Haven Holiday / Daily Mail Offer Problems

jmwblues

Hi,
Last summer I took up an offer in the Daily Mail to collect several tokens and book a cheap caravan break through Breakfree Holidays.

I duly booked the Holiday Park (Greenacres Holiday Park in North Wales) for the 4th April 2011 and paid the £90 accommodation cost. Great Stuff.

A condition of the booking with Breakfree/Daily Mail was that any additional charges needed to be paid before the Holiday commenced.

I received a confirmation letter [dated 27 August 2010] from Haven Holidays confirming the holiday and the £90 I had paid. The letter then listed 'Add Ons' which I had never requested, for 'Entertainment and Facilities Pass', 'Power Charge' and 'Promo Linen' all of which totalled a further £72.00.

Haven stated on the letter that this was now the 'Balance Due Now'. My cheap holiday was now a lot more expensive!!

Not to worry I thought, with the exception of the power charge I dont want or need the additional options. [How the power charge can be listed as an add on bewilders me, but never mind.]

On the 28th March 2011 I rang Haven to pay for the power charge only to be told they had cancelled my holiday because the add ons had not been paid within 10 weeks of the commencement date.

They also refused to refund my original £90.00.

They pointed me to a condition of the booking in their letter of 27 August 2010 which states 'Please note all balance payment due 10 weeks prior to travel'. This is a very small comment at the end of the final page of the Haven Booking Conditions. I honestly thought this referred to bookings where people had only paid part of their holiday. I didn't ecpect it to refer to 'Add ons' or Options which I hadn't requested.

I did not receive any reminder or other notification from Haven other than the letter of 27 August 2010. They didn't even have the decency to inform me they had cancelled the holiday.

Not sure if I am being emotional here and should just put it down to experience or if Haven are wrong. Can someone give me their advice opinion:

1. I booked the holiday with Breakfree and adhered to their booking conditions [ie I tried to pay the power charge fee before the holiday commenced].
2. Breakfree have then arranged the holiday with Haven, who have then imposed a further restriction that the balance must be paid 10 weeks before commencement - however it should be noted that the booking conditions do not state that the holiday will be cancelled if the balance is not paid 10 weeks before.
3. Havens booking conditions state that if they cancel the booking they will advise me which they haven't.
4. The statement 'Please note all balance payment due 10 weeks prior to travel' is the final comment on the last page of the Haven booking conditions, but again does not state the remedy if it is not paid.
5. Havens conditions do not state that my £90.00 accommodation charge that I paid is not refundable.

I was angry when I found out a week before my family's holiday that it had been cancelled, I was livid when I found out that they would not refund my £90.00.

I have tried by phone and email to resolve with Haven and Breakfree without success [Haven have not bothered to reply to my emails].

I ended up booking a holiday with Hoseasons instead.

susancs

I recently booked using the recent Breakfree/Daily Mail offer for August 2011. Your booking confirmation letter may be different as it was issued in August 2010 and my letter is 1/4/11, but on the reverse of my letter it states as the first clause,
"to confirm your holiday please pay your balance within 14 days of the issue date on your confirmation. Linen and entertainment passes are optional extras. If you do not require these please call us immediately to remove them. All other charges are manadatory. Where the balance is not received within 14 days of the issue date on your confirmation, bookings will be cancelled without any refunds made".

I have had a look on the Haven website and it does state
"Paying the holiday balance Deposits are deducted from the full amount, leaving a balance payable 10 weeks before the start of the holiday. This date is clearly shown on your holiday confirmation and balance reminders will not be sent. Bookings made within 10 weeks of the holiday start date are payable in full. We cannot accept cheques within 4 weeks of your holiday start date. If the balance is not received by the due date, the holiday will be treated as a cancellation and any monies already paid will be forfeit."
http://www.haven.com/support/terms-conditions.aspx

I know it is upsetting to find that your holiday was cancelled due to the add on optional extras not being cancelled by you or paid for within the time limit -but think you are unlikely to get a refund of the money.

pip007

All of the extra charges are outlined on the breakfree/dailymail offer website and they are all listed for individual parks.

I think that because you had the letter giving the cut off date for the payment to be received you probably aren't entitled to any money back (sorry!)

I do think though that its worth asking if you can put the money you've already paid towards another break ( If all this hasn't put you off completly) A friend of mine was in a very simalar situation to this last year with a butlins break that she booked though the sun and they let her use the money already paid towards another date.

These breaks can save you money (especially if you're going in the school hols) but always read the terms & conditions for the 'extras' - Hope you get something sorted

DEB813_2

Absolutely outrageous. I wonder how many other people have been ripped off after not reading the "small print". The holiday was paid in full yet they cancelled it. Surely there is a way to reclaim this of those thieves!

