when is All Inclusive NOT All Inclusive?

[johans]

ANSWER >

 

When you book a holiday at the FORTINA SPA hotel in Sliema, MALTA, through MED HOTELS!

 

In a nutshell, we booked a last minute holiday for our anniversary from the teletext a week before we travelled, opting for the Fortina Spa, reason being , it offered all the usual AI refinements and boasted 5, a la carte restauraunts with unrestricted visits throughout the duration of our 10 night stay, for which we paid, £1386.50 ( flights seperate ), 2 adults, 1 child, 12 yrs old and 1 infant, 10 mths .The booking agent was most enthusiastic and encouraged us to go to the hotel`s website to confirm the high quality facilities that it offered ,

NOTE! at this point, there was no mention of " MED HOTELS", involvement in this contract! we in turn booked, paid and received our booking confirmation ,tickets plus a , " voucher", confirming our reservation and, " package ",type, which stated:

 

room type:2. Twin Deluxe ( 2-4) Garden View All Inclusive ( AI )

 

Issued by , yes you guessed, " MED HOTELS"!

 

Anyway, on arrival at approx 2 am saturday 4th August, we were told by the desk clerk that we were not fully, " All Inclusive", but, " All Inclusive LITE", which basically ment , buffet meals only and no visits to the 5 al a carte resturaunts as agreed and indeed confirmed by the " VOUCHER", we presented him with. getting nowhere and now distracted by 2 very tired children, i decided to make a tactical retreat and take the matter up with the hotel manager the next morning!

 

oh dear, it gets worse!" MED HOTELS" rep, does not turn up for our , " welcome meeting and the hotel manager is adamant that we are , AI LITE, only. My now raised voice attracts another guest who arrived an hour or two earlier in exactly the same predicamant as ourselves. a call to the rep is made and a meeting was scheduled for the evening with the hotel manager, MED HOTELS rep , us and the other family.

 

Meeting goes down hill rapidly due to the MED HOTELS REP being an absolute waste of time, refusing to acknowledge her companys own voucher and claiming her boss/office was closed untill monday and uncontactable and the hotel manager completely abrocates responsibility to MED HOTELS for the, " confusion", i point out to the manager that despite his hotels arrangement with the booking company, he had a duty to his " guests" and should " honour", our vouchers and seek recompense off MED hotels. He will not budge and only offers us an upgrade consession at 10 Maltese each per day to eat in the al a carte restuarants approx £400!

 

AFTER stating my intention to contact and complain to the Maltese tourist board and write to their newspapers as well as legal action, a compromise is reached. HE offers a " temporary" upgrade for the saturday and sunday, in lieu of MED HOTELS, sorting the problem out on monday, we ajourn the meeting and reschedule for monday!

 

MED HOTELS REP,once again does not turn up as arranged only to appear later in the evening where we bumped into her by chance, in the reception area. she claims to have phoned our rooms that afternoon ( as if we would be likely to be in them at that time ) with the bad news and scurries off never to be seen again! The hotel duly downgrades our status back to "AI LITE", and wants nothing more to do with it, however they do write a letter to ourselves and the other family acknowleging what went on and promising an investigation into " MED HOTELS", continuing misrepresentation of their arrangement with the hotel ( the manager and desk staff confirmed that this is a common problem with MED HOTELS and no other travel company operate this, " AI LITE", basis).

 

So there it is, made to feel like second class citizens and paying nearly £140 a night for the privilige, to stay in a 4*, (which was nowhere near, in our experience )we had a stressful, " holiday".

 

NOTE! subsequently, we were made aware, that the hotel manager was only too willing to point out and acknowledge the," vouchers" of other guests whose terms included the phrase " AI LITE", when explaining why the hotel could not allow them the use of full facilities! a slight contradiction of policy ?

 

i am about to draft a letter for compensation for their failure to honour the contract we made, can anyone advise please?

[alibobsy]

Sorry about your hols, hope you at least enjoyed some of it.Just wondering did you get to keep the voucher or a copy as it would be a very useful bit of proof. Would imagine you have a good case for miss selling and the fact your hols were affected by this whole mess.Sure someone with more knowledge will be along soon, good luck

ali x

[johans]

thanks for the positive response ali, yes we have kept everything, the MED HOTELS voucher, the glossy hotel brochure advertising the full AI package ( 5 A LA CARTE RESTAURANTS ) with no mention of the word , " LITE or buffet only" and exhibit A, the letter off the hotel acknowleging our problem but blaming MED HOTELS completely whilst also admitting that it has been well aware of the problem but so far failed to stop it!

[missmoneypenny1]

go under Home and make a complaint with them asap. Med hotels are licensed by them (assosiation of british travel agents)

 

they should investigate your complaint with med hotels, ABTA have a lot of say they also license the big tour operators like Thomson, First Choice etc and they must adhere to strict rules and regulations, i am sure they would love to hear about this one !!

[johans]

thanks missmoneypenny1, i am writing to MED HOTELS, first to give them the opportunity to respond and hopefully give us a total refund, if not believe me, i will go to town on them!

