How to complain about your package holiday booking

If something goes wrong on your package holiday, you’ll want to get the issue sorted quickly so you can enjoy the rest of your trip. 

However, if you’ve paid for something you didn’t get, you’ll also want to use your travel rights to ask for money back. 

Here we explain when you can complain about a package holiday and how to do it.

1. Is it a package holiday?

Package holidays are holidays where you booked your flight and accommodation at the same time, through the same travel company. They could also include transfers, car hire and tours booked at the same time as your flight and accommodation.

If you've booked a package holiday, you're protected by the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018.

If you're holiday is cancelled, delayed or substantially changed, it gives you the right to make a claim for:

• Loss of value: The difference in value between what you booked and what you got. For example, you might have been moved to a lower standard hotel room, or a different cheaper hotel.
• Out-of-pocket expenses:  If you have to pay-out anything extra because of a failure by the travel operator. This could include paying for your own transfers if those booked as part of the package didn't turn up.
• Loss of enjoyment, inconvenience, or disappointment: If the hotel is a building site, or your holiday is cut short for whatever reason you can claim some money back

Find out how to complain about a flight-only booking, or make a complaint about holiday accommodation.

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Your options if your holiday is cancelled

If your holiday is cancelled the Package Travel Regulations gives you three options. You can:

• take a package of equal or superior quality from the operator
• take a package of lower quality and recover the difference in price between the packages
• receive a full refund.

Change of accommodation 

If a tour operator makes a significant change to your accommodation, it must:

• give you the choice of accepting the change (with a downward price adjustment if it’s a lesser hotel)
• offer you a refund, with no cancellation fee.

You do not have to pay for an enforced upgrade. The Package Travel Regulations say the tour operator is responsible for the hotel owner’s actions, so they have to make suitable alternative arrangements for the continuation of the package.

Additional costs of changing a holiday

Once a holiday is confirmed, a tour operator can only increase the cost if all of the following conditions are met:

• it says in the terms and conditions that the price increase might happen
• they’re as a result of the rise in the cost of fuel or other power sources.
• the taxes or fees imposed by other third parties are increased, like tourist taxes, port or airport fees.
• the exchange rates relevant to the package increase.

If the increase equals 8% or more of the total cost of your package holiday, you must be told at least 20 days before the holiday is due to start and be provided a clear calculation of the price rise.

If you don’t want to pay an increase of 8% or more, you can cancel the booking without termination fees.

2. Look at your holiday paperwork 

When you booked your holiday, you should have been given plenty of paperwork, including a description of your holiday, an itinerary and terms and conditions. 

If not, you can usually find a lot of this information on the travel company's website. The terms and conditions, in particular, will outline the company's responsibilities to you, and your responsibilities as a customer. 

If you think the company has let you down on its part of the deal, you'll have a strong argument to make a complaint.

3. Complain to your travel agent 

If you want to complain about your holiday, do it as soon as you notice the problem. If you’re still on holiday there should be a local representative from your holiday company you can speak to, or email, directly. They should be able to rectify the problem, but if not you should contact the company explaining what has happened.

If you’re making a complaint after you’ve returned from the holiday, start by writing directly to the company you booked with within 28 days of the holiday ending.

If the travel agent was acting for another party, such as an airline or tour operator, follow its complaints procedure. It should be explained in the paperwork you were given when you booked the holiday or on the agent's website.

Collect as much evidence as possible, including photos and receipts of anything you’ve had to buy because of the issue with the holiday. You’ll need to include these details in your complaint letter.

Use our free tool to make a complaint.

4. Complain to a travel industry association

If the tour operator is a member of a travel trade association, you can make a complaint and try to resolve your issue using their arbitration services.

• The Travel Association (ABTA) If your holiday company is an ABTA member, you can make a complaint using its online complaints hub. To find out if the company you booked through is a member of The Travel Association, look for the ABTA logo and a membership number on your booking documents. ABTA also lists members on its website. If you take the ABTA arbitration route, you won't be able to take the company involved to court in the future.
• The Association of Independent Tour Operators (Aito) Aito also runs an arbitration service, run by a third party company, Dispute Settlement Services. Making a claim through this service costs £110. If a travel company is found to be in the wrong, it can be asked to pay out up to a maximum of £2,500 per person, or £10,000 per booking.

5. Getting a refund using debit or credit card protections

If you paid for your holiday using a credit card, you might be protected by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act if you didn't get what you paid for. 

Section 75 can cover holidays costing more than £100 and up to £30,000. 

If you paid for your holiday using a debit card, you might also be able to claim your money back using chargeback.

6. Ask the travel ombudsman to investigate

If you’re not getting anywhere with the travel company, trade organisations or your credit card company, you could escalate the problem to the travel ombudsman. 

It’s an independent arbitration service which can look into travel complaints, but you can only contact it if you’ve complained directly to the travel company and the issue is still unresolved.

 You can contact the travel ombudsman and provide details of your complaint on its website. 

7. Take your case to the small claims court

Getting compensation from a tour operator can sometimes be difficult, and you usually have to be persistent.

If you think you have strong grounds for making a claim, keep complaining using the company’s formal complaints procedure.

If this doesn’t work, as a last resort, you could consider taking the tour operator to the small claims court.

You can use the small claims court for most claims that involve a breach of contract. In other words, when you didn't get what you were told you were paying for.

In England and Wales, you can claim up to £10,000 in the small claims court. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, it’s £5,000.