Legal Remedies for Spoiled Vacations

Abstract

The word "vacation" means to empty oneself of work and other toils, replacing them with leisure and refreshment. When these vacations go bad, consumers have a compound loss -- the unrecoverable waste of the annual pleasure period, the exasperation of longlaid plans gone awry, the helplessness that accompanies captivity away from home, and the financial loss. Whether it is buying an airline ticket or an all-inclusive cruise, legal contracts are made between the vacationer and the service provider. If the service is not provided -- where the vacation did not happen -- one would only be entitled to recovery of the purchase price and consequential damages arising from the breach, such as the cost spent on a substitute hotel or meals that were promised but not supplied. Increasingly, consumers, individually and through class actions, are being outfitted with legal remedies and judicial empathies to hold the vacation industry in Canada accountable for their enjoyment.