Wedding abroad cancelled (Hotel closed) advice sought.

A question about : Wedding abroad cancelled (Hotel closed) advice sought.

We have just found out that the hotel in which we were to hold our wedding this August is now to be closed for a refurb. We found out accidentally through a third party, then confirmed with our local agent. Suffice to say we are devastated.

Yet it appears that the hotel chain has had a notice on its website to this effect for 6 weeks, in which time we have had other guests book accommodation in the same area, yet the agent has apparently decided not to tell us.

We have been offered another hotel in the same area and although the same grade it is effectively a downgrade especially if one consults trip advisor. Essentially it is a hotel we eliminated from our choices before booking.

Is this (or a refund) the best we can hope for or can we realistically expect any offers of goodwill, or like for like in another resort/country?

Thanks in advance.

Best answers:

• Where abouts are you going? It seems strange for a hotel to close fully for a refurb in the middle of high season.
  as far as this comment:
  Quote:
• Hi Dave, thanks for taking the time to reply.
  I am aware that any two 5 star hotels, for example, may well be rated the same by the travel agents but we both know there will be differences between the two and this is where the independent sites come into their own for us laymen. When 2 similarly rated hotels each have 1000+ reviews I would argue that those numbers indicate a decent sized sample enough to enable one to differentiate. Indeed at least one major company actually links trip advisor reviews on its own site.
  However my point is/was, we booked what we considered to be the best hotel in that area, anything similar will feel like 2nd best. If it was 'just' a holiday, then fair enough but not for our wedding. I doubt many people would allow their wedding venue to be chosen by default just because their first choice was now unavailable.
  We have considered the financial impact for our potential guests and will take this into any potential agreement.
  Once again thanks for taking the time to respond.
• You might get a better response if this was posted on the main Overseas Holidays & Travel Planning board (not sure why, but you've posted on the Volcano Travel Chaos help & info board)
• Blue,
  fully understand what you are saying regarding trip advisor, but i have had the experience of people slagging off hotels on national TV when, only 4 weeks earlier, i was at the same hotel. Now you may argue that as a travel agent i may be a little more lenient / understanding - however as it was a travel club holiday for travel related staff, there were also baggage handlers, check-in staff, cabin crew & even 2 pilots all staying at the same hotel at the same hotel, and no one had any complaints.
  Which hotel were you originally in and which hotel have they offered. Also, who is your travel agent and who is the tour operator.
  HXDave
• Hi Dave
  Thanks again for the response. The operator has asked now us to choose another venue, even in another country.
  I'd rather not state which operator and hotel yet as things have gotten a little murky in that friends of ours tried to book several weeks back and were told flat out no availability at all any dates around the time we were due to marry. As mentioned earlier I found out that the hotel had already advertised closure, to me this suggests the operator knew the hotel was closed but failed to tell us. I'm not 'on the make' in anyway but I'm really angry how we're now all of a sudden a priority when for weeks and weeks we weren't informed and probably would not have been informed at all had it not been for an email sent to us accidentally.
  Anyway, we're off to have a chat with them now.
• Well we have been given a list of hotels with availability and been asked to shortlist a few of them to check out their availability for marriage services.
  When I asked why I wasn't informed about the closure earlier the agent said that she didn't know herself, not sure how likely this is, she then went on to say that those with flights earlier than ours would have been contacted first.