| |
|
kev25v6
|
10-07-2008 04:10 PM
|
Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Posts: 6
| This seems like the right forum. We booked a villa in albufria late october last year and have just paid it all in full because we are going this august. A week after paying we get a letter saying that there is building work going on and they it might be a bit noisy/dusty and the view of it is only partially blocked. Ive been on the net and got a few pics of the works and its actually a massive resort called crowne plaza and we are right next door to it. This place takes up most of one side of the mountain and has been going on for over a year. We have asked the travel agaents for some discount/compensation for not being told because they cannot move us now as there are 10 of us going and there are no villas available. The travel company have flatly refused as they ''dont give compensation due to building work''. This would be fine if they told us about it when booking as we would not have booked to stay in the villa. Is there anything we can say to them to get them to refund some money as it seems we are paying 7 grand to stay on a building site?
|
|
|
tom,s
|
10-07-2008 05:03 PM
|
Joined: 17 Mar 2007
Posts: 1580
My Profile
| hi kev if the company is ABTA registered then i think you have a good case,this is a part of the code of conduct that they should work to.
Building Works
3I) If they are Principals who become aware or ought reasonably to have become aware of building works
which may reasonably be considered to seriously impair the enjoyment of Travel Arrangements, notify
Clients of the situation without undue delay, provide them with accurate information about the extent of
the building works and offer them the opportunity to transfer to alternative Travel Arrangements. Where
the alternative constitutes a significant alteration to the Travel Arrangements in line with 3E above, the
provisions of that clause are to be followed.
here is the website with the code of conduct.
http://www.abta.com/about/industry_standards#codeofconduct
if they are ABTA registered try quoting the code ruling on building work and see if that makes them jump,if not have a word with ABTA and they will give you the right information on what to do next.
tom.
|
My Latest Review: Jan 2008 Club Siroco Apartments, Costa Teguise (10/10) + Photos
|
|
kev25v6
|
10-07-2008 08:50 PM
|
Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Posts: 6
| Thanks for the advice. They are ABTA registered and they dont seem to be following the rules. They found one villa miles from anywhere thats nothing like the standard of ours then wanted us to pay extra to stay in it. They didnt inform us straight away that they knew of major building works going on next door and they are offering nothing in the way of helping to sort out the problem, basically just keep saying its not their problem so tuff look. This is a pic of the building works. I think we might have a case against them based on this amount of work going on.
[IMG]http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m319/kev25v6/viewuptovilla.jpg[/IMG]
|
|
|
kev25v6
|
10-07-2008 08:52 PM
|
Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Posts: 6
| http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m319/kev25v6/viewuptovilla.jpg
|
|
|
itsme
|
12-07-2008 07:22 PM
|
Joined: 22 Apr 2007
Posts: 298
My Profile
|
Ok You have booked through a Travel agent , travel agents hands are
generally tied by the tour operator and do what they can to help but there
are limits , if the tour operator cannont find something suitable then generally you are able to cancel with a full refund then you can book
something else !! ( i understand this may be difficult being so many of you)
I would be interested to know wich Tour Operator (Not Travel Agent)
you booked with
as i may be able to give some advice ( some ta,s are helpfull xx)
he he
|
My Latest Review: Apr 2007 Coral Sea Resort Hotel, Sharm El Sheikh (10/10)
|
|
kev25v6
|
13-07-2008 01:11 AM
|
Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Posts: 6
| We booked through ilkeston co-op and its a Style villa. I rang style and they said they knew about the work before we booked but it was a grade 3 so they dont have to tell us. They would have known it would move up a grade due to the size of the resort being built but still did not tell us untill it was too late to change villa. They check each month what is going on and i cant see how it was still a grade 3 when they were putting the groundworks in right next door. Their policy is building works are not our problem and you get no compo. They only have one response and that is no. They get your money then could not care less what happens to you. I asked for the rep to email some photos of the site to us and they said i dont know if he has a cameara and im off for two weeks so no one else will look into it. Their attitude has been appaling. They would be happy for us to cancel as they dont have to pay out any compo and would just sell the holiday on straight away leaving us with nothing.
|
|
|
itsme
|
16-07-2008 09:09 PM
|
Joined: 22 Apr 2007
Posts: 298
My Profile
| yeh , unfortunatley they are not obliged to pay you any compo , this will
most likley be in the terms and conditions in the back of the style
brochure,
Although it does sound like the service you have recived from Stlye hasnt
been great ,
Have you written to there Customer Services Department ?????
|
My Latest Review: Apr 2007 Coral Sea Resort Hotel, Sharm El Sheikh (10/10)
|
|
kev25v6
|
16-07-2008 11:31 PM
|
Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Posts: 6
| We are sending a letter of complaint in before we go. I spoke to a different thomas cook shop and they said we should have been informed from the start. If they had told us earlier we could have made a decision of whether to book the villa at all or even for the travel agent to find us a replacement villa. Now we are stuck with having to go even if its going to be a complete waste of time. I spoke to ABTA as they regulate Style but they basically said they dont have to tell you of building works and its tuff luck. Ive read ABTA's regulations and they say you should be informed of things that are likely to cause a loss of enjoyment to your holiday, well being on a building site would generally cause a loss of enjoyment.After telling them about this part of their own regulations the woman said that they dont have to tell you and that not many things would be classed under this part of the regulations, they just dont seem to be bothered about the consumer either.
|
|
|
kev25v6
|
05-08-2008 03:23 PM
|
Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Posts: 6
| Style villa are now getting even worse. They have sent the tickets out twice now they say and both sets have not turned up. The travel agent never chased up why the tickets hadnt arrived, untill yesterday (5 days to fly) and style assumed that they had arrived. What gets me is why style would send out two sets of tickets if they thought the first set had arrived. No one could answer why when asked. The travel agent just rang and said "your tickets are not coming and you have to pick them up from the airport". It didnt seem to matter to them whether we got them or not. I thought that the travel agent was supposed to check up on things like this, we have already been in asking about the tickets three weeks in a row just to be told they are still waiting for them and that they will chase them up. It does not seem like they have been doing anything at all. I told the agent i will be sending in a letter of complaint and she said "fine, we will forward your complaint to style" She didnt seem happy when i told her it wasnt about style, it was about them and how useless they have been with sorting out all the problems. We will see if the tickets turn up on wednesday now as i told them i want them sent by courier and under no circumstances will we be turning up at the airport without them. Just got to look forward to two weeks of sun now.
|
|
|
