Hotel Cancelled one week before holiday, help

henrygregory

Hi, about 4 months back, me and my girlfriend booked a hotel in Spain via LowCost Holidays. We picked a superior room all inclusive and paid an expensive price for the hotel as we had visited before as economy visitors and really enjoyed the place, entertainment, range of pools and child-friendly atmosphere.

We are literally horrified this evening to have received an email from LowCostHolidays saying they can't give us our hotel as apparently it is over booked - with one week and a day to go to our holiday. It has taken them months of hanging on to our thousands, and they appear to have left it until the week before we fly away to inform us we cant go to our favorite hotel. They have offered us an alternative and the reviews look ok, but it seems much more geared towards older people and has one small swimming pool compared to the three large ones our choice hotel had. We don't have children, but like a more lively venue with entertainment geared more towards the younger age groups. What options do we have here?
Paid with cc, but obviously don't want to do any chargebacks at this point in time as we have flights and transfers booked with other companies, and we have a week before we fly out.

Really disappointed with LowCostHolidays

lovesgshp

Contact the hotel directly and see what they say. It may be that LCH have run out of their allocation of rooms, but some are still available.

henrygregory

lovesgshp wrote: »

Contact the hotel directly and see what they say. It may be that LCH have run out of their allocation of rooms, but some are still available.

Already have actually, but thanks very much for suggestion. Emailed hotel straight away as I contacted them a month after paying LowCostHolidays to confirm they had our booking and they wrote back at the time saying yes, everything is ok, looking forward to having you back. Have the email saved in my inbox.

Have emailed them again this evening just to verify if all is still well before I speak with LCH.

rustyboy21

I am not 100% sure, but I think that the payment for the hotel is not transferred to the hotel by the agent until either 24 hours before, or just after you arrive. If they have had a bad payment history with LCH, then they may have cancelled it.


I know I had an issue years ago, arriving at the airport and getting told our complex was full, even though I paid 9 months previous. Appears that a German holiday firm, offered a dearer rate to the complex, so they cancelled all the UK bookings, the day before all the flights flew out. Was chaos at the airport at 1 am !

henrygregory

rustyboy21 wrote: »

I am not 100% sure, but I think that the payment for the hotel is not transferred to the hotel by the agent until either 24 hours before, or just after you arrive. If they have had a bad payment history with LCH, then they may have cancelled it.


I know I had an issue years ago, arriving at the airport and getting told our complex was full, even though I paid 9 months previous. Appears that a German holiday firm, offered a dearer rate to the complex, so they cancelled all the UK bookings, the day before all the flights flew out. Was chaos at the airport at 1 am !

Sounds like we have got off easy in comparison to your experience. Either way, I am expecting a three figure sum of compensation for this as my girlfriend and I have had to take afternoons off of work each to frantically try and sort something out. We are still waiting for LCH to get back to us who claim the hotel is yet to respond to them.

All we can do is accept that LCH offer us and then worry about a sec 75 chargeback on my credit card after if the holiday is not up to our expectations which is highly likely seeing as we would not have booked to go to this part of the country if we were not able to have the hotel we have booked.

cubegame

You won't be able to do a chargeback if you accept the offer and it's not up to expectations.

Have you actually phoned the hotel and not relied on an email?

pogofish

I've been hit by this before - in my case they offered a vermin-ridden hellhole out in the sticks as a totally unacceptable alternative and took forever to refund to my card when I told them to shove it!

However, as you have been in touch with the hotel already and got confirmation, I would be inclined to get straight-on to them and insist they honour the booking, whilst if you paid by CC, I would also be on to them to discuss their playing fast and loose with the payment.

lea2012

If you contacted the hotel just after booking and they confirmed everything was ok and they had the booking, why is it now LCH fault that the hotel is overbooked?

It's unlikely that they have booked directly with the hotel, and have probably booked via a third party supplier, however it is the hotel themselves that have accepted your booking, along with too many other bookings so they are the ones to blame.

In all likelihood the hotel will have only just informed the supplier or LCH and told them that they are overbooked as they probably hoped that someone would cancel nearer the date, but by accepting more bookings than they have room they won't be left with empty rooms in high season. Either the hotel will have suggested the alternative or they will have just given LCH the money back / not charged them and at this late stage there's probably not much else available to you.

I would call the hotel directly, not email, ask to speak to the manager and stress that you are repeat guests and ask if there is anyway they can bump someone else out instead??

duchy

How much was the holiday and why are you expecting compensation in the hundreds? Seems you'll get offered a hotel of the same or better standard or a refund. Taking time off to sort it was your own choice so not their liability.

(On your tale so far I wouldn't hold your breath on that level of compensation for a med low cost family resort just a replacement or refund)

littlereddevil

They have to refund your money and you can book something yourself

hcb42

your other option, apart from make a nuisance so they book out someone else, is state you will accept X resort (be sensible, same star rating etc) and not the one offered...or the one offered with *insert complimentary dinners, wine, champagne* as appropriate