It's really hard to answer this one. I believe that you should be able to change hotels at no extra cost (depending on price difference) if there is availability. From the letter the hotel is not promising to put customers away from the work which is probably because they are full and can't guarantee this. It may honestly be that the work is minimal, if they are refurbishing then it could be mainly internal and that shouldn't make much noise. I personally would try to contact Direct Holidays and tell them of your concerns and ask for more specific information about the work - they must have it. At the same time see if you can contact the hotel directly tell them you are thinking of cancelling and can they guarantee you will be away from the work. It's a shame this has happened a month before you go away but at least you have the opportunity to sort something out, better than arriving and finding it on your doorstep! Good luck.

Why not post the name of the hotel on the destination forum - you may get a reply from someone that knows the hotel or has recently been there.

I would suggest that you confirm acceptance of the holiday under 'duress' that way if it is really bad when you get there you have some comeback.

Thomson worded a letter almost identically for us and we ended up slap bang opposite a fully operational building site!

The ABTA code of conduct states:-

2.5 Building Works

Where a Principal becomes aware or ought reasonably to have become aware of building works which may reasonably be considered to seriously impair the enjoyment of Travel Arrangements he must, without undue delay, notify Clients of the situation, provide them with accurate information about the extent of the building works and offer them the opportunity to transfer to alternative Travel Arrangements of the same or higher standard, at the price of the original Travel Arrangements. Where the alternative constitutes a significant alteration to the Travel Arrangements in line with Clause 2.2 of this Code, the provisions of that clause are to be followed. Furthermore, he must ensure that all prospective Clients are alerted to the situation.

If you end up there, and it is far worse than they reckon, get others to back up any complaints - as a group, and take loads of pics/videos as proof.

It may be worth noting that we booked ourselves out of our last Direct Hols accomodation as it was a filthy dump. We found somewhere else on the second day, then claimed our expenses back off them later - which they paid in full.

is this planet direct?

No it's Direct Holidays, which is part of the MyTravel group.

Hi. Thankyou all very much for your replies and advice. Have been trying to ring direct holidays up now for the last two days, and they aint picking the phone up, I've never know anything like it, so I am going to sent an email now, and hopefully they won't be as slow replying to the email as they are picking up the phone.

Glynis - direct are not ABTA bonded only ATOL. Will this make a difference?

On a more positive note David suggested I take a look at the last two reviews, the last one dated 1 july, and nothing was mentioned in their review, although they could have been the more lucky ones who had a pool view, and away from it all.

I am also going to email hotel and ask about the building work, and ask for a pool view room.

Thanks again everyone. BBB.

Have spoken to Ros Fernihough on your behalf and you are entitled to you money back without penalty as per Reg 12 & 13 of the package travel regulations.

She suggests you either fax or write to them (recorded delivery) explaining you wish a refund without penalty as per the above regs. And for your money to be refunded within 10 days.

If you wish to book another holiday in the meantime then use credit card.

If you wish to speak to Ros regarding this matter then call her on 01922 621114

Glynis, thanks very much for contacting ros on my behalf.

I have just sent an email to direct holidays, saying that I want a written guarantee that we will be moved to the block away from the building work. (as this was not guaranteed in their letter, they just said every effort was being made to allocate guests to the block furthest away). I said if this was not possible, then I wanted a change of hotel or written confirmation that the holiday was taken "Under duress", so I was covered if there was any come backs.

I also said I knew that I was in my rights to cancel (Under the regulations - you told me about), but that this would be a final resort (as we are really looking forward to this holiday, and since we booked it last August, the price has gone up a couple of hundred pounds), and I don't think I would get another holiday for the same price (Especially with it being the school holidays).

I am just awaiting their reply now. Thanks again. BBB.

At least you were told before you went. We went to Cyprus last year, and were woken up on the 2nd morning there at 7.ooam by trucks, making there way down to the back of our apts, where they were building villas! We reported the matter to the rep, who tried to fob us off with an excuse, then again on the coach on our trip back to the airport. To cut a long story short, we did manage to get some compensation back, but it didnt make up for been woken up at 7.00am every morning!!

Hiya,

Having worked in this business for some years over here in Mallorca I know for a fact that this work would be classed as Grade 2 building work in order for them to notify you of the fact.

