Urgent help required - Love Holiday have just cancelled my holiday

[jen123]

On Sunday I booked a holiday through love holiday which came to £300 for the two of us. Today I got an email requesting for me to call them and when I did they said that the holiday that I had booked was overbook and I now must pay £1000 for the next room up. I have already paid £130 to the previous holiday. Can they do this to me? What rights do I have? I must phone them back within the next hour please help

[martin2006]

You have booked in good faith, an advertised holiday. You should be abke to get a full refund of anything you have paid without any cancellation fees.

I had a simikar situation a coupke of years ago when i booked a short trip to turkey and the flight was cancelled. Got a full refund of what i had paid and rebooked a different holiday.

Dont let them fob you off with any boo-shee

[BankFodder]

I would go further than this.

 

I think that you can insist on getting a holiday for the price that you paid and if it is more expensive than they will have to make up the difference.

 

They have dealt with you and received your deposit and unless there is anything really significant in their terms and conditions, I would say they you have a binding contract and they are attempting to breach it.

 

The problem is that it will take some time to force a solution if they won't deal with you reasonably. This means that you might either end up missing the holiday, or else you will have to do get more expensive holiday and then claim the money back afterwards – with a very high chance of success, in my view – if it is handled correctly.

 

What is the date of the proposed holiday?

[jen123]

The date we were planning to go was the 17th June

They had this on the website

'Pricing Errors

Loveholidays.com endeavours to ensure that all pricing and other information on its website is accurate. However, because of the sophisticated technology required, there may be times when obvious errors occur such as the price or some other detail displayed being incorrect. In this case loveholidays.com shall reserve the right to cancel that contract and the customer will not have any liability to this regard. You must therefore ensure you check all details of your holiday at the time of booking.

 

Loveholidays.com will put its best endeavours to find and rectify any errors and omission as quickly as possible.

 

Our booking platform may accept unrealistic bookings without objecting any further to the user's judgement and in this case we reserve the right to refuse any refunds in respect to those products purchased. '

 

but when I called they said it was a sale and not a pricing error and due to the current situation in Turkey I thought that a significant price drop would be reasonable.

[jen123]

Also, how would you handle this correctly?

[BankFodder]

If the reason for the cancellation is overbooking by them, then I would say that they are liable

 

Of course, your problem is that you have not recorded your calls so you have no evidence of what they have said. If they simply now point to incorrect pricing on their website and they have referred to this in the terms and conditions – as you have pointed out to us, then I'm not too sure whether you have any reasonable basis for pursuing a claim.

 

If you can read our customer services guide and implement the advice there and get a recording which makes it clear that there has been an overbooking then I think that you are in a strong position.

 

Why don't you record your calls?

[unclebulgaria67]

Also, how would you handle this correctly?

 

There was a complaint on CAG about Love Holidays a fews ago. They said the hotel was not available and offered an alternative at extra cost. It was a mess.

 

They are basically an online holday brokers. You can buy holidays, where the flights and hotel are separate or you buy a packaged holiday via them with a big company like Thomas Cook.

 

Is this a packaged holiday ? If so, who have they booked with ? You might have rights under ATOL ?

 

You need to check your booking. Is it ATOL protected ?

[unclebulgaria67]

This is the other CAG thread about Love Holidays

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?460000-Abta-or-small-claims-court/page2

[jen123]

Thank you, the holiday is ATOL protected.

 

We called and they said they would email the hotel about changing the dates and hopefully keeping the price the same.

[unclebulgaria67]

Thank you, the holiday is ATOL protected.

 

We called and they said they would email the hotel about changing the dates and hopefully keeping the price the same.

 

Glad you resolved. My understanding is that under ATOL protection, you get what you booked at the price booked. They can't charge any more, unless they offer a better option and you accept.

 

What happens with these big tour operators is that they book huge numbers of rooms at an agreed price and they don't settle with the hotels until near the booked dated. So if one Hotel option gets overbooked due to error, they have other options. It is not your problem, it for them to sort out with the tour operator.

[jen123]

Thank you ll very much for your advice. I'll keep posted on what happens next!

[unclebulgaria67]

Just to clarify, the ATOL protection evidences a packaged holiday being provided. It is the Package Holiday Regulations that are most relevant and it covers what price changes they can make under section 11.

 

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1992/3288/contents/made

[jen123]

They've got back to me now and have said that if we want to keep the holiday we have we must pay an extra £1600, or else they will pay a small contribution towards another holiday. Ideally, we would like to keep the one that we have, but do we have much choice?

[martin2006]

Where did u book to go to?

Is the same holiday available thru a different agent?

Have you looked for a similar holiday to transfer to at around the same price?

 

I would have an alternative quote from a different firm to hand when you next speak to them

[jen123]

I was just browsing the website to look for alternative holidays and my exact holiday (same flight, same rooms, same dates) is still available but at a much higher price.

[martin2006]

So the assertion that it was overbooked is twoddle and as thats the reason they gave for you having to upgrade your room at a massively inflated cost you have a basis to argue.

Screenshot the availability and e mail them to challenge the reason for you having to pay more.

See what they come back with

[unclebulgaria67]

Phone the ABTA helpline saying you have booked an ATOL protected packaged holiday and the agent is trying to charge more, which appears to be against the Packaged Holiday Regulations. Ask them how they can help with this.

 

http://abta.com/holiday-help-and-complaints/customer-support-team

 

They might as well admit they made a mistake and if they have a get out clause in the contract to point to it.

[jen123]

Called them up and they have said it is still over booked but the system was slow to update, although they have managed to update the system with the new prices, and that they could still not give me my holiday. I called ABTA and they've said if the dates are not available then they can offer me a full refund.

[jen123]

I have also checked other websites such as travelrepublic and ebookers and they are also saying that the rooms are still available.

[unclebulgaria67]

They are obviously breaking the contract because they can't provide the holiday at the cost you booked it at. It is then a question of what your legal entitlement is. Is this forcing Love Holidays to provide the holiday as booked or to refund in full what you paid ? I suspect it is only what you paid, if you went to court.

 

You could get your own back by going on every online forum and review site advising people to not use them or face disappointment,