Building work at hotel ruined our £3,000 trip
I.H. writes: After a year in which I suffered major health problems and my partner was recovering from breast cancer surgery, I decided we needed a peaceful holiday. I paid £3,000 to book a ‘deluxe’ trip with First Choice, part of the TUI Group. However, our room at the Hotel Hesperia in Playa Dorada in Tenerife was directly above a concert room where there was construction work, with a pneumatic drill hammering away, making it impossible to rest. TUI must have known, as other guests said they had been relocated to different parts of the hotel. Back home, I contacted TUI but heard nothing. I phoned and was asked to resubmit my complaint, which I did. I have even written to the managing director, but I am still waiting for a meaningful reply. BUILDING work at hotels has been a major source of holidaymakers’ complaints for years. Most travel companies warn customers ahead of travel and relocate them or offer a decent price cut.
What went wrong here, TUI says, is that it had no advance warning. The company explained: ‘Unfortunately, our hotel partner only brought the building works to our attention once Mr H’s party was already in the resort.’ TUI would contact you to apologise and offer recompense, I was told.
So far, so good. But then things became weird. You told me TUI had not in fact been in touch and no recompense had been offered. When I queried this, TUI refused to go into details because it said you had complained to the Association of British Travel Agents. ‘We now need to respond via them,’ TUI told me.
The picture painted by TUI was that it had to respect ABTA’s procedures. Yet a fortnight ago I reported the case of a different customer, injured on board a TUI cruise ship. In that case, the company refused to deal with ABTA and has challenged the injured pensioner to sue in court. I told TUI this made no sense. Whether this made any difference, I do not know. But TUI suddenly contacted you and agreed to refund £1,000. You have said you are confident The Mail on Sunday’s involvement was the key to the refund.
You are probably right, but it is disheartening that TUI seems able to pick and choose which of ABTA’s complaints cases it will respect.