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

I know Playa Blanca quite well. The Rubicon palace is far superior to Sandos Papagayo ( although that's still a nice hotel).
It's a spread out resort and those two hotels are at the furthest of each end. Not in the middle of nowhere by any means.
Stick with the Rubicon, it fabulous.

This x 100

Soooo. If more than the deposit wasn’t due yet you should be ok. But there should be a clear cancellation policy.

try reselling the seats. Then it’s just a name change and can be done with easy jet.

typically they just ‘hold’ with your deposit and that should be all that is due. They may be scamming you with the ‘airline fees’

3k is worth a quick chat with a lawyer over.

What a mess @nunsflipflop

I've no experience in any of this as I own timeshare so it makes holidaying very easy. Good luck, I hope you can sort 1 of the 2 holidays out. X

The whole holiday is more than £12,000 for the 6 of us. To cancel I lose £3600. I’m going into a Tui travel Agent over the weekend to see if we can postpone the holiday booked with them until next year and just pay the amended price for making changes.

So after all of this thread and the fact you could simply cancel the jet2 holiday for a £360 loss, you're going to the Sandos Papagayo? Madness 🤣

@nunsflipflop Why on earth aren't you just cancelling the Jet2 one and going ahead with the TUI trip?

Oh my gosh. Just cancel your card and don’t pay anymore money. Tui will tell you to pay the remainder. You don’t legally have to pay for a service/product you havnt had. There is plenty on it if you just google

I'd definitely ignore the odd bad review because some people have ridiculous expectations and will moan about anything. As long as the consensus is very good/excellent, it will be lovely.

A few loose tiles isn't a reason to cancel a holiday, just take care when walking around. You need to do this all over Spain/Canaries tbh, because there's a lot more trip hazards and exposed edges than you'd find in the UK.

In this case, I would keep the Tui holiday as planned and then cancel the Jet2 one, or change the date to next year as they'll do either for a lot less than it will cost to cancel the Tui holiday.

A couple of hints to avoid this in the future. Use Google maps and street view to check the exact location before booking, and the walking distance to local shops, beach and whatever other amenities matter to you.

Your hotel isn't 'in the middle of nowhere' at all and you'll also find that there will be a gate that allows you to walk straight out onto the promenade that goes right along the coast to the beach, marina, restaurants etc. If you can't walk for 20/30 minutes, you'll probably find that your hotel will do scooter hire, so something to look into. it also looks like a big hotel complex, so plenty to do onsite.

Also, many package holiday companies do 'low deposit' but you'll find that if you cancel, you're committed to higher costs than the balance that you actually need to pay at each stage, so something to be aware of. Finally, Jet2holidays are probably preferable to Tui for customer service, and cost, so worth looking at if their airports suit you.

@Hugosmaid Again, the OP HAS 'had' the product because she committed to £3k worth of fully paid non-refundable easyJet flights at the time of booking. Her situation is different to yours and she absolutely will be pursued for the money she owes. She has accepted a credit agreement.

Why are you finding that so hard to comprehend, when there are two people on this thread both with relevant inside industry knowledge repeatedly telling you otherwise?

There are also reviews mentioning broken tiles at the Papagayo, just stick with the Rubicon as advised by so many pp's who know both hotels!

omg Sandos papagayo is awful. Don’t!!

Ive stayed twice at the rubicon with young kids. It’s great

I accidentally booked a full holiday for the wrong dates earlier this year, non refundable flights and transfers. It was through Love Holidays but the flights were with Tui. I rang Tui direct, basically just said I was an idiot, booked in error, laid it on thick and appealed to them, very polite throughout. They agreed to refund flights in full and sent me an email to send to Love Holidays. It took about 24hrs liaising with LH (CEO email) but they did eventually refund the entire thing including the deposit.

IME being persistent, going to the CEO department but being super polite at all times, gets you a long way, even when the lower downs say something can't be done. Ultimately though, this is your error unfortunately but it's worth a try!

Hotel Rubicon looks beautiful! Stick with that

I definitely don’t have any ccj
I check my credit file regularly and I have excellent credit score

£360 is a low deposit. it's not the whole deposit. to cancel you are liable to pay the rest of the deposit and cancellation cost according to your booking conditions. at this stage it's probably 70% of your holiday cost

I'm confused I thought you were meant to be going on holiday this year. And after all the advice that the hotel is great you're postponing until next year?

Was this thread more "help I've booked a holiday I can't afford"

I’m just really shocked no one has ever had to abandon their holiday 😂😂😂

They really don’t chase you for the money 😂

@Hugosmaid you are giving terrible, terrible advice. If you've been lucky enough to not be pursued then lucky you but as a lawyer you are taking rubbish about what the legal position is and I hope no one follows anything you're saying in practice.

Curious as to why you didn't trust your daughter's recommendation and after you'd already booked started looking at more reviews anyway?? She has good taste, and you definitely owe her an apology drink!

I can't tell if you're being deliberately obtuse now or are just as thick as a submarine window 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sandos Papayago is more out of the way especially for six of you that would be two taxis into Playa Blanca.

Same I’ve had to do it several times over the years and apart from a few shitty letters I’ve never had a problem / ccj and my credit score is absolutely fine

I have been to Rubicon Palace twice and it’s amazing. The poolside bar staff are quite surly (and we always ordered in Spanish too) but it will still be amazing for your grandchildren.

My sister and her two little girls went at Easter and laid over £5k and still thought it was amazing, they’ve actually rebooked for august.

Food and drink great, loads of sun beds, entertainment lovely for families, there’s also a lovely 40 mins walk to Rubicon Marina along the coast line and lots of shops, bars and restaurants there.

my sister got scared before going as she booked on my recommendation (I last went
last Easter) and she checked reviews later. She absolutely loved it. Cancel Jet2 one and go to Rubicon Palace, it’s lovely.