The brochure from Swan Tours Ltd advertising a holiday in Mörlialp, Giswil described the attractions as follows: House Party Centre with special resident host.
... Mörlialp is a most wonderful little resort on a sunny plateau ... Up there you will find yourself in the midst of beautiful alpine scenery, which in winter becomes a wonderland of sun, snow and ice, with a wide variety of fine ski-runs, a skating rink and exhilarating toboggan run ... Why did we choose the Hotel Krone ... mainly and most of all because of the 'Gemütlichkeit' and friendly welcome you will receive from Herr and Frau Weibel.
The Hotel Krone has its own Alphütte Bar which will be open several evenings a week.
... No doubt you will be in for a great time, when you book this houseparty holiday ... Mr. Weibel, the charming owner, speaks English.In a yellow highlighted box it added: Swans House Party in Mörlialp.
All these House Party arrangements are included in the price of your holiday.
Mr Jarvis booked 15 days with a ski pack in August 1969 for £63.45, including a Christmas supplement.
The judge, Lord Denning MR said: So there was Mr. Jarvis, in the second week, in this hotel with no house party at all, and no one could speak English, except himself.
The "yodeler" was a local man who came in work clothes and sang four or five songs quickly.
Lord Denning MR held that Mr Jarvis could recover damages for the cost of his holiday, but also damages for "disappointment, the distress, the upset and frustration caused by the breach."
He said that he intended to give "the difference between the two values and no other damages" under any other head.
The judge received the notice of appeal and made notes for our consideration.
and in Hobbs v. London & South Western Railway Co. (1875) LR 10 QB 111, 122, Mellor J. said that for the mere inconvenience, such as annoyance and loss of temper, or vexation, or for being disappointed in a particular thing which you have set your mind upon, without real physical inconvenience resulting, you cannot recover damages.
The courts in those days only allowed the plaintiff to recover damages if he suffered physical inconvenience, such as having to walk five miles home, as in Hobbs' case; or to live in an over-crowded house, Bailey v. Bullock [1950] 2 All ER 1167.
He is entitled to general damages for the disappointment he has suffered and the loss of the entertainment which he should have had.
It is true that he was conveyed to Switzerland and back and had meals and bed in the hotel.
He is entitled to damages for the lack of those facilities, and for his loss of enjoyment.
I think the judge was in error in taking the sum paid for the holiday £63.45 and halving it.
The right measure of damages is to compensate him for the loss of entertainment and enjoyment which he was promised, and which he did not get.
Jarvis v Swans Tours Ltd has been called "the Donoghue v Stevenson of Tourism Law".