How much compensation do I get if my package goes wrong?
If you are entitled to compensation for a holiday gone wrong you can claim under the following headings:
• Difference in value
• Out of pocket expenses
• Physical discomfort
• Distress and disappointment
• Personal injury
Difference in value
For this head of damages you have to work out the difference in value between what you were promised and what you actually received. In some cases this might be easy e.g. if you were given a room without a balcony and a sea view it would be possible in many cases to look in the travel company’s brochure or website and see the difference in price. Likewise for a change of hotel. Other examples may be more difficult to measure e.g. the difference between waiter service and self service or between having three pools and a children’s pool and only having one pool available for everyone - but some kind of estimate should be attempted.
Out of pocket expenses
If, for example the food was so bad as to be inedible, or the kitchens had been closed because of poor hygiene standards and you were compelled to eat out then you could claim for the meals you had to pay for. However it is important to keep all your receipts. You would not be able to claim for Michelin restaurant meals if you were only staying at a three star hotel.
If your tour operator changed your hotel from being adjacent to the beach to a considerable distance away you could claim for taxi or bus fares.
You should also be careful not to be claiming twice for the same thing. You cannot claim for difference in value because there was no catering if at the same time you are claiming for having to eat out.
Physical discomfort
There are a small number of cases where holidaymakers were given compensation for physical discomfort – as opposed to personal injury. For instance if your self catering accommodation did not have enough beds for all your family to sleep on and you had to sleep on an uncomfortable couch you could claim for this. In one case a couple were given compensation for the physical discomfort of having to sleep on a park bench on the first night of their honeymoon because their hotel had been overbooked.
Distress and disappointment
Damages for distress, disappointment and frustration have been available in holiday cases since 1973. How much you will get depends on a number of circumstances:
• Special occasion holidays will attract more damages than run of the mill holidays
• Damages for distress and disappointment are not necessarily linked to the price of the holiday
• Damages for the ‘poor’ may be more if the holiday is so expensive they might not be able to afford another one
• Damages depend upon the degree of expectation and ‘it is a question of fact and degree in each case’
Special occasions could include such events as weddings, honeymoons, anniversaries, retirement world cruises, family reunions and the last family holiday before the children leave home. So if you are on your honeymoon you are likely to get more damages than if you were on your third family holiday in a year.
It is difficult to give precise guidance on how much you will get for distress and disappointment for a spoilt holiday but unless the holiday is truly disastrous you are unlikely to get the price of the holiday back even taking into account the other heads of damage.
Personal Injury
It is unfortunately the case that some holidaymakers suffer from personal injury on holiday e.g. from outbreaks of norovirus or transfer bus accidents or walking through glass patio doors or falling off balconies with low walls.
Advice on personal injury is beyond the scope of this guide so if you have suffered a serious personal injury on holiday then you should take expert legal advice from firms that specialise in this area.