Hi All,

Looking for a little advice and hoping some kind person out there can help me out.

We booked a First Choice holiday at their Costa Del Sol Holiday Village in July this year. The holiday was for two weeks and cost £4339.00. Having stayed at the Holiday Village last year, we felt sure that we would have equally as good a time there this year - alas it was not to be. To cut a long story short, I have decided to copy and paste the letters I have sent to First Choice and their responses:-

FIRST LETTER

Dear Sir,

RE. FIRST CHOICE HOLIDAY VILLAGE - COSTA DEL SOL

Following a fantastic ten day holiday at the above resort in August 2010, we decided to book a two week holiday starting on 19th July 2011 and ending yesterday, 2nd August 2011. It is with much regret that we find ourselves having to write to you to express our disappointment in this year's trip.

We paid over £4,300.00 for this year's holiday. This was our only family holiday and we had saved hard to pay for it. It was £1600.00 more expensive than the same holiday last year, although this year's trip was four days longer.

On arrival at the Holiday Village, we were asked to wait for our room to become available, but were given our All Inclusive bands and were able to use the snack bar. We visited reception on two occasions and were eventually given the keys to room 021 on the ground floor. We later found out that another family had rejected this room and were moved into the other wing of the hotel, presumably into our nice quiet room, whilst we were passed off with their reject room 021.

The noise coming from the Show Dome (literally 2 metres away from the room) was deafening from 7.30pm until midnight every night. On most occasions we were kept awake past 3am by late night revellers who, after ordering six pints each from the Oasis bar (presumably to last them a few hours so they didn't have to pay for beer at the Irish Bar), would sit at the tables outside our window, laughing, guffawing, shouting and screaming, whilst allowing their children to stamp around on the stage singing and shouting at the tops of their voices. There were only around two or three nights where we managed to get to sleep before 1.30am and with two children aged 8 and 9, this was far from ideal, causing repercussions for the next day's activities.

After two days, we requested a change of room, but were informed that there was no availability. We left things a few more days and again requested a change - again no availability. Unfortunately, I am disabled and required a ground level room, otherwise at this stage; we would have been prepared to accept the garden shed if it meant we could have some much needed sleep.

The incessant noise was relentless and nobody from the hotel seemed interested in moving people on. Obviously, by 3am, all the Reps had gone home and the show dome was at the back of the hotel, but Security at least would have been able to hear the raucousness and totally uncalled for noise, which I am sure must have kept up other people besides us. I am enclosing a disc containing photographs of the proximity of the show dome to our room and also some video evidence of the noise levels both inside the room and on the balcony. However, as you will see from the photographs, our room was the closest of the 500+ hotel rooms in proximity to the show dome

I honestly believe that this room needs serious attention to make it habitable for holiday makers. It should, at the very least, be soundproofed and double glazed and prospective customers should be advised that their stay may be subject to elevated levels of noise pollution. Furthermore, as for our mountain view, two windows were completely eclipsed by the giant show dome and we could hardly see a thing.

After having a fantastic holiday last year, this one was completely ruined by the room location. In the end, everything we did was timed around the show dome. We only made breakfast a handful of times, due to being kept awake half the night (you are more than welcome to check this with the hotel) and even during the day, when we were exhausted and looking forward to a peaceful afternoon nap, they had to be timed to the nano-second, due to rehearsals and daytime Widget Woadshow performances - all performed at the show dome.

There were a number of other small problems with the holiday; the minibars were not stocked daily as advertised in the brochure, the El Faro restaurant was not open this year even though it was advertised as being available in July and August, my daughter had a nasty fall down some stone steps at the Beach Club, injuring her back on the last day and the film on the inbound flight was not announced by the cabin crew and, after half an hour, I was alerted by my eight year old son to the fact that it was a 15 certificate and included two naked men doing heaven knows what!!!!.

However, these problems, whilst perhaps troublesome for others, were nothing compared to the room from hell. We paid alot of money both last year and this year for our holiday and expected, at a family resort, to get a good night's sleep. Although too long in the tooth now, our one holiday this year was reminiscent of a Club 18-30 bash than a fortnight at the Holiday Village!!!


We are sure you will agree, upon reading this letter and viewing the evidence attached, that the noise levels in the room were unacceptable for a family holiday. We had planned to visit other Holiday Villages over the coming years, although we now have serious reservations about spending our hard earned cash on a holiday from hell, as this one turned out to be.

We would appreciate a response as soon as possible, both to advise us about measures put in place to ensure other families are not subject to the problems with room 021 and also to suggest remedial action for our ruined holiday.

Yours faithfully,

THEIR RESPONSE

Apologised for inconveninece and said they had passed our comments on to the holiday team. Said that it was hotel responsibility and that it was nothing to do with them, basically. However, they stated that the room was VERY NOISY AND CAUSED A GREAT DEAL OF DISRUPTION TO US AND OUR PARTY - Without Prejudice of course. No offer of refund or compensation.

SECOND LETTER

Dear Ms ,

RE.

Thank you for your letter of 5th September 2011, concerning our holiday complaint.

We are pleased that our comments are to be passed to the Resort Management and note that you plan to act on the points raised to ensure no loss of enjoyment to other families.

However, your letter has made no effort to recompense us for the total loss of enjoyment experienced on our holiday even though you agree the allocated room was "very noisy and caused a great deal of disturbance to us and our party".

As you state, room allocation is at the discretion of the hotel and I would refer you back to our previous letter, which explains how we reported this to them on two separate occasions and requested a move. As already stated, we were advised of no availability and therefore our only option was to remain in the room.

As your letter states, we did not pay any room supplements, however this did not affect our holiday at the resort last year and we were not advised that the room allocated this time was above the entertainment area and was subject to incessant and continuous, literally unbearable levels of noise, which would have an adverse effect on our entire holiday.

We feel that we are fully justified in requesting a refund of the holiday cost. Please be assured that we are not interested in claiming extra compensation, we want the holiday we were promised and paid for and nothing else.

We would expect to receive your cheque for the holiday cost of £4139.00 within ten days of the date of this letter. At this point, should the refund not be acceptable to you for any reason, we shall file a claim in the small claims court and register our complaint with ABTA.

We look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Received no response from them, so on 5.10.11, filed claim with MCOL. Just received form today saying that FC have filed an acknowledgement of service and intend to defend the entire claim. Am I wasting my time, or is this general protocol designed to put me off going through with court???. Would really appreciate some advice on this.

Many thanks,

S4R4H