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Complaint about a package holiday that was not as booked (England and Wales)
England and Wales · in English · for consumers
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For a traveller whose package holiday — flights and hotel, or other travel services sold together — was not as booked: a different or poor hotel, missing services, a changed itinerary. Under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 the organiser is responsible for every part of the package and owes a price reduction and compensation for what went wrong. The letter claims them and is a letter before claim with 14 days to reply. Send it to the organiser by email and by first class post.
- Made for use in England and Wales
- Last updated October 28, 2026
- Document in English
Where a UK document reproduces the words of legislation or of a government publication — UK, Scottish or Northern Irish — it contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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When to use this document
- The hotel on the package holiday you booked in England or Wales was nothing like the one advertised.
- Services included in your package were missing and the rep did nothing.
- You are back from a package holiday that was not what you booked.
- You want a price reduction and compensation from the tour operator for a ruined holiday.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Sender
- Sender's address
- Town or city
- Sender's postcode
- Date
- Tour organiser (travel agency)
- Tour organiser's postal address
- Booking reference
- Trip (country, resort, hotel)
- Travelling from
- Travelling until
- Price
- What the complaint is about
- When and to whom you reported the problems during the holiday
- Costs and damage claimed (items and amounts, or “none”)
- Amount claimed
Common questions
- Who is responsible when the hotel in my package holiday was not as described?
- The organiser — the company that put the package together and sold it to you — is responsible for every service in it, even if a hotel or airline it booked was at fault (regulation 15 of the 2018 Regulations). It owes a price reduction for the time things were wrong and compensation for the damage, unless the problem was your fault, an unconnected third party's, or unavoidable and extraordinary.
- Should I have complained during the holiday?
- Yes, where you could: regulation 15(3) requires you to tell the organiser without undue delay, so that it can put things right on the spot, and a late report can reduce what you recover where an earlier one would have let it do so. If you did not, say why in the letter. Photos, the rep's notes and your messages to the organiser are useful evidence.
- Is there a free way to settle a package holiday dispute?
- Many organisers belong to ABTA, which offers dispute resolution for its members' customers; check the booking for the logo. If the organiser fails before or during the trip, an ATOL certificate protects flight packages. Otherwise, after the 14 days in this letter, you can claim in the County Court through Money Claim Online.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
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