My complaint:
Dear SirMadam,
On 29th July – 31st July, I booked a 2 night stay at the IHG Bloomsbury hotel through Booking.com, ation number 2951566344. The details of this booking were for two rooms, of which breakfast was included and half board was contained within the price at allowance of £25pp per night. Please see attached the ation email and screen shot of the ation details on Booking.com for ease of reference. The conditions of this sale was made under the basis that half board was included in the price. This was subsequently ed by your customer services team via the message portal twice and still not resolved.
My accommodation was therefore unsatisfactory in the following ways, which forms the basis of this formal complaint:
1. The booking was clearly advertised as including dinner as well as breakfast, commonly known as half board. Booking.com have falsely advertised products and services and mis-sold this accommodation on this basis as this was disputed upon check in and no resolution was provided by the hotel or booking.com throughout my stay.
2. Booking.com customer services were contacted on Friday 29th at 4.34pm 30 minutes after checking in to assist in resolving this dispute. Customer services were unable to resolve with the hotel despite acknowledging the half board with the hotel booking. The call lasted 55 minutes and it ended with apologies from booking.com that the matter had been escalated for resolution and I would be provided with written ation that I would receive compensation to the amount of £25pp per night as I was now left in a position where I needed to find financial cover for the dinner, which was already paid for in the hotel booking.
3. I was forced to find alternative means of funding to ensure my family was fed over the two-night stay which has directly impacted me financially. The hotel was booked on the basis that it included half board. I would have chosen a cheaper alternative had I known this would not be honoured or disputed.
4. Neither hotel nor booking.com were willing to assist a timely resolution for the customer and therefore I have been significantly impacted by this booking in both time, stress and cost.
I have contracted with booking.com to provide me with a half board package at the IHG Bloomsbury hotel between the nights of 29th July and 31st July. It was an implied term of our contract that you would provide me with safe and clean accommodation at half board lodgings. It’s also an implied term that the service provided would be done so with reasonable care and skill as required by the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, the Consumer Rights Act 2015. You failed to provide me with this despite written ation and have mis-sold the accommodation, which heavily influenced my decision to book this hotel.
The details of my complaint have been provided to booking.com in writing on a number of occasions since the 29th July, to which you have chosen to ignore, decline or fail to respond with the compensation as promised and requested and to which I am entitled to under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
Therefore, you are in breach of contract.
As such, I am legally entitled to receive compensation from you for the failure to provide these services at this expected standard and claim additional expenses incurred as a result of the poor service. In consequence I am entitled to claim the sum of £610.67 which is calculated as follows:
£250 at the cost of dinner for 5 people per night at £25pp as advertised, which can be substantiated by dinner receipts both at the hotel and elsewhere to cover the cost of dinner not provided by the hotel.
£150 for the cost differential between this hotel and the next alternative which did not include half board. I spent the additional money as I believed the package advertised and ed by booking.com represented good value.
£210.67 in Litigant in Person expenses calculated as the following:
– As a professional I earn £47.70 per hour and have incurred the following hours’ time during the working day in pursuing this claim
o 1x phone call for 55 minutes 29th July to customer services at booking.com at 16.34 to the number 020 33202791
o 2hrs of formal complaint writing time
o 1.5hrs of seeking advice and researching my rights to prepare this complaint
The following additional costs will be sought through a small claims case if further action is required:
1. The cost of a small claims case at circa £75
This will form the basis of my small claims case, which will be detailed in my letter of intent should further action be required to resolve this matter.
My complaint has been registered with complain.biz and I will be filing this formal complaint through resolver.uk.
I require your response to this letter within 14 days
Yours sincerely,
Josephine Allen
Suggested solution:
Reimbursement of costs at £610.67 as detailed in the above summary.
