Have you ever had a free upgrade, or other goodies?

I have had an upgrade once, although to be honest, I am not sure if it was an upgrade.  

I had booked a weekend away at a caravan park and paid my deposit.  Unfortunately the booking system was not fully automated so I had to wait for a real person to check availability (even though there was availability according to the website at the time of booking).  A week later I was advised that the level of accommodation I had booked was now sold out so I had been downgraded to the next level down.  Thankfully they did reduce my balance payable, unlike another holiday company that I have recently had dealings with.

By the time the holiday came around, the site had scrapped most of the level of caravan they had downgraded me to so then had to upgrade me back to the original level, as they had purchased more of those.

And yes, I did get ridiculously excited.

Sorry, that was even more rambling than my usual posts!

I know I will never get a flight upgrade, as I don't travel on flights that even have anywhere to upgrade to, other than sitting with the pilot.

But just once, I would like to walk into a hotel room somewhere to find a bottle of wine on ice, compliments of the hotel.  I've even considered contacting the hotel I have booked in Spain and asking for a bottle to be in my room waiting for me.  Obviously I would have to pay for this, but if I did it now I might have forgotten about it by June.

A free drink in a restaurant if I've bought a meal.  And I don't mean free refills of pop or coffee.

A free sample box of chocolates in with my shopping.

Have you ever had a free upgrade?  What was it for?

The outcome of my holiday complaint

I have accepted £100 from the booking agents, I have been trying to get my money refunded for nearly 4 months now and I have to accept that I have reached stalemate.

ABTA have been no help at all.

I looked into the small claims court, but it is too much to pay out to start proceedings, I am already a couple of hundred pounds down and I can't afford to pay out anymore.

Somewhere2Stay are still refusing to comment on, or even acknowledge, the month it took them to tell me that the Maritim had refused the booking.

As well as the difference in price between the hotels and the cost of eating out even though I had paid for an evening meal, there was the cost of a taxi to the airport from Calella, this cost €120.  I had booked a return transfer and I received confirmation of the time of the return trip and pick up location.

For whatever reason, the time of the pick up was changed, the transfer company contacted all the hotels where pick ups had been arranged so that they could put signs up in the reception area noticeboard to notify the traveller.  Unfortunately, as I had been moved, I did not receive any notification.

After waiting at the pick up point for an hour, I tried ringing the contact number on the booking confirmation, but there was no answer.  I walked down to the train station and took a taxi.

I have calculated what the holiday cost me.

I expected to pay £510

I could have paid £420 had I booked the Santa Monica myself, choosing B&B and eating meals out.

I ended up paying £685.

(I laid all of this out in an excel spreadsheet but I couldn't post it to my blog!)

So lesson learnt, make sure the company you are ultimately booking with is reputable.

My holiday complaint.

You may have read previously on my blog about the holiday where I was downgraded to a cheaper hotel.

I put a complaint into Alpharooms, primarily to get the difference in price back, after all, I could have chosen to book the Santa Monica and saved nearly £200 on the price I paid for the Maritim, but as I was complaining about the overpayment I thought I might as well add in everything else that I found lacking.

According to ABTA rules, the company needs to acknowledge my complaint within 14 days and respond within 28.  A day or so after posting my letter, I received an email asking for more information to back up my complaint. Errr, excuse me, you can see from your own website that there is a HUGE difference in price. Common sense would tell anyone that the difference should be refunded.

I did not receive a response within the 28 days so sent a follow up email.

A week later still no response, so I registered my complaint with ABTA and forwarded all the requested documentation and correspondence.

A couple of days after registering with ABTA I received an email from Alpharooms, their agents had responded to my complaint saying that although it was not their fault that I was moved, they were willing to offer me £50 as a goodwill gesture.

Now, hold on a minute.

• It wasn't my fault either so why should I take the loss?

• I am pretty sure that the travel company - Alpharooms, Somewhere2Stay, Cosmos, whichever - were not charged the same for the Santa Monica (MedPlaya) as they would have been for the Maritim (GHT Hotels).  So why should I be charged the same?  As I have said above, I could have booked the Santa Monica myself and saved a fortune.

• If the travel agents ARE charged the same for all the hotels, why is there such a difference in price to the customer?

It would be interesting to find out when the booking was made with the hotel.  When I booked back in April?  When I paid the balance in May?  The day before travel?  

The hotel was fully booked at least 4 weeks before my travel date.  I know this as a friend who actually lives in Calella always books the Maritim for her Mum when she visits but couldn't get her in, she knew I was travelling over the same week as her Mum and so contacted me to ask where I was staying, I told her the Maritim as at this time I still was under the assumption that I was in the Maritim.  

