An online holiday offer that turns out to be something else is rarely just bad luck. Dutch and European law regulates how travel must be sold, what the price must include, and what happens when the trip is cancelled or the provider fails, and the rights differ sharply depending on what exactly you booked.

Package or single service?

The distinction that decides most cases is whether you bought a package. A package is a combination of at least two different travel services – transport, accommodation, car hire, or another significant service – sold for a single price or in a single booking process. Buy a flight and a hotel separately from two suppliers and you have two contracts; buy them in one flow and you may well have a package, whatever the seller calls it.

A package brings the strongest protection. The organiser is liable for the proper performance of the whole trip, including the parts carried out by others; you are entitled to a price reduction and to compensation where services fall short; and where the essential elements change significantly before departure you can withdraw without penalty.

Insolvency protection

Package organisers must provide security against their own insolvency, which in the Netherlands is usually arranged through a guarantee fund. If the organiser fails, the fund covers repatriation and repayment. That protection exists only for packages, which is the single most important practical consequence of the distinction – a separately booked flight offers nothing comparable.

Price and advertising

Prices shown to consumers must be the total price, including taxes and unavoidable charges. Adding compulsory fees at the last step of the booking flow, presenting an option as pre-selected, or displaying a discount from a price never actually charged are unfair commercial practices, and the Authority for Consumers and Markets enforces against them.

After booking, a package price may only be increased where the contract expressly allows it, within narrow limits and for defined cost categories; a substantial increase gives you the right to withdraw.

When something goes wrong

Complain on the spot and in writing, and give the organiser the opportunity to put it right – failing to do so reduces what you can claim afterwards. Keep the booking confirmation, the description as it appeared when you booked, photographs, and the correspondence. Where the trip was materially worse than promised, a price reduction is the primary remedy, and compensation for loss of enjoyment can be claimed in addition.

Flight delays and cancellations have their own regime, separate from the package rules, under the European air passenger rights regulation.

Booking safely

Check who the counterparty actually is and where it is established, whether the price shown is the final price, and whether the booking is a package with insolvency protection. Pay in a way that leaves a route back – a card payment can often be reversed where a bank transfer cannot.