to think a luxury hotel booked on lastminute should actually be luxurious?

[pecanpie]

DH and I decided to have a night away while my inlaws are staying. DH has had a really heavy workload recently and has been coming home at 2am, working solidly at weekends etc. I've had a tough year with miscarriages, finally getting pregnant but being very ill and very anxious about things going right, plus every pregnant woman needs a lie in once in a while, which is near impossible with a 2 year old. This is all completely irrelevant to the issue I actually have with lastminute, but these are pretty much the reasons why I was reduced to a blubbering wreck. Maybe I was just expecting too much - feel free to flame me but I am incredibly low at the moment and was incredibly disappointed.

Lastminute hotels described this secret hotel as 'Amazing hotel on the edge of the historic city' and 'Set in open countryside on the edge of the historic city of St. Albans, this cosy hotel offers a warm welcome to travellers'.

The room was described as a deluxe twin/double, room only.

The hotel ended up being the local Thistle hotel - on the outskirts of the city concerned. We were given the most basic room available and the hotel couldn't give us an alternative as 2 weddings were on there and they were otherwise apparently fully booked. The hotel's booking system showed that we were booked for a standard room and not a deluxe room and the hotel's night staff blamed lastminute saying that they could only give us what came in on their booking system. The room was not what the listing described and we were completely mis-sold.

The room was a fair price, which is why I'm not sure if IABU, but it was only marginally less (£9) than the room we paid for.

In addition, although not remotely relevant, I'm not sure quite how the hotel was awarded 4 stars.

We've used the lastminute secret hotels before and got an exceptionally good deal on a trip to the most gorgeous hotel in Paris, which is why we trusted that we'd get what we had been sold. We can't do anything about the hotel it actually is, but surely we can't be effectively downgraded?

we have booked 'secret hotels' with them before and had some great hotels and some rubbish ones. There seems to be a real lack of consistency....

Sorry that it was such a let down; it is always so dissapointing when you're looking forward to a break and then the accomodation is crappy.

I feel your pain Pecanpie. DH and I suffered similar with lastminute.com and again it was all the more disappointing because it had become important to us just to get away.

Our 'luxury' room turned out to be big enough for a small double bed, which left DH with his feet over the end - he's 6ft so not a giant and the shower dribbled luke warm water.

The rest of the hotel lived up to its billing, but it felt like they had stuck a bed in a stock room just to sell it on lastminute.

Is there a way to complain to lastminute to let them know the room/hotel did not live up to its' luxury claim?

They do have a customer services centre which DH is going to call tomorrow, specifically to follow up on the downgrading of the room - the hotel's computer system didn't show the same level of room as we'd booked so they at least have to respond to a complaint on that front, which is what I'm most bothered about. The rest was just a bit of a disappointment.

Three times I have used Lastminute.com for hotels. Once was in Lisbon, not as luxurious as I hoped, but was on my own and on a freebie back to back flights weekend, so it didn't matter.

However, the subsequent two hotels booked Lastminute hotels were disasters.. one in Birmingham, and the other in Brighton, both for work... NEVER AGAIN! Oh and you can tell them I said that too!

LM.com's idea of acceptable and mine are not really compatible.

I've never used lastminute.com for hotels, but have used laterooms.com and found them to be pretty good. Worth a try in future - and you can see exactly what hotel you're booking and review on Tripadvisor before you book. I used it most recently to book my wedding photographer into a nearby hotel. I wanted her to stay at the one closest to our house to make things easier, and they wanted £120 a night. I contacted them and they wouldn't reduce it even if I sent all my wedding guests there, so checked on Laterooms and got it for £45 a night for the EXACT same room.

Oh dear!!!! once I accidently stayed in an airport hotel using cheap website that way.....

avoid LM.com in the future i'd say

Oh dear!!!! once I accidently stayed in an airport hotel using cheap website that way.....

avoid LM.com in the future i'd say

Sorry you felt disappointed.. did you at least get some rest and relaxation?
Can't comment on LM or its definition of luxury but when a hotel is given a star ratings its normally based on its facilities so a higher star rating could mean something very minor like size of restaurant, has conference facilities, or does room service. So don't just go on star ratings as that sometimes doesn't mean much...

I stayed at a LM 'secret' hotel last weekend, and they tried to put us in their standard rooms, instead of the deluxe ones we'd paid for. It was lucky we had the paperwork - they upgraded us without protest when I showed them the booking - maybe it's standard practice for them

Did you have copies of your booking with you? I don't think they should be able to get away with downgrading you tbh; and that is a valid complaint. The other issues around descriptions, though annoying, is subjective though I'm afraid.

trip advisor is very very helpful. I wish I had checked with them before a trip to London I booked through Asda travel. Awful hotel. They use hotels4u who also pass the responsibility onto some crappy company I'd never heard of. It took a lot of work but through pestering I got a refund and £50 voucher back from asda up to total cost value. The hotel I thought we'd booked was unexpectedly full and the one we were sent to was filthy. This was me with my 9 year old. These companies take the piss and overbook hotels constantly. Trip advisor from now on. Real life reviews. Put yours on there! It made me feel better!

If you cut and paste the paragraph that describes the hotel into google, very often a website comes up which names the hotel (I guess the descriptions have been lifted from the hotel's own website).

I've avoided a few duffers that way.

Sorry things are tough at the moment pecan pie. Have you got anything else exciting to look fwd to at the moment?