[heidi1]

Hi

 

You can only go to ABTA when you have had and sent 2 pieces of correspondence to MEDH with no accaptable outcome. ABTA will not arbitrate until this point, just to let you know.

 

I would keep your complaint as short and simple, and to the point as you can, and at the end, tell them what you want them to do about it, ie: do you want compensation, do you want a refund? etc...

 

TBH I have not come accross this term with MEDH when booking with them before, I will look at the hotel on the agents site and see what they advertise it as, I will let you know when I have done this.

 

Heidi

[heidi1]

See this link (hope this works)

 

Fortina (Sliema) Hotel- SLIEMA - 4 Star facilities=

 

It is advertised as AI, no mention from what I can see that it is AI LITE or AI ULTRA (which is really good if you can get it!!)

 

Though there is the "chargeable extras bit" where it mentions the a la carte restaurants, and it does say that the meals are buffet in the main restaurant.

 

I think you said you booked through an agent?? Which one was it?? I would make a complaint to them if I were you, you were misold!!

 

Hope this helps a little

 

Heidi

[johans]

thanks Heidi1,

 

 

When the manager of the FORTINA, gave both us and the other family an official written response to our complaint from the hotels perspective, he also produced what he considered to be the proverbial," rabbit from the hat", in as much as a printout from MED HOTEL`S website covering this," All Inclusive LITE"! ( buffet only ). We pointed out that neither of us had booked directly with MED HOTELS but with, " JETLINE TRAVEL ", off the teletext and were`nt even made aware of thier involvement untill the booking confirmation documents came through, plus our hotel vouchers clearly stated, " All Inclusive", only! with no mention of any restriction/ reduction, if they had, we would have obviously taken the matter up before departure!

With regards to your comments regarding, " chargeable extras", this is normal for most AI, a la carte restaurants if you stray off the , " set menu", a supplement usually applies! But we were not allowed to use the a la cartes` full stop! , unless of course we paid top dollar!

 

Regarding the ABTA arbitration issue , I am considering approaching the whole thing in the same way as the bank charges , ie; both warning them of my intention to comlain to the watch dog, ABTA and issuing a court claim through the small track for breach of contract!

 

what do you think?

[gizmo111]

If you wait til the weekend I will forward you the letter I am in the middle of writing about a very simialr complaint that I have against airtours in the dom rep which I have discussed with BF.

[johans]

will do gizmo, many thanks!

[heidi1]

I still think your complaint is to the agent and not to Medhotels, its the agents job to make sure you are fully aware of the ins and outs of what you are booking. They should have either forwarded that screen onto you or at the very least, read it out so you know where you stand with the AI before you go.

 

There are many hotels that are AI and many of them run different prgrammes to others. Some will include 1 a la carte meal during your stay, some will include it full stop, but you pay alot for these, and some, like this one, dont include any, but allow you to use the facilities for a charge... that charge is paying for your meal as if you were going out to a regular restaurant off site.

 

By all means complain to Medhotels, but I still think the book lies with the agent IMO.

 

Yes it will help I think to let them know you will not take this lying down. Ie: going down the arbitration route and small claims if neccessary, hopefully it wont all come to that. Please remember they are allowed 28 days in which to reply to any correspondence, and in my experience, they take full advantage of that.

 

Let us know how you get on.

 

Heidi

[johans]

Heidi1,

 

i take on board your comments especially regarding first port of call, ie; jetline travel!

 

however regarding the AI package, let me make it clear, regardless of what other hotels around the world include in their AI packages, (a la carte or not as the case may be ) , we booked this holiday purely on what was in the particular package that we were offered and believe me it was AI and the unlimited use of the 5 lovely a la cartes` being the main selling point!

[heidi1]

I hear what you are saying, but what exactly lead you to believe that the a la carte restaurants where included in this package??

 

I suspect its what the agent said to you, or how it was sold to you. Medh have it all in black and white on their websites that the AI meals are buffet, ok it doesn't say AI lite, but as I have said before, I have never known them to use this term. It does clearly say that the a la carte restaurants etc are available at an extra charge, what I am trying to say basically is that you were misold this holiday by Jetline Travel. Your issue should be with them for failing to provide you with this information.

 

I am only trying to give you an honest opinion based on 10 yrs in the travel industry and how it will be viewed by Medh when they recieve your complaint. I think they will tell you to go back to your agent and refer you back to the page I enclosed on an ealier post.

[johans]

fair enough heidi, and i appreciate the input but on your question,

 

"I hear what you are saying, but what exactly lead you to believe that the a la carte restaurants where included in this package?? "

 

As i have said before, the booking agent for jetline lead us to believe when he was outlining what exactly was on offer, prior to us entering into the contract, ie. before we said, " yes that`s what we require, we`ll take it, here`s our credit card details"

 

for the record,

> he at NO stage said he was acting on behalf of MED HOTELS, so we obviously never looked at their site!

>the confirmation vouchers came a day before we travelled and clearly stated, " ALL INCLUSIVE", with no restrictions!

