Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Holiday Bookings Nightmare
Booking holidays online is proving to be a nightmare. Being significantly impoverished, I have been searching all the popular cheapy holiday web sites - Lastminute, Ebookers and Teletext - I suppose if you had a £10k per month salary, these sites would be cheapy. Pour moi, however, costo molto! Searching dug up a holiday in Crete around £600 - ok, credit card can manage that - went ahead and booked it. Then it dawned on me, where's the fucking flight? All I booked was the hotel - in a fit of panic, I cancelled it - the cost around £150, bollocks. So this is how holiday companies make their dosh.
Time was that one could go into a travel agent and book a holiday, but check out this complaint that I sent to Thomson Holidays two years ago
1 Brochure price for two city break to Paris: one hundred and thirty nine pounds per person. Extra night to this over one hundred pounds. I was prepared to let this matter rest until I saw the actual price per room (not person _ they do not charge by person in France) is sixty euros. I accept that you have to make a commission but by around 300%, do you not consider this a trifle excessive.
2 My fare by Eurostar was hiked up on the spot at the time of booking. I was told that the seat that I had booked had already gone and that I would have to book another at an extra cost of fifty pounds _ with hindsight the brochure was now completely disregarded and I now feel completley ripped off.
3 Upon arrival in Paris, I was not given adequate information about the location of the hotel. The information on the document was Hotel de France situated by the Marais, in the Rue de Rivoli, nearest metro - Nation or Porte de Vincenne. Upon arrival at Porte de Vincennes, I could not find the Rue de Rivoli as it is actually situated near the Chatelet metro. The Rue de Rivoli is around a kilometre long; but no Hotel de France. I found a hotel of a similar name, where the very helpful receptionists did some phoning around for me - they also contacted your Lakeside office. The upshot of this was that I was told that they were merely the agents and that it was responsibility of the tour operators, who had closed their offices for the day. Not a lot could be done. The manager endeavoured to find a hotel de france. One drew a blank, the helpful receptionist at the hotel did some further phoning around for me and established that the Hotel de France is situated in the Rue de Docteur Netter. I felt obliged to pay the receptionist twenty Euros for the phone calls and the trouble and which he was not obliged to take.
I had to rely on the good will of other people who are not your tour operators. What is even more laughable is that part of your documentation which states "You are in safe hands". I felt more like a hostage to fortune than been in "safe hands".
To summarise, the charges imposed on me have been unreasonable vis-a-vis the cost of the hotel accommodation and the hike in the fare - these are not justifiable especially when comparing the actual price of the room in said hotel and the euro star. I believe that the total cost of the break deviated with what was on offer in the brochure; To add severe insult to this injury was I was nearly left high and dry with my ten year old daughter had it not been for the helpful assistance supplied by people who were not part of Thomson Holidays or Thomas Cook organisations.
I believe that I deserve some remuneration for this dreadful and very costly service.
Thomson did not respond to this complaint and I believe that their reputation still goes before them. I shall never book with Thomson again.
Time was that one could go into a travel agent and book a holiday, but check out this complaint that I sent to Thomson Holidays two years ago
1 Brochure price for two city break to Paris: one hundred and thirty nine pounds per person. Extra night to this over one hundred pounds. I was prepared to let this matter rest until I saw the actual price per room (not person _ they do not charge by person in France) is sixty euros. I accept that you have to make a commission but by around 300%, do you not consider this a trifle excessive.
2 My fare by Eurostar was hiked up on the spot at the time of booking. I was told that the seat that I had booked had already gone and that I would have to book another at an extra cost of fifty pounds _ with hindsight the brochure was now completely disregarded and I now feel completley ripped off.
3 Upon arrival in Paris, I was not given adequate information about the location of the hotel. The information on the document was Hotel de France situated by the Marais, in the Rue de Rivoli, nearest metro - Nation or Porte de Vincenne. Upon arrival at Porte de Vincennes, I could not find the Rue de Rivoli as it is actually situated near the Chatelet metro. The Rue de Rivoli is around a kilometre long; but no Hotel de France. I found a hotel of a similar name, where the very helpful receptionists did some phoning around for me - they also contacted your Lakeside office. The upshot of this was that I was told that they were merely the agents and that it was responsibility of the tour operators, who had closed their offices for the day. Not a lot could be done. The manager endeavoured to find a hotel de france. One drew a blank, the helpful receptionist at the hotel did some further phoning around for me and established that the Hotel de France is situated in the Rue de Docteur Netter. I felt obliged to pay the receptionist twenty Euros for the phone calls and the trouble and which he was not obliged to take.
I had to rely on the good will of other people who are not your tour operators. What is even more laughable is that part of your documentation which states "You are in safe hands". I felt more like a hostage to fortune than been in "safe hands".
To summarise, the charges imposed on me have been unreasonable vis-a-vis the cost of the hotel accommodation and the hike in the fare - these are not justifiable especially when comparing the actual price of the room in said hotel and the euro star. I believe that the total cost of the break deviated with what was on offer in the brochure; To add severe insult to this injury was I was nearly left high and dry with my ten year old daughter had it not been for the helpful assistance supplied by people who were not part of Thomson Holidays or Thomas Cook organisations.
I believe that I deserve some remuneration for this dreadful and very costly service.
Thomson did not respond to this complaint and I believe that their reputation still goes before them. I shall never book with Thomson again.
Labels: holidays bookings money rip-offs cons
