Hi Cassandra, first of all, welcome to the forums and I hope you are finding this a useful resource and enjoying yourself!

Secondly, I never take holidays so am probably not the best person to advise you on this, but I will give you the benefit of my experience in writing letters of complaint as I have written many, many of these over the years all with really good results.

Thirdly, I understand that any voucher collect scheme will have terms and conditions and these are usually printed in the newspaper either on the first day the voucher appears, to let you know what to expect and how to redeem, or on the final day when the last token appears and you are told how to go about redeeming your vouchers and for what you can redeem them. Also, it can happen that you get something like "terms and conditions apply, these can be viewed at .....(insert web address where you can find said terms and conditions)" or terms and conditions apply and you can discover these on application to....(insert address where you can write to so you can find out what they are) but usually there ARE terms and conditions....you say above, that "it was not clarified in any terms and conditions" but I feel sure that there would have been SOMETHING of some sort, just maybe in very very small print and it would have been in the Sun Newspaper. Of course, I would also recommend a visit to the Sun website where you would find out further information about these on the site. Do find these, however, as they are really your "jumping off point"

If, when you have found the terms and conditions, you then cannot find anything in them about upgrading and school holiday weekends, we have a good starting point for a complaint but I feel sure that there would have been something about certain conditions applying at busy or Peak times of the year, because obviously the resorts are busier then and can command a higher price for bookings.

If you can get the above information and come back and post, we will see how we get on then.

As regards wording a letter of complaint, you firstly have to make sure you have something to complain about. So see how you get on, OK?

Thank you for the response! These forums have been really interesting to read and helpful.
I have been reading through the terms and conditions for the holiday from the sun newspaper. These are the only ones which may be relevant? I previously booked a short caravan break using the sun last year but the park was a haven one and there was no problems upgrading, this time the park is a ‘park resorts’ one.

Terms and Conditions
3 News Group Newspapers Limited, publishers of The Sun do not own or operate any of the parks mentioned in this offer. We do offer our readers complete financial protection in the event of financial failure of any park or park operator in this offer by holding your holiday payment in a trust account until the completion of your holiday.
. Holidays offered are organised by independent parks and operators. Your contract will be with the owner or operator of your holiday park and comes into effect when a holiday confirmation has been issued to you. The party with whom you have your holiday contract accepts liability only for the negligent acts and/or omissions of its employees.. These terms and conditions and How to Book apply to all holidays booked through this offer and, together with the standard conditions of the holiday park or park operator, form the basis of your contract with your holiday park or park operator and theirs with you. Your signed application is your acceptance of the terms and conditions of this offer.
Holiday homes will be caravan homes, chalets, apartments, lodges, bungalows, cottages or tents. Holiday homes will be available from 4pm on day of arrival and must be vacated by 10am on day of departure. If you will be arriving at your park during late evening you MUST advise your park direct in advance. Weekend breaks start on Friday and end on Monday. Midweek breaks start on Monday and end on Friday. Seven night European breaks start on Monday or Friday. Parks in this offer will allow you to use the park facilities on your day of arrival and departure before and after your specific holiday home accommodation is available. Please note that some facilities may be seasonal.

I presumed the 'facilities' would include golf or other elements like that?

ive read through the information and conditions of the booking which i recieved from the park resorts company,
In regards to accomidation.ie the caravan the only thing the conditions say is "it is possible that in some circumstances accommodation” etc “may have to be temporally withdrawn due to maintenance, renovation, adverse weather conditions, changes in government legislation or any other factor outside our control” it also says “all bookings are subject to these conditions of booking and to availability”. I also received an added leaflet detailing all the different upgrades you could request(I presume this would be sent out as standard as when I phone the helpline they said they don’t actually allocated any of the upgraded caravans for people who book using the newspaper promotion during any of the school holiday. The Leaflet just says “subject to availability” but doesn’t actually say there is no availability for upgrading during school holidays! I have spoken to two different members of staff on the phone but they didn’t give their names and I didn’t think to ask. One of them said there was no availability and didn’t give a reason and the other one told me there you couldn’t upgrade during the school holidays. If I had known I wouldn’t have booked the holiday. I might phone them back and ask again and get a name of someone this time….

Ok, Cassandra, having read through the above, I think you do have a case. I feel that the reference to "facilities" certainly means the leisure facilities within the particular resort. I also feel that the "subject to availability" could be made to cover a large range of things and could be bent or twisted to suit the particular resort if it suited them...however, there certainly does appear to be nothing in there saying specifically that school holidays were exempt from upgrading so I would proceed like this.

Firstly, if you have the name of the person you spoke to that would be a really good start, but if you could get their words down, in terms of almost exactly what they said.....like this....

I telephoned during the (morning/afternoon) on (date) and spoke to a member of staff who advised me, when I asked, that....."there was no availability for upgrades but refused to give a reason" and the second member of staff advised that "there I couldn't upgrade during the school holidays".

Your letter should start with this, names and dates if possible. Then go on to say that (something like this, but use your own words) -

"having read through the terms and conditions, there appears to be nothing specifically stating that I am not entitled to upgrade during the school holidays. I understand the meaning of "subject to availability" but the holiday is available as I have already booked, and all I required to do was to uprade as per the leaflet sent to me advising me I could do that with the resort, when I booked."

I think it is also really important that you put in the letter that you had no intention of booking at all for any other dates as you had to go in the school holidays to be able to go at all!!!

I hope this helps.

George, our other CSC, is really the person you need to speak to specifically about holidays as he has had trouble before and is very well qualified to discuss this in detail, but sadly he has recently had a family bereavement so will not be around for a little while.

Please do ask if there is anything I have not covered.

thank you so much for your help. ive read in a different forum that its better to write a letter rather than type it? do you think i shoudl write it by hand?

Absolutely. However, use your very "bestest" handwriting, Cassandra! What this shows the company is a) you are a literate person who is taking time and trouble to put pen to paper instead of just tapping away at a keyboard like so many other computer users....not that there is anything wrong with so many other computer users, you understand, but pen and paper is a traditional and well tested method of writing which I think means you are taking much more trouble over your choice of words.

b) It means that you care enough to use this method, you have something to say and you mean to say it and say it well. You do seem to think much more carefully when you are writing by hand, I think, and you can express yourself better in handwriting than by typing (unless of course you are a secretary then you do 100 wpm like me!!LOL) but most of all....

c) you are being much more official. You should keep a copy of what you have written, even if you only scan it in and keep it in your docs file online, but do keep a copy of the actual letter you send. You will be assured of an answer if you do this, and you will be surprised what an effect a letter of this nature has on a company who receive typewritten or emailed communications ALL THE TIME!

Very best of luck and don't forget to come back and let us know how you get on.

Incidentally, I once helped a friend who had a problem with her holiday and she received a cheque for £100 compensation from the holiday company. Not that my letter did it, but it is just that maybe complaining is worthwhile!