I think that by them offering you the option of in effect cancelling the holiday at no cost to you, they have fulfilled their legal obligation.

Perhaps worthwhile looking into another villa for the same price and changing to it, or alternatively looking for another 3 star villa and pocketing the difference in price.

Mark

Sorry in advance, but I'm going to rant now

Why, when a TO or TA writes and tells someone the truth, and offers them an option, the first thought is of compensation

I agree with Sue.

A question that should be asked is who rated it as 4 star and why has it changed to 3 star?

We often see comments in the review section that actually question the ratings.

What criteria does someone apply when booking? I am sure that star ratings whilst important in indicating the standard are not the only thing.

We stay in hotels and I must confess that in most cases the star rating does not seem make sense. I have been in 5 star that I would rate well below and 2 star that would shame many 5 star.

If you were happy with it before is the change in star rating your only complaint?

fwh

Sorry in advance, but I'm going to rant now

Why, when a TO or TA writes and tells someone the truth, and offers them an option, the first thought is of compensation

Thanks for your helpful comments Keep em to yourself next time.

My feelings are that the operator was going to compensate us by letting us switch accommodation at no extra cost to us.

So if we wish to stop with the original booking I feel we should still have been entilted to something.

Yes sorry, if I hadn't hit the submit button while I was still ranting, I was going to say, as fwh has, whose criteria had changed the rating and just how has it changed

Hi Arnie,

I reckon you are entitled to a refund of the difference in price between 3 star and 4 star, if you can determine it.

As for

Why, when a TO or TA writes and tells someone the truth, and offers them an option, the first thought is of compensation

A four star was booked and paid for, and that should be what is received or compensation paid in lieu.

Peter

Thanks for your helpful comments - Keep em to yourself next time

With respect, any person who posts on this site is entitled to express a viewpoint within the terms & conditions.

The answer someone may receive is not always what they wish to hear.

This is not a site dedicated to chasing compensation - it is here to offer sensible advise and opinion.

I would quote from my previous posting.

A question that should be asked is who rated it as 4 star and why has it changed to 3 star?

A comment that is valid.

Have you asked the question? or is the star rating more important?

fwh

MarkJ HT Mod wrote:

I think that by them offering you the option of in effect cancelling the holiday at no cost to you, they have fulfilled their legal obligation.

Perhaps worthwhile looking into another villa for the same price and changing to it, or alternatively looking for another 3 star villa and pocketing the difference in price.

and

arnie70 wrote:

My feelings are that the operator was going to compensate us by letting us switch accommodation at no extra cost to us.

Are they not the same difference?

arnie70 wrote:

So if we wish to stop with the original booking I feel we should still have been entilted to something.

You are entitled to a full refund, including the deposit. With the refund you could book elswhere or with the same Company.

Mark

have you been offered a full refund Arnie or just a change in accomodation?
As said already, I would ask them what has changed to merit the downgrade of one star? It may be that things are exactly the same as in previous years. Whose stars are they by the way?

I think fwh has made one of the most important posts on here - this is not 'a compensation board', but yet I see a constant stream of recommendations for people to seek compensation, or goto the trading standards without examining the case in depth.

A lot of tour operators would NOT have told you they were re-classifying the hotel, and you probably would NOT have noticed. Hotel's qualities change - rapidly - I have myself have had to re-classify hotels, and in a couple of cases completely pull a hotel due to the complaints received knowing full well that the hotel does not reduce their prices accordingly, and other tour operators will continue to use these hotels without advising their clients.

Well done to them for being proactive, and giving you the heads up. Many wouldn't. Instead of seeking compensation, why not ask why the rating has dropped. Ask (nicely) to speak to the Product Manager for the region, or the person who made the decision. Why did they change it? Can they make a better recommendation for a similarly priced hotel?

Maybe the star rating has changed because of something like they don't run the kids club anymore? Maybe it's something that will not affect your holiday?

And hotel pricing is not automatically done by 'star rating'. I've seen many 3* hotels that (justifiably) charge more than 5*. The absurdity is more in the lack of consistency of star ratings across the world. You cannot compare a 5* here with one in Spain with one in Thailand - each company has different criteria.

Let's remember we are talking about a villa booking here. Most villas are rated on the basis of facilities not services provided. The rating will based on such things as does it have a swimming pool, what is the ratio of bathrooms to bedrooms etc. Before you can proceed any further you need to be clear about how the rating was arrived at in the first place and why it has now changed.

