Thomas Cook mis-sold a wedding package abroad, please help!

swecri

I have booked a holiday to Cuba with my partner to get married, we fly out on 21st June 2011. We are taking 31 members of our family with us, equating to just under £30,000 worth of bookings. The wedding package stated it included 6 of our guests at our reception, I asked Thomas Cook reps at my local branch what would happen if there are more than 6 people BEFORE WE BOOKED THE HOLIDAY. They contacted the weddings department and returned with this answer: 'As this is an all inclusive resort, guests will be given a la carte allowances for each week they are there. Any guests over the party of 6 who are at the reception may use one of their a la carte allowances as 'payment' for their meal at the restaurant.' Happy with this, we have all then booked and paid for our holiday. Since then, through someone else who got married at the resort earlier this year, I have found out that once over at the resort, the hotel charges the bride and groom the equivalent of £20 per person over the party of 6 at the reception. Hence I have had conflicting information from Thomas Cook. The weddings co-ordinator at the resort have confirmed that there is a contract between Thomas Cook and the resort which states they will charge for guests over the party of 6.
Despite this Thomas Cook argued that we can use our a la carte allowances, and I now have this in writing from them also. The hotel continues to insist they have the right to charge us for extra guests at the reception and Thomas Cook continue to insist that we can use our A La Carte allowances. We are due to fly in 18 days; we have not budgeted for the extra cost of the reception as we have only just found out the hotel charges. Thomas Cook seems to continue to make excuses, deny that they have said things even though I have written confirmation from them and I am getting no-where. Surely they do not have the right to move the goal posts like they are? I feel we have been tricked into paying for a holiday / wedding, and they have given us inaccurate information when we have bought the holiday. I really am at my wits end with calling Thomas Cook, emailing the hotel and contacting the weddings department. I have had a gutful; I am so worried about the wedding / holiday now that I can’t sleep at night.

spheric

First of all, congratulations! I hope your big day goes well.

In your position, I'd take the written confirmation from Thomas Cook that your guests can use the a-la-carte allowance with you to the hotel. If the hotel refuses to play ball (as you expect), then I'd pay them the money and try to get it back from Thomas Cook on your return.

HXDave

Hi there,

have you checked this out from the hotel direct? at the end of the day it is what they say that goes.

Try e-mailing the hotel to get their point of view across. At the end of the day, the information that leads you to believe that they will charge for any people over the allocated 6 people is not really an official source. It may have been that the £20 charge is for people not resident at that hotel, or people who have already used their AI allowances.

See what the hotel says. If indeed they do charge extra, if you have it in writing from the hotel that they charge, and you have it in writing from Thomas Cook, then let them sort it out between themselves. At the end of the day, you are pretty much covered (OK, guests MAY have to pay £20 to come, but it should be claimable back from TC if they have put it in writing that there should be no extra charge (providing they still have an AI ALC allowance left).

And finally, have a grea wedding, holiday & honeymoon.

HXDave

(ps - Which hotel is it?)

swecri

Thank you for the replies. I have contacted the hotel over and over, and they continue to insist that they have a contract with TC which says they are allowed to charge, if this is the case, I feel TC is to blame for 'mis-selling' us the holiday and wedding package and I think Thomas Cook should foot the bill? But how do I get them to pay, because every time I contact them they stall for time, telling me someone else will call me back, or that I need to wait until a particular member of staff is on duty, one lovely lady evern had the decency to call me a liar when I said Thomas Cook had emailed me to confirm guests can use their A La Carte Allowance. What do I do? I am going round in circles, and not getting anywhere fast.

I literally have several emails from the hotel which clearly specify they have a contract with Thomas Cook which allows them to charge the equivilant of £20 per person, and I also have an email from Thomas Cook saying guests can use their A La Carte allowance. I am trying not to worry or get stressed, but its starting to frustrate me more and more that Thomas Cook are dodging the issue!!

knightstyle

So sorry to hear of your trouble, hope the big day goes OK in spite of this.
Try to get an email from TC saying that the transferable A La Carte allowance will cover the FULL cost of the reception or I can see them wriggling out of any claim by saying the cost is actually £30 and you can use the £10 A La Carte allowance towards it! Hope you sort it.

Westin

Are you sure the extra isn't covering things like a larger wedding cake, champagne for guests etc?

With these wedding packages the standard package normally provides for champagne and glasses up to a certain number (6 typically) and a certain size wedding cake (8"-12"). As you add more guests to the party you will need a larger cake, more champagne, more chairs and layout for the wedding co-ordinator to arrange.

I get the point on AI but that is probably just for the meal/drinks that you would normaly get. The wedding extras for the party 7-31 I would have expected to pay more for.