to Maddie.

 

[camberwell fox]

Agreed, but in my original post I said I would only consider it (or something similar) in order to even consider it I would want to be almost next to the door. (there was only one way in and out and our cottage was not adjoining any other building.

 

[spionfox]

Agreed, but in my original post I said I would only consider it (or something similar) in order to even consider it I would want to be almost next to the door. (there was only one way in and out and our cottage was not adjoining any other building.

I wasn't having a pop at you CF, and I'm not now, but as well as doors, windows can be entrances and exits too. Were there no windows other than at the front?

Anyway, this is a moot point as I'm sure you wouldn't do anything that would impose even the slightest risk on your child.

 

[pork pie fox]

I appreciate it's easy for posters who don't know people to pass judgement easily, but I used to know Kate & Gerry McCann pretty well and always find some of the stuff written about them hard to take. I know that they exposed themselves to risk, but, as Spion says, nobody deserves to go through what they've gone through. I'm not going mardy about what people have written and accept that people will form their own opinions. However, I would like to point out that they are incredibly genuine people and after struggling for years to have children, I remember Madeleine being born and the joy she brought to them. For the record I don't believe the conspiracy theories at all, feel free to call me naive, those that do believe them would be doing so based on their understanding of the events that occurred (of which none of us truly know) but little or no knowledge of the people involved.

 

[Mawsley]

Has the McCanns experience really not made everyone think twice about that sort of thing, however close the room may or may not be?

No, and I have no idea why it should.

Just because society has become risk-averse and document driven doesn't mean I have to buy into it because of one alleged tragedy. That logic would lead to no one having a bath, driving a car or using a plastic bag & orange during sex.

As Elvis Costello said, accidents will happen.

 

[spionfox]

Just because society has become risk-averse and document driven doesn't mean I have to buy into it because of one alleged tragedy. That logic would lead to no one having a bath, driving a car or using a plastic bag & orange during sex.

Bollocks. Leaving young children alone at night whilst on a foreign holiday is not remotely comparable to the chances you take when driving a car.

What the McCanns did was extremely foolish and totally avoidable. I'm sure their most ardent supporters would agree as much and the McCanns must beat themselves up daily knowing that they must live with the consequences of it.

 

[camberwell fox]

I wasn't having a pop at you CF, and I'm not now, but as well as doors, windows can be entrances and exits too. Were there no windows other than at the front?

Anyway, this is a moot point as I'm sure you wouldn't do anything that would impose even the slightest risk on your child.

Sorry spion tried to reply earlier but my phone went mad. didn't take offence, I agree with you, we checked everything out and it would have been fine. Since the McCann incident though precaution has become even more important.

Anyhoo, didn't really work out as expected!

 

[Mawsley]

Bollocks. Leaving young children alone at night whilst on a foreign holiday is not remotely comparable to the chances you take when driving a car.

What the McCanns did was extremely foolish and totally avoidable. I'm sure their most ardent supporters would agree as much and the McCanns must beat themselves up daily knowing that they must live with the consequences of it.

And I disagree.

But I don't need to swear.

Ha! That makes me the ****ing winner.







Aw bollocks.

 

[Jeff]

Sorry spion tried to reply earlier

You replied by email so it came to me.