Alpharooms-terrible customer service

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dubdoyle123

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I booked a room for Christmas period with Alpharooms recently, as did my parents and family members, having looked at various hotels in the resort we were hoping to travel to, we saw what seemed like a better deal than other online bookers and went ahead and booked, paid in full and received confirmation/vouchers etc.

Then went ahead and booked our flights- today I received an email from Alpharooms telling me they had cancelled this reservation and refunded the payment and were covered to do so under their T&Cs.

They gave a number for me to ring if I required assistance making another booking!!, but, when I did telephone(numerous times) no one answers. All accomodation in this resort is now either booked or had rose dramatically in price.

Have checked their T@Cs, and appears they are covered for any and every eventuallity, yet customers appear to be penalised for ANY changes/amendments they decide to make.

It seems really unfair, that customers can be treated in such a way, I obviously (wrongly) thought, when making a booking, upon receipt of payment- this is a legal agreement that both parties are bound to adhere to, but obviously this is not the case for Alpharooms.!! anyone any help/advice they could offer??
 
I use Alpharooms all the time and never had any problems wiht them until my last trip. I had a hotel booked through them in Newcastle only to be told on arrival that there was no booking. Luckily I had a copy of the email which showed my booking and the amount paid.The hotel told me that Alpha had cancelled my booking the day after I booked it of which I had no knowledge . Eventually between the Hotel and Alpharooms they sorted it out.Very embarracing though.
I will be double checking from now on .

That was a horrible experience that you had .
 
Hi dubdoyle123,

I'm sorry to hear that you've had a problem with your booking on alpharooms.com. Would you like to send your itinerary number and details of what happened to alfie@alpharooms.com and I will do my best to find out what has happened. Thank you.

Kind regards,
Sarah from alpharooms
 
I have sent you this information and hopefully you can obtain some factual information for this very unhappy, unfairly treated customer.

regards
 
This is typical treatment customers receive when things begin to go wrong from some on-line companies. The likes of cheapskate organisations have loads of sales staff (probably low paid) to deal with sales and nothing else but sales. However, when you want good customer service later it appears to be non-existent. The likliehood also is that even the people who sold this reservation do not know of the pitfalls themselves. You took them on at face value, they took you on as a mug.

It will be interesting to see the outcome. Still waiting for their reaction.
 
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Ah, Leper, a wise statement how some on-line companies treat their customers .

If one really has to book accommodation with an on-line company then make sure it's based in ireland and ,even better, it's part of an Irish licensed travel conpany . Many of my ex-colleagues have closed their shops and formed on-line businesses.

Of course, it doesn't guarantee good treatment over a foreign on-line company like Alpha - but it does make some sort of recourse easier, particularly if that company is based in Ireland and is licensed by the Irish govnt .

Booking wirth an irish source is even more important when booking directly with the property owner . If that property is owned by an Irish person, whether resident in Ireland or close to the accommodation, it really does mean that complaints can be handled so much more efficiently.
And few Irish owners will deliberately advertise rubbish to fellow irish people -there'd be too quick a comeback if things go wrong !

Above opinion is based on many years selling travel -doubtless someone will quote an example disproving the above. But I'm convinced that booking with an Irish company or owner is worth many Euros peace-of-mind.
 
DubDoyle's comment about "phoning but nobody answers" reminded me of my Alpharooms experience earlier this year.

I booked accommodation and airport transfer with them for Lanzarote. The transfer from the airport and the accommodation were fine, but I had problems with the transfer back to the airport.

I was supposed to phone the transfer company to confirm my return booking. I arrived late on Thursday, and phoned on Friday....no answer. Phoned again on Saturday and Sunday...no answer. I was leaving on the Monday, and both myself and the hotel reception tried to no avail. I spent the afternoon waiting in the hotel reception, not knowing if I would be collected or not.

As it turned out I was collected, but it really spoiled what had been a very nice break. I sent a note of complaint to Alpharooms who said they'd investigate....never heard anything more.
 
