Ruined holidays

Many years ago went to Eurocamp in France . Got there late and spent a sleepless and scary night as there was only a little wall between us and a very busy road that had lorries thundering past ALL night . The tent itself was grotty with a big hole in front of it .
Went to see the rep who was totally unhelpful even though she admitted that there were empty tents , think it was just too much bother to rearrange things ?

Ended up telling her that everytime I or any of my family was wakened by the noise I would come down to her tent and waken her and suddenly we were moved to a nice pitch .
Usually don’t like to make a fuss but sometimes you just have too

I haven't bothered going away for years. It's usually either a disaster or a disappointment.

One time I went with a friend to Bournemouth which she had reassured me was lovely. We drove down and the place was like a morgue - not even a hotel and we were starving and all the restaurants were closed when we got there at 10pm. So we slept in the vehicle and starved. The next day it was just as dead so we decided to go home. Then we saw a sign to Bournemouth and realised we had been in Boscombe by mistake. But by then we were just fed up and went home anyway.

On honeymoon with my first husband we ran out of money in Cannes on our way home from Greece and it was a bank holiday weekend. The only place that would give us somewhere to stay without money was a "hotel" used by prostitutes with bidets in the rooms and very little other amenity. We just about had enough money for a baguette a day for the 3 days till the banks opened.

Another time I tried to go with my current husband to - I can't even remember where we were trying to get to but we ended up in East Wittering stuck on an army firing range or something. That was the last time I ever went away anywhere.

If I get the urge to travel these days I use google maps, street view, and webcams, thankful that the next room is my own kitchen.

One year we had booked a gite in France, in a very rural area, one of a group of cottages around a former farmhouse where the manager lived.
First, we had difficulty finding it as the directions were wrong. On arrival the whole place was deserted. Apparently the Manager had recently upped and left, taking various things with her. The place was run down, no TV ( this was before WiFi), none of the facilities we had been promised. Not even a tin opener. None of the other cottages was fit to be used, and some of the buildings were crumbling and dangerous.
( maybe that is why the manager left, if the owner refused to do anything about it).We were so glad we had no children as it was unsafe.
The next day we had a visit from the temporary manager who could not have been kinder. She lent us a radio etc and brought the best welcome pack ever to help us out. As they had just taken this cottage on in addition to their other places they had not been able to greet us and explain the situation. It was quite scary. I wrote to the British owner but received no compensation.

Finding this thread perversely consoling - I thought 'other people' had the lovely holidays and I was the only one crying in the shower! I do wish I had 'put up' with less when younger - got a bit of backbone now and would just say - Money back, I'm off somewhere better!

Was taken to his favourite hotel in Venice for a big birthday treat. They got the booking wrong and had to put us in one room for 1st night, and then move us to another for the rest of the stay. We couldn't stand up in the 2nd room due to the sloping ceilings! The only horizontal ceiling was directly above the bed. In order to stand up in the shower (which was one end of the bath) you had to put your head through the Velux window, which, fair enough, did have fabulous views across Venice.
When we complained, we were told that some found it romantic!

"bite" surely gite.

Years ago we had saved up tokens from a national newspaper and booked a room at a village pub in Devon at a very reduced rate. Turned up, nobody about, waited and eventually the landlady in slippers and pinnie appeared and took us to our room explaining they had only just taken over the place. Room had broken mirror, broken wash basin and a loo that flushed when it felt like it. We debated whether to stay but had an evening meal which was superb. Survived our 3 day break. Some years earlier we had taken a bite in France and had the pleasure of watching the mice run up and down the walls in the evening.

Always book through reputable and well know sites like HomeAway and check Trip advisor.

Oh yes! We booked a hotel ourselves on Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles. Well....we certainly picked the wrong side of town - awake all night hearing lots of stilleto heels clicking down the corridors! We checked out next morning early and continued to Disney which was more my style!! ???

Yes, went to a well known holiday chain here in the UK and had to wait for 2 hours for the keys as they were 'cleaning' the room, but when we got in it was filthy, we could not even use the drawers to unpack, so I demanded another room and got a luxury one which was just decorated. When you pay £800 for a weeks stay you expect something decent.