I'm shocked, I really am.

jmwblues

Susancs

Thanks for your reply. My confirmation letter from Haven is significantly different to yours. I would agree if my letter said what yours says then I would be stuffed but it didn't. I assume they have changed the wording of their letters recently to overcome my issues???

My argument has also been that my contract was with Breakfree, not Haven. I had acted in accordance with the Breakfree conditions as stated at the time, the Haven conditions were imposed upon me.

pip007

Thanks for your reply. They did offer me the opportunity to credit my £90.00 payment against another caravan on the same site during the same period - however I would have to pay a further £297.00. I decided against that!! Also the fact that they are willing to offset the £90.00 against a more expensive caravan makes me think that they actively look to cancel the cheap breaks and then offer to offset the cost already paid against more expensive holidays??

DEB813

Thanks. You and me are on the same wavelength.

susancs

I had a look at breakfree holidays terms and conditions and I'm afraid it states that the contract is between you and the Holiday Park (Haven in your case), however it does state that booking conditions with the Holiday Park can be varied by written signed confirmation by Break Free Holidays. If you have this letter varying the Haven conditions, then you should be able to use this to support your refund request to Haven/Break Free.

http://www.breakfreeholidays.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/
1 GENERAL

1.2 BreakFree Holidays acts as agent for the owner of the Park or Property (Park Owner/Operator) in booking the accommodation (Booking). The rental arrangements including, marketing, booking and administration services are made by BreakFree Holidays on behalf of the Park Owner/Operator and the contractual arrangement is directly between the Park Owner/Operator and you.
1.3 In the case of any inconsistency with any Booking or any other form of communication between you and the Park Owner/Operator, whatever may be their respective dates, the provisions of these Booking Conditions shall prevail unless expressly varied in writing and signed on behalf of BreakFree Holidays"


2 CONTRACT

2.1 The Contract for renting accommodation at the Selected Park or Property is between You and the Park Owner/Operator and it incorporates and is subject to these Booking Conditions
2.2 When you make a Booking you enter into a contract with the Owner for the letting of the Selected Park or Property in accordance with the Booking Conditions.

I do feel for you as it must have been very upsetting to find out a week before your holiday that your booking had been cancelled and I imagine you had to pay more last minute for another holiday. I would think that they must have re-rented your provisional caravan after cancelling the booking, when they could only offer you higher spec ones so were probably not much out of pocket only in relation to admin/agent if they charged the new booking your orginal rate of £90 for example (may have even got more money, that covered this?).

pip007

I think that you have been treated very badly by them -to have no reminder letter/phonecall or no notification that they were cancelling your holiday is terrible customer service.
From memory when this happened to a friend because the caravan booked was a 'promotional' unit she was abe to put the money towards another 'promotional unit' (i.e swap for a future date within the promotion) not the silly amount they have asked for.
Sorry I don't have any better advice for you

mustbemoreorganised

the same thing has just happened to me with the sun promotion. On receiving a cancellation letter from Haven I called the number given, the man I spoke to wasn't very helpful said there was nothing he could do. Next morning I rang again and explained the situation, admitted it was completely my fault but said I would be very grateful if there was anything they could do and result, managed to rebook for a later date for the same park and van. It took some time to work out and it wasnt my first choice of dates but I was just glad to rescue something from it. Now I just have to find another holiday 25-29 April for under £100!!

newmum2007

I read this thread this morning and it got me really worried! We have booked for sep with haven throught breakfree and had the confirmation letter in feb, I hadn't rung them and paid due to lack of funds.
Have just got off the phone and paid the remainder with no problems, maybe this is something they are doing to holidays booked last year?

Metalminxy

Unfortunately, you really do have to read the small print with these things.

If you look at booking a holiday at Haven or one of the other featured holiday companies, you are normally looking at paying between 190 and 500 pounds depending on how long you are going for, how many people in your party, what time of year, if you want activity passes and so on.

I always make sure that I compare the original price of a holiday before booking a cheap deal. You cannot always assume that a cheap holiday will be as cheap as it says it is.. for a start it says "From £15pp" or along those lines. There is always something extra that you need to pay unless it states that that is all you have to pay for the whole holiday.

I have been booking these cheap deals from the Daily Mail for the last 3 years and just this Friday came home from a fantastic 4 nights in St Ives, Cornwall with my husband and 2 young children. In the next week or so, when the booking opens, I will be booking a 4 night break in great Yarmouth with the whole family including my mum and sister as they came last year and the year before.

If you book something and you don't read the small print or fully research the offer before you spend your money then you can expect things to go wrong. I have never had a problem. Even when I couldn't pay the full balance for the extras on time, all I did was give them a quick call and they gave us an extension on the pay date. You have to be a bit savvy.

So what I suggest for a stress free budget break

* Do your research don't just assume

* Check the booking dates, times and any extras. (Some companies add them on and you decided if you want them or not... and this isn't just Breakfree)

*Call them and speak to someone if you are unsure.

It really is common sense.