Anything I can do here?

[bunzie]

Ok I have a feeling this is a long shot. Went to a famous uk travel agent to look for a deal to a particular hotel. They called up 3 companies out of which 2 of them gave the same cheapest quote. This was on Saturday and I booked the holiday with them. Now I 've found exactly the same package on the beach.com cheaper by GBP 400. Pre-reserved seats and all. I have paid a deposit so guess I will lose it if I cancelled the booking. But is there any travel related rules that could use to convince agents to reduce my package price. Them calling up the companies just makes you feel like they are looking for the best deal. I did look at other websites before I went into store, but recd expensive quotes. I haven't received a call back from agents yet and am hoping they can convince the company to reduce our package price. But anything I can say to help my case?

Not sure if this helps but onthebeach.com don't have a great reputation. I'm a Recruiter and last summer was recruiting a number of reservation agents and interviewed numerous agents from onthebeach.com who were fed up with having to call customers who'd booked online to tell them that the price they'd booked their holiday on was sold out and that they'd need to pay an additional couple of hundred. A friend of mine used them and they did exactly that and they had to pay out an additional £500. So I really wouldn't trust that the onthebeach price would really be what you'd end up paying through them!

On the beach often over book too. We had the same issue with travel republic, booked the cheapest deal and found out 2 days before that they'd over booked and we had to swap accommodation and resort.

The best way of getting a better deal is pricing up flights and booking accommodation directly, then factoring in transfers.

Stick with the travel agent; the outfit you named are an online dynamic packaging agent so a very different animal from a travel agent. These people sell elements of package holidays separately so not a package holiday. Their terms and conditions make it clear that they are a dynamic packaging agent, they are not a travel agent.

This whole issue of dynamic packaging agents is often lost on most customers who assume the company they are booking with is by law fully responsible for all aspects of the holiday. Tour operators acting as principals are subject to the Package Travel Regulations which mean they are responsible for the health and safety and all aspects of the provision of the holidays they sell.

You must have gone to a travel agent for a reason rather than doing it online via a tour operator or DIY.

Even booking online prices rise and fall within days and there is no 14 day cooling off period for holidays. I've had holidays go down in price dramatically as well as going up.
Best advice is after you book don't look!

Thanks for your replies all...been doing some digging myself and on the beach indeed do not have a good rep... we always book with an agent and I was looking at prices to see how much higher we would be paying had we waited to book the holiday... I was trying to justify to myself that I hadn't made a rash decision by going to only one agent 😊 But guess this price difference just surprised me.