Subscribe Here
Coping with Holidays from Hell
- Published: August 14, 2010 by Umma Queenan Comments (0)
Dirty rooms, inedible food, the pool dug up at three in the morning or the promised sea view visible only through a pair of binoculars.
When it comes to holiday nightmares, there’s no shortage of people willing to tell their stories of hideous holidays, but not all of them are justified. Complaining that your favorite brand of tomato ketchup wasn’t available or that the local bar didn’t have the selection of bottled beers you might get at home just won’t wash. So before you complain, think about whether it’s really justified. If you feel it is, here’s what to do next.
Complain as soon as possible
Don’t wait until you arrived home. Give the hotel, airline or tour operator a chance to fix the problem by telling them as soon as possible.
Sue’s savvy stories – it happened to me.
Here’s an example of why saying something quickly and politely gets a swift and happy result.
While in New York we stayed at the fabulous Hudson Hotel. On the second night, the people next door had a late-night party and despite knocking on the door and calling reception it seemed nobody could get them to shut up. So next morning hubby (I was still in bed) went to reception, explained the problem and within a couple of minutes they’d arranged for us to swap rooms, upgrade to a suite (at no extra charge), and had a bottle of wine waiting for us with an apology card that evening.
Now if we’d not said anything and just put up with it and fired off a stroppy letter to the hotel once we got home, we’d have had a miserable stay and might have received an apology and maybe an offer of an upgrade next time we visited New York; whereas this way they turned us back into happy customers on the spot.
Suggest a solution
Tell them what you want. Let’s be honest, if they think they can get away with giving you a free bottle of the local plonk to make up for a grubby room that’s probably what they’ll do. So say what you want and, unless it’s totally unreasonable, you may well get it.
Be realistic with your expectations
If you can’t use the pool for a day while it’s cleaned you’re not going to get a refund on the entire cost of your holiday, but what you could ask for is the option to use the pool at another hotel that day.
Gather evidence
If you don’t get the result you want, gather as much evidence as you can to strengthen your case when writing to the company on your return. This can be anything from photos showing the state of your room, the hotel kitchens, pool, view from the bedroom window – whatever you need to prove your case. If other people in the hotel have been affected, get their names, addresses and contact numbers so you can all agree to contact the holiday company on your return.
Obviously don’t ruin what’s left of your holiday by turning super sleuth every waking hour, but having some form of photographic evidence and a copy of any written complaints made in the resort are all useful when fighting your corner once you’re home.
Write to the holiday company
Write to the company’s head office. I’d always address any complaint to a named managing director or chief executive to make sure it gets to the top. Outline briefly the problem and say what you want; so an apology, explanation or compensation. Don’t send original documents like holiday booking forms; photocopies are fine or, better still, email the company along with any photos.
Compensation
If you feel you’re entitled to compensation because you’ve had a disappointing holiday, you need to be realistic about how much of your trip was spoilt because of the problem.
So, say you had six days in the hotel before the pool was closed on the last day, then if the hotel couldn’t make alternative arrangements for you to use other pools you could look forward to making a case for a day’s lost holiday, not an entire refund of your week’s holiday.
No related posts.
