Holiday Safety Claims | The Consumer Detriment 23
HolidayTravelWatch continues to hear from Travel Consumers suffering ’Health & Safety’ detriment in their holiday contracts. A recent call for help came from a Mr V, he stated:
“We are in dispute with [MAJOR TOUR OPERATOR] over our holiday. When we booked we explained that we needed a child friendly pool, there was no mention of the depth of the pool when we booked and this would of changed everything as our son is only a toddler. The pool started at 1.4m. Also the villa was incredibly damp which we feared could cause a health problem. We came home early without them offering us other accommodation and now will only apologise. Is there anything else we can do as we lost alot of money on this holiday/honeymoon. Your advice would be most welcome.”. (E.24.06)
Mr V has received advice and assistance from the team at HolidayTravelWatch.
Frank Brehany, the Senior Consumer Advocate of HolidayTravelWatch states;
“It is of great concern that pool safety issues continue to be reported to us. In this case, not only was the pool not suitable for their needs, but the property was clearly a health hazard. It is also clear that the resort representative and/or the tour company failed to apply the rights within Regulation 14 of the Package Travel Regulations (the rights arise where a significant proportion of services cannot be provided; certain rights must be given to the consumer - in this case, the company clearly could not guarantee this family’s health & safety, therefore the property and its facilities were not capable of being used). The Government and the EU Commission must now ensure that in any future redrafting of the Directive or Regulations, standard and automatic rights are given clearly and immediately to consumers”.
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 Complaint Letters, holiday complaints, Holiday Safety Claims
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.
