First Choice - where do I start?!

Becles

We booked our honeymoon with First Choice last July. The hotel we picked was being refurbished and was scheduled to reopen in October 05. However due to various problems, it did not open until 1st March 06.

When the first travellers came back, there were a number of horror stories posted on Trip Advisor and other travel forums. Some facilities were not finished and some rooms were not ready. In the rooms used for guests there were various problems reported like sewage backing up and flooding rooms, no electric, no water and faults with appliances such as the air conditioning and hairdryers. There was construction work going on finishing off the restaurants, shops, pools and rooms that were not finished, and associated debris from building work was littered across the site.

I panicked _pale_

I phoned First Choice and told them what I had read. They insisted there were no problems at all with the hotel and everything was open.

I then contacted the hotel myself who confirmed the problems above and said they were working hard to get the resort finished as soon as possible.

I phoned First Choice back and told them what the hotel had said. They admitted there was a problem but it wasn't significant enough to warrant a change of accomodation.

First Choice then offered to move us to a hotel in another location free of charge. We declined this as we didn't want to go to that resort as personally we do not like it. We have also already booked and paid locally for trips leaving from our original destination and a private taxi transfer from the airport, so we may have lost some or all our money by cancelling those.

First Choice then offered to waive the admin fees if we took rooms at another hotel at the original destination. However when they came back to us, they said that hotel had no standard rooms available, so we would have to pay an upgrade fee for a junior suite. This was nearly £1000 extra, which we couldn't afford to pay.

I got another phone call last week to say they managed to get a standard room at the alternative hotel, but there would still be an upgrade fee of £300 to pay.

Since then I've heard more positive reports about the original resort. All the problems with sewage, electrics etc have been fixed and nearly all the advertsied facilities are now open. The hotel have told me the shopping parade will open this weekend, and by the time we arrive there will just be one pool and a snack bar next to it that is closed. The lady said this is in the new extension and as they are not fully occupied, there will be no guests in the rooms next to it anyway so it shouldn't cause a problem.

I told First Choice not to move us, and we'd go away on the original deal as we had booked.

However First Choice ignored that and moved us to the alternative hotel, and sent us an invoice for the £300.

I've asked to be put back in the original hotel, but now all the standard rooms there have been sold, so we have been put in an ocean view room instead. This is a big problem for us. The standard rooms have balconies or terraces, but the ocean view ones do not.

A balcony/terrace was essential to us as we are travelling with children. When they go to bed on a night, we like to sit on the balcony/terrace until it is our bedtime, and we take turns going to the bar! Without one, it means we all have to go to bed early, or we have to sit in the dark in the room. I'm not happy leaving the children sleeping in the room alone while we go and sit elsewhere.

First Choice are now refusing to help now and basically refuse to do anything more.

Where do I stand now?

We've paid a lot of money for this trip, and saved for over a year, and it's been nothing but stress and hassle

As a side issue First Choice have also changed the flight times, which cause problems with our connecting flights booked with BA. As they are non-changeable, we are faced with a lengthy delay in Gatwick on our return. I haven't had an apology or explaination for the flight change either.