We’ve had several from when the children were small so before internet or trip adviser. Our first ever without children was one of those hotels allocated on arrival in Tenerife. It turned out to be right in the Veronica’s, the roof had fallen in over reception which meant they had no running water. It was about 3 am when we went to our room, the beds were a piece of foam with a triangular piece of foam for a pillow, the cutlery was rusty, it was hell! My H was so tired he went to sleep but I lay there, listening to the discos reverberating around the empty pool (cracked or something) just waiting for the morning. The second my H opened one eye I said I’m not staying here, don’t care, I’ll go home instead. We went downstairs to find a huge crowd of people all complaining so we waited an hour for the poor rep. She said I’ll come up in the lift with you to have a look. She took one look and immediately said don’t tell anyone but get a taxi to this hotel (on a note) and they’ll give you a room. We crept out past all these people and went to the most gorgeous hotel, got a beautiful room and had a really enjoyable time. We met someone one night from the original hotel and they said no one had any water still, it was dreadful. I complained to the company who didn’t want to know.

I'm pretty careful about checking reviews for hotel bookings, and will even go on google maps and 'look' around the neighbourhood, especially if we are in that location for more than a few days.

However, we have stayed in some very dicey hotel/motels while travelling. Living in northern BC involves travelling for up to 16 hours to reach a destination. We will usually overnight in a hotel with a reservation made ahead of time, but there have been times when we have had to just pull into town and look for accommodations.

One particular hotel comes to mind. We were originally camping with our young children; after 3 days of downpour rain we decided to break camp and head south to warmer, dryer weather. We stayed in a town called Lilloett after a long day of driving along windy mountainous roads and pulled into the first available hotel.
Oh Lordy, it was awful! Dirty, mattress with springs bulging, linoleum rolling in waves on the floor. The bar attached to the hotel attracted the worst of the inhabitants of the town. We wedged a chair under the door handle, poured ourselves a drink and didn't chastise the children for jumping on the pull out sofa-bed! They were still young enough that any sort of hotel stay was exciting.

EllanVannin 's holiday 'post' is reminiscent of a caravan weekend my parents booked in Blackpool to see the illuminations.
We, my brothers and I, were really excited as our beds were made up at night from the banquettes in the dining area. Our parents slept in a double bed which was really a dividing 'wall' which was pulled down between the cooking and sitting areas. The pull handle (in essence one of two legs on the bed was no more than an ornamental bit of filigree metal.
It was memorable for all the wrong reasons, as the bed started to rise in the night as they slept and believe me, dad was 5-11 and about 12 stone so not small.
Mum recalled that she felt something move and asked dad if he felt it.
As she was reminiscing, adult to adult in later years, I burst out laughing but mum, still the prim convent educated 'girl' of her younger years, missed the meaning.
She said that, as dad rolled onto his back (from, I assume the spoon position) when she asked if he felt movement the bed righted itself but when he moved to sleep on his side the bed started to close upward.
It was all lost on me, a then 8 yr old but as an adult it was funny.
They were grand times...many of them too.

We had a 'modern chalet' booked one year in Devon when our children were small. The floor beneath the loo was so rotten it was no longer bolted to the floor so you used it very carefully! Worse was a huge bulge in the ceiling directly above the only space available to place a cot.

Also stayed in a city centre hotel in York some years ago and the room had not been cleaned properly. Part of the bed headboard fell off. Bits of rubbish left in a drawer and a used, unflushed loo! Heating in the room didn't work properly so the radiator in the hall was burning hot to compensate. It didn't! We were given a reduction.

Back in the early 70's my parents also booked a 'chalet' from a newspaper ad. It turned out to be a series of homemade huts fashioned from bits of old air raid shelters and furnished with junk. None of the other huts were occupied. They didn't stay more than two nights but as the owner/ builder was such a nice man they didn't say anything to him!

Last year we celebrated our golden wedding anniversary. The celebrations were some months later but as the anniversary was on a Saturday we decided to go away for the weekend.

We booked a 4 star hotel in Harrogate, but it had been a late booking because I was waiting for a date for minor surgery and we hadn't consulted trip advisor or anything similar before booking.

My heart sank, when we couldn't find the very big hotel because all the lights to the roadside signs were not working, when we got up to our shabby, rundown room, we knew we had got it wrong.

In fact the hotel had much going for it. The beds were comfortable, the rooms warm and there was plenty of hot water. It was everything you would expect in a good 3 star hotel. The food was acceptable, But we had booked a 4 star hotel for a weekend of luxury and pampering, I was convalescent and it was not what we thought we had booked.

When we got home I contacted Visit England about the star rating and they had no records of ever assessing the hotel. The 4 stars must have dated back decades. I tried to complain to Trading Standards without success. Then I checked Tripadvisor. If I had done that before booking we never would have gone there.

