The expert view

It’s that time of year. Most holidaymakers will be coming home rested, relaxed and happy. But what if things went wrong? What if your holiday, through no fault of your own, was a disaster – your hotel room overlooked a motorway, your escorted tour missed half of the promised visits, or, God forbid, your villa’s swimming pool turned bright green?

You were reasonable: you complained, but nothing was done, and now you want to take the matter further. Below are your options and a few key rules.

Write to the operator setting out your complaint and what redress you are seeking as soon as you get home.

Focus only on the main issues and why the contract or booking conditions have been breached. Include evidence and witness statements: long rambling letters are counterproductive. If you need help, contact a Citizens Advice Bureau (citizensadvice.org.uk).

Compensation claims must be reasonable and based on a clear proportion of the original cost of the holiday. It is very rare to win the entire cost back. If personal injury or third-party liability is involved, take advice from a solicitor – some firms offer a free initial consultation.

Don’t rush into legal action or arbitration. All such services require you to make a reasonable attempt to resolve the issue first. However, if you think you have a case and are being fobbed off with a low offer, even the simple threat of a court case or arbitration may be effective. These are your main options for forcing a resolution.

Small-claims track This is a relatively quick, simple and informal way of taking your case to the county court. It is designed to keep costs down and avoid the need for a solicitor. Claims are limited to £10,000 (£3,000 in Scotland and Northern Ireland); fees vary but are capped at £455. For full details go to gov.uk and search “small claims”. Which? has a good guide on its website (which.co.uk).

Arbitration If your tour operator or travel agent is a member of Abta (abta.com), you can use an independent dispute resolution process. It costs from £108 for claims up to £3,000; the upper limit for claims is £25,000. Members of the Association of Independent Tour Operators (aito.co.uk) also subscribe to a mediation service which costs £140, with compensation limited to £2,500 per individual or £10,000 per booking.

Independent holidays If you are renting direct from a private owner, or have booked a hotel direct in a foreign country, or made any kind of independent holiday arrangements and paid in advance, your chances of getting redress are low – and may not even be worth following up. See telegraph.co.uk/ tt-holidaycompensation for more advice.

tried to book us into a hotel in Santa Cruz in the north of the island. This would cost us £100 to reach by taxi, so we refused to accept this “solution”.

Hours went by and every time we called we were told someone would call us back; nobody did. Eventually we were told we had to accept a hotel in Santa Cruz as “it was the only thing free”.

We pointed out that there were two three-star hotels on Lastminute’s own website showing availability, both within walking distance. The agent said we had to be placed in a hotel of a similar four-star standard.

We ended up staying in a horrid hotel beside an industrial port. The atmosphere in the street outside was unpleasant – with idling teenagers and homeless people sleeping under the arches.

We complained twice while still at the resort and once upon our return. Lastminute at first stalled us by saying we had been given a replacement hotel, which was all it was required to do.

Now Lastminute has moved the blame on to its supplier, HotelBeds. We were finally refunded the cost of our taxi fares but the company is refusing to compensate us for our ruined holiday. Is this fair? JOANNA FERRIS

AThe Package Travel Regulations 1992 (recently revised to take into account flightplus-hotel arrangements sold by agents) say that, as the “organiser”, Lastminute is responsible for sorting out post-departure problems like this – even if the mistake has been made by a supplier. There is nothing in the regulations to say that the accommodation has to be of a similar star rating, only that the replacement has to be accepted by the customer.

Just before contacting me, Joanna received a “goodwill gesture” of £27.28 from HotelBeds and a letter from Lastminute once again claiming it had no real responsibility for her predicament.

I contacted Lastminute to point out that it did have a legal duty of care as the holiday’s organiser and suggested that it should also be paying Joanna’s mobile phone bill and a sum to cover loss of enjoyment.

It appears it was left up to its supplier HotelBeds to find a suitable alternative on the day she arrived, instead of Lastminute finding somewhere else itself and then sorting out the financials with HotelBeds, which was clearly at fault.

Lastminute says it is “very sorry” that the sisters didn’t get the holiday they expected. It is going to refund the total cost of the hotel part of the booking together with all extra expenses incurred, including the cost of associated mobile phone calls. This is the least it should be doing, given its legal responsibilities as the organiser, and its failures on the day.

Questions should be sent by email to asktheexperts@ telegraph.co.uk. Please provide your name and nearest town and, if your query is about a dispute with a travel company, your full address, daytime telephone number and any booking reference. We regret that we cannot answer postal or telephone queries.