On The Beach ceases membership of ABTA

TELLIT01

https://travelweekly.co.uk/articles/386064/on-the-beach-resigns-from-abta

Worth bearing in mind if booking a holiday through this company.

bagand96

Not at all surprising.   They're potentially on the hook for £millions for non-refundable flight bookings, where the customer wants to cancel the holiday.  They do not have the will (and maybe not the funds) to do this.

It is likely now that customers who do want a refund for their holiday will have to take OTB to court.  And hope that a judge agrees that FCO travel advice and/or UK quarantine are "unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances" occur which "significantly affect the performance of the package" as per the Package and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018.

Pollycat

I wouldn't have touched them with a bargepole even before this.

TELLIT01

I have no personal experience of OTB but they certainly seemed to be getting plenty of adverse comment following the Covid outbreak.

Penguin_

I went with OTB to Majorca & when we arrived at the hotel, we were limited in terms of on site restaurants we could eat at & weren't allowed in 2 of them as they were reserved for TUI customers.

elsien

Penguin_ said:

I went with OTB to Majorca & when we arrived at the hotel, we were limited in terms of on site restaurants we could eat at & weren't allowed in 2 of them as they were reserved for TUI customers.

That would be the hotel’s rules and nothing to do with OTB. 

Just as a general comment, not specifically OTB, people post on here about avoiding the cheap 3rd party sellers, only using companies such as Jet2 and Tui.
But when Jet2 and Tui just don’t do the options you’re looking for then it’s either use a third party or book direct and lose the package protection. This year has demonstrated that the package protection is still worth something. 

Penguin_

elsien said:

Penguin_ said:

I went with OTB to Majorca & when we arrived at the hotel, we were limited in terms of on site restaurants we could eat at & weren't allowed in 2 of them as they were reserved for TUI customers.

That would be the hotel’s rules and nothing to do with OTB. 

Really? But TUI guests were allowed in all the on site restaurants.

elsien

TUI will have contracted for a specific number of guests and made arrangements directly with the hotel. 

OTB is a third party seller acting as a middleman between you and the hotel. Different set up, different levels of clout. 

bagand96

There's nothing wrong with booking with Online Travel Agencies (OTA's).  They suit many people, and in a lot of circumstances it is a way to ATOL protect what is otherwise a DIY trip.  A lot of people don't understand though exactly what they are buying and who from, and that's what can cause confusion and issues.

The 2018 regulations state that if an agent sells you a flight and hotel (or car etc) together then it is considered a "Package".  However what OTA's such as OnTheBeach are selling is not a package in the traditional sense of the package holiday tour operators (TUI, Jet2Holidays, Thomas Cook etc).   The tour operators charter your flight, usually on their own airline, they have direct relationships with the hotels, even with the bus company for your transfer.  They have complete control of the product delivery.  Hence they are far better being able to manage changes and disruption.

The OTA's take a flight only booking, throw a hotel booking with it and bang - it's a package!  But it's not quite the same, it's multi-contract, you have one contract for your flight, another for your accommodation (usually via an intermediary or bedbank), and then another with the OTA as your agent.  They don't have overall control, and themselves can be financially exposed when things go wrong.  They are "package arrangers" not "tour operators".

Yes all these differences are in the T&Cs, but who actually reads them? Not just for travel, for everything we buy.  The vast majority tick the box, and hand over their card details without thought.  Yes, the PALTR 2018 give you the same legal protections - but the law is an a*s, is open to interpretation, and enforcing your rights can be hard - especially in the case of OTB as an example.

NoodleDoodleMan

"There's nothing wrong with booking with Online Travel Agencies (OTA's)."

Until something goes wrong and they renege on refunds.

The separate flights, accommodation and transfers deals they cobble together are not regular packages as offered by TUI and Jet2 etc. Indeed any punter could (an do) similar DIY deals.

Neither are the separate element "pick n' mix" deals that TUI, for example, sell.

TELLIT01

elsien said:

Penguin_ said:

I went with OTB to Majorca & when we arrived at the hotel, we were limited in terms of on site restaurants we could eat at & weren't allowed in 2 of them as they were reserved for TUI customers.

That would be the hotel’s rules and nothing to do with OTB. 

Just as a general comment, not specifically OTB, people post on here about avoiding the cheap 3rd party sellers, only using companies such as Jet2 and Tui.
But when Jet2 and Tui just don’t do the options you’re looking for then it’s either use a third party or book direct and lose the package protection. This year has demonstrated that the package protection is still worth something. 

Not if you have booked through On The Beach.  The complaints have been that customers have booked a package through OTB for that very reason but OTB have not given the refunds.