Have you ever complained about a holiday and got a refund?

Sporky

LoFi said:

Pretty much this - posting a bad review online without giving them a chance to put it right is a dick move. I've got a lot of friends who work in catering/hospitality, and they're baffled by some of the bad reviews online; quite often they can remember the reviewer responding to repeated check-ups with "Yes, everything's lovely, thanks" before going home and slagging the place off on TA.

I do understand people doing that - I'm confrontation-averse (not that you'd know it from how I post, dickwad ) so even if I've been quite disappointed it's tricky for me to say so. Having stayed in a lot more hotels over the last couple of years I've gotten better at it - particularly at getting stuff dealt with straight away. I don't care about mirrors particularly (the fewer the better) but noise and grubbiness do get my goat.

Troy

Why are you taking your goat to hotels? lol

Sporky

He has separation anxiety.

Also he likes the biscuits.

Bygone_Tones

Just as an update to this thread. Got a £100 voucher from Hoseasons today as a good will gesture. Although the actual place I stayed at refused to offer any kind of refund and said I should have complained whilst I was there.

EricTheWeary

We stayed in a cottage in Cornwall and the heating system packed up with a couple of days to go (this was February BTW and it also meant no hot water)which couldn't be fixed.  Obviously we had contacted the owners and they were apologetic. They offered us a small refund or a bigger one off another holiday. We took the latter and spent the October half term back in the same cottage at about half price  - and had a lot of hot showers!  

Once had a short break at Butlins in Skegness. We wrote afterwards to complain about how smokey the indoor areas for children were,  how unpleasant we found it and how unsuitable it was for children. They wrote back saying that the majority of their customers preferred to be able to smoke indoors. However,  even post smoking ban I haven't bothered with Butlins again! 

I post a bit on TripAdvisor. Usually try to put in something that might be helpful to others (lovely tea shop near me,  for example,  that if you want to find out their opening hours online you'd have to read my review) alongside my experience. I wrote a harsh review of a place in Cannock and had a PM off one of the waitresses calling me a bastard. Not long ago I wrote a 2 * review of a restaurant and the only other review on there was very similar. No response from the owners. About a week later there must have been thirty 5* reviews on there,  all basically quoting from the restaurant's publicity and clearly faked. So although it was pretty crap at a glance you'd think it was a highly rated place,  so take trip advisor with a good pinch of salt. I digress... 

Bygone_Tones

Yeah I noticed a similar thing with this one. I left a 2 star review (out of ten) for this place, yet someone else apparently stayed there for 2 days the following week and left an 8 star review with no comments. interesting.

"online review" scores cannot really be relied on unless there are hundreds of customer reviews. There will always be someone with a vested interest in bumping up the score. But that goes for anything really, not just holidays.

Also a lot of websites list their reviews in highest order, so that people browsing only read the best ones. The bad ones are on page 10 somewhere that nobody bothers reading. Its just a marketing thing. People are more willing to buy if they read from "real people" that the product is good.

Emp_Fab

boogieman said:

£1600!!!??  For a week in Woolacombe? Bloody Nora! It's piss taking prices that made us start going abroad with the kids when they were little. We'd spent a thoroughly miserable fortnight in August on the Gower coast where it'd tipped down every single day. Cost us a small fortune going somewhere dry to entertain the kids. To be fair we'd been to the same place for the previous few years and it'd been great, but that particular year was hell on earth. Next year we went to Majorca. Cost us half the price and the kids loved the sun and the beach... never looked back after that, holidays abroad every year. 

I live in the Gower coast.  Beautiful scenery, completely unpredictable weather.  Hence why I'm going on holiday to Crete next week.  

Snap

You should always complain, always, if its not what you expect. Why not? We don't complain enough, and we should. Don't forget, you are paying for something here on the expectation it will be clean, ffs, that's not unreasonable. THe fact that it was reduced for last minute bookin is irrelevant, it should still be upto standard.

I'm always complaining if stuff isn't right. 2 weeks ago, got more than half my hotel bill reduced cos it was noisy. Not unreasonable to expect to be able to sleep in peace and quet, so I kicked off. £170 back to me thanks.

do it.

boogieman

Emp_Fab said:

boogieman said:

£1600!!!??  For a week in Woolacombe? Bloody Nora! It's piss taking prices that made us start going abroad with the kids when they were little. We'd spent a thoroughly miserable fortnight in August on the Gower coast where it'd tipped down every single day. Cost us a small fortune going somewhere dry to entertain the kids. To be fair we'd been to the same place for the previous few years and it'd been great, but that particular year was hell on earth. Next year we went to Majorca. Cost us half the price and the kids loved the sun and the beach... never looked back after that, holidays abroad every year. 

I live in the Gower coast.  Beautiful scenery, completely unpredictable weather.  Hence why I'm going on holiday to Crete next week.  

We've had this conversation before Emp, you live where we used to rent a bungalow... it was virtually opposite the kids' playground on the edge of the salt marsh at Penclawdd. Lovely place when the weather is good, not so great when it's hammering down in the middle of August. Rhossili is one of the nicest beaches I've ever been to. 

Sporky

Snap said:

You should always complain, always, if its not what you expect. Why not? We don't complain enough, and we should. Don't forget, you are paying for something here on the expectation it will be clean, ffs, that's not unreasonable. THe fact that it was reduced for last minute bookin is irrelevant, it should still be upto standard.

Izzackly.

Also as I think I said a while ago, if you don't tell them at the time they can't fix it. There aren't a lot of places that want you to leave unhappy.

lloyd

Sporky said:

Snap said:

You should always complain, always, if its not what you expect. Why not? We don't complain enough, and we should. Don't forget, you are paying for something here on the expectation it will be clean, ffs, that's not unreasonable. THe fact that it was reduced for last minute bookin is irrelevant, it should still be upto standard.

Izzackly.

Also as I think I said a while ago, if you don't tell them at the time they can't fix it. There aren't a lot of places that want you to leave unhappy.

Never had a holiday I've been unhappy with to be honest but I'd complain if something was out of place/order, cheaper places I've been I expect them to be a bit dated or lacking certain things, but my expectations (which have mostly been met) rise as the price does.

I complain in restaurants if what's served to me isn't what I wanted or expect to receive-again my standards go up the more I'm spending.

Like you say most places want to get it right and want you to leave happy.

Sporky

lloyd said:

cheaper places I've been I expect them to be a bit dated or lacking certain things, but my expectations (which have mostly been met) rise as the price does.

Exactly. I'm not one to complain about lack of pillow menus, but when I've stayed at B&Bs I don't expect a big telly and room service - I still expect cleanliness, reasonable quiet and polite service. If you're staying at a 5-star hotel then there darned well should be a pillow menu.

lloyd

Sporky said:

lloyd said:

cheaper places I've been I expect them to be a bit dated or lacking certain things, but my expectations (which have mostly been met) rise as the price does.

Exactly. I'm not one to complain about lack of pillow menus, but when I've stayed at B&Bs I don't expect a big telly and room service - I still expect cleanliness, reasonable quiet and polite service. If you're staying at a 5-star hotel then there darned well should be a pillow menu.

Clean, good service and basic amenities-towels, a blanket, a pillow are a minimum, same with food, no pubes, warm and cooked (correctly). 

That's my base and I work upwards according to the amount of cash I've paid or the type of establishment it is.