Rebecca from Alpharooms has just sent me an email offering me special discounts on Alpharooms. I responded and told her about this thread. We'll see.
 
alpha rooms

My childern booked a surprise weekend away for us with alpha rooms for our 25th wedding anv in july . My husband then had to go in to hospital for an operation they rang the hotel to change booking they had no problem with this but were told they had to go through alpha rooms . Alpharooms would not consider changing booking for any reason . They were very upset (as were we ) as they could not afford to book another weekend away. they had also booked a west end show which could have been changed as well . As my husband is unemployed and i only work part time we dont get many breaks away . it was the first time booking with alpharooms and dont think we would ever book with them again ,it maybe be slightly dearer to book directly with hotel but well worth it when the unxpected happens
 
they are the worst company to deal with.BEWARE- never book with this company-having made a booking with them in Sept a hotel we really like for Christmas, they took the payment,sent the travel voucher, then followed with an email cancelling, stating the hotel now did not offer B and B rates, but could do this as their terms and conditions state they can!!!!surprise surprise,

I re-booked (stupidly) at a much higher rate, the reason being, accommodation was sparse because of the short time span now available, and again within a few days received an email, cancelling yet again!!! another ridiculous reason stated, but again telling me their terms and conditions covered them, they did state if I required help finding alternative to telephone them- I did this, and was told, nothing available, when I responded they said in the email they would help, I received the same monotone response, the terms and conditions covered all eventualities which makes them not responsible for any mistakes they appear to be very good at making, and leaves their customers the victims at all times.

In one sense I should count myself lucky, my daughter booked the same hotel, and found the money returned to her account,having had to deduce they had cancelled her booking- as they did not bother email confirming cancellation and is still awaiting same, and I feel will be left waiting. So my advice to all is DO NOT BOOK ANYTHING with Alpharooms,
 
I was browsing a particular hotel in the Costa Brava in Spain for mid April over the Christmas period. I couldn't book direct with the hotel for the 18th April next. The hotel's website would only say "Hotel not available" try the 28th. I then decided to check Alpharooms. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the hotel was available through Alpharooms for the dates that I wanted and the price was even lower than the prices for the April period if I had been able to book the hotel direct.
Being the person that I am I decided to contact the hotel directly to see why I was able to book through a discounter but not directly with the hotel. I wanted to see if Alpharooms were offering the poorer rooms etc.
I got an email today from the hotel to say that their hotel will not be opening until April 28th!
So Alpharooms is offering rooms in a closed hotel. They are also asking for a deposit for my stay. I could easily have booked my flights and taken up the offer and then find a few weeks or even days before departure that I would be told that there was an "error". I would then be shunted to another hotel or worse.
This is disgraceful behaviour.
 
Avoid alpharooms at all costs. They took our money for a two week booking in Lanzarote in July 10, which they knew weeks beforehand did not exist, booking and selling accomadation that wasn't available. The staff at the hotel itself knew they were making a balls of things. They were ringing us to forewarn us but we were already on our way and didnt get the call. The receptionist was able to hand us a 5 page transcript of emails that were sent over a four week period between them and alpharooms telling them they were full and to contact us, Like fools we spent days ringing the customer helpline that never gets answered. The customer service is a joke. We hounded them for months after our return, to get an apology or an explanation, and it took months for our credit card to be refunded as they would not refund it till we signed an agreement that no further action would be taken, We didnt sign it but threatened legal action, so it was refunded, reluctantly I'd say.
We were on honeymoon with three small children and although the mix up was completly on their end, they couldn't care less if we slept on the streets, (which we nearly had to) for those two weeks, while they sat on our money.

Avoid Avoid Avoid
 
I choose a hotel in Spain based on price today. Alpharooms were the cheapest. However when I was entering my credit card details a box popped up and said that I was going to be charged over €8+ in respect of credit card charge. (I was paying a booking deposit of €10 today with the balance to be paid in mid March.)
Can anyone tell me if I am going to be charged a further €8+ in credit card fees when I pay the balance owing in two weeks time.
If I am, then this total charge will be circa €17 in total. This will make Alpharooms more expensive than the other hotels offering the same hotel.
 
Update. Just booked the same hotel through Travel Republic for €7 cheaper and 1 cent credit card charge. If anything Alpharooms last minute pop up box showing a credit card charge made me search even harder for a better deal which I found.
 
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