Holiday booking

[vegas888]

I went to a well know high street travel agents Saturday to book a holiday. I looked through some brochures and selected a hotel. The sales girl said she’d look for the best possible deal. She spent some time on her computer and phone and came back with a price. I paid the deposit and left.
When I got home I was googling the hotel and saw an online travel company also does the same hotel and the cost was nearly £1500 cheaper.
The travel agent I booked it through said they can book it cheaper for me but I’d lose the £400 deposit. Why didn’t they just book the cheaper one to start with if they were genuinely looking for the best deal.
I asked if I could transfer the deposit to the new booking and they said no.
So I said ok I will go ahead with the new quote and another deposit.
The lady then said oh the price has just gone up by another £500.
I said I’ve just paid the deposit how can you do that, she said it’s live prices and they change all the time.
I thought booking a holiday was supposed to be a pleasurable experience 😤
I’m so annoyed with them for what they’ve done and annoyed with myself for not checking the prices first.

Twitter and watchdog.

You probably a better chance on getting the £500 that's the increased price back - surely once you pay your deposit that's the price. It cant be correct.

Good luck with getting anything from Thomas Cook, I complained about their staff in the airport before my flight, went through the whole complaints procedure and 3 months later after constantly chasing them I got a reply via email basically blaming the hotel I stayed at for me "not enjoying my holiday" which wasn't even close to my complaint, I said the hotel was lovely and not In anyway an issue and that my complaint was with the Thomas cook staff in the airport prior to my flight? went back and asked them to read my actual complaint again as it was clear they sent me a bog standard copy and paste reply that they send to everyone, surprisingly they've never gotten back to me and that was in August 2018...

But surely the 'cheapest' only applies to the options they have to book?

I.e. the cheapest Thomas Cook option available that day.

Incidentally, they do tend to have a rep available on TC holidays, who scuttles you all to the airport, sits around in the lobby arranging bookings for you. Not necessary, but a distinct difference to the sort of online agent who parcel together hotels, flights and tranfsers through a lot of different agencies.

It's a shitty system, which is why I don't buy it.

Use CEOemail to complain the their Chief Exc?

We have arrived at our superior garden view room and these are the brochure photos v what it’s really like

The food - brochure v reality

Complained to Thomas cook, they offered us an adults only hotel - I’m with a 17 year old or 2 hotels which are downgrades from where we are staying.
So after 3 days we moved as they refused to fly us home and said they’ve paid that hotel for our 3 nights stay and 2 nights cancellation fee, the remainder was used for our current hotel.
So today the hotel have said they will refund for our stay as the accept it wasn’t up to standard. Thomas cook have said they won’t pass this on to me.
As it’s nearly £2,000 I’m totally furious.
They’ve send I to some concrete jungle and this is our room view now.
This was supposed to be a holiday of a lifetime
I paid £6000 for an 11 night break. 😢🙁

Current room view

Please tell me you check trip advisor.
Don’t just trust the brochure pictures.

Oh OP just make the best of it and complain to the ombudsman when you get home.

Yes I checked trip advisor. The reviews were pretty good

Oh op that's awful. You must be so disappointed. Any chance of shaming them on Twitter?

I came here to try and relax after my mum passed away. Just so disappointed and want to go home.
I travel quite extensively so not a naive traveller
Even the hotel said they’ve fallen below standard and wanted to refund me as a way of an apology. I have an email of this.
Thomas cook said they won’t refund this on to me.

I think this may be one occasion where the Daily Fail may finally be of use. Contact them with these photos and name and shame... Chances are they will be forced to respond and explain why your refund which wont he passed onto you shall magically now appear....

This is absolutely awful. I wouldn’t be letting up until I’d got a refund and compensation. What I would do now though is try and make the best of it and document everything while you’re there, but hang out somewhere else for as much time as you can.

Brochure photos really shouldn’t be that misleading and obviously photoshopped

Oh my goodness that looks terrible. What country are you in? The misrepresentation between the photos and reality is gobsmacking.

I agree with other posters, complain loudly and often and document everything.

Thanks for all your kind replies, it’s really very much appreciated 💐💐
Thomas cook have now refused to speak to me 🙄
Great customer service 😡

that looks awful, don't think you can moan about seaweed though.

Mexico

It’s a large amount to lose. I am surprised Travel Agents are still on the high street, can’t remember the last time I used one to book a holiday. I find booking on line much more convenient, and much easier to compare prices, flights etc. Sorry that your holiday has caused you so much stress, hopefully TC will make a refund, but who knows I am sure their TC’s cover this situation. It may be something you need to talk up to experience and give them a wide berth in the future.

The views etc are awful & I don’t blame you for complaining but I don’t think they’re at fault for the seagrassum, it’s a natural occurrence & is common this time of year.

*Sargassum, phone trying to be clever

You should be able to make any changes without any admin charges etc so long as you do it within 24 hours of the original booking.
I had to make changes with TUI and I checked their small print online and they kindly made the relevant changes after I had booked via them but online but via a call to them that had passed me through to an agents of theirs in Scotland ?!?!?

Anyway I went into my local TUI and they were brilliant and made the changes for me.

It looks like you've booked during the rainy season so they probably haven't opened the resorts properly yet and hence the stuff on the beach etc. What a shame.

Sound like that particular travel advisor was after her commission.