How best to sort out issue before travelling?

Jay_C

I have booked a trip to Thailand due to go out in 2 weeks.

The issue is the booking made is not for the room requested, i have checked direct with hotel and it is showing up as a different room as well as being a double booking.

I have tried to contact the agent rep who put through the booking however they have since left and no one there is sorting out the issue.

I paid on credit card and still have receipt for payment, question I wanted to ask is what would be best way to form a complaint to try and have this rectified? It is a big stress already as this trip was all planned out with specific rooms that i thought I had paid for which have not materialised.

The Travel agent is Atol protected and has ABTA number too

InsideInsurance

Do you have evidence of the class of room requested?

What is the travel agent saying? The fact a member of staff has left is irrelevant, your contract is with their company not their employee.

What is the price difference between the classes of rooms (booked -v- requested)? Is there still availability of the room class you want?

Jay_C

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Do you have evidence of the class of room requested?

What is the travel agent saying? The fact a member of staff has left is irrelevant, your contract is with their company not their employee.

What is the price difference between the classes of rooms (booked -v- requested)? Is there still availability of the room class you want?

Thank you for your response.

By evidence i have clear emails showing request for rooms. Price difference currently is £300. I was meant to stay in hotel between 29-02. That has now sold out so hotel has suggested swapping my stay so i stay in room desired 26-29 and then 29-02 in the other hotel, it is all rather frustrating

SW17

You need to try and get this sorted in advance, and InsideInsurance is right that your travel agent needs to be the one to do it. From your post it sounds like you didn't book a package, so your travel agent will have booked it directly with the hotel, with a tour operator on a hotel-only basis or through a "bedbank" wholesaler of hotel rooms (more likely the latter, depending on how big your travel agent is).

You will have to keep pushing your travel agent to sort it, there could be 2 or 3 intermediaries between them and the hotel. The error could just as easily be on the hotel's side as with your agent or other intermediaries, so don't accept that their "sold out" message is by definition correct, it's quite common for anyone in these situations to blame someone else in the booking chain. Your agent or their suppliers may still be able to maintain your original booking.

Does your confirmation / voucher have "booked and payable through XXX" or similar on it somewhere?

Jay_C

SW17 wrote: »

You need to try and get this sorted in advance, and InsideInsurance is right that your travel agent needs to be the one to do it. From your post it sounds like you didn't book a package, so your travel agent will have booked it directly with the hotel, with a tour operator on a hotel-only basis or through a "bedbank" wholesaler of hotel rooms (more likely the latter, depending on how big your travel agent is).

You will have to keep pushing your travel agent to sort it, there could be 2 or 3 intermediaries between them and the hotel. The error could just as easily be on the hotel's side as with your agent or other intermediaries, so don't accept that their "sold out" message is by definition correct, it's quite common for anyone in these situations to blame someone else in the booking chain. Your agent or their suppliers may still be able to maintain your original booking.

Does your confirmation / voucher have "booked and payable through XXX" or similar on it somewhere?

Thanks for your reply. I can confirm my voucher for the hotels in question are

Katathani Beach booked through lowcostbeds
Shore is booked through medhotels

When i spoke to agent they said there is nothing they can do in terms of sorting out the room issue, would you recommend contacting medhotels direct?

On medhotels voucher it says non refundable, on lowcostbeds one it does not say

lea2012

You've said that the room is not the one you requested?
What is the room type you have paid for and that is on your hotel voucher?
Is this the same room type as what the hotel has?
It's not clear to me from your posts whether you have paid for a specific room type eg a sea view and have a voucher to state that,but the hotel doesn't agree. Or whether you've booked a room eg a standard room and have simply asked (requested) a certain room type but not paid for it?

Jay_C

lea2012 wrote: »

You've said that the room is not the one you requested?
What is the room type you have paid for and that is on your hotel voucher?
Is this the same room type as what the hotel has?
It's not clear to me from your posts whether you have paid for a specific room type eg a sea view and have a voucher to state that,but the hotel doesn't agree. Or whether you've booked a room eg a standard room and have simply asked (requested) a certain room type but not paid for it?

Through the agent i requested and was led to believe i was paying for sea view room. When i then went to confirm this with hotel they said that they have on their system a pool view room not sea view. Who would be best to take it up with, if agent is not doing anything can i speak to credit card agency as well as tour operator?

lea2012

First of all,check your hotel voucher
If it says sea view room on your confirmation as your room type then you need to call the agent again and ensure that they deal with it
If your voucher states pool view room or indeed standard room perhaps, then you are getting what you paid for. It may be that they asked the hotel for a sea view if there is one but if it only says pool view on your voucher you don't really have much argument.

Jay_C

lea2012 wrote: »

First of all,check your hotel voucher
If it says sea view room on your confirmation as your room type then you need to call the agent again and ensure that they deal with it
If your voucher states pool view room or indeed standard room perhaps, then you are getting what you paid for. It may be that they asked the hotel for a sea view if there is one but if it only says pool view on your voucher you don't really have much argument.

So you believe i do not have any argument even with clear email correspondence between agent and myself to state sea view room would be booked and that is what I am paying for?

redpete

You need to be very clear with the agent who booked it for you what the problem is and what you want doing to clear it up. Phrases like "I was led to believe that..." show an element of doubt.

You need to say something like "I booked a sea view room and paid the amount for such a room, this is confirmed in emails dated nnnnnn. I now see I have been allocated a pool view room. Can you sort this out so that I have a sea view room."

lea2012

If you have an email stating something along the lines of 'the price for a sea view room is £xx' and you then confirmed the booking based on that price you may have an argument
But if they told you a price and it didn't state a room type but you went on to REQUEST it then no you don't have an argument. I'm really confused as to how you booked this and how the room type has or has not been confirmed if I'm honest.