When a prize win is maybe not a prize win!

jezza270

In September 2016 I won a one week all-inclusive holiday to Barbados for 2 in a major Sunday newspaper which was sponsored by Tropical Sky. The prize has to be taken between 1 May 2017 and 20 December 2017 and the hotel is The Sands, Barbados.

The major problem with this prize is that The Sands hotel has been a concrete shell for over a year now and may never be completed due to lack of investment. Also Tropical Sky are insisting that I have to wait until the hotel is built to take my prize.

Tropical Sky and other travel agents have been mis-selling this hotel to customers for a very long time and just keep pushing back the opening date. It also now looks like they have mis-sold it in a competition.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4252082/Couple-s-dream-holiday-ruined-building-site-hotel.html

People have been asking about when The Sands hotel in Barbados is opening since 2015 on the TripAdvisor forum:

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g147262-i230-k8445103-The_sands_barbados_formerly_sandy_beach-Barbados.html

Therefore it looks at the moment that this prize may never be taken if the hotel is never built.

Jezza

IDeamOfFairies

I presume it was this comp
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/travel/win-a-week-for-two-in-barbados-with-tropical-sky-nzpfz5835

Contact Tropical Sky and ask them to provide another hotel to equal or greater quality.... if they do not respond, contact the ASA

mjm3346

At the moment there are many months left for the prize to be taken and with the dates (01/07 to 20/12 ) "subject to availability" technically there is not really anything to complain about as according to the article it's expected to be completed mid Jun and they are taking bookings for the "shell" from 1st August.
However it might be worth a "how disappointing it is etc " e-mail to the newspaper promotions dept to make them aware of the situation as they potentially have some responsibility for this as well.

jezza270

IDeamOfFairies wrote: »

I presume it was this comp
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/travel/win-a-week-for-two-in-barbados-with-tropical-sky-nzpfz5835

Contact Tropical Sky and ask them to provide another hotel to equal or greater quality.... if they do not respond, contact the ASA

Yes that is the competition. I am currently awaiting someone at the newspaper to sort it out with Tropical Sky but so far they are saying they want me to wait until the hotel is built.

People who live on the Island think this may never happen because the property is actually a large number of private apartments that need to be sold to individuals to raise the money to develop the site. The owners are only permitted to stay in their apartments for a maximum of 6 weeks a year and for the rest of the time they are used as part of an all-inclusive hotel. Because of Brexit and the drop in the pound they are having difficulty selling these apartments and raising the money.

jezza270

mjm3346 wrote: »

At the moment there are many months left for the prize to be taken and with the dates (01/07 to 20/12 ) "subject to availability" technically there is not really anything to complain about as according to the article it's expected to be completed mid Jun and they are taking bookings for the "shell" from 1st August.
However it might be worth a "how disappointing it is etc " e-mail to the newspaper promotions dept to make them aware of the situation as they potentially have some responsibility for this as well.

Well a few hours after the article was published Tropical Sky informed me that the newest opening date is now 1 August 2017 and they are not taking bookings until October 2017. Since winning the prize there have been opening dates of October 2016, May 2017 and now August 2017.

The site is planned to be made up of all privately owned apartments that the owners can only occupy for 6 weeks a year and the remaining weeks they will used as an all-inclusive hotel. Because of the short occupancy, brexit and the drop in the pound they cannot sell these apartments and raise the cash to complete the project.