While Christmas trees are being decorated all over Russia and bought for the New Year, the courts continue to sort out the claims of tourists until they go on vacation. “Covid” tours and other problems with the service, regular passport problems – in total, as experts from the company “Lawyers for Tourist Business “Bayborodin and Partners” said, they had to participate in 27 courts over the past week. And most of the travel agents, whose interests were protected by the company, received a very valuable gift – the answer that the tourists' claim was denied.
Let's give the most interesting examples. So:
- For example, in Moscow, a “covid” tour was dealt with with a lawsuit against Anex Tour and a travel agent. Tourists bought a tour to Jordan for 64,000 rubles. from March 12 to March 19, 2020, and even managed to fly out on vacation, but received unpleasant information – Jordan closes the airspace due to the pandemic and all flights will have to depart ahead of schedule. “It so happened that tourists were forced to return to Russia not on March 19, but on March 16. The situation required detailed consideration: tourists, having paid for 7 nights, actually rested only 5,” the lawyers explained. At the same time, the tourists tried to “knock out the difference” through the courts from the tour operator. “They made up a lawsuit from numerous artistic phrases and quotes about how bad everything was on vacation. At first, they complained that they learned about the cancellation of the flight from other tourists, and not from their tour operator. Further, the tourists concluded that the hotel does not correspond to the declared category of 4 stars, because. The Jordanian staff spoke Russian poorly, which, in their opinion, cannot be in a hotel of this level. It got to the point that the tourist wrote an appeal to the Ministry of Tourism of Jordan, demanding to notify on what grounds this hotel received 4 *, obviously, the ministry did not answer the meticulous tourist. At the end, the tourists did not forget to mention “broken doors”, “the nobility of the tour operator's employees” and other vivid epithets,” the experts said. At the same time, for each lost day of rest, they wanted compensation of 35 thousand rubles, as well as 20 thousand rubles. compensation and 27 thousand rubles fine. “The tourist furiously tried to blame the travel agent for selling him a bad tour, which means that the agency should also answer for the lost 2 days and the creaking doors in the hotel. What was his surprise when the judge ruled that any claims against the travel agency would not be satisfied,” added the lawyers of Baiborodin and Partners.
- In Karelia, not the most typical example was dealt with – the situation in Abkhazia became a reason for indignation. “Mother and daughter bought a ticket to Abkhazia for July 2022 at the Sana Hotel in Gagra. According to the information, the sanatorium provided daily cleaning and free wi-fi. Upon arrival, the tourists were very disappointed with what they saw: an old building, neglected territory, dirty rooms and dilapidated furniture. They complained that the cleaning for all the days of rest was never carried out and in general the service left many questions,” the lawyers explained. Tourists also complained about the lack of mesh on the windows and “mosquito attacks” because of this, as well as “an intestinal infection that infected many visitors” and “a lot of uncleaned vomit” on the hotel grounds. As a result, one of the tourists caught an infection, she had to be treated, and the second decided to compensate for this situation with an additional vacation in Sochi. “The tourist described all this information in the lawsuit, ending with the demands: return the money spent for the tour in full 62,000 rubles, as well as 50,000 rubles each. for moral compensation for each tourist – to her and her daughter. The tour operator (known in the Russian market) turned to our lawyers for help, who took control of this case. According to our forecasts, the tour operator should have won the case. But everything happened much easier, the plaintiff did not appear at the first meeting – he fell ill. The second passed sluggishly – the tourist did not provide new evidence, except for dubious photographs, ”the experts said. She didn't show up for the third. As a result, the case is closed.
- In St. Petersburg, a fastidious tourist went to court. The situation was as follows: the tour operator did not confirm the application and offered an alternative: the tourist was planning a vacation in Turkey, choosing the Saturn Palace hotel in October 2021 – 101,000 rubles. “Unexpectedly, in the application, the tour operator cancels the unconfirmed hotel and offers an alternative. The client began to study the proposed options and settled on the Crystal Centro hotel. The tourist was completely satisfied with the hotel and he left to rest. True, when he returned, his opinion changed dramatically and he filed a claim with the travel company,” experts say. It was not possible to agree, and the next step was the court. .”The tourist demanded to compensate him from the amount of the tour 48,000 rubles. due to the fact that the hotel, in his opinion, was worse and cheaper, and also demanded a penalty and moral damage of 15,000 rubles for this amount. As a result, the judge made a decision, which completely refused the plaintiff to satisfy his claims,” the company said.
- Another adventure with passports was dealt with in Moscow: tourists, spouses with Uzbek citizenship wanted to fly to Istanbul. We came to the agency, filed an application, entered passport data, paid and booked a tour for mid-May. “On the appointed day, the couple arrived at the airport and, when passing through passport control, it turned out that the spouse had an old-style Uzbek citizen’s passport, and travel abroad was allowed with new passports, despite the fact that his passport is valid until 2024. In connection with this circumstance, the tickets were canceled and the trip did not take place. Tourists sued the agent, who, in their opinion, should have known about possible problems and understood the nuances of passport control and entry permits. Now tourists demand to recover, in addition to the amount of the tour, also 100,000 rubles for moral damage and 30,000 rubles for legal assistance they spent on,” they explained. However, the tourist was not released from Russia to Turkey by the border service, and without issuing a document to the tourist about the reasons for non-admission on the day of departure. “The reason for the refusal of the border service remained unknown. The court took the side of the defense (of our clients) and denied the claims of the tourists,” the lawyers said.
- And another “covid” tour from Rostov-on-Don. “At a local agency, a family of 3 bought in 2020. trip to Prague (Czech Republic). Rather, the family made an advance payment of 61,000 rubles, and the rest had to be paid later, closer to the flight. The trip did not take place, the tourist demanded to rebook to Sochi, but at that moment it was impossible. Customers requested a limited time refund from the tour operator, to which the tour operator referred to Government Decree No. 1073 with an extended refund period for travel services. But the tourist did not care about all the laws and he went to court. The clients demanded to return the money for the tour within the established time limits, to compensate them for moral suffering (50,000 rubles), legal services (50,000 rubles), and a fine (5,000 rubles). According to the law, the return under the Decree was valid until 12/31/2022, which means that the tour operator is acting within the rules. The judge had no choice but to dismiss the tourist's claim,” the lawyers explained in detail.
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