>Fortina Spa`s OWN WEBSITE, which jetline`s agent told us to look at, clearly includes unlimited use of the a la cartes in the 4* AI package, again with no mention of any, " buffet only AI package!

>other families there had the same complaint ( look at TRIP ADVISOR website )

>the Fortina`s manger admitted this was a common occurrence with MED HOTEL bookings ( as did all the other tour reps ) and gave us an official letter admitting so with a promise of an investigation!

 

the bottom line here is that we were misled, intentionally or not, we did`nt get what we were offered in order for us to part with our hard earned!

 

i hope this clears it up for you!

[heidi1]

"As i have said before, the booking agent for jetline lead us to believe when he was outlining what exactly was on offer, prior to us entering into the contract, ie. before we said, " yes that`s what we require, we`ll take it, here`s our credit card details"

 

Basically what I think is happening here is that the agents (not just Jetline) are not giving you the correct information at the time of booking. They are using Medhotels as a supplier as they have "packaged"this deal up for you and are thus acting as your tour operator, they are allowed to do this as they are ATOL bonded (I've checked). The agent you spoke to is at duty to tell you who each segment of your holiday is booked through, in this case your accommodation is with Medhotels, and they are also at duty to tell you about the hotel, its not difficult for them to get the information, it took me about 30 seconds!

 

You could not have looked it up for yourself as you were not told who were supplying your accomodation, I assume that you assumed that Jetline travel were?? Correct me if I am wrong. I can only speculate that the manager was telling you about they have "problems" with Medh to a) appease you, and b) because so many agents are not doing their job properly by reading their terms and conditions, which are clearly stated on their website.

 

Despite what I have said I still feel you will lay the blame with Medh, so I think we will need to agree to disagree on this one.

 

Best of luck

 

heidi

[johans]

". I can only speculate that the manager was telling you about they have "problems" with Medh to a) appease you, and b) because so many agents are not doing their job properly by reading their terms and conditions, which are clearly stated on their website.

 

Despite what I have said I still feel you will lay the blame with Medh, so I think we will need to agree to disagree on this one.

 

Best of luck

 

heidi

 

no heidi, both the hotel management and - the one useful contribution- MED HOTELS rep made, confirmed that they had continuously made , MED HOTELS , aware of this ongoing problem with guests arriving to find they had been basically short changed or sold a pup and yet nothing has been done, anyway let`s be honest most reps will tell you anything to make a sale, hence no mention of the major building works going on at the adj Tigne Point development!

[jampot]

Med Hotels will be well aware that they have unhappy customers... but that doesn't mean that it is Med Hotel's fault...

 

I'm with Heidi on this one - ultimately your booking agent (Jetline) did not give you enough information, or gave you factually inaccurate information. Med Hotels have supplied them (and other agents) with a specific 'deal' (the AI LITE) and the reselling agents are selling this on, misleading the eventual purchasers by not clearly stating that it doesn't include the a la carte. Whether this is deliberate or accidental, it is impossible to say - but your complaint is with Jetline, if for no other reason, than they provide the 'package'.

[missmoneypenny1]

yes you need to complain to the booking agent, i.e lincoln travel

 

the tailor made package they sold you was misold.

[johans]

i will start with jetline,

 

however i can`t believe MED HOTELS are doing anything to minimize the problem! It being replocated over and over -according to the hotel management and MED HOTEL`S own rep,- they are well aware of it!

 

THANKS for all your contributions!

[johans]

has anybody got as far as issuing a claim through the small claims track? as i am expecting to have to go down this route basically for them misrepresenting what i was paying for and our subsequent spoiled holiday!

[livelylad]

I have merged your threads. I shall pass this thread to a very helpful lady. She will be along shortly.

[johans]

most appreciated!

[johans]

booking agent acknowledges complaint, apologises for us not enjoying our holiday etc and promises to investigate, blah blah blah but more importantly abrogates full responsibility to med hotels!

[heidi1]

Hi there,

 

I feel that they are missing the point here, big time...

 

They are passing the book onto medh, and I can tell you now that Medh wont do anything with it as they are not the ones at fault. The agents have misold, what you have to do is get them to accept this.

 

I was in Egypt in March with Medhotels on a fam trip (educational) and we visited a property where they told us they were having problems with some clients thinking they could use all the facilites of all the hotels on the complex in AI (7 hotels in total, pretty big place) basically they told us they were having problems because agents were not reading the synopsis properly and giving the customers the right information in the first place. Like I say, its not difficult for your agent to read through and tell you what you do and dont get.

 

Medh sites are the same for every agent, so your agents page for that hotel wont read any different to the one I posted for you to look at. What I would do is write back as ask that they colaborate properly with Medh to sort this out. I think they will find that Medh will tell them exactly what has gone wrong here, and that is the booking agent has misold you your holiday, maybe out of inexperience, or just not reading properly, or maybe there's some sort of malicious behaviour, by which I mean, telling you what you want to hear!

 

By all means go ahead and complain to Medhotels, you never know, I could be totally stupid and not know what I'm talking about, lol!!

 

Keep us posted with your progress, and good luck, hope it doesn't take too long to get sorted.

 

Heidi