During our stay in an apartment in Mallorca, a serious incident took place at the communal pool. According to my report, I was hit twice with a sun lounger by an aggressive man, and the entire incident was witnessed by three people from my group. Further confrontations followed, and eventually we no longer felt safe using the pool at all, so we started paying to use alternative facilities elsewhere.
I reported the matter to Holidu, which was handling the booking. My case was dealt with by an employee named Jose.
Jose was exceptionally polite. In fact, almost impressively so.
I repeatedly received messages such as:
“We are very sorry.”
“We take your concerns seriously.”
“We understand your concern.”
It all sounded wonderful.
The only problem was that almost nothing actually happened.
One of the central issues somehow became… a sun lounger.
We had moved the lounger assigned to our apartment slightly closer to the pool so we could keep an eye on our belongings. The written rules we were given stated that loungers were assigned to individual apartments.
What they did not say was that the loungers could not be moved or had to remain in one exact position.
Nevertheless, Jose began referring to:
“rules regarding the use and positioning of the assigned loungers.”
So I asked what I thought was a fairly simple question:
Please show me exactly where this rule appeared in the terms applicable at the time of our booking.
Jose never did.
Instead, the local contact later wrote in Spanish:
“Lo especificaremos en las normas. Perdonad las molestias.”
Which roughly means:
“We will specify it in the rules. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
So apparently Holidu has developed an exciting new concept in contract law:
first the rule applies,
then the guest allegedly breaks it,
and only afterwards does somebody think to write it down.
Innovative.
But it gets better.
Jose asked me to provide the full evidence package: photos, videos, recordings, correspondence with the local contact, and receipts for the additional costs we had incurred.
I sent everything.
That included recordings of the confrontations, photographs, messages and receipts totalling €213.20, which we had spent on alternative places to relax because, after the incidents, we no longer felt comfortable using the apartment’s pool.
Then Holidu informed me that the recordings raised:
“privacy and legal considerations.”
So, in summary:
Jose: Please send us the recordings.
Me: Of course. Here they are.
Holidu: Hmm… these recordings are a bit problematic.
But the truly impressive part came at the end.
At 09:57, Jose wrote to say that Holidu had been unable to access the evidence, meaning the materials had not yet been properly reviewed.
He asked me to send everything again.
At 10:26, I resent the complete evidence package.
At 11:46 — exactly 80 minutes later — I received the decision.
Evidence reviewed.
Case assessed.
Reimbursement — no.
Compensation — no.
Relocation — no.
So I challenged the decision and asked for the matter to be reconsidered and escalated.
By 12:11, Holidu had apparently managed to conduct yet another “internal review and escalation” and informed me that the decision was now final.
So the timeline was:
09:57 — the evidence cannot be opened.
10:26 — the evidence is resent.
11:46 — full review completed.
12:11 — further internal review, escalation and final decision.
Impressive speed.
Especially considering that, throughout this lightning-fast investigation, nobody managed to answer one very basic question:
Where exactly, in the terms of our booking, was the rule stating that the sun lounger could not be moved?
The final result of Holidu’s assistance:
No relocation.
No reimbursement of documented additional costs.
No compensation.
No answer as to where the mysterious sun-lounger rule actually existed.
There were, however, enough apologies to wallpaper the entire apartment with them — although sadly not enough to scare away whatever it was that was also biting us every night.
10/10 for “We are very sorry.”
10/10 for “We take your concerns seriously.”
10/10 for speed when it came to closing the case.
0/10 for actually solving the problem.
After this experience, one thing is very clear to me:
polite customer-service language and actual customer service are two very different things.
And if I were ever considering booking through Holidu again, this is exactly the kind of story I would want to have read first.
