2 very different hotels with the same name

neetsy15

Hi

I booked my summer holiday to Turkey last June and we leave in 4 weeks time, I just noticed last night that there are 2 hotels in the same area and we appear to be booked in the wrong one. I havent been to the travel agent yet but hopefully they will be open today and I can visit them. I just wondered if anyone had come across this before? The first hotel that I thought i'd booked has several pools, kids club, flumes etc and the other is more like an 18-30 no kids club or kids pool or entertainment, and I just cant take the kids to it.

Do any of you guys know what my rights are and if in fact the Travel Agents will help?

Thanks in advance any help will avoid another sleepness night!

Incapuppy

I don't know what your rights are but I should imagine that a holiday at the first hotel would cost quite a lot more than the hotel you have been booked into.

Which operator are you booked with and what are the two hotels in question?

neetsy15

I booked with Thomas Cook, it was the Alaiye Resort and Spa, the other hotel is the Alaiye Hotel both in Alanya, we reviewed the hotel at the time of booking, and discussed the kids club and flumes etc the other hotel doesnt have this. At the time of booking she had to call the hotel direct as it was almost fully booked however it was showing available on the website. The agent called me back after everything was booked. The confirmation I recieved from Thomas Cook simply says the "Alaiye Hotel" I had no reason to question this as I didnt know at the time that there we two hotels with the same name in the same area............whats the chances?

Incapuppy

Having had a shufty about on the TC website it would appear that you required the Alaiye Resort and Spa in Konakli but are booked into the Hotel Alaiye in Alanya (seemingly the Alaiye Kleopatra in Alanya on Trip Advisor)

The second is does not appear to be a typical 18-30 hotel as it is described as having apartments suitable for families but the the first is clearly a far better hotel than the second, having more facilities etc including the water park as you have mentioned.

I can't see availability online for the hotel that you currently appear to be booked into but the hotel you require seems to be available.

It would appear that the error is down to the TC employee that you dealt with so I think your best bet is to visit the store in person armed with the relevant information and take it from there.

As the hotel that you require seems to be available I would hope that the store will do the decent thing and transfer the booking for you but I should imagine that they may well ask for additional payment to cover the cost difference.

Again, I have no idea how you stand legally but keep calm and argue your case and I hope that the store resolve this issue to your satisfaction. Good luck.

Incidentally how did you twig that something was amiss? At least it came to light at this stage and not once you had arrived in resort!

neetsy15

Thanks for this, we noticed it last night when my husband typed in the resort exactly as its listed on our booking form, i almost died!!!

I'm not holding out much hope but feel really conned by TC, I'll go the Travel Agents around lunchtime in the hope that they are opened today

Incapuppy

Maybe phone first before making a special journey but I really would hope that they rectify this situation for you; after all you go into store to discuss your requirements with customer advisors and you are paying for their assistance. Its not like you booked it yourself online and failed to pay attention to detail. I certainly would not be prepared to let this one go.

PS: I wouldn't say that they had set out to deliberately con you as such but an employee would appeared to have made an error; which I would expect them to rectify. Given the circumstances I'm not sure how you could be expected to know that there were two different hotels in close proximity with such similar names, especially since the brochure name given to exactly the same accomodation can vary between tour operators anyway.

peachyprice

Did the booking come out alot cheaper than you were expecting? There's quite a price difference between the two.

photome

peachyprice wrote: »

Did the booking come out alot cheaper than you were expecting? There's quite a price difference between the two.

That was my first thought.

Hope the Op sorts it and comes back with an update

neetsy15

Hi

Thanks for the replies, i went to the store today however they were unable to help as the admin office wouldnt make any changes as its after 29 days, I need to escalate to customer relations on Wednesday. The agent who booked this is also on Mat Leave so isnt there to give her side.

I feel a bit of a fool now there is a real difference in the prices but at the time I was advised it was a flash sale and everything about the booking was for the better resort the agent even told me about facilities that I wasnt aware of ie recreation room under the pool.

Bottom line is I cant take the kids to this hotel its not suitable for kids. I'm hoping they'll change to something more suitable and I contribute towards the differnce in price. I'll now need to simmer until Wednesday!

Thanks again for taking the time to reply

Incapuppy

Thanks for coming back and updating.

I did say initially that I thought there would have been quite a price difference between the two properties. However if you only been discussing the better hotel (being unaware of the existence of the other) but the agent was mistakenly quoting pricing for the other one and then went on to book it then I think the branch should bear the difference in cost.

I seem to vaguely recall that each branch has to have a contingency fund to account for staff errors, perhaps our lady Steph who works in TC (I think) may be able to comment on this if she sees it. If you were being told that a flash sale was currently on you would have had no idea how much discount they were offering to secure bookings there and then.

This is of course, just my opinion and to be fair I'm usually quite harsh on people that post on here about booking errors as they often seem (to me) to be at fault but in this case I think I think you have a genuine case for falling foul of an error by TC staff.

miamoo

The only problem I see is that its taken a year to notice the error. If you had noticed straight away, or within say 1 month you would of stood a better chance.
The hotel you are booked in to is approx half the price of the one you intended to book, so you would be looking at quite a large extra payment to upgrade to the correct hotel.

Can I ask how much you paid?

The reason I ask is that Turkey flights are quite expensive and hotels are quite cheap, it might be worth your while looking for a nicer hotel in the area your hotel is. Use the flights and transfers and pay out yourself for a better quality hotel.
Look on Travel republic, thomson hotel only, hotels 4 u etc.

I know this isnt ideal, but if you willing to pay an extra £300pp to upgrade (thats if they give you this option at this late stage).
You can then attempt to get the hotel part of your holiday back when you return (and the staff member returns from maternity leave).