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WARNING!! Lastminute.com Secret Hotels...
atagirl
Posts: 12 Forumite
I just wanted to warn everyone about booking Lastminute.com's secret hotel deals.
The idea is you book a mystery hotel that is offering a last minute reduced deal. They give you a brief description of what you'll get -location,style and rating but you don't find out the Hotel Name until you have paid up.
Now...Last year I did this very deal with a hotel in Rome. We booked what LM described as a 'design hotel in the heart of the city'. When we got there the hotel was very nice..BUT there was a plumbing problem on the floor on which we were booked and we would be taken by cab to 'another very nice hotel very close by'. We weren't too chuffed about this, but the hotel guy seemed nice enough so we went with it. The cab took us miles out of the city to a very ugly, old fashioned chain hotel in the middle of the suburbs. When we complianed that this hotel wasn't a 'design hotel in the heart of the city' the very rude receptionist eventually, after much grumping, got us another taxi back into town to yet another hotel. This next hotel was central, but by no means very stylish (our room didn't even have windows) but we had already wasted 4 hours of our 3 day holiday and put up with it.
When we got back I wrote to Lastminute and to the original hotel to complain but got nothing back.
Like mugs, we have just booked a trip to Paris. We thought we'd try the Secret Hotel option again, thinking our experience was just unfortunate. We made the booking and got the details through with the confirmation.
As soon as we got the hotel name we checked out the reviews on Trip Advisor- and surprise...at least 4 or 5 complained (over different dates) that they had to move cos of 'plumbing' or 'heating' problems to lesser hotels.
It looks like these secret hotels overbook- the available rooms go to whoever turns up first and everyone else gets shunted out to other hotels which don't necessarily meet the standards you book for, plus wasting precious time of your holiday.
We called Lastminute straight away who offered us a refund with a £20.00 cancellation charge. We refused this, complained some more and he gave us the full refund.
Has anyone else heard about this? I could find nothing about it on the net!
The idea is you book a mystery hotel that is offering a last minute reduced deal. They give you a brief description of what you'll get -location,style and rating but you don't find out the Hotel Name until you have paid up.
Now...Last year I did this very deal with a hotel in Rome. We booked what LM described as a 'design hotel in the heart of the city'. When we got there the hotel was very nice..BUT there was a plumbing problem on the floor on which we were booked and we would be taken by cab to 'another very nice hotel very close by'. We weren't too chuffed about this, but the hotel guy seemed nice enough so we went with it. The cab took us miles out of the city to a very ugly, old fashioned chain hotel in the middle of the suburbs. When we complianed that this hotel wasn't a 'design hotel in the heart of the city' the very rude receptionist eventually, after much grumping, got us another taxi back into town to yet another hotel. This next hotel was central, but by no means very stylish (our room didn't even have windows) but we had already wasted 4 hours of our 3 day holiday and put up with it.
When we got back I wrote to Lastminute and to the original hotel to complain but got nothing back.
Like mugs, we have just booked a trip to Paris. We thought we'd try the Secret Hotel option again, thinking our experience was just unfortunate. We made the booking and got the details through with the confirmation.
As soon as we got the hotel name we checked out the reviews on Trip Advisor- and surprise...at least 4 or 5 complained (over different dates) that they had to move cos of 'plumbing' or 'heating' problems to lesser hotels.
It looks like these secret hotels overbook- the available rooms go to whoever turns up first and everyone else gets shunted out to other hotels which don't necessarily meet the standards you book for, plus wasting precious time of your holiday.
We called Lastminute straight away who offered us a refund with a £20.00 cancellation charge. We refused this, complained some more and he gave us the full refund.
Has anyone else heard about this? I could find nothing about it on the net!
0
Comments
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i've only used last minute once and got a very nice 4 star hotel in london. i as very happy.0
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My experience has also been excellent. Got 4 star hotel at excellent price in London with Lastminute.com's Secret hotel deal and similarly an even better bargain in Central Brussels .... in both cases hotels were those that were listed on their website (ie: guessed which ones they were from description, location) etc. So far anyway have only had good results0
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Same here - I've used the 'Secret Hotels' in London on a couple of occasions and had no problems. But it looks like you were unlucky. :cool:0
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I did a secret hotel in London and wasn't happy either - won't be making this mistake again!0
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I booked a secret 4* in London a couple of years ago. Wasn't impressed, it was ok for a 3* but very disappointing for a 4*. Have not risked it again since.0
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I have only used lastminute.com last year it wasnt a secret hotel but we didnt get what we had booked and paid for and neither did 150 other holiday makers that booked the same hotel in the main season last year what we got was holidays in HELL!0
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Just out of curiosity, which hotel have you been booked into in Paris?As soon as we got the hotel name we checked out the reviews on Trip Advisor- and surprise...at least 4 or 5 complained (over different dates) that they had to move cos of 'plumbing' or 'heating' problems to lesser hotels.0 -
Fool me one, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.0
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