Graded accommodation complaints

Occasionally, the quality of your accommodation does not meet your expectations. Visit Wales has a procedure in place to deal with consumer complaints. 

Visit Wales encourages you to make any comments that you may have about your accommodation to the proprietor or manager at the time of your visit. By doing so, you will give the proprietor the opportunity to deal with your comments and it may be possible to make your stay even more enjoyable. 

We can only consider the investigation of complaints about accommodation operators if they participate in one of Visit Wales’ grading and approved schemes.

Please send details of your complaint to us at the address below within 14 days of your visit. Please include - where possible - the name of the person to whom you referred your complaint, at the accommodation.

When Visit Wales receives your complaint, you will receive correspondence within 15 working days advising you how Visit Wales proposes to deal with the matter.

In order to fully investigate your complaint, Visit Wales will pass on a copy of your complaint (including your personal details) to the proprietor concerned. We will contact you before doing so, but it would be helpful if you could include in your complaint whether or not you consent to Visit Wales to passing on your details. If permission is not given to pass your complaint and/or your personal details to the proprietor, then in some circumstances, depending on its nature, Visit Wales may decide it is unable to fully and fairly investigate the complaint. In such cases, details of the complaint will be retained on file and taken into account at the next scheduled grading assessment.

In case of serious complaints, a Visit Wales representative will visit the establishment to re-assess the accommodation concerned and/or discuss the complaint with the proprietor or manager. The visit will usually take place within 30 working days of receipt of the complaint. We will subsequently advise you of the outcome to the visit.

Quality Assurance Department, Visit Wales

Welsh Government

Rhodfa Padarn

Llanbadarn Fawr

Aberystwyth

Ceredigion

SY23 3UR

Telephone: 0300 062 2418

E-mail: quality.tourism@gov.wales

Visit Wales is unable to get involved in disputes of a financial nature. There are organisations more able to offer guidance for this type of complaint, please refer to the links at the bottom of the page.

Here at Visit Wales one of the problems that we face are properties that come out of the scheme but continue to display Visit Wales signage or claim to have a Visit Wales star rating.

Displaying Visit Wales signage when no longer participating in a Visit Wales scheme is an offence under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and is misleading to potential guests.  We regularly monitor the use of signage and use our Quality Assessors to report back to us on their areas.  With the assistance of Trading Standards, we investigate any matters concerning improper signage and ensure appropriate action is taken.    

If establishments not in the scheme are displaying signage on their website or at the property itself, we want to know about it. Contact our team in confidence on 0300 062 2418 or email us at - quality.tourism@gov.wales.

Visit Wales is unable to deal with complaints about accommodation operators who do not participate in one of our grading/approved schemes. In these circumstances, we recommend that consumers follow the links below for more information on their legal rights.

• Trading Standards – https://tradingstandards.gov.wales/
• Citizens Advice – www.citizensadvice.org.uk