I won a holiday!

altyfc

Yeah... it's true... 7 nights for 2 people, at a five star hotel on Tenerife. Got to take it up before June. I didn't even know I was entered in the draw! (and no, it's not some kind of scam)

How's that for saving money? :T

moonrakerz

Did you actually enter the competition ? :rotfl: :rotfl:

sloppychops

How do you know its not a scam when you actually didnt know you had entered in the 1st place?

Elljay_2

Congratulations!!! How lovely. How did you win it then, if you didn't even know you'd been entered into a draw?

gatita

Altyfc............ I do very much hope that you did win the holiday, but I have the nasty feeling this is the old timeshare/ holiday ownership/ shared ownership thing, especially as it is to Tenerife.
I have no doubt that you would be able to have your holiday, BUT be very aware that you will be roped into to a 'Presentation' lasting at least 2 hours where you will be put under an awful lot of pressure to buy.
I had one of those calls last week telling me I had 'won' a holiday (I had never entered for one) I finally got them to admit that I would have to attend a presentation......... so just be aware.:o

davidlizard

If its too good to be true, it usually is. It may very well be genuine, but in all likelihood its a scam.

It typically works like this: They will require an administration fee (typically £99 per person + VAT), then will insist that you take out their insurance (another £39 pp), then only permit you to take the holiday if you book the flights through them (at a cost much greater than a high street travel agent will be able to source), then the dates you want are fully booked, and there will be a fee payable to move to another date because you are going on a Tuesday, then a taxi from the airport is to be booked and paid for upfront, and so on. People then continue to throw good money after bad. Some do get abroad where they are intimidated into purchasing unwanted holiday club memberships (and find these are exempt from the cooling off periods protecting timeshare purchases) - others get as far as the local airport where they find their flight tickets are bogus. Very few get a cheap or free holiday.

Do a google search for "Free Holiday Scam" and related phrases to see the extent of the problem, and variations on a theme.

I do however guess from the original posters tone of his post, that he or she is fully aware that this is a scam, but just in case anyone else gets similar calls and is tempted ...

altyfc

No, no... this is no scam... it's a company that I work with on an affiliate basis.

Many of you will have perhaps heard of them - they're called Alpha Rooms. Well, in January, I sent around 40 bookings their way which meant I got 40 'entries' into their draw. Entries were drawn out of the hat for a variety of prizes and I was lucky enough to get the top prize! Little did I know but they'd actually announced at the beginning of the month that there would be this draw as a means of encouraging people to send bookings in their direction.

I regularly liaise with the affiliate manager at Alpha Rooms... they're a reputable company that pay me monthly... thanks for the warnings of caution but it's definitely not one of those timeshare-type scams that some of you are alluding to.

budgetflyer

Whats the name of your site altyfc ?

richardw

Not money saving, just a commission/bonus situation, have you looked at reviews on Tripadvisor.

altyfc

budgetflyer wrote:

Whats the name of your site altyfc ?

We have over 300 travel sites.

One of my own personal sites is http://www.aluxurytravelblog.com - you can read more about the win on there, if you read this entry.

And yes, I've checked out the Tripadvisor reviews of the hotel in question. They are mostly positive but a few little moans from people saying "this isn't 5 star". The thing, "5 star" in Spain is not the same as "5 star" in the UK... it's more akin to 4 star. In Spain, for the truly 5-star properties, they have the classification '5 Star Grand Luxe' which this hotel isn't, but I'm still not complaining.

altyfc

richardw wrote:

Not money saving, just a commission/bonus situation...

It's money saving in so much as I was hoping to go on holiday anyway, and this way I won't have to pay for it.