For several years, Martin Beecham and his family have booked holidays in villas with access to a private pool. They love swimming and this is always an important part of their villa choice. Last year, they booked a villa through Sunworld Beach Villas (the trading name of Sunworld Ltd). The total cost of the holiday was £2,626. Sunworld has many villas in Northern Majorca, and features only a general description of them in Its brochure. For illustration, it shows pictures of a lovely villa with pool set in beautiful grounds. The brochure also carries an assurance that ‘we can guarantee that (our) villas will be at least as good as the specification provided in the brochure description.

But there was disappointment in store when Martin and family arrived at their villa. The villa did have a pool-but It was tiny, measuring less than 3m by 4m. and was certainly not suitable for swimming

Martin complained to Sunworld’s representative, but she couldn’t find the family an alternative villa. Martin also contacted the travel agent back in the UK who, in turn, contacted Sunworld. Despite promises from Sunworld that It would look into the matter and send a senior representative to see them, Martin and his family heard nothing.