domincan Republic Nightmare - Holiday Complaints, Holiday Forums

Hi,
I am new to the site so please excuse me If I have put this in the wrong place.

My girlfriend and I went to the Gran Bahia Principe in San Juan dominican republic on 2nd January for a brithday treat for her.

The hotel was tired and the food was poor and cold, we could just about live with that but we both are swimmers and Divers.

The beach was virtually non existant and the water was brown !

You could not swim in it at all, There were tons of seaweed and rubbish washing up on the beach everyday and they had a JCB driving up nad down the beach for about 3-4 hrs daily clearing the mess up, leaving huge tyre marks all over the beach. (I have dozens of photos and video of this happening every day)

I contacted the local rep to be moved to another hotel but was advised it would cost me another £300 to move (we were only there 1 week)

The flight out and back was as bad as the destination, I have been advised (not by the travel agents) that the plane was a stand in as the proper plane had been used to fly pilgrims to Mecca for the haj (religoius festival) the seats were tny and cramped and there was no seatback entertainment, only an old 12" tube tv in a box in the isle which was broken as had a green tint running down nearly half of the screen.

My girlfriend got real pains in her legs after being back for 2 days and on taking her to hospital was discovered she had 7 burst blood vessels in her leg, hospital siad it was probobly due to the flight and being really cramped in the tiny seats.

I booked through Carribean collcetions and wrote to them the day I got back complaining, It took the 2 months to reply and they then said I should take the flight complaint up with Thomas Cook who were the carrier. they said they were looking into the complaint for the holiday itslef and would come abck to me (its now 10th may and I have heard nothing)

I then sent a letter Thomas Cook , Their legal team replied saying how sorry they were and nothing else !

I spent £1500 on an absoulte waste of 1 week of my life,

I would really like my money back but do not now know where to go or how to aproach it

Any help would be really appreciated

thankyou

Re: domincan Republic Nightmare

Hi and welcome to HT. You certainly have booked in the correct section.

First and foremost, did you book this holiday as a package? From the reaction of Caribbean Collection it sounds like there were two components - flight and holiday sold seperately.

If this isn't the case, you need to go back to them and make it clear that it will be them needing to address the complaint with regards the flight.

Going into the specifics of the complaint.

Food is always subjective and usually doesn't give any reason for compensation unless you got food poisoning and got ill as a result of the food.

Beach/sea and the state of it will most probably be explained away as "out of the control of the hotel". Not a lot you can do about.

Flights. What did the brochure say about seat pitch/entertainment? Were you advised prior to your holiday of change of plane? Usually a change of plane is covered in the Ts and Cs.

Sorry to hear about your GF's medical problem as what appears to be the result of the flight. This is a well known problem and hence the reason why airlines advise their customers that they walk round frequently and/or do seat excersises.

Mark

Holiday Complaints

Post a Reply

Get the best deals!

from our cruise, ski and holiday partners