A True Case: Vacation Reservations

Be aware when reserving your holiday that what is being offered to you may be quite different than what you will actually be receiving. This was the case judged in the Small Claims Court (Kraiot Court Case #4259-03-09) before the Honorable Judge Penina Lukitz, given on August 17, 2010.

The plaintiffs purchased a vacation for themselves and their two children, ages 12 and 15 at the Ganei Moriah Hotel in Tiberias through the “Daka-90” travel agency.

They claim they were offered a high level hotel, remodeled swimming pool, private beach and an active entertainment team. But what they found was a poorly maintained hotel, with no working swimming pool and no entertainment team.

The defendants claim that they are not to be held responsible for the hotel maintenance, therefore the responsibility lies with the hotel itself, and so they requested that the hotel be included as a third party in the case.

The Honorable Judge dismissed the request to add the hotel as a third party because the essence of the case was not the level of the hotel, but what was promised by the travel agent to the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs taped their conversation with the travel agency. After listening to the tape, the Judge decided that beside the swimming pool issue, nothing was offered to the plaintiffs. The opposite was actually true! They were informed specifically that there was no active entertainment team. Therefore, the Judge decided to compensate the plaintiffs only for the swimming pool, a third of the total amount paid for the vacation.

The defendants were found guilty of misleading the plaintiffs by offering services that they didn’t know themselves were available or not at that time in the hotel. The plaintiffs were rewarded with 450 shekels for damages and another 350 shekels for expenses.

Conclusion: Before going to court, be aware of all evidence you are presenting to the court and ask for a third party opinion. I believe if the plaintiffs had presented the court only with the real facts and real complaints they would have been rewarded a higher amount, but they chose to exaggerate their claims. This hurt their reliability.
 

Sincerely,
 

Tzvi Szajnbrum, Attorney at Law