Package rules put the organiser on the hook. Speak to Kestrel.
Book a package and the organiser is legally responsible for the whole holiday: flights, hotel, transfers, the lot. Cancellation entitles you to a full refund; significant changes let you cancel for one; and a holiday materially worse than sold earns a price reduction and compensation. Complain in resort, evidence everything, and claim in writing. ATOL catches flight-inclusive packages if the firm fails.
The Package Travel Regulations make the organiser liable for the performance of every travel service in the package, whoever actually provides it. The hotel's failure is the organiser's failure; blame-shifting to local suppliers has no legal force.
If the organiser cancels, or significantly alters something essential, you choose between a full refund and an alternative. Where the holiday goes ahead but falls short, remedies scale: price reduction for the shortfall, compensation for provable extra costs and, within limits, for the spoiled enjoyment of the trip itself.
Insolvency protection sits underneath: flight-inclusive packages carry ATOL, refunding or repatriating if the organiser fails, and other packages must hold equivalent protection. Card protections and travel insurance run alongside; nothing about claiming from one forfeits the others.
Guide edition: August 2026. General information for England and Wales. Current law and your particular facts require assessment before action.
Report problems to the rep or hotline as they happen and keep the reference. The regulations expect contemporaneous complaints and organisers lean on silence.
Photos and video, names, dates, what was promised in the listing against what existed, and every extra pound spent.
A structured letter: the failures, the regulation, the refund or reduction sought, a deadline. Most claims resolve here or at its follow-up.
Travel trade ADR schemes handle many operators; the county court takes the rest. The in-resort record decides both.
Tell Kestrel what happened. The AI legal assistant gathers the facts and prepares a summary for you to check. Request lawyer review from your Legal Centre.
Speak to Kestrel nowContract claims carry six years, but complain during the trip and claim promptly after: the regulations reward contemporaneous complaints, and ADR schemes carry their own shorter windows.
This guide concerns Consumer disputes. It forms part of our reference library. Kestrel is preparing for SRA authorisation. See practice details for the proposed service and current availability.
Material misdescription is the organiser's breach. The listing, your photos and the in-resort complaint make the case; the remedy is a price reduction scaled to the shortfall, plus provable extras.
A significant alteration of an essential feature. Accepting under protest preserves your claim to the difference and compensation; the key words are under protest, in a message you kept.
Refunds due under the regulations are money; vouchers are an offer you may decline. Vouchers can make sense with generous uplift and firm protection, but that is your choice, not their default.
Then package rules may not apply and each supplier answers for its own service: the airline under flight compensation rules, the hotel or platform on its contract. Linked bookings sometimes qualify for lighter protection; the paperwork decides.
Start with the AI legal assistant, then follow the case, messages and lawyer review in your Legal Centre.
Speak to Kestrel