Booking accommodation through Trip Advisor - Holiday Lettings.co.uk. All cancelled after 1.11.24!!

DM269311

Thankyou for posting this and the comments. We were first contacted by the Spanish owner to say the house rental booking for early next year had been cancelled by trip adviser. We were concerned it was a possible scam but after phoning TA we have had confirmation and an email from trip adviser saying they have cancelled all holidaylettings bookings from November and will refund our payments and fees in five days. We are in contact with the owner directly but now need to be sure that any payments we make are safe and protected. Do we need a new rental agreement before paying? Are payments by debit/credit card protected? Any advice or experience welcomed.
Also we feel badly let down by trip adviser and holiday lettings who have not provided any advice to help us rescue our trip - any thoughts on complaints, compensation, ombudsman, group action maybe? I don't think they are part of ATOL or ABTA.

twopenny

TA is a platform for advertisers with other arms belonging to the same company so you need to be looking at which company you were booking through possibily if you want to follow it up though I can't see how TA can cancel the bookings if it is through Flipkey, Holiday Lettings or whatever.

What company is on the confirmation email?

Ask the owner of the property if you can pay by Credit Card preferably on arrival. Do they have their own website for bookings? Hopefully they have some means to take deposits from overseas customers.

You want to avoid Bank Transfer.

suzukibandit1

OP here. I’ve just had my cancellation email through from Holiday Lettings. I booked through Tripadvisor. It states that the owner has cancelled my booking as per the original email. An immediate second email from Holiday Lettings advises confirmation of the cancellation and that they are sending a refund to my original payment method. 

My take from these emails is that the cancellation was not by the owner but by Holiday Lettings and they also sent the “ message from the owner”
I’m currently trying to confirm this with the owner. Fingers crossed. 

What a way to treat customers. Certainly a company(s)  to avoid in the future

mickrobinson6969

Hi Guys

I am an owner renting out and just had all my 2025 bookings cancelled and I knew noting about it prior to it happening. It states the owner has cancelled and that is untrue, they have cancelled everything.


Mick

suzukibandit1

So my assumption was correct. What a way to do things. It’s bad enough the bookings being cancelled but why leave people to assume it was the owner! What a company to have to do business with

Dunna1955

suzukibandit1 said:

I’m pretty certain this is not a scam but just thought I would check it out here. 

We have a booking for a villa in January 2025 through Trip Advisor. I got an email this morning saying that as they are making changes to their platform they would not be doing this anymore and therefore from 1 November 2024 all bookings are cancelled and a refund will be provided if you have a booking after this date. Thereafter it is up to you to contact the owner and make other arrangements! 

The email has my correct information including booking number and dates so it would appear to be genuine. However I would have thought with such a change affecting many people we would have heard about it from other sources. 

Anyone else had such an email?
Thanks

Yes I did ,I then booked direct with owner who knocked the holiday lettings booking fee off ,so result there ,and the refund straight into our account 

libsdad

It’s legit. Owners were told on Tuesday. I’ve found the same villa I had booked (but cheaper) on Simply Owners. Silver lining! 
Www.simplyownets.net

DottyJan

I have just had a holiday cancelled that I booked through TripAdvisor/Holiday Lettings.  No refund has arrived.
Is this a scam?
If not is it safe/advisable to book direct with owner of the apartment?

eskbanker

See the existing thread about this:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6553384/booking-accommodation-through-trip-advisor-holiday-lettings-co-uk-all-cancelled-after-1-11-24

J_B

Interesting stuff here.

We rent out our place in Cyprus through Holiday Lettings/Trip Advisor

We have had no communication from them whatsoever, but have no bookings after 1/11/24

We take direct bookings sometimes but only by BACS so obviously open to being scammed.

I just point them to our TA reviews since 2012 and hope they realise we are real people!