Have you been advised at the airport that you are not going to your hotel?  Have you had your resort changed?  Were the facilities closed when you got there?  Was you holiday shortened without notice?  Were you given any ‘Significant Change’ rights or options under Regulation 12 & 13 of the Package Travel Regulations before you departed?  Our holidaymakers stories on this page illustrate the complaints and problems they encountered!  We have only reproduced these stories from our e mail contacts.  These holidaymakers stories have been presented to the EU Commission in our campaigning reports!  The stories have been left largely unedited; they are in the words of the holidaymakers who have contacted us.  The names of travel companies have been removed because we consider the story or the experience of the holidaymaker is central! Read More

Significant changes to holidaymakers package holidays accounts for a large number of complaints we have recived over many years!  Here we highlight some of the many holiday significant change complaints we received in 2008!  We have only reproduced these stories from our e mail contacts.  These holidaymakers stories have been presented to the EU Commission in our campaigning reports!  The stories have been left largely unedited; they are in the words of the holidaymakers who have contacted us.  The names of travel companies have been removed because we consider the story or the experience of the holidaymaker is central! Read More

Since 2005, the issue of Significant Change before departure, accounts for the second most popular of all holiday complaints received by HolidayTravelWatch (it is joint second with DIY/Dynamically Package Holiday Complaints – the top complaints we receive are holiday illness claims)!  Significant Changes occur usually when some aspect to the holiday is radically changed, for example, a change of hotel, overbooking of a hotel, a change of resort, closure of facilities, a change in a ship’s or tour’s itinerary, natural or man made disaster’s affecting a destination, outbreak’s of illness at a hotel, resort or on board a ship etc!  We have seen through Regulation 12 how a travel provider, when they become aware of a pre-departure ’Significant Change’ to your contract, must advise you of those changes, to give you the opportunity to cancel without penalty or to accept the changes with a rider to the contract!  However, Regulation 13 takes Consumer Rights further!  It obligates a travel provider to provide important options for you the travel Consumer!  In the May 2007 edition of ‘Get’Away’, we set out the consumer ‘benefit’ of Regulation 13 of the Package Travel Regulations and detail the rights that should be given to you before departure! Read More

HolidayTravelWatch continues to hear from Travel Consumers suffering ‘Significant Changes’ detriment in their holiday contracts. A recent call for help came from a Mr U, he stated: Read More

The issue of Consumer Detriment in holiday contracts demonstrates many reports of holiday illness/sickness, holiday accidents, changes to holidays, flight changes and poor customer service.  HolidayTravelWatch has submitted a report to the EU Commission enquiry into the consumer ‘acquis’, expanding on its earlier report to the DTI, citing further consumer detriment.   Read More