Warning - deal with this company at your peril

[GettingThere]

All,
Used a UK based agency for accomodation in Tenerife (4 * All inclusive). They were recommended to me by another couple who used them for the same hotel. Cost of the stay was much cheaper with them than through travelrepublic and the other sites, even cheaper then going through the hotel direct.
Paid up front by credit card (over 2K) and was delighted with my saving.
Then I arrived in the Canaries...

First off the transfer (which I paid extra for) wasnt at the airport. Tired after flying and with the kids going nuts, I rang the company in the UK to query. They said there must have been a mixup and to get a cab (60 quid) and they will refund me when I get home. Alright....

Got to the hotel 4pm on Friday evening. Queued up to check in, kids a little happier seeing the lovely hotel and water slides etc, great excitement...then up comes my turn and they tell me there is no reservation. I show them my 'booking confirmation' from the agency which said 'paid in full'....The receptionist looked at me apologetically and said they were full and after checking the system confirmed that they had rejected the booking from the agency 3 months prior. They had zero rooms left...

Long story short, agency blamed hotel, hotel blamed agency and said they were going to stop dealing with them as this happened too often. I went nuts on the phone and they eventually got us accomodation in a kip on the other side of the island (and the hotel wanted to charge me up front again)...

I'm fairly savvy (I thought) on ensuring recommendations before paying out for things, but after a personal recommendation I was happy enough going with this crowd of gangsters. Then when I searched the web (tripadvisor primarily) its full of reports of similar activity. Many people have cases pending as a result of paying up front and having no accomodation when arriving. Then being shunted (eventually) to an alternative accomodation not what they paid for...

Not sure can I post the name of the company or the links to the tripadvisor forums, but of something seems like a great deal, then dig deep and ensure veracity......

Be Careful when looking for bargains...while the place we booked was by no means bargain basement level, I thought I did well be getting it 200 quid cheaper than going rate....I've learned my lesson..

Had to pay for taxi return as well.....

Nearly caused a divorce haha as tensions were running high (we eventually stayed in 3 different hotels so imagine all that packing and repacking)....Disaster

 

[Leper]

Not too many people will share when they have been diddled out of two grand + transfer expenses + phone charges + nearly everything else. I look on a holiday as a reward for the previous year's efforts by all the family. The last thing needed is a scenario described here.

We are all looking for that elusive bargain and usually our first port of call is the UK. Use a UK company, sure everything is cheaper there, isn't it? Do the Irish travel companies compete or are they in search of maximising their profit? We know the answers to both questions and greed (sometimes called share-price) is the cause.

Here is the solution:- Source an Irish owner of a holiday home abroad. Spain has 50,000 holiday home owners from the lower half of Ireland alone. Many will let their holiday homes just to help meet expenses like community fees, water fees, public road electricity fees, refuse fees etc etc and throw in negative equity in these times.

Such holidays are usually real bargains unless of course greed enters again. But, by using your head, asking the right questions, running up a relationship with a holiday home owner a good and cheaper holiday is there to be had.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Is the solution not to always Google the company you are booking with, even if it is a personal recommendation?

The first poster would have found all the stories on Trip Advisor and would have avoided the bargain and the company.

What is the story with credit card payments in this case? Can you claim against the credit card company? Probably not as you got the flight and got an hotel even if it was not the hotel you thought you were getting. Maybe worth claiming anyway, because if enough people claim it might lose them their merchant account.

You could normally name them on askboutmoney but not after using a term like "gangster" which is highly defamatory even if the service was terrible.

Brendan

 

[smiley]

Can you post the name of the company?

 

[Shivvers]

Just remove the term "gangster" from the OP, and you can safely post their name. In the meantime, I bet I can guess it Your story is interesting, but it doesn't help anybody unless they know (and can then avoid) the company you used.