Hi

I booked a new year break for 2 to Barcelona on 29 Dec 2009 (2 days prior to travelling). This was done by telephone through an Agent acting on behalf of First Choice..
On the 31st we flew over, caught the transfer coach and all was well. However, when we arrived at our hotel there was some confusion at reception. Eventually we were presented with a fax from a local agent stating that the hotel had not allocated enough rooms at this time and we were to be transfered elsewhere..
After much attempts to negotiate a room at our "booked" hotel (none available), we decided to get a cab to the alternative accommodation (as it was already approaching 5pm and we were concious of finding somewhere to eat in town prior to seeing in the new year).
The alternative hotel was on the outskirts of town plus it was of classic design rather than the contemporary hotel we had carefully chosen in the first place. Although it was rated the same, 4-star, it was nowhere near like the quality of the other hotel.
I hope you can imagine how we felt at this point - on New Years Eve too!
Also, it was some walking distance into town - circa 30mins as opposed to 10mins from original hotel. This may not sound much but when you consider the tooing and froing and the fact you wish to walk around town too, it becomes a chore and takes up more time.
We ended up catching cabs everywhere and kept all receipts with a view to claiming the funds back.

Both hotels were said to be of equal rating, but there was massive difference - we later found the rates averaged £68 per night difference (the greater sum being the hotel we were supposed to stay at). Note this is an average rate and I would guess new year rates are at a premium!

Our stay was for 3 nights. On the third night we managed to get back into the original hotel, after many phonecalls to the agents. What a fantastic place and as we were in there for our final night, we decided to stay in, take advantage of the lovely surroundings, eat in the restaurant and drink in the bar. The other hotel had a bar which was never open, and too small to bother with anyway. The view from the original hotel onto the main street was also so much better.

I'm trying to paint a picture here without rabbiting on too much so apologies for the waffle..

Since our return we have exchanged a few letters. This has resulted in a cheque totalling £100. (£50 per couple). We sent this back rejecting it as it was nowhere near enough to compensate for our ruined holiday, stressful phonecalls and "cheaper hotel" etc. As they did not acknowledge the fact we caught taxis everywhere from the alternative hotel, we decided to submit the taxi receipts in the 2nd letter and send the £100 cheque back.
They responded sending the £100 cheque again plus a refund for the taxi receipts. We have since banked the cheque for the taxis, however we are holding onto the £100 cheque.
The frustrating thing here is that we bullet-pointed everything in our letters, and their response never really seemed to acknowledge our issues, only that they gave us a hotel of equal rating and within the same city. This makes it ok does it?!

I'll point out now that the 3 night break cost a total of £1123.00 and given that we flew with Easyjet, I imagine the bulk of the cost was for the hotel.

We're now at the point of either approaching ATOL or Small Claims. We've looked into Small Claims and it appears we have to declare a figure we are claiming for. In all honesty I'm not sure, but I was hoping they would somehow mediate the issues and come to an agreed settlement.

Does anyone have an unbiased view on this?

Thanks for reading

Nick