Sold and booked 1 hotel offered another, poorer one last minute

Nigle_2

Sorry this is a little long but......
At the beginning of December 2011 I booked, with On the Beach, my holiday to Mallorca, specifically cala mesquida resort. There are 3 hotels here, Resort(best), Club and Park(cheapest), in rescinding order of quality/price. Today I had a message from on the beach claiming that our booking cannot be honored due to over booking, and offering me alternative accommodation in the cheaper and lower spec Park hotel. When I refused this, pointing out that it was no where near the value and spec of my original booking, the story changed.They then went on to claim the following ' I have checked your booking with the supplier and they have advised the price you originally paid and the room type selected was always for the Viva Cala Mesquida Park. It seems that the price for the Park and room types shown were displayed on the website under the description of the resort. We are unfortunately unable to book the resort for you.' This is complete nonsense as when I booked back in December I had the prices for all 3 hotels on that day, and checked days previously, in 3 separate windows to check. Unsurprisingly the prices charged now are more than 50% more than my earlier booking. I have all the paperwork confirming the booking etc.
Surely they cannot do this? Anyone help?:mad:

AMILLIONDOLLARS

Anyone??

I would fax over a copy of the document you hold, proving what was said was untrue. If they are still selling these holidays, they must be in breach somewhere, hopefully a travel expert will come to your aid soon.

AMD

Archergirl

I think this happens rather a lot with onthebeach.

jimd-f

do you have confirmation of the original booking.
what exactly did they book for you in dec2011.is there any difference in the * rating of the hotels.
you need to also check the T&Cs that were sent to you, or that are on the website.
"normally" if you book a hotel and the TO changes it at the last minute you would get a hotel of equal or greater value than the one cancelled, but as you are almost certainly not on a package holiday this may not apply. you need to read the T&Cs.
regasrdless of the rights and wrongs, you need to decide what you want to do next.
you will almost certainly not get your flight money refunded if you cancel, but as this may be a material change you could get your hotel money refunded and try to book elsewhere.
in my opinion, you are caught between a rock and a hard place and if you want a holiday you need to find a suitable hotel and try and negotiate the best deal you can with OTB to get a suitable alternative, or get the hotel money refunded and book a hotel elsewhere.
it is also worth posting on
http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/forum/tour-operators-and-travel-agents-f43.html
as there is a staff member who picks up the complaints posted there and has normally been very helpful in sorting out these type of issues.