When a holiday goes wrong...

[bloodiedathame]

Yes, the irony of me posting here is not lost on me, but I'm keen to know what OCUK's thoughts are.

We went to the IoW last week for a few nights with the kids and dog on a holiday home/static caravan place. We went there last year and had a great time hence going back.

This year it didn't go quite as well for one of us...

1) Cleanliness. We were in their middle-tier accommodation and my wife immediately noticed that it was grubby, especially on touchpoints, handles, and the like, basically just not cleaned well. The blinds looked like they had never been cleaned and there was still 'stuff' on the carpets where they'd not done a great job. Wife complained to Guest Services and it was re-cleaned and she was happy. Minor annoyance - don't spend much time in there anyway.

2) CO! On the second evening, at around 8pm, we had the radiators on to dry towels and the CarbonmonOxide alarm went off! We immediately left the cabin, opened all the doors and windows, reset the boiler, and called Security. Security bought another alarm and agreed to see if we could get it to go off again whilst we were out of the cabin. We spent a few hours playing pool and enjoying a few free drinks, but when we came back at midnight, unfortunately, the new alarm was going off, causing both my kids to burst into tears and my wife to get very cross. I went in, opened windows and doors, and turned off the boiler while my wife spoke to security. We were then moved to another (not-so-nice) cabin with all our stuff. We spoke to Guest Services in the morning who basically didn't give a hoot, said they would get their gas guy to check the boiler and get us back in. Wifey put her foot down and said 'no' which is fair enough. So we stayed in the emergency place for the remainder of our time (another 4 nights). Medium annoyance - could have been a lot worse.

3) Towels. Our emergency accommodation had no towels despite being promised that they'd be delivered before lunch. This didn't happen until the next day. Minor annoyance - we had our own towels.

My wife sent a pissy email to them a few days ago and they've offered a refund of £250... which I think is fair enough (total cost was about £1k inc half board) but my wife thinks it should be more.

Is my wife being unreasonable? Or should I dare argue that that's a reasonable refund?

 

[jaybee]

I'd take the £250 and move on with life.

 

[LuckyBenski]

That's a good amount of cash and a good percentage refund. The company did mostly act on your various complaints TBF.

 

[Rroff]

At least they had working Carbon Monoxide alarms... I'd say it wasn't an unreasonable gesture but if I was running that place and that had all happened I'd be bending over backwards to put it right.

 

[Hotwired]

Well, they've put a number on the table for compensation and it does seem a significant amount of the whole so they're not exactly fobbing you off.

You (or she) can vaguely say you're still not happy or specify what exact number would achieve happiness.

There's no right or wrong about it, it's all down to what level of haggling you're comfortable with in the hope of a better deal. One of the possible options is getting a hard no about more compensation.

 

[Haze]

Be thankful they had carbon monoxide detectors, otherwise you would all be dead....

 

[tom_e]

25% seems reasonable to be honest.

 

[Semple]

How much would the "not so nice" cabin have cost for the same duration of your stay? The difference is what you should be pursuing as compensation. They might be funny and only offer it based on 4 nights but your counter argument is that with all the messing around you've had to do their goodwill offer should be for all nights.

I'm also assuming that the not so nice cabin came with same access to activities and was half board as well.

 

[bloodiedathame]

Thanks for the replies. The general consensus seems to agree with me, which is good to know! I'm still not sure we'd all win in a fight vs. my Mrs.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Take it and move on.

 

[Feek]

I think you have a valid complaint and that the compensation offered is very reasonable.

 

[img]

how many days was this? Considering 1 night should have been free at least from what you put.

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

They took the feedback on board, looks as if they footed a few drinks n such as well and then a 25%ish refund as well.
Yeah Id be happy to accept that as well tbh

Working CO monitors are a godsend... coudlve been worse, coudla woke up dead!

 

[Haggisman]

How much would the "not so nice" cabin have cost for the same duration of your stay? The difference is what you should be pursuing as compensation.

At a minimum.

Along with some compensation for the disruption of your holiday - you go on holiday to relax and unwind, not to add more stress!

From what you've said, they didn't actually give a **** until you started pushing a bit harder, but as @Rroff has said, you'd expect them to bend over backwards to make the rest of your stay go without hitch.

Unfortunately these days companies seem to think it is their right to treat customers like ****, and even acceptable service is the exception rather than the norm

 

[Semple]

They took the feedback on board, looks as if they footed a few drinks n such as well and then a 25%ish refund as well.
Yeah Id be happy to accept that as well tbh

Working CO monitors are a godsend... coudlve been worse, coudla woke up dead!

Most people seemed to have commented to say that it seems a fair compensation but without knowing the costs of the accommodation it could be good or bad. If the "not-so-nice" accommodation was only £500 for the week, then the OP has almost paid double what the holiday should have cost for that type of accommodation. Making £250 compensation not even covering the cost of the difference in accommodation.

 

[bloodiedathame]

At a minimum.

Along with some compensation for the disruption of your holiday - you go on holiday to relax and unwind, not to add more stress!

From what you've said, they didn't actually give a **** until you started pushing a bit harder, but as @Rroff has said, you'd expect them to bend over backwards to make the rest of your stay go without hitch.

Unfortunately these days companies seem to think it is their right to treat customers like ****, and even acceptable service is the exception rather than the norm

That's kinda the angle my wife is taking with it, that they don't really seem to give a ****.

The follow up email also said they 'didn't find anything wrong with the boiler'. Which is disturbing.

 

[Haggisman]

So either their boiler is faulty or both CO alarms were. Whilst the latter isn't outwith the realms of possibility, the former is more likely.

I wonder what the local press would have to say about them putting guests lives at risk in such a way? Of course I'm sure there's no way they could possibly find out...