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Lastminute top secret hotel

Hi

I've been in Rome this week and booked one of lastminute 4 star top secret hotels. On arrival at the hotel it was overbooked and they shipped me off to a pretty grotty 3 star hotel. I had no choice but to accept as basically I was in Rome with nowhere to stay!

My question is do I have any rights to get some money back from lastminute. I prepaid and basically got done. It was only £70 but I didn't get what I paid for. I paid by credit card.

Any ideas?

Comments

  • Mupette
    Mupette Posts: 4,599 Forumite
    goater78 wrote: »
    Hi

    I've been in Rome this week and booked one of lastminute 4 star top secret hotels. On arrival at the hotel it was overbooked and they shipped me off to a pretty grotty 3 star hotel. I had no choice but to accept as basically I was in Rome with nowhere to stay!

    My question is do I have any rights to get some money back from lastminute. I prepaid and basically got done. It was only £70 but I didn't get what I paid for. I paid by credit card.

    Any ideas?

    be worth reading the T & C's and see what they say
    GNU
    Terry Pratchett
    ((((Ripples))))
  • emmas42
    emmas42 Posts: 86 Forumite
    I had a huge argument with lastminute earlier this year as I refused to stay in the hotel. It was certainly not as described on the website and we found an alternative.
    Lastminute said that my contract was with the hotel and not them and that payment was still due as we hadn't given the hotel a chance to put things right. (It wasn't really fixable, the place was a dump...)
    I spent 2 days on the phone to them trying to come to a solution, but lastminute.com are just a middleman. That's all. They are like an agency putting you in touch with hotels and are likely to try and fob you off. They call the hotel on your behalf and just relay what they have said. Utterly useless.

    I got my money back by threatening to write a terrible review on trip advisor. (I also had to say that I was aware that trip advisor don't check the validity of reviews and that it can take weeks for fake reviews to be removed. I stated I have plenty of friends that would also write reviews for me just in time for the high season)

    I felt terrible having to stoop to that, but I am sick and tired of people taking my money for a shabby service.

    The whole weekend was ruined by phone calls back and forth to lastminute, so I would say, if you can afford to let it go, just do it and don't use them again.

    Lastminute don't have your money, the hotel do.

    I'm sorry you also had a bad experience because of them. :(
  • System
    System Posts: 178,173 Community Admin
    10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Cheers. I suspect I'm screwed. When I get back to the uk I'll phone up and argue with them. It's annoying as I booked in feb and confirmed the reservation the day before. Yet when I arrived I had no room. According to trip advisor this has happened before so I suspect it's a scam the hotel runs. The hotel was hotel besta Roma. I wouldn't stay there!
  • paddyrg
    paddyrg Posts: 13,543 Forumite
    Actually I'd say LM have some culpability with the secret hotels - you cannot check out the hotel or its reputation in advance, so only have LM's marketing blurb to live upto. If the hotel doesn't live up to that blurb, they were the ones who misrepresented it, so can't duck all responsibility.

    FWIW I have been generally neutral-to-disappointed by the secret hotels they offer. I have generally found tripadvisor reviews for them have been lower than you'd hope, and that the 'standard rates' have been massively inflated in order to offer a 'deal'. In fact they need to offer 'deals' to get custom, custom that would pass them by if people relied on tripadvisor/traveller reviews :-|
  • Goater, start the ball rolling by sending them an email of complaint, that way it doesn't look like an after thought...
    Don't trust a forum for advice. Get proper paid advice. Any advice given should always be checked
  • System
    System Posts: 178,173 Community Admin
    10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Goater, start the ball rolling by sending them an email of complaint, that way it doesn't look like an after thought...

    Yeah I've done that this morning. They will get back to me in 28 days! I will report back when they do!
  • arcon5
    arcon5 Posts: 14,099 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I guess "top secret hotel" translates to 'vacant rooms in dumps they cannot fill otherwise'

    Good luck with your endeavour, clearly if you was placed in a 3* hotel rather than a top secret 4* hotel you should have a claim for somewhat of a refund!!
  • hcb42
    hcb42 Posts: 5,962 Forumite
    edited 19 August 2012 at 12:47PM
    It isnt lastminute who decides who is top secret - it is the hotel themselves.

    If a hotel overbooks and then outbooks you, you are normally entitled to a hotel of the same value and phone calls/transportation to new hotel etc.

    Seems the hotel you booked (secretly to start with) failed in this case. Suggest you write to them and lastminute and state what you are willing to accept (e.g 50% refund? or whatever)

    If you are a regular visitor to Rome you could probably easily get a free stay at the four star with some extras thrown in - but if you are not, then I guess you are pushing for cash.

    What specifically was wrong with the three star (apart from the grading?) Would definitely be writing a tripadvisor review on that one
  • System
    System Posts: 178,173 Community Admin
    10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    The hotel was ok. However while the original hotel was quite nice this one was an apartment hotel so a bit strange. The area was run down and it wasn't a safe place to be.

    The problem is because I booked a secret hotel I can't really claim anything for the location shift. All I can really claim is I booked a 4 star hotel and I didn't get one!

    I was only stopping in Rome for the night so don't travel their regularly.
  • hcb42
    hcb42 Posts: 5,962 Forumite
    I would say the location shift is relevant, it is not "allocate on arrival", secret hotel simply means you dont find out where you are staying until after you book.
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