Holiday should never have been booked.. What now???

[tanya1980]

Please can someone give me some advice.

 

In December I made a holiday booking through Qwerty travel to the Costa Del Sol, Fuengirola for 27th May staying at the Gardenia Park Hotel for 2 adults, 2 children and 1 infant. At the time of booking I questioned would the room size be ok for all of us as I had had numerous hotels being rejected because of over occupancy, they said that it was fine, so I went ahead, booked the holiday, paid £400 deposit and got very excited.

 

A week later I recieved the holiday documentation to say that flights booked with Easyjet, Accomadation booked with youtravel (twin/double AI) and transfers booked with resort hoppa, all fine!!

 

On Wednesday I got a phonecall from the admin department of Qwerty travel to tell me that youtravel had said that due to operational reasons they could not honour the hotel booking and that they were transferring me to an equivalent hotel, Griego Mar, Torremolinos. I had seen this hotel whilst searching for my holiday previously and explained that there was no way I would be staying there as it didn't have proper entertainment for the children, was in an area that I didn't want to be in and looked like a dump.

 

They are now saying that there is no other alternative hotels in my price bracket and that if I don't stay at the Griego Mar and I cancel the holiday I will lose the cost of my flights, £390.

 

I have since learnt that the operational reason is that they can't fit us in the rooms that they have booked.

 

I am outraged, I risk losing my money because they have booked us a holiday that didn't in effect exist. I understand that different components are booked separately but I wouldn't have booked the flights if they hadn't of had that hotel.

 

Is there anything I can do? I will not go to the hotel offered, I don't feel that I should pay any extra especially since holiday prices have risen since I booked so I will never find anything for a reasonable amount, and I don't feel that I should lose my flight cost?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

x

[jenny_adams]

Oh dear, I don't have any ideas but just wanted to wish you good luck!

Edited March 2, 2009 by 42man
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[MrShed]

Does it state anything in the T&Cs of the booking that you may be placed in alternative accomodation?

 

Did you pay on a credit card?

[tanya1980]

It does say that they can put you in an alternative hotel but the one they've offered is so below the standard of the one I booked.

 

Put the deposit on credit card I think, haven't paid balance, was due this week but don't wanna pay anything else until I know where i'm staying.

 

Is there anything I can do?

[smarmymarmy]

They have to offer an alternative hotel of a similar or higher standard- do they have their own ATOL licence or is everything just booked individually?Whichever way it,s misrepresentation, so threaten them with the small claims court. I,m a travel agent!

[tanya1980]

I have still not had any joy with company. I think it is going to come down to taking them to the small claims but also means can't really afford another holiday as prices raised so much since I booked.

 

They have got an ATOL licence, is there anything extra I can do?

 

Is there anyway I can still get a decent holiday?

[smarmymarmy]

is it just the flight portion of the holiday that you,ve already paid for with a deposit only on the accomodation? and have flight tickets already been issued to you?

[ems15298]

Hi Tanya,

 

I know that even if your flights and hotels are booked with the same people, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are subject to the same conditions. Easyjets policy will be drastically different to whichever room consolidator your travel company has used so you may have a nightmare sorting something with the flight side, however, the room size is clearly not your fault and you even queried it with the res agent so you couldn't have done any more! Realistically, the company should offer you two rooms (If that would be suitable with the ages of the little'uns,-maybe interconnecting ones?) and suffer the losses themselves. I was Cust Serv for a travel company and wrote this kind of thing off on a couple of occasions, so as long as there is room in the hotel this should not be too much of a prob. Getting the company to accept their error is where you will have problems tho!

 

Hope this helps and good luck x