Hotel Beds have agreed to a full refund. Excellent news - I am so happy. I can't help thinking though, that the real culprits in this whole issue are the hotels themselves. Still - it was nice to receive a sincere apology. Thanks again to BF and UB for your wisdom.

Put simply, I want a refund for a product I purchased but they failed to deliver. They're offering 40% after an initial fob-off of 25% - plus Love Holidays offered a £50 coupon as a "gesture of goodwill" (AKA we're to blame but won't admit it because it will open the floodgates) towards my next holiday with them. Which I found extremely arrogant and presumptuous of them after my experience... Bottom line - I didn't get what I paid for. You wouldn't go to a car showroom and accept a cheaper model for the money you paid - nor even a similar model but different colour - so why do we allow holiday companies to get away with it? As for deceiving me, mugging me off and ruining my Christmas - an apology would suffice. I'm not, nor ever have been part of the compensation culture. I have always however, been part of the just culture. And it really winds me up that people who have glossy "ABTA" banners and similar motifs, capitalise on that "peace of mind" appearance to promote their products - and yet when you dig into the weeds, you find such a thing is merely a label and nothing more. Good advice on the solicitor thing. Didn't think of it like that!

Yes there's something in there about the occasions where accommodation is changed: 10. Changes and Cancellations by the Supplier Principal We will inform you as soon as reasonably possible if the Supplier Principal needs to make a significant change to your confirmed Arrangements or to cancel them. We will also liaise between you and the Supplier Principal in relation to any alternative arrangements offered by the Supplier Principal but we will have no further liability to you. 19. Accommodation Ratings and Standards. All ratings are as provided by the relevant Supplier Principal. These are intended to give a guide to the services and facilities you should expect from your accommodation. Standards and ratings may vary between countries, as well as between Supplier Principals. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of any ratings given. Taken from their T&Cs. Also of note is that at the bottom of the T&Cs there's a link to the T&Cs of their principle suppliers - but the list is huge and since it's impossible for you to know which you're going to be booked / paired with - how on earth are you supposed to read up before you commit? And I don't remember having any "cooling off" period either - certainly not in the itinerary and follow up emails I received after I booked anyway. I always thought this was a given?

But given what UB says about LH being a watertight business model - won't their own legal team simply try and tie me up in knots? I'd obviously have to "lawyer-up" on this one - but it could become costly and a considerable risk if what UB says about their business model is pretty solid... Wouldn't they simply deny my contract is with them? The minute I mentioned taking the matter through the courts if the response was unsatisfactory I got a very lengthy email back from LH - most of which just read like legal blurb and a whole bucket list of stuff they're apparently not responsible for. Seems to me they've got this sewn up. Much as I'd love to stand up to the bullies of industry, I am but one man at the end of the day with very limited legal knowledge!

Great will do thanks - and thanks to BankFodder too for the insightfulness. I'll keep you posted with how I get on.

Whilst they didn't identify the principle - they did say "it won't be us" or words to that effect. I'm going to give them a chance to get in touch with Hotel Beds on my behalf, and if this fails then I'm going to be approaching solicitors. I know they read these forums, so none of this will come as a surprise.

I'm all for taking it to court and determined not to get mugged off but it's really difficult to know who to take action against. Love Holidays who claim no responsibility but wouldn't even tell me who my flight was with and my accommodation booked through until I'd paid... or Hotel Beds who are responsible for my accommodation, yet are based in Spain and not bound by UK law ?

Thank you for the advice - and I have indicated in the course of my follow up complaints that court action would be a given should my complaint not be resolved to my satisfaction so I've been very transparent from the "off". Unlike them... Love Holidays forwarded my complaint to the principle accommodation supplier, Hotel Beds - who are based in Spain to make things tricky when it comes to being bound by UK law. Hotel Beds came back with "Yes that is unacceptable - here's a 25% accommodation refund sweetner..." When I told Love Holidays this was unacceptable (i.e. if I bought a brand new Jaguar and they tried to fob me off with a 40 year old Fiesta) they immediately upped that to 40% without even going back to Hotel Beds. I queried this and Love Holidays' response was that "Hotel Beds told us we could raise it to this amount".

I just checked by doing an example holiday booking to make sure I wasn't going mad or citing anything inaccurate... Yes - you don't find out who your accommodation contract is with until you've paid at least the deposit. And if you're thinking to yourself "wait one, I just want to read a little more about these T&Cs... there's a couple of prompts on the page to imply you won't really have the time...

They state "clearly" in their T&C's your contract is with a separate airline, accommodation provider and airport transfer - even thought they take the payment in whole from you when you book - and you don't even find out who that is until you have booked: The other thing is, while I was searching (in order of Trip Advisor rating, naturally) there was a banner stating holidays to this destination are currently trending upwards, notices about the price being only available for so long etc - in other words, pressure to buy immediately and not necessarily time to sit down and look over the T&Cs as carefully as one might. I raised the issue with ABTA who promptly came back with "You contract is with Hotel Beds who are not ABTA affiliated and regretfully we cannot support your case on this occasion..." The problem is my hotel "overbooked" and Hotel Beds were not aware of this. It seems to be that the hotels in these resorts are all scratching each other's backs. When I turned up at Reception, the guy took my passport, started filling in the paperwork etc - it was only when he asked me if my family were joining me and I told him I was travelling alone, he disappeared out back and came back 5 minutes later and told me they were overbooked. Suspect to say the least. How comes he didn't know this beforehand? But I guess it comes down to what you can prove eh?

Good morning all, Been a member some time - not usually one to post for the hell of it but I have been really racking my brains over this one and hitting brick walls wherever I go... Long story short - had booked a holiday for myself over Xmas and when I arrived they told me the hotel was overbooked. They then put me in a cab and sent me from my nice *chosen* serene resort, and dumped me in a completely different resort, right in the heart of the shops / nightclubs etc The accommodation was a lower grade, fewer facilities and I wouldn't have chosen it in a million years. I called Love Holidays there and then as I just wanted to come home. I took loads of pictures and on their advice, decided to try and make the best of a bad situation and raised a complaint when I got back. They forwarded this to Hotel Beds (who my contract is with, apparently) who agreed I'd been let down, totally unacceptable etc and offered "compensation" of 25% of the accommodation which clearly wasn't going to cut it. I'd paid over £500 total and they were offering me £64 back. After a bit of follow-up this was raised to 40% and £103 compensation. How can anyone in this day and age pay for one product and receive something totally different? Anyway - ABTA didn't want to know because Hotel Beds are based in Spain and are obviously not ABTA affiliated (that's handy isn't it?) which begs the question - why are Love Holidays if nothing you ever book with them is never their responsibility? If you ask me, it's more of a selling point "look at us, we're ABTA affiliated!" - indeed, but that endorsement is about as much use as a condom machine in the Vatican. I digress... So I send my complaint (along with photographs, screenshots etc) directly to Hotel Beds - and despite their pledges on their website to "guarantee" to answer emails within 24 hours and resolve complaints within 7 working days - I've not heard a peep out of them. Unfortunately booked with debit card and although the bank are part of the Visa voluntary chargeback scheme, their hands are tied because Hotel Beds are "willing to provide assistance" in offering me a laughable amount of compensation for ruining my Christmas with lack of sleep, stress, and putting me in 1960s style accommodation when I paid for so much more. I'm not sure what to do now. I'd offer to drive over to their HQ and bend over - but they're based in Spain (I think) which would involve me booking and paying for more travel... Any wise words would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading.