Loveholidays trying to cancel hotel

jeff_mcf

We have a hotel booking due to be paid on 18th July through Loveholidays and requested cancellation on 3rd July. Nearly a week later we have heard nothing and are worried they are going to take nearly £5k we can't afford for a holiday we are within our rights to cancel.
Has anyone successfully been able to contact Loveholidays or got any advice or tips as I am starting to panic (and anxiety is one of the reasons I want to cancel!)?

margaretkb

Hi know how you feel, we cancelled our holiday with Love Holidays yesterday after many emails, and failed attempts to use their live chat system. Originally, we tried to move our holiday and requested this on the measage option on the -' manage my bookings' page, heard nothing, and have resorted to cancelling the holiday which cost us £1700. Did you cancel through the manage my bookings bit too? If you go in to your booking it should now show the cancellation and any charge, the other bits, your flights, hotel etc should no longer be showing. If they take the balance you could try   chargeback to get it back. Our balance of 4k is due tomorrow- hoping it won't come out as its now not showing on our booking page. I joined Which Travel and spoke to one of their legal team, they were really helpful but the bottom line was that it was 'disinclination to travel- not covered by insurance so not a leg to stand on. Check your booking page, take a screen shot of everything. Will let you know if they take it!!

jeff_mcf

Thank you Margaret.
I've only tried cancellation through manage my bookings, and they have not responded. We booked hotel and transfers (flight directly with BA so can take vouchers) with the ability to cancel the hotel up to final payment (2 weeks before travel) so 18th July. We know we'll lose the transfers.
How did you manage to contact them to cancel? The chat never, ever, is available.
Good luck

margaretkb

Jeff we never got to speak to anyone, but because we cancelled through the 'manage my booking' and paid the cancellation fee and then checked after to see our booking has disappeared and been replaced by a 'cancellation invoice' I'm assuming they won't take our balance - due tomorrow...if they do we will try chargeback ..fingers crossed it's been frustrating!

margaretkb

also our balance is now showing as zero so hopefully we will be OK and you too fingers crossed..

Shauna_pick

me and my partner are due to fly on Sunday, haven't been contacted by love holidays at all but i contacted my hotel to see if it was open, it is open however out room has been cancelled, tried to contact KLM to see if our flight is still booked and they advise to contact love holidays but obviously i cannot get in contact with them, i don't want to get on the plane knowing i haven't got a hotel to go to and ill be stranded in Amsterdam, but i also don't want to not turn up and them argue that i wont get a refund because i didn't turn up for the flight, Anyone had this issue ? what do i do?

jeff_mcf

margaretkb said:

Jeff we never got to speak to anyone, but because we cancelled through the 'manage my booking' and paid the cancellation fee and then checked after to see our booking has disappeared and been replaced by a 'cancellation invoice' I'm assuming they won't take our balance - due tomorrow...if they do we will try chargeback ..fingers crossed it's been frustrating!

Unfortunately when we try to cancel it shows us the charges that we need to pay and then just leaves a message in the message centre. We have no way of processing the payment or moving forward. We could try changing the booking to a basic room at a basic hotel with room only but I assume that would also need someone! Feeling stuck and anxious. Thank you for the response though.

[Deleted User]

Love Holidays are working strictly in order of travel Shauna but even allowing for this, I am really surprised they haven't contacted you at all seeing as it is only 2 days to your date of travel!    I would have started a new thread by the way to get people's attention but that doesn't help much.   OK so thinking logically, why would Love Holidays not even send you  a generic email if your holiday was going ahead (you know the type, have a great time, woohoo, holiday time, that sort of thing?)  Did you receive a confirmation email from them?  (just checking they have correct email address)

Secondly, if you hadn't contacted the hotel you would be unaware of anything so would you just turn up at the airport anyway?
(I am saying this because in all my third party package bookings I have never checked in with the hotel, but I understand why you did) I have never, not got any 'au revoir' type email (can't think what you call them but am sure you will know what I mean?)

Thirdly have you checked your 'my account' section on their website?   There may be more info on there or you may be able to get a message to them?

Now, what to do?   Doesn't actually sound like the flights are going ahead (with what KLM advised) but have you checked KLM website to verify this?   If they are cancelled take screen shots - just in case you need them for proof.   Love Holidays, although slow like many others, are generally getting info out within 7-10 days of travel.     Can't really understand why you haven't had any, but don't worry am sure you won't lose all your money - just check your flight situation now!     Let us know how you get on.  

margaretkb

jeff_mcf said:

margaretkb said:

Jeff we never got to speak to anyone, but because we cancelled through the 'manage my booking' and paid the cancellation fee and then checked after to see our booking has disappeared and been replaced by a 'cancellation invoice' I'm assuming they won't take our balance - due tomorrow...if they do we will try chargeback ..fingers crossed it's been frustrating!

Unfortunately when we try to cancel it shows us the charges that we need to pay and then just leaves a message in the message centre. We have no way of processing the payment or moving forward. We could try changing the booking to a basic room at a basic hotel with room only but I assume that would also need someone! Feeling stuck and anxious. Thank you for the response though.

I know it' so stressful as you have little time. You could try speaking to Which Travel legal people, I found them helpful. They are dealing with loads of cases like yours and ours and as you say you are 'within our right's ' to cancel they may be able to suggest something, in our case we had no rights but it was worth the £3 membership to double check. Sorry - sounds like an advert for which - 🙄 ! Cant think what else to suggest. Do you know if your holday would have been drastically different - no pool, no entertainment etc in other words you would be getting a totally different holiday from the one paid for, the legal team said that would be a stronger case?  In our case we couldn't use that as the hotel had put impressive measures in place to keep it  as near to the original holiday - we just didn't feel happy about the safety  of the journey and possible quarantine on arrival if someone tested positive on the flight.

jeff_mcf

margaretkb said:

They are dealing with loads of cases like yours and ours and as you say you are 'within our right's ' to cancel they may be able to suggest something, in our case we had no rights but it was worth the £3 membership to double check. Sorry - sounds like an advert for which - 

It sound worth advertising though!
I've checked the which site and can only find their legal cover which is £29 plus £9 per month. Do you mind me asking what you signed up for with them?

margaretkb

jeff_mcf said:

margaretkb said:

They are dealing with loads of cases like yours and ours and as you say you are 'within our right's ' to cancel they may be able to suggest something, in our case we had no rights but it was worth the £3 membership to double check. Sorry - sounds like an advert for which - 

It sound worth advertising though!
I've checked the which site and can only find their legal cover which is £29 plus £9 per month. Do you mind me asking what you signed up for with them?

We are already members of Which so maybe it was cheaper, I was logged in with which when I looked at the travel section and saw this ad:
https://try.which.co.uk/travel-membership/
It says £3  a month you have to quote a code TRAV808
We signed up for their travel advice which includes their legal service