ROYALLY SHAFTED by Lastminute.com! LIVID.

sillyme

I am absolutely fuming.

I've just taken the plunge and booked a holiday to Dubai. We decided after much shopping around and a recommendation from a friend that we would go for a lastminute.com 'Top Secret' hotel as the rates are so good and you can be quite prescriptive with your requirements.

I search for a hotel using their search engine stating a hotel in Dubai.
Looked throught the list that came back and finally booked a hotel last night. Good-ish price.

Tag line states: Luxurious hotel - 5* - Dubai (Lovely, thinks I).
Small print goes on to state the distance from Dubai city and the aiport.

V excited I await my confirmation email and information the actual hotel.

Get my email and the hotel isn't in BL__DY Dubai at all!

The Arab Emirates is made up of 7 states - Dubai is just one, and our hotel it turns out is in another state entirely! A place called Ajman - which isn't horribly far but fundamentally is NOT Dubai.

Lastminute.com are flatly refusing to say that they are at fault and refusing to refund anything because the hotel have said their policy is 100% cancellation fee. Fine - but I then expect lastminute.com to step in because their advert is false! :mad:

They've said that from the distance I shoudl have checked and seen on a map that it wasn't Dubai - BUT THEIR ADVERT STATES IT IS DUBAI. :mad: Isn't that lying? False advertising? Something?

They then said the hotel address is xxxx Road, Ajman, Dubai. But the fact is the hotel isn't in BL__DY Dubai! :mad:

What can I do? Is there a legal body I can contact? :mad::mad:

whatusername

Im unsure, did you pay by CC and if so speak with them and see if they can do anything.

RedCanadaHat

how far away is it exactly? more than 30 miles?

sillyme

25 kms but importantly it's in a totally different 'country' to the one they are advertising.

As an aside - we're going specifically to stay near friends who are getting married and all reports I can find and my friends are able to provide suggest this 25km is travelled on two roads only and travel time regularly exceeds 60mins due to traffic.

sturll

I can see your frustration. Believe me i use Price line so i know the disappointment you can have when you finally realise where your hotel is.

But it is a risk you take and on occasion it results in things like this.

Its a chance you take unfortunately.

Moonchild

Do you have screenshots? Or can you recreate the situation to show that they say the hotel is in Dubai?

I can see why this would happen, but amazed it hasn't come up before and they encountered previous issues.

If the secret hotel is in 'Dubai' as opposed to 'UAE' in my opinion this entirely requires Last Minute to fix as a problem.

Pee

I'm really sorry this has happened to you, but it's a good lesson for the rest of us to learn. You do need to make sure you know where the hotel is and how you will get there and back before you book. And if something looks too good to be true, you need to look another twice...

daveyjp

If you are going to stay near friends wouldn't it have been an idea to book a hotel near them rather than play lucky dip?

Traffic is horrendous wherever you stay. Friend of mine caught a taxi to cross the road - it was quicker and safer.

Ajman is actually closer to Dubai centre than the Palm, which IS in Dubai. It's five star - go and enjoy.

inflationbusting

I don't think even Priceline is like this, the distance is pretty far.

Question: you say the tag line says the distance from Dubai. Surely you could infer something from that?
I mean, if I booked a hotel 10 miles from Central London, I would not expect to be staying in Oxford Street. In fact, I could be staying in Essex, which is not London.

Nevertheless, I do feel that this is a bit on a cheap stunt on behalf of lastminute who probably know that tourists are not going to have much idea of orientation.

You could raise that the hotel in question says 'nearest airport: Dubai'. It isn't. Therefore your decision was based (partially) off information that was incorrect.

sillyme

I do have screen shots and all my emails from them.

But if you search for hotels in Dubai, UAE and then go through your search results you'll see it. THEIR search engine brought me back a hotel in Dubai - that isn't in Dubai. THis as well as the advert stating it's in Dubai.

Incapuppy

sillyme wrote: »

As an aside - we're going specifically to stay near friends who are getting married and all reports I can find and my friends are able to provide suggest this 25km is travelled on two roads only and travel time regularly exceeds 60mins due to traffic.

I can understand your frustration to an extent, but you state that you were aware of the distance from the airport and the city before you booked. Would it not have been better to ask your friends about travelling times before you booked for such an important event? Yes, I know, hindsight is a wonderful thing and all that.....