Booked a hotel in Patong, Phuket, Thailand via booking.com. Room advertised was 26 square metres.
I specially went to the shop and bought myself a meter, room is 24 if we will include balcony and bathroom, without it, room is 16.84. Regulations state room size as living space, not balcony or bathroom.
I wanted to dispute this transaction, but Monzo and Booking refused, Monzo asking for room size proof, so question would be:
how to see room size? hotel regulators saying that room size is just a living space, not a bathroom or balcony
What would be sufficient proof for Monzo of the room size?
Also Monzo were asking for me to leave the hotel without providing any solution or alternatives - asked why is that, but this question has been left unanswered.
I would gladly leave hence the attempt to dispute, however:
staff does not speak much English, so they can’t process a refund, as hotel booked for few weeks.
Booking.com were not much help, general answers no help, no discounts, no advice.
I disputed on the grounds of misseling, as size does not correspond to what has been advertised,
no problem if dispute did not go through,
however answers I am getting are very strange, first was refusal on the grounds that I did not provided sufficient proof in time, second that I have to provide a measure proof, third that I have to leave hotel which was pre-paid in full in advance. I paid just over 500 gbp
1metre difference is not a big deal, but 10 is. In 3 star hotel regulation, living space is a living space, not a 20m bathroom and tiny bed.
I suspect any chargeback where you stayed in the room would fail. You received the service you paid for, even if the dimensions were wrong.
It’s the same as going out for a meal and ordering a steak, eating everything on the plate and then asking for a refund because it came medium rather than medium rare.
Sadly as I work in customer care in travel I see this all day every day.
People in beautiful locations and places spending all their time getting irate about minute details and trying to get £20 back. What’s worse is at the end of it they often say ‘and I spent all my holiday dealings with this!!!’ as if that was a choice everyone else had made for them.
It’s been years since I could afford a proper holiday myself, and if I was lucky enough to be back on the white sands, blue waters and reasonably priced cocktails of Phuket you can bet I wouldn’t be spending my time measuring some walls.
Well, I complained straight away, no solution. When stakes comes and you see it is not what you ordered, you send it back, even if you tried it. In this case, restaraunt forces you to eat it and pay
You book a hotel, 40m living space advertised, you come there and it is 5 metres. Well, bed is there, bathroom too, but it is not the space advertised.
People are different, but you are right, I will just leave a horrible review and enjoy my days. Thank you.
P.S. It is not 20. Intentional misseling goods or services is slightly different.
Honestly; misselling is a strong claim especially if you were asking for a full refund.
Are the pictures of the hotel room and building completely wrong? Is it missing key amenities?
You booked a hotel, this means you paid for a room with certain furnishing, a building, staff, cleaning, utilities, location. At the end of the day this is a tiny text error at worst. You should have been able to see the hotel room from pictures anyway, either on booking.com or the hotel’s site so you knew (or could have known) on the whole what you were getting.
You are focusing on something absolutely tiny. I do really hope a couple of Mai Thais will help you get over it!
