Problem with holiday booking – my rights?

We are meant to be going to Turkey on Wednesday and opted to pay for a private transfer. Over the weekend, when we tried to find the address for the booking, we noticed there appears to be a discrepancy between the hotel we thought we had booked and the hotel that we think we will actually be staying in! On the website, the hotel is called ‘Sunrise Beach’ and it displays lots of very positive Trip Advisor reviews however, we have just noticed that the reviews are for a hotel called ‘Sunrise Resort’ which appears to be a different hotel in the same town. We based our decision for the holiday on the reviews (thousands, all giving good reviews) and didn’t realise the difference in the name at the time however, the hotel that I believe we will be staying in was almost impossible to find on Trip Advisor and, if it is the place we think it is, it has significantly worse reviews.

I tried calling the operator yesterday and they couldn’t tell me and am awaiting a call back but, what would our rights be here? To be clear, the operator’s own website links to the Trip Advisor reviews, it wasn’t us looking at the wrong hotel independently. Right now it feels like we have been mis-sold and could (if we wished) claim a full refund – I’m not keen on spending thousands for what might be an awful holiday.

ABTA Members ?  ~I’d be calling today, a working day !

Yes, they are ABTA members – I read the T&Cs but it wasn’t particularly clear.

Suggest you get copies of the operators Web page linking to the wrong reviews – maybe screen recording rather than saving HTML files. It’s an easy thing for them to change and get plausible deniability.

If it’s a reputable TO, I suspect you’re going to the place that you think you are, and the other one is trying to pull a fast one based on their reviews.

Yes I have screenshot the website (including showing the URL). Tried calling them again and they are ‘looking into it’ for me. The hotel that I think we are going to looks absolutely awful and TBH, I am not sure I would want to take our family there.

So the ‘looking into it’ has only resulted (so far) in them removing the Trip Advisor links from their website. Hmmm.

Oof !

We were in Turkey at the beginning of July. Lots of hotels/resorts had a xx beach club w same name as the xx hotel/resort. Beach club was so that any punters could go, and part of the hotel complex. Suspect that is what you’re looking at…..worth doing a bit of googling directly on the town you are going to rather than just on the provider/tripadvisor to clarify

Sounds almost like an admission of a problem on their part, well done for getting those screenshots!

I think I found the Trip Advisor reviews you were looking at for the actual resort, they are terrible.

Did you book on Credit Card, worth a call to them?

So – an update. After chasing and chasing and chasing, they responded at 4.45pm today (we are due to set off to the airport at 11am tomorrow) pretty much admitting fault saying:

We have checked and due to a system error this issue has happened, we also tried to secure the booking at Sunrise Resort, however unfortunately there is no availability. 

We can offer you a reduction of £295 due to this inconvenience if would like to stay at Sunrise beach hotel.

So this clearly isn’t acceptable and I responded, rejecting it and asking for a full refund because of their ‘Failure to Perform’ (via their email system so it is all recorded). I didn’t get a response so I called them, was put on hold for 30+ minutes then the line went dead as their call centres close at 5.30pm!!!!

I am quite sure I am within my rights asking for a full refund (for Love Holidays btw) as they have accepted fault and can’t place us in suitable alternative accommodation.

Thoughts please! I am going to need a holiday to recover from this holiday!

If you paid by credit card – phone them now

Never heard of this provider before, just checked & you might not be surprised to learn they’re languishing near the bottom of the Which? Magazine table!

yeah I’d want a refund too, they may try to weasel out of it though as they’re still sending you to the “named” hotel! CC company is worth a call although they may want you to attempt to resolve with holiday company first. Obviously things are a bit time-crunched now though!

But they have accepted, in writing, that it was an error on their website surely?

Well, we have a result – a full refund without any cancellation fees because of their ‘Failure to Provide’. But that means I am not going on holiday today 🙁 Instead, we are all frantically looking for something in the next couple of days.

Good result – must be similar available at last minute? Update us all with where you find…..

Instead, we are all frantically looking for something in the next couple of days.

Worth getting yourself to your local old school travel agent, get them to do some hunting for you

Try Zoe at Not Just Travel – https://www.notjusttravel.com/

A lifetime in travel and tourism and lived and worked in Turkey back in the day so would have good local knowledge if that’s where you were set on going. All bespoke searching and planning for individual clients. Disclaimer – a friend.

We have tried a real agent, unfortunately she couldn’t find anything. We should have been walking into the airport right now, instead there’s four of us not agreeing about where to go 🙁

We have tried a real agent, unfortunately she couldn’t find anything. We should have been walking into the airport right now, instead there’s four of us not agreeing about where to go 🙁

This was us a couple of years ago, except the travel company had just ceased trading (we got the cash back in the end) – but, so little availability and nothing we really fancied nor that was going to be anywhere near the experience we’d originally booked (a ’boutique’ Gulet cruise down the coast of Montenegro).

Stayed at home instead.

Somewhere in the UK? Camping or B&B etc? Forecast is lovely for the next week, why anyone would want to go abroad last week/this week I do not know!!

Somewhere to start you off.. Check out the price of the Leeds to Dubrovnik flight with Tui tomorrow, returning following Thursday.

RM.

Have you asked the travel company you booked with to find you something else?

ie even a more expensive hotel, and split the upgrade cost with them ?

Where are the bad reviews on tripadvisor, I cant even find the bad hotel

Somewhere in the UK?

If a lazing around the pool holiday is what was planned it’s not going to cut it!

Really not sure my kids would be happy with staying in the UK after looking forward to a week in the sun. Still not found anything FFS.

@johndoh I’ve messaged you.

It’s not exciting but have a look at Cambrils and Tarragona in Southern Catalunya or Roses and L’Estartit in the North. All big holiday destinations served by Reus in the South and Girona in the North. Taxis to the resorts may be pricey in the South but there’s a really good bus (think National Express) service in the North from Girona. The section of coast from St Feliu to L’Estartit is also worth a look but accommodation may be tight.

Good luck. (Message if you want some pointers to bus services as work has a lot of info online but it would be rude to use STW to advertise).

So we’ve ended up blowing the budget a bit and going to Paphos in Cyprus for seven nights All Inclusive. It looks nice – fingers crossed ?

Ooooo deffo will enjoy this.

Bravo !