Holiday consumer rights & advice

Holiday consumer rights & advice. Did you know for example?: If your tour op makes a significant change to your holiday, you can refuse to go.

Here are a few typical examples of problems on holiday and your rights under the package regulations..

Change of hotel

We have been enjoying package holidays at the same hotel in Tenerife for the past three years and we booked to go again this year. But two weeks before our trip, the tour operator called to say they’ve put us in a hotel in a completely different resort – is there anything I can do?

Regulation 12 of the Package Travel Regulations says if the tour operator makes a significant change to the holiday, then they should have given you the choice of accepting the change (with a downward price adjustment if it’s a lesser hotel) or your money back. Depending on the circumstances, you may also be entitled to compensation.

Paying for an enforced upgrade

We bought a package holiday and arrived in Barcelona to find the hotel we had booked was full. The tour operator arranged for us to stay in a different hotel, but it was more expensive and we had to pay the difference in price – is this right?

The Package Travel Regulations say the tour operator is responsible for the hotel owner’s actions, so they have to make ‘suitable alternative arrangements for the continuation of the package’. This should be at no extra cost to the holidaymaker, so if the only alternative hotel was more expensive, the tour operator should have paid.

If you had paid out extra money, so claim this cost back. The regulations also allow you to claim compensation to cover any loss of enjoyment or inconvenience you may have suffered, for example, if you lost a day’s holiday sorting things out and moving hotels.

Can tour operators demand more money?

Can a tour operator put up the price of my package holiday?
Package holiday prices can only be increased if it is more than 30 days before your departure, the booking conditions mention surcharges and the increase is due to an increase in transport costs, fees or taxes, or changes in the exchange rate.

The tour operator must absorb the first 2% of the increase, and if the increase represents a ‘significant’ change in price (according to ABTA, this means more than 10%), then under the Package Travel Regulations you should be given the opportunity to cancel the holiday. The 10% figure is only a guide, and a smaller percentage increase could still be ‘significant’ on expensive holidays.

Cancelled holiday

What can I do if my tour operator cancels my package holiday?
Under the Package Travel Regulations (PTR) you have three options. You can:

• Take a package of equal or superior quality, if available, from the operator.
• Or take a package of lower quality and recover the difference in price between the packages
• Or receive a full refund.

You are entitled to additional compensation ‘if appropriate’, but not if cancellations are due to circumstances beyond the operator’s control (such as war or earthquakes). The PTR may allow tour operators to cancel if your holiday attracts too few bookings, provided this is clear in the brochure.

Taking tour operators to court

I’ve just had a disastrous trip and the holiday company won’t compensate me – how would a judge work out the compensation I’m due?

If you decide to take the holiday company to court, the compensation you will be awarded will be made up of one or more of the following elements.

• Loss of value – the difference between the value of the holiday you had the contract for and the one you got. If the hotel you booked was £1000 and you stayed in one costing £100, there’s a £900 loss of value.
• Out-of-pocket expenses – if the beach hotel you were supposed to be staying in was overbooked and the holiday company moves you 20 miles inland, you could claim for the travelling costs of getting to the original resort each day.
• Or if the food on your all-inclusive break was inedible, you could claim the reasonable costs of eating elsewhere.
• Loss of enjoyment – if the purpose of a holiday contract is to provide relaxation, you can claim for any distress if things go wrong. What you are entitled to will differ from case to case – a judge will assess the severity of the situation and the proportion of the holiday that has been affected.

Finally do pay for your holiday by credit card, that way if it all goes terribly wrong you can claim a refund from the Credit card company.