Drawn-out case not resolved

On July 9, Dr Carmel Buttigieg sent the following letter to the customer care manager at Mondial Air Tours Ltd:

My family and I (four of us) have just returned from the tour of Venice and North Italy (June 29 -July 6).

We were disappointed with the Hotel Ambasciatori. The hotel was supposed to have a swimming pool, but on arrival we were informed that this had been dismantled some weeks before. The air-conditioning in our room was repeatedly switched off between 5 and 6 a.m., interrupting our sleep due to the heat (we were four in the room). Requests at the reception to leave the air-conditioner switched on were to no avail.

The hotel cleaner repeatedly left the door to our room unlocked. This was also witnessed by the tour leader. The room was very shabby - walls and ceiling were full of cracks and the pillows were stained. In the dining room we were placed in a corner and separated by a partition from other guests and we were prohibited from going to other parts of the dining room.

The breakfast was extremely poor and very inferior when compared with the standard breakfast the other guests were being offered. The dinner was a real disaster. There was no choice, the portions were very small and tasteless and when we protested, the hotel dining room staff were very arrogant and substituted the food with leftovers from the other guests' dinner. On one occasion we even found the food placed on the table before we were even seated!

We informed our tour leader about the bad service. In fact he tried to solve the problems related to the food, but we were informed that Mondial had negotiated and agreed to such an inferior service, more inferior than the hotel's usual standard.

We must point out that at the Amitex fair in Naxxar we were assured by Mondial staff that the hotel is a good one; we were encouraged to visit the hotel's Website to see its facilities and services and that we would have a choice for dinner.

In the light of these shortcomings we were very distressed and our holiday was ruined. I am therefore requesting a full refund. (Dr Carmel Buttigieg)

On July 19 Mondial's customer care manager, Costantino Muscat, replied to Dr Buttigieg as follows:

Thank you for your letter of July 9 concerning your complaint about the Hotel Ambasciatori.

I regret that you were not satisfied with the services of this hotel. Please be informed that your letter is being investigated.

On August 8, after having investigated Dr Buttigieg's letter, Mr Muscat replied:

Further to my letter to you dated July 19, I regret to inform you that your request for a full refund cannot be entertained simply because you are alleging that the hotel was not up to the standard you expected. As you have pointed out in your letter, we encourage our clients to view the hotel's Website so that they can be in a better position to make the right decision.

Since no other shortcomings were mentioned in your letter, it is assumed that the rest of the tour was to your full satisfaction.

Subsequently Dr Buttigieg sent Mr Muscat and me three more letters on August 10, August 11, and September 11 which I do not have the space to feature. The crux of the matter is that Dr Buttigieg and his family were given a raw deal. In view of this, Mr Muscat's parting shot, with an emphasis on the words "full satisfaction" constitutes an insult.

On August 22 we asked for Mondial's comments, to no avail. On August 29, and September 19, we again asked Mondial for their comments, still to no avail. At this stage, we have no other option but to publicly ask Mondial for their comments with a particular focus on what compensation they are prepared to offer Dr Buttigieg. In all fairness, considering what Dr Buttigieg and his family were subjected to, in my opinion, they do deserve compensation.