Their Grade I is very minimal building work with little or no noise/dust etc, Grade 2 is a bit more involved and necessitates contacting customers who should have the right to change or cancel at no extra charge, and Grade 3 - well you wouldn't even get the chance to book the place, or a choice to stay in there once the work had started !!!

If you still have no joy with Direct Hols, try the MyTravel Head Office (Customers Services) in Rochdale.

If you do go there and then decide you want to change accomm because of the work, then there should be no cost to you for this.

holly - Hi Thank you for your reply

After numerous calls, (and no answer), I emailed them, and received an email today saying that the only available accomodation that was available on those dates was the Grand Hotel Bali 4* (my hotel is a 3*), nothing was mentioned about the extra cost, only that the administration fees would be waved if I chose to change to this hotel (Presumably I would have to pay the extra), but this hotel is no good to us as its quite a way out of benidorm (La cala), and not only that, it's 45 stories high (I feel week at the knees just thinking about that!!!!), so I have no choice really but stick to our origial hotel, and just hope that they put us in the block furthest away (as they said they would make every effort to do so- but couldn't guarantee it), I will also email the hotel a couple of days before we travel.

Thankyou all for your replies, much appreciated, BBB.

Hi bellyballyboo Sorry to hear about the mayhem your having regarding your Hotel. We to are flying out on the 20th of august to Benidorm with Direct Holidays.
We were meant to be stopping at the Pueblo but i was reading some threads on here back in May regarding the start of building work at our Hotel.What a life saver this site was .I than rang Direct Holidays who informed me that as i was not travelling untill 14 weeks and they would notify me nearer the time and i would be able change Hotels at no extra cost.
But my point was that i did not want to wait till nearer the time as i would not have much Hotel choice in the hieght of the season
So we oppted to pay an extra £30.00 each person to changed Hotels earlier.As its worked out perfect as its the Hotel we originally wanted but could not afford at the time and in May had gone down in price.
All i can say if it wasn,t for this site my 3 and half thounds pounds would be a waste and am almost sure it would be a holiday from hell
So once again a brillant forum and thankyou bring in the
Tracey.

Hi Tracy, I'm so glad every thing worked out well for you in the end.

We booked this hotel last sept, 1 week, 2 adults, and 1 child, for a really good price (considering it is the 6 weeks holiday) £907, but where your holiday has gone down in price, our holiday has actually gone up in price to just under £1,300. (Just goes to show - you can actually make a saving by booking early!!!). So I would imagine if we did change hotels, we would have a fair old wack to pay extra.

They have assured us that it's just internal work now. Also the hotel is right smack bang in the centre of everything, so the other hotel is really no good,also the reviews are not that brilliant for the Hotel Bali, unfortunately this was the only hotel they could offer, so we'll just have to take a chance and hope it's not too bad, as long as we get a decent nights kip, and are not woken at a silly time in the morning, I don't suppose it will be that bad., and we can always escape to the beach during the day. (God, I sound as though I'm really trying to convince myself here )

Hope you have a lovely holiday. All the best. BBB.

Hi BBB its a shame about the only Hotel, Bali being available i feel awful,what i want to know is why they start major construction during the height of the season.Hopefully with it not being your Hotel thats having the work done it wont be so bad.
(you did say the Hotel next door) its probabley the one i was going to
stay in.
You got the problem with Hotel and me, never been to benidorm before but hubby as so dont know what to expect so 23 days to go i need some good weather its been raining allday and tomorrow.
Always used Direct Holidays but off to Cyprus next october with Thomsonso i will see how this company goes.

hi lucky,you'll have a fab time in benidorm, we went last august, and loved it, the evening entertainment is brill, you'll never be bored on a night time, we saw some great comedians, hypnertists, etc..., and I thought it was really cheap drinking/eating out.

We have just come back from benalmadena (Costa del sol), and compared to benidorm, we found it absolutely boring, the evening entertainment there was non-exsistent!!!

We will definately have a trip to terra miticca, we didn't bother last year, because there was only the 2 of us (my son went on holiday with my parents, so we got a last minute deal to benidorm), no more rolling in at 5 in the morning for us this time!!!!

You'll have a great time. Enjoy. BBB.

has anyone got MyTravel head office customer service email address. Al having no joy with Direct for about 10 weeks now.

Full contact details are available at http://www.mytravel.com

David