A I suggest you decide what you would like by way of amends. Cancelling the trip with a full refund, on the
grounds it is now so different from what was originally promised? Continuing but demanding a significant
discount? Or an explanation about why they are advertising something they have denied to you, and a
request for the properties you expected to be reinstated on your booking?
Give the company a chance to respond to your satisfaction. If you are not happy, you could send a
complaint to Abta, and consider arbitration through the travel association. But you might find the arbitrator
dwells on the operator’s terms and conditions – which, I can safely predict without studying them, will
include a considerable amount of latitude allowing the firm to diverge from the agreed itinerary.
So I suggest instead that you become legalistic – and, given the very substantial cost of the trip, consider
engaging a solicitor. There are three legal grounds I can see.
The first is whether the holiday company has breached the Package Travel Regulations 2018, which say:
“Where the organiser offers proposed alternative arrangements which result in a package of lower quality
than that specified in the package travel contract, the organiser must grant the traveller an appropriate price
reduction.”
Next, you could seek redress under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which requires a service to be carried
out with “reasonable care and skill”. Failing to confirm even half the planned hotels does not look either
careful or skilful. Alternatively, a lawyer might argue the travel firm is engaging in “unjust enrichment” by
selling a high-priced product but delivering something substandard. But give the holiday company a chance
to respond before commencing legal action.
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