About 15 years ago we booked a room in a small hotel in Naples. When we were shown our room it was just thoroughly grubby. After a quick look round we said we were leaving and the manager produced another room for us which was fairly basic but was at least clean! The hotel didn't do meals so we were in and out for food. During our comings and goings we often saw the manager with very "interesting" looking gentlemen and money being handed over. Seemed best not to ask about it.

I went, with my husband, to Prague (we hadn't been before), and the "hotel" was terrible. The doors to the rooms were metal, so closed with a loud clanging noise all throughout the place. The people in the next room were shouting and rowing until the early hours. The continental breakfast was dire - stale, hardly anything to choose from. I marched straight to reception, asked to use their 'phone, rang the holiday rep, and demanded that we be moved elsewhere. Within 3 hours, we were given a room at a lovely little hotel across town.

We had a bad experience in Wales as well. Many years ago when the children were young, we arrived at the cottage we had rented and it was disgusting. Floors and furniture really dirty and as for the kitchen words fail me. I refused to stay and it cost us a small fortune staying in hotels on the coast.

In our twenties, pre-booked an en-suite double room in Athens and paid a deposit. When we arrived they had lost our booking and the hotel was full. We spent the first night in a corrugated tin hut on the roof!

We once went to a holiday cottage in N Wales. Beautiful old cottage in a lovely area. But the bathroom was dirty, the toilet seat hanging off. The soft furnishings in the living room filthy. We complained to the company we had rented from. They contacted the owner and we had an abusive phone call from him.Nothing was changed but we got a rebate. The owner had several other properties. Needless to say we never rented any of his again

When our kids were young we went to France all the time. One year we were down in Saint-Jean de Luz in South Western France, the gite we were staying in was quite damp, which affected one of my son's asthma, so wasn't really happy with that one.

Also many years ago, in Devon, rented a house through a well recognised holiday let firm. When we arrived the house hadn't been cleaned. Also owners left all their food stuff in the cupboards, which are supposed to be empty. To add insult to injury they left a note saying "Don't touch our food" I wrote a strong letter to the agents, saying either these people should let their property to friends/acquaintances and charge "mates rates" but if they want a commercial rent, they need to clear their personal effects and clean it.

Just once in Corfu. Room was filthy and damp. Mould all over the bathroom and in the wardrobe. Swimming pool covered in algae and the restaurant closed. Dare not repeat on here W what was said.

Not exactly ruined, but saved by our sense of humour.

Friend and myself had embarked on our first caravan holiday in Spain and friend had booked it, site, area etc. It all looked great and just what we wanted. Arrived at the site and there was a mixture of log cabins and various types and sizes of caravans. We were quite excited.

Armed with the address/number we walked along the path trailing our suitcases and were looking at every number but couldn't find it so we stopped an old gardener and he pointed towards ours. My friend nearly had a fit and immediately said we're not staying in that, we'll look for a hotel.

I was trying to keep a straight face as I looked at this " doll's house " in front of us which was tucked away near a tree out of sight from the others----as though it had just been towed there and left as an afterthought. I thought it was cute.

Friend was bursting for the loo so she had no choice but to use it, but nearly fell off it because it was wonky/lop-sided so that called for more laughing.
Sleeping accommodation proved no better as they were bunkbeds so I offered to scramble on the top one as she was older than me---but being tall and the caravan only fit for midgets, I had to stand on the stove to get into the bunk ( no ladders )and sleep with my knees up to my chin.

Next evening we were telling nearby neighbours of our plight and they happened to say that the table when pulled out served as a bed too, so things were looking up. We managed toast and honey via the grill but ate out every day.

We had a fantastic 10 days full of laughs though initially my friend took photographs to complain to the holiday firm that they'd reneged on the description so we were partially reimbursed and added it towards our next holiday.
It was like a comedy film.

Oh yes my DH and I took a weeks honeymoon in Tenerife . It was March . Arrived at hotel in the dead of night . Found 2 plaster of Paris type beds built into the walls of the room and at opposite sides . The remains of what had been a ceiling was scattered around the floor . We shook out a few blankets , crept out of the room and spent the night huddled up freezing on sun-beds beside the pool .

No, never. I ring up the local tourist office and ask for their opinion and look at live webcam footage in the area via Google.
Also use Trustpilot and ring my choice of hotel to ask to ask them to record and send me a short video on their mobile of bath/bedroom and public areas.
The receptionists are usually very helpful as I let them know they'll be 'looked after'.