Travel Republic - non-existent room types

keef30

We've just returned from a Holiday booked through Travel Republic. It's the first time we've used them, and feel like we've been conned out of some ££'s.

After searching about we found the destination and the hotel we wanted to stay at, however we really wanted a sea view room if possible, but none were availible on the dates we could go away. The only rooms availible were for the following room types,

Twin / Double Room - Inland View
Twin / Double Room - Garden View A

The latter was more expensive, but we really didn't want to end up in a room looking into the back side of a hill or another building - so we opted for the Garden View room and paid the extra.

Before going on the holiday we tried to contact the hotel directly to see if we could upgrade the room type to a sea view - that's when it got confusing. The hotel owner said he only had a booking from us for a Double Room - Inland View ??? Anyway - seeing as it was all booked - and we were off in a few days - we decided to leave it until we got there to sort it out.

When we arrived the hotel owner said that he only had two types of Double / Twin room, Inland View and Sea View - Garden View A did not exist, meaning we had paid Travel Republic some extra £'s for what sounded like a better room, when paying less £'s for the more basic sounding room - would have resulted in us getting the exactly same type of room when we arrived regardless.

In my opinion this is mis-selling by Travel Republic - does anyone else think so, what are our chances of getting a partial refund ??

Apart from this the Hotel and Holiday was first class i'm glad to report.

One thing I have learnt is that it's probably better to try and book flight only - and book the hotel directly, if we had done this we would have saved a few £'s in all eventualities. If this isn't possible (ie all you can get is a flight + hotel package) book the cheapest room type - and contact the hotel directly for a room upgrade.

SwissLe

I don't think this is Travel Republic's fault. The way it works is that they have a computer system which uses a couple of different providers to search and find you the 'best' price flight and accom. The results are then laid out in a nice fashion for you to choose from on their website. If you go to into an independent travel agent they can use several systems of providers to find you the 'best' quote. These providers all tend to call the room something different, depending on their categorisation. I would also hope the higher price you paid would ensure that the hotel would give you one of the better rooms in the category, rather than the worst.

withabix

I agree with the first reply.

Travel Republic's booking engine gets feeds from various room booking/agency servers and the descriptions and prices are those provided by those servers, plus TR's % markup.

Inland View and Garden View are the same thing on different booking servers.

This gives you the freedom of choice to select the cheapest room of the type you want.

IvanOpinion

keef30 wrote: »

Apart from this the Hotel and Holiday was first class i'm glad to report.

That is the main thing

One thing I have learnt is that it's probably better to try and book flight only - and book the hotel directly, if we had done this we would have saved a few £'s in all eventualities.

One slight word of warning on this, make sure you compare like-for-like. For example if you book flights and hotel from one place quite often it includes 'transfers'. If you book flights and hotel separately it may not include transfers which could cost you significantly more (a saving of £50 does not look so good if you have to pay £75 for transfers)

Ivan