It might have nothing at all to do with any change to the facilities. I have friends who own a holiday cottage that they rent out and few years back their rating was downgraded by the Tourist Board because they changed the basic requirements for each each band. In their case all establishments in their original rating band were now required to have all bedrooms en-suite and their's didn't - whilst there was a bathroom for every bedroom, one room had it's own separate bathroom across the hall unlike all the others which ahd en-suites. This was always explained to guests and clearly the majority were quite happy with the arrangement because they still went ahead and booked. So, yes, their cottage was 'downgraded' but the facilities were exactly the same as they had always been - I can just imagine their reaction if anybody who'd booked prior to the re-grading had wanted compensation. Guests were getting exactly the same as they'd booked and paid for - the facilities were still the same and all that had changed was the criteria the Tourist Board used to grade the accommodation in line with rising expectations.

Before demanding compensation you really do need to check whether you are still going to get what you originally were promised with regard to facilities and services and not get too hung up on the star rating. Remember, you booked a villa, not a star rating, and if 4 star villas now have to have better facilities than they did when you booked you could find that they are now more expensive as a result. In the end, with a villa booking you have to decide whether to book or not on the basis of does it provide everything we need and are we prespared to pay this price for what is being offered? If at the time of booking you were and the facilities haven't been changed then I think tha the booking company have been very generous in offering you the opportunity to cancel and have a refund. If facilities have been changed and you don't want to take up their offer of a full refund then the only compensation you can negotiate around would be a reduction for the loss of services based on any price difference. However, having given you the opportunity to cancel your booking at no cost I think it is debatable as to whether you would be able to negotiate such a discount on any legal contractual grounds because they have offered you a full refund.

SM

Sorry just re-read your original post and see that they haven't offered you a full refund but the opportunity to change to another villa without an amendment fee. However, I think that my general point still applies.

SM

The wording of the letter states:

Following a review of accommodation we have now rated the property a 3A rather than a 4A as originally booked. This is in order to bring this property inline with other hotels that offer similar facilities within this area. This new rating has no affect on the quality or facilities which remain as booked.

We are happy to stop in the original villa, have checked on the website, they have lowered the rating on there but still selling it at same price, so we will leave it.

We are happy to stop in the original villa, have checked on the website, they have lowered the rating on there but still selling it at same price, so we will leave it.

In view of the complex nature of your arrangements (10 in 2 villas) that's probably as well since you are unable to compare the price of a 3 star with that of a 4 star in the same location.

Were you able to make that comparison, I would still argue a case for compensation.

Peter

This new rating has no affect on the quality or facilities which remain as booked.

Given the above I can't see what grounds they would have for compensation - they are still going to get exactly what they originally booked for and presumably thought was worth the money at the time. Of course if they arrive and find that the villa is of a lower quality or missing facilities that they were expecting then they might want to pursue this on their return but until they can prove that the above statement is untrue, given that they have decided not to accept the offer of transferring the booking to another villa, then there is surely little they can do at the moment with regards to compensation. As this does seem to be part of a broader re-grading review I suspect that there's a good chance that 4* properties in the area might very well offer better facilities than the one they have booked but are also likely to be more expensive as well.

SM

This new rating has no affect on the quality or facilities which remain as booked.

That's what the travel company are saying, they would say that wouldn't they?

Peter

And what evidence do you have that they are lying, which is the implicit allegation that you are making here? Until someone can prove that they are, there is nothing that Arnie 70 can do about it. Even TOs are entitled to be regarded as being innocent until proven guilty :-)

SM

This all stinks to me of a big pile of nothing.

I'm very surprised that trading standards hasn't been brought in to it yet (the TO was being far too honest, they must be guilty of something), or anyone accused of working for Virgin Holidays? Is it you SMa

If I thought it was appropriate I would most certainly recommend contacting trading standards.

As you in the travel industry know full well, the fines imposed upon conviction, the additional chalks on companies' criminal records for offences in relation to false brochure descriptions, the Package Holiday Regulations, and those matters that trading standards will prosecute, can really sting.

However, in this particular case there's nothing really to go at, and SMa, our different views on the travel company's letter can be explained thus -
You might consider a glass to be half full, whereas I would think it was half empty.

Let us not snipe at each other, the real enemy are those travel companies who are the subject of the many complaints that fill this forum, as long as the complaints are reasonable and justified of course.

Peter