So why would the hotel wait until the day before to reject my booking? And surely it should have been bookings made AFTER mine that were cancelled?  Unless, of course, it was the day before travel that my booking was sent to the Maritim.

It would also be interesting to find out when the travel agents pay for the accommodation too, is it before or after travel.  I am guessing that it is after if you think back to when all the travel companies were going bust and people were having to pay the hotel bills themselves despite already paying the agents.  

Had the £50 been an goodwill gesture ON TOP of the refund I would have been more than happy to accept, but this was INSTEAD of a refund.

The offer has been forwarded onto ABTA to be added to my file.

They are due to respond to me within the next 2 weeks.

Shouldn't it have been an upgrade, not a downgrade?

I am just back from a week on the Costa Brava.  I need another week off to get over it.

I booked the flight, accommodation and transfers back in mid April.  Less than 24 hours before I was due to fly, I had an email from Alpharooms, who I booked the hotel through, telling me that the hotel I had booked and paid for had been overbooked and so I was being moved to another hotel.

I was not happy to say the least as I have been staying at the Maritim for the last 5 years as for me, it is the ideal hotel.

I was assured that it would not spoil the holiday, after all, a 3 star hotel is a 3 star hotel.

Well, lets compare the two.

This is the hotel I booked, the Maritim

This is the hotel I was put in, the Santa Monica

This was last year's view from the Maritim.

And this week's from the Santa Monica

There were other, little, differences too.

At the Maritim, you can sit where you like in the restaurant, the staff remember you after a couple of days so you no longer have to show your dining card.  The tablecloths are linen as are the napkins.

At the Santa Monica, you are told where to sit.  Every day I had to confirm that, yes, I only needed a table for one even though this was clearly stated on my dining card, which I had to show every day.  I was then used as filler in between groups and family parties, which would be fair enough if the restaurant hadn't only ever been about 1/3 full. The tablecloths and serviettes were paper.

The tables were all lined up and very close, it just felt wrong and uncomfortable to the point that although I had paid for half board, I only felt able to suffer through breakfast using an eat and run tactic.

The hotel also offers all-inclusive which the Maritim doesn't.  Now call me a snob if you like, but in my opinion, all-inclusive holidays, in Spain at least, attract a certain type of holidaymaker, watch an episode of Benidorm if you are not sure what I mean, I know that the show is exaggerated, but not necessarily by much.

The Maritim has a roof terrace complete with two jacuzzis.

The Maritim has free wifi, the Santa Monica charges so I refused to pay.

The Maritim has English language tv channels, the Santa Monica has none.

The Santa Monica does have a larger pool, but with the beautiful beach 10 minutes walk away, why would you stay by the pool?  Unless you are all-inclusive and don't want to miss out on the free beer and food of course.

The staff were pleasant, if you ignored the seat allocator in the restaurant.

There were daily activities for the kids, unfortunately all of these took place right under my balcony.

There was evening entertainment, which luckily I couldn't hear from my floor, but it was LOUD when I headed past on my way back from evenings out..

I think that these differences are reflected in the price.  These are two screenshots for a week in July, showing the prices for the Maritim and the Santa Monica.  There is a difference of, on average, £140 per week all year round.  I tend to book a double or twin room for single use as single rooms tend to be on the small size wherever you stay.  I also go for the halfboard option.

I was always under the impression that if you were moved due to no fault of your own, it would be to a better standard of accommodation, not to one that is a downgrade and much cheaper, in every sense.

I have been given £20 compensation.  

I do hope that Alpharooms make the most of the extra profit that they made from my booking as I will not be booking with them again.  Although that can't be guaranteed as it may happen without my knowledge, I booked and paid Alpharooms, the accommodation voucher showed the agency name as SomewhereToStay, and the paperwork at the hotel showed Cosmos as the travel agents.

Today I travelled back.  I had booked and paid for my transfers and received my tickets, stating when and where I would be picked up/dropped off.  To rub salt into the wounds, it was too late to change my transfers and so I was dropped off, and was due to be picked up, at the Maritim.

The airport to resort transfer went smoothly, if a little slow.  However, today I was at the pick up point 30 minutes before the notified time.  Thirty minutes after my pick up time there was no sign of the coach.  I phoned the emergency number, which also appears to be the only telephone number, to be told that I was supposed to re-confirm my pick up 2 days before, it was in the small print.  I hadn't noticed this as having booked and paid for the transfer and received tickets stating the time and place of pick up I didn't read any further.

I had to pay for a taxi to take me to the airport.  It only cost €120.

My ankles swelled up during the flight, which isn't unusual, however I have now been home 4 hours and they are getting worse.  Normally once I start moving around they go down.  I can hardly walk.

Oh well, back to work Monday.  Oh the joys.