Treborwf

Sorry if this should be in another area but I couldn’t find anywhere specific to BA holidays.

Back in September I booked a BA holiday (flight and hotel) direct with BA to celebrate my 50th birthday by spending New Years in Edinburgh, it’s club Europe flights departing LHR on 29 December and returning to LGW 2nd January with 4 nights at the Hilton Edinburgh Carlton in a standard room with continental breakfast.

Today I receive a phone call from a lady at BA informing me that the Hilton has overbooked and there is no room there, the hotel are willing to put me up at the 10 Hill Place hotel.

The reason I booked the Hilton Edinburgh Carlton is because of its great location, I’ve stayed there numerous times before and its seconds from the Royal Mile and all the action, I’ve never heard of the 10 Hill Place hotel and that it's a 10-ish minute walk to the Royal Mile.

The lady from BA was trying to sell the point to me that Trip adviser has a better rating for the 10 Hill Place hotel than the Hilton Edinburgh Carlton and that the room there will be a deluxe, I mentioned to her that location was everything to me.

I’ve asked her to go and see if anything else can be done as I really don’t want to stay at the further away hotel, after the call I checked on both BA and Hilton sites where both are still showing availability for the Hilton Edinburgh Carlton.

Any advice on how to proceed will be greatly appreciated, are my only 2 options to accept the change of hotel or ask for a refund, assuming that the change in hotel means that a refund would apply?

chessers1

I would call the Hilton and if the y confirm availability then speak to BA and let them know that you wish to stay in the hotel you originally booked.

Unsure of the legalities but if you push back they may try and find another victim!

Good luck

Ancient Observer

I just googled that hotel. It is showing availability. Get back to BA!!

sunshinebob

It is still available for sale on BA holidays right now when I did a dummy booking with your flights..

silonic

I would also say that as a Hilton Gold Cardholder, if your profile is correct, you wouldn't be the first customer Hilton would be looking to "bump" from the list of possible customers.

Treborwf

My profile is correct but Hilton wouldn't know that I'm a Gold as this was all booked via BA.

cziwkga

I've stayed in both and now live rather close to 10 Hill Place. Personally I would prefer it. It's 10 minutes to the Royal Mile at a very leisurely stroll, but typically much less. You are still right in the centre of Edinburgh; location-wise I really don't think there's much in it. I agree there's something odd going on here but I don't think you'll end up badly off if you take the substitution.

scubaccr

Whether Hilton has rooms for sale or not is not wholly as relevant, as BA Holidays will not be paying rates us direct bookers do.

No doubt BA has only got a limited number of rooms per bight at the rate BA pay your wanted Hilton hotel. I'd have to guess BA Holidays are selling to a larger group who want multiple rooms on one or more of your nights, so as in all businesses, money/income rules, BA take the sale , and look to move a sucker elsewhere.

I'd insist that BA house you in the Hilton you have confirmed booking for, and if BA have to pay extra as they have used up (over sold) their cheaper priced rooms and thus need pay more , thats not your problem.

Virazuno

It is, in that the issue is not a capacity issue from Hilton's side. That puts OP in a strong position to firmly insist BA honour the booking. Booking channels and block wholesale bookings are of no concern to OP.

Swiss Tony

IME BA Holidays has a lot of latitude, so I would suggest you go back to them with a hotel that you do want to stay in.

However you need to realise that BA Holidays are within their rights to do this, so for everyone saying it's BA's problem, the reality is it's yours & that's what you signed up to...

8.3. We are only liable to you for cancellations or significant changes to your booking by us. A significant change is one that we make to your booking before your departure that affects an essential term of your contract. Examples of a significant change includes changes by us to:

1. your destination area;
2. your booked accommodation to that of an alternative property of a lower rating;
3. your departure times or accommodation occupancy periods by more than 12 hours.
4. increase the package price by more than five per cent (in respect of a Package as defined in clause 1.4).

8.4. Where your booking includes accommodation and/or a flight please note that the following is not a significant change:

• A change of rating for the accommodation where the quality of the accommodation has not changed significantly since the time of the booking and the facilities are substantially as set out on our website or equivalent;
• A change in the accommodation where substitute accommodation is offered in a similar location and at least equivalent quality (at no additional cost to you);
• A change in the particular type of room booked where the substitute room is of at least equivalent quality.
• A change to your flight departure time(s) where the revised or substitute departure time is less than 12 hours difference to the departing time.

Cymro

However, the OP chose this hotel specifically for its location, and, more to the point, the terms have to be reasonable to be enforceable.

A unilateral right to change the property where the guest is accommodated is not, in my view, reasonable, particularly not at a peak event time like Hogmanay.

Swiss Tony

But these seem to be derived from the Package Travel Regulations, which are enacted in law. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1.../contents/made. It's not just something they have made up to offer wiggle room.

The OP would be best placed to find two or three better hotels than booked (not difficult) and go back to BA asking for one of those instead.

corporate-wage-slave

I think I would have to agree to this, or ask for a full refund. This sort of thing does happen in the package holiday trade and it's unpleasant when the hotel is a big feature of the break but so long as a full refund is offered I doubt there is much that the OP can do other than work with BA Holidays on alternatives. If the OP has their own list of venues then at least s/he is back in control of the process rather than accepting some unknown venue. The one possible option that may work is getting BA Holidays to liaise with Hilton on the basis of the Honors Gold card membership. It probably won't cut much ice but it is a previously unknown material fact that BA can use on the hotel. Another idea is to ask for a refund of a few taxi fares to cover the changed location, it's a bit uphill from the Hilton, but not far.

As a semi local I've not stayed at the hotel, but I've walked past it often enough and at least from the outside it looks warm and inviting and is 2 blocks back from Cowgate. It's owned by the Royal College of Surgeons.

Cymro

I agree that from a practical perspective, the Hilton may not be attainable, but I can't see anything in the regs that would expressly allow a substitution (i.e., a non-material change). There is an oblgiation to compensate but that is differnet from a term that allows the provider to define what is 'equivalent' (when the consumer could have selected that in the first place).

sammyg901

Usually I would assume Hilton sent BA a "stop" for those days and BA took the booking after- so Hilton are within their rights to refuse it even if they have inventory themselves.

I have direct experience on this and rarely had an issue with BA and their rate was a bit higher so would usually honour it. Some other "FITs " were terrible and we wouldn't honour it unless they paid our "BAR" rate for the day, which rarely they did so presumably the customers were moved elsewhere. Believe it or not there is a lot of faxing still involved so sometimes things go wrong !

What is curious here is it's still on sale - what have they said about that ? Either they are being totally incompetent and taking more bookings that won't be honoured by Hilton or there some unethical commercial jiggery is going on

That said twice I've had to be moved by BA Holidays through no fault of theirs and they've been very helpful so hopefully they can sort this for you.