Travel agent error where do I stand??

wmat983

A couple of months ago I booked a package holiday with Travel Republic. All looked good, had the booking confirmation email through, flight details etc. I joined a the resort fans Facebook group and someone mentioned that you cannot accommodate more than 3 adults per room. We had booked 4 in a room, 2 adults and 2 teenagers (so classed as adults). I raised a support ticket and yesterday (a month later) they said unfortunately your hotel was not confirmed by Yalago their travel provider. Had I not contacted them I would have turned up at resort next year and got turned away. Anyway, now they have given me options of similar hotels at extra cost! Also they are offering my original resort but £2500 more but having 2 rooms instead of 1. Travel Republic admitted error on phone but as it stands refusing to honour original price and give us extra room. I booked the package early to try and take advantage of the early booking prices but now prices have gone up. Thoughts?

Mark_d

From my experience booking with agents always causes problems when something goes wrong.  The same is true is you book various international trains on trainline.com

Travel Republic are not selling you the hotel service, they are merely making the booking on your behalf.  In this instance they were unsuccessful in making the booking with Yalago.  A good travel agent would at least soften the blow for you but when you go with a bargain basement travel agent then you don't get the same level of service.

I used to use Travel Republic until about 15 years ago.  Since then I've generally booked flight, accommodation and transfers directy myself..except in the odd instance of buying a package holiday from a tour operator.

Keep_pedalling

Presumably they are also offering you a full refund, which is what your are entitled to rather than an extra room for the same cost.

wmat983

Keep_pedalling said:

Presumably they are also offering you a full refund, which is what your are entitled to rather than an extra room for the same cost.

Yes they said that was a last resort but not ideally what I would like as been looking forward to this particular resort.

When you book a package and pay instalments does the travel agent cover the cost of the flight up front? I could keep them waiting on my decision for a while and if flight prices go up keep the flight, if they go down to a price cheaper than on original booking then I could cancel whole booking? If I leave it long enough to cancel they may lose money late on and more likely to offer a better deal?

Caz3121

welshmatt983 said:

 I could keep them waiting on my decision for a while and if flight prices go up keep the flight, if they go down to a price cheaper than on original booking then I could cancel whole booking? If I leave it long enough to cancel they may lose money late on and more likely to offer a better deal?

there terms and conditions state "You must notify us of your choice within 7 days of our offer. If you fail to do so, we will contact you again, re-iterating the above choices and sums payable or refundable and if you again fail to respond within 7 days, we may terminate the contract and refund all payments made by you without undue delay."

have a look under "Changes and cancellations to package arrangements before departure"