Need to cancel

[nunsflipflop]

We booked a holiday in April, online through the Tui website. I changed the flights they offered to more appropriate times. An extra charge was added to the holiday to do this.

I stupidly didn’t check when the email came through. We paid a deposit of £360.

We booked it under the recommendation of my DD (36) who was reading reviews.
I have done a deep dive to get more reviews, it looks like this isn’t an appropriate hotel to take my grand daughters to.

Using trip adviser,I found the top 5 hotels in Lanzarote and I booked the top one, with a different tour operator who could offer the better flight times for myself, a disabled adult and the little ones in our party thinking I would only be losing £360. Tui did not offer this hotel or the flight times I believed I had paid for on our booking with them.

I called Tui to cancel and they are asking for £3623.74, which will be paid to EasyJet as the flights are non refundable. So I asked if I am paying for those seats on that flight, will they remain empty? The Tui rep said she didn’t know. I asked if easyJet then resell those seats would I get a refund? The answer was no.

Is there any way I can reduce the amount we will lose? Or do I put it down to an expensive lesson?

This is the first holiday abroad I have ever booked. We haven’t been away for 10 years, hence my mistake

What makes you think the Rubicon is in the middle of nowhere? We stayed at the Rubicon apartments and it's minutes away from restaurants and lovely boutiques. It's much classier round there than Playa Blanca proper.

If you haven't paid, how can they command more money? I didn't know they were money lenders. This might make me sound a bit dim. However, I would think if you haven't paid on time then you lose what you have paid so far.

*** Don’t pay!

They will not chase you for the money. I’ve had to abandon holidays when only paid the deposit.

Honestly they do not chase you for the money

I've just come back from Hotel Rubicon it was brilliant the kids loved it, there was absolutely nothing wrong with our stay 4 autistic kids 1 non-autistic, and 2 adults!

Because when the flights are with a different company TUI have to pay for those seats straight away in order to reserve them; just as you would if you were getting flights only. So in effect they have leant you the money by buying the seats for you.
If you don't pay for the seats then TUI lose the money

H10 rubicon is miles better than Sandos… sandos is way out of playa Blanca and a good 45 min walk to the main area…. Personally join the Facebook groups and stick with H10 it’s a beautiful hotel and you will have the best time!

They absolutely do when they've paid easyJet for £3k worth of seats based on you accepting terms and conditions to the effect that you'll pay for them.

Similar to when TUI or Jet2 holidays and the like offer a '£1 deposit' on a holiday. You couldn't just cancel and lose your £1, you're committing to a much higher amount.

H10 is absolutely fine OP. Kids will love it.
Reviews are generally written by those with a gripe.

What have you decided!

Of course they do. What ridiculous advice.

If it was me and not going I would just report the debit / credit card stolen. ( stolen you get a whole new card number )
they won’t chase you
you might get a few shitty letters

but that’s just me

but I’ve cancelled / not paid for a few holidays over the years and nothing has ever happened

last one was last year with a low deposit with Tui
couldn’t go and couldn’t claim on my insurance so didn’t go
I got 3 shitty reminder letters and nothing more

and I’ve booked with Tui twice since and had no problems

There's a whole debt collecting department at TUI.

I used to work at head office. They do and will issue a CCJ for unpaid debt.

TUI have recently off shored their contact centre to Egypt, awful team, call back and asked to be transferred to uk team, ask for cancellation and accept loss of deposit. The new contact centre rely on scripts and can’t be trusted.

If I haven't misunderstood your post.... and I always book with TUI. This doesn't sound right that if you choose to loose the £360 that TUI would be demanding over 3k for the rest of the holiday. Why don't you just amend for £100 and change destination then?

Well they haven’t done that to me

@Cornflakelover you might not even know you have a CCJ

The OP's holiday included easyJet flights which TUI will have paid for in full at the time of booking. The T&Cs OP agreed to will state the amount that is ultimately payable, regardless of how much (or how little) deposit is taken at time of booking.

I've just had a quick look at a booking now for November and the amount I would be liable for was £514, but TUI were offering £150 deposit or even no deposit, with a direct debit agreement.

Basically they're offering credit for the non-refundable part of the holiday.

Me either.

it’s total bullshit.

They do not chase you if you fail to pay on holidays

I’ve done this over the years then rebooked and never been an issue.

Stop trying to scare the OP 🙄

@Hugosmaid @Cornflakelover Were your flights actually with TUI or with easyJet / another airline?

With TUI.

OP have a look at Citizens Advice, there is plenty of stuff on Google about not legally having to pay it just because it’s in the T&C. The company will just keep what you’ve paid for in advance. Then resell the holiday.

Thousands of people will have to abandon half paid holidays - I’ve never ever heard of anyone or been contacted by bailiffs over unpaid holidays.

@Hugosmaid Well there's the difference.

The OP's flights are with easyJet, who TUI will have paid in full. So they absolutely WILL pursue for the agreed payment.

Perhaps they're not as aggressive where their own charter flights are involved because they can resell the seats themselves.

@Hugosmaid stop trying to get people visits from the baliffs ffs.

I worked for TUI for a long time.

She can believe who she wants but at least if she believes me she won't get a CCJ.

I hope yours wasn't within the last 6 years otherwise they can still come at you. Might be a good thing so you stop giving shit advice.

Big lesson learned. Go with original booking and have a great time. You made a mistake but don't ignore bills, they come back to haunt you.

I wouldn’t be concerned with comments about missing pool tiles OP. A few people always mention those in reviews (often the non-swimmers ime).
If it helps for context, I recently spent 8 weeks in Canary Island hotels and multiple pools with reports of missing mosaic tiles. Children pull them off, maintenance teams glue them back in place. I spent hours on the bottom of pools with a diving mask - even where tiles were missing, it wasn’t an issue worth mentioning, or cancelling over.

There are always bad reviews, go, you'll be pleasantly surprised