Cunning Alpha Rooms!

waribai

Bought the groupon vouchers for the £50 for £20 deal. Checked this morning and the hotel I wanted was £59. This afternoon after the deal has gone live it is now £65. Add on their £5 debit/credit card charge and it's not such a good deal after all

KonkyWonky

So you still saved £24?

Prices change regularly, often daily, any saving is a good saving.

CG19a

I wasn't so bad, my hotel only increased by £1 from this morning. I'm just annoyed that you can only pay by solo card to miss the card fee.

waribai

CG19a wrote: »

I'm just annoyed that you can only pay by solo card to miss the card fee.

Yes, what's that all about!

alphason

I bought 3 groupons. Before buying I checked alpharooms as I was looking to stay in Hanoi Vietnam, there were pages of hotels available (don't remember exactly but maybe choice of 60 places) at least half were budget hotels under 20 per night the norm for Vietnam. I wanted to stay at a particular hotel I have stayed at before it was something like 15 per night.

So now I have the vouchers, but the exact same search gives just 7 hotels and nothing under 50 per night. They have obviously removd all the lower cost places, also checked different dates and other Vietnam cities with the same results..

Contacted groupon they say 'With the sheer number of people who purchase these Groupons, alpharooms.com available deals would be reduced, however, this is something we are unable to monitor or comment on. I would suggest getting in contact with alpharooms.com customer service team, and find out if they have any rooms available thats not published on there website or if any of the rooms you have previously seen will be available again in the near future.' OK I accept this but there is no way that all those rooms are now unavailable, especially in Vietnam which I do not think would have a huge demand? Alpharoom does not publish an email address so getting in contact is not that easy, although I will try phone number when I get chance.

Think I will be asking Groupon for a refund! Not exactly there fault but you can't offer a discount and then remove all availability or increase prices to counteract this.

grubby23

Is this right that you can ask groupon 7 days for a refund without giving a reason? Are there any problems doing that?

I have the same issue, most of the rooms that where there a couple of days ago have suddenly vanished...

luci

Yes. If you read the T&C's you can email them with your voucher code and ask for a refund. I have done this and got an email confirming the cancellation the following day and it was refunded to my credit card the day after that.

fluffygrue

I'd just been thinking the same thing.. I'd checked before buying the Groupon a few places I fancy staying.. and there was a nice £50ish a night hotel in Stratford Upon Avon that I fancied.. plus a cheap hotel in Dahab, Egypt that we'd been planning on staying at for about £20 a night. Now there's nothing available which seemed a little suspect.

Might request a refund.. though I'm not sure if they'll release some of the more budget hotels if we give it a few months, given the voucher is valid for a while.

Jaxt

:mad:Just tried to use my groupon with alpharooms and got a no charge through on to my debit card and asked to check it while making a room purchase for 78 pounds after trying again and checking it , I used my credit card and the same thing happened . The code had gone off the total fine so what is going on ? After having problems with them last year for not sending me my accom voucher I said never again but this just takes the mickey. I remember last years fiasco and their customer service telling me to log into my account to retrieve the voucher which when I tried just said no bookings on record and the no pick up of phones. OMG here we go again

lightisfading

I have emailed requesting a refund.

Hotels available for my chosen stay if no voucher code is entered - 56, starting from about £50.

When entering the code this magically reduces to a choice of 6, all awful chain places, none above 3*, all £90+ a night (despite the fact that on other websites the same rooms are £50-60, and there are 4* places available without the groupon code for £60.

Complete joke.

katyf1000

I bought a voucher from Groupon and have been stuffed up by alpharooms. Tried to call and complain to alpharooms but no joy. Emailed (well their support request) and have no response after 11 days. Can I contact Groupon or is it nothing to do with them now?

Basically due to the voucher my total to pay was £0. Yet they have charged me a £5 card processing fee to process nothing (well except the processing fee for a non-existent payment). Any ideas on how to complain? Can I contact ATOL? Or should I write first?

Lesson is.....never ever buy from alpharooms again. Expedia are so good & all I have saved is £20 and yes I know it is only £5 but it was taken without my consent and £5 is still £5.

Many thanks