Holiday Accident Claims | The Consumer Detriment 36 | Holiday Complaints
HolidayTravelWatch continues to hear from Travel Consumers suffering ’Holiday Accident’ detriment in their holiday contracts. A recent call for help came from a Ms H1, she stated:
“On our 2nd night staying at the hotel, we were sitting in bed watching television and the headboard fell from the wall on one side. My boyfriend who had his arm around me leaning against the headboard tried to catch it as it fell to prevent any damage to me, and injured his hand to the extent that he was unable to do any activities on holiday therefore totally running the holiday. We have photographs of the damaged headboard (included with this letter) and the bruising of the hand and we are looking to you for compensation for this. We informed the hotel and again the customer service was poor, they sent someone to repair the head board but no apology was given. It’s interesting to note that the headboard is only held to the wall by 2 hooks (as you will see from the photographs), which is potentially hazardous in various ways.”. (E.07.07)
Ms H1 has received advice and assistance from the team at HolidayTravelWatch.
Frank Brehany, the Senior Consumer Advocate of HolidayTravelWatch states;
“Even the relatively ‘inexperienced’ holidaymaker can fathom out when something is safe or not! So, with all the health and safety audits and inspections that apparently take place, why is it that the Travel Industry do not appear to recognise a safe standard? The EU Commission, and the British Government, must get to grips with the issue of safe standards, and incorporate such provisions into the re-formed Package Travel Directive. Failure to do so is not an option!”.
All Holidaymakers affected by any of these issues should contact HolidayTravelWatch for further assistance.
Note to Editors:
Since 2005, HolidayTravelWatch has provided comment on the ever increasing threat to The Package Travel Regulations. This situation has developed partly through the changing style of purchasing holidays, but principally from the Court of Appeal decision as to what they considered constituted a ‘package’.
After considerable debate, the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR) has produced a Guidance note, in an attempt to assist with the definition as to what constitutes a ‘package’. Why is this definition important? Simply, if an agent or operator can show that they are simply selling components, then they will escape the regulatory requirements of the Air Tour Operator licence (ATOL) scheme and, the provisions of The Package Travel Regulations. If that is the case, then the hard fought rights to protect the consumer will be lost. The consumer will be unprotected.
We have contributed to the continued debate, submitting our report examining consumer detriment, to the EU Commission and DBERR in October 2007. In that report we highlighted th very real risk that is now faced by the British Travel Consumer, through 160 case studies. We have also provided what we consider to be the solution to the diminution of Travel Consumer rights.
The EU Commission are currently reviewing the Package Travel Directive, but the result of their enquiries, along with their recommendations, is not expected for some time. The reaction to the recent Guidance produced by DBERR, produced a cautious welcome from the Travel Industry, but it does not deal with their principle concern, that being the market operations of the airline industry. They argue, if they are subject to a regulatory regime, then so should the airline industry when they sell holidays on their websites. We have argued that any regulatory regime should apply across the board, not just to one segment of the Travel Industry.
We have predicted, a notion rejected by DBERR, that their Guidance note and the Court of Appeal decision gives a green light to those who want to ‘deregulate’ the package holiday.
HolidayTravelWatch has launched its petition, calling on Government and the EU Commission to protect the rights of Consumers in Holiday Contracts.
Tags: ABTA Code of Conduct, Free Holiday Complaints Letters, Holiday Accident Claims, holiday complaints
HTW has noted that amongst the submissions to the Committee on Toxicity (COT) it has been suggested that the symptoms highlighted by crew and passengers were akin to the condition of hyperventilation.
HTW has for many years received reports from concerned holiday makers or independent travellers as to the safety of their aircraft, ship or boat, train or road transport.
