Booked into the wrong hotel

Hi

We've booked to go to the Cricket World Cup [y] in April through VH.

When we booked we asked specifically for a hotel called the Barbados Beach Club as the friends we are travelling with had already booked it through VH.

When our invoice came through its showing as the Barbados Beach Club Family Resort which is a new hotel based a couple of minutes walk away from the other hotel on the other side of the road.

We definitely wouldn't have taken this hotel and I know its only a short walk away but the agent certainly didn't say the Family resort when we booked.

I called VH on Friday but they wouldn't help me as my husband made the booking and I didn't know the set up password, however she did say the Barbados Beach Resort is now full but in terms of other options she couldn't help me she would need to speak to the husband.

I appreciate that its VH allocation in this hotel which is full but wondered what your thoughts were, can we try to get VH to get us a room in the hotel we want and thought we had booked??

Many thanks
Lesley

Is it possible to trace the 'phone conversation between your husband & the agent? Just a thought, good luck.

Originally posted by Boyle73
Hi

We've booked to go to the Cricket World Cup [y] in April through VH.

When we booked we asked specifically for a hotel called the Barbados Beach Club as the friends we are travelling with had already booked it through VH.

When our invoice came through its showing as the Barbados Beach Club Family Resort which is a new hotel based a couple of minutes walk away from the other hotel on the other side of the road.

We definitely wouldn't have taken this hotel and I know its only a short walk away but the agent certainly didn't say the Family resort when we booked.

I called VH on Friday but they wouldn't help me as my husband made the booking and I didn't know the set up password, however she did say the Barbados Beach Resort is now full but in terms of other options she couldn't help me she would need to speak to the husband.

I appreciate that its VH allocation in this hotel which is full but wondered what your thoughts were, can we try to get VH to get us a room in the hotel we want and thought we had booked??

Many thanks
Lesley

You could ask VH to ask the hotel whether they could release more rooms to VH, particularly if there's a website for the hotel and it's showing availability.

Are you members of the Frequent Virgins Club ? If you are, then I'd recommend using their number for your follow up calls on this, as they are less script driven that the standard call centre.

Also keep a record of your calls (dates, times, name of agent, conversation); not out of paranoia but rather so that you can drive this towards a resolution that's in your favour. You may still not get your choice - if there's no room there's no room - but you may be able to secure something that is more to your taste.

Paul

Unacceptable in my opinion if the agent has made a reservation at the wrong hotel and not sent confirmation in a timely maner they should without question put it right. On this occassion IF the hotel is full they might not be able to.

Good Luck

[Neil]

How long ago did you make the booking? Surely you have a cancellation period once you have made the booking and if the details are not what you booked then cancel, either VH will make every effort to sort for you, otherwise they wont care and then I would book through another agent, companies shouldn't be allowed to get away with things like this[V]

Once again VH seem to be letting themselves down, I wonder if it the VH India call centre Boyle73 is dealing with, which might explain why they are not been to helpful!

Neil:)

Originally posted by Attitude23
How long ago did you make the booking? Surely you have a cancellation period once you have made the booking and if the details are not what you booked then cancel, either VH will make every effort to sort for you, otherwise they wont care and then I would book through another agent, companies shouldn't be allowed to get away with things like this[V]

Once again VH seem to be letting themselves down, I wonder if it the VH India call centre Boyle73 is dealing with, which might explain why they are not been to helpful!

Neil:)

Hi all

We booked it just before we went on holiday in June but we were away for just over a month so the invoice arrived quickly but we didn't open it until we got back.

To be honest the person I spoke to tried to be as helpful as she could bearing in mind I didn't have the password to access our account but another option is speaking to the Frequent Virgin Club and hopefully having some joy with them. Fingers crossed.

Lesley

Lesley

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Paul

wen my friends went to duabi and the maldives with VH they totally mucked it up....they were booked in the jumeirah beach and then said your booking has been cancelled so were put in the ritz charlton.... and on the trip to the maldives they werent booked on the flight so were put on the colombo flight and then a sri lanken to male (this sector was emirates) and on return they were ment to fly emirates from male to dubai and then from dubai to LHR with VS they wernrt booked on flight so put on sri laneken ailrines via colombo! wat a mess up!

Hi again,

We spoke to VH last night and despite a helpful UK based customer service agent, basically they are unable to increase the allocation at this hotel and our only other option is to cancel, they have waived the cancellation fee.

So I am having a look at other travel providers today to see if I can get anything else, the hotel's own website is still selling rooms but flights are being a bit tricky.

We will also send a letter off to VH so that our thoughts are recorded.

Thanks again for your help and advice.

Lesley

Originally posted by Boyle73


So I am having a look at other travel providers today to see if I can get anything else, the hotel's own website is still selling rooms but flights are being a bit tricky.

Could you "convert" your current VH booking to a 1 week fly drive thus retaining your flights and then book direct with the hotel ? Agreed it may not be the most cost effective but you'd bypass the tricky flghts scenario..

Paul

Originally posted by pjh

Originally posted by Boyle73


So I am having a look at other travel providers today to see if I can get anything else, the hotel's own website is still selling rooms but flights are being a bit tricky.

Could you "convert" your current VH booking to a 1 week fly drive thus retaining your flights and then book direct with the hotel ? Agreed it may not be the most cost effective but you'd bypass the tricky flghts scenario..

Paul

Hi Paul

I spent most of yesterday looking for other options and unfortunately most of the hotels are nearly all full with the cricket being on and booking direct with the hotel costs the same as the full cost of the VH holiday [:?]

We find out in September whether or not we have out cricket tickets so if we don't then we will have a decision to make about whether to still go or not (would be tempted to use the cancel waiver if its still an option!) otherwise we will just make the best of it, at least we are a couple of minutes walk away from our friends rather than being at the other end of the island [:0]

A lesson learned though for the future!

Lesley

Originally posted by Boyle73
I spent most of yesterday looking for other options and unfortunately most of the hotels are nearly all full with the cricket being on and booking direct with the hotel costs the same as the full cost of the VH holiday [:?]

Ah. Yes. That would throw the calculations somewhat.

Originally posted by Boyle73
We find out in September whether or not we have out cricket tickets so if we don't then we will have a decision to make about whether to still go or not (would be tempted to use the cancel waiver if its still an option!) otherwise we will just make the best of it, at least we are a couple of minutes walk away from our friends rather than being at the other end of the island [:0]

Well, good luck with the tickets and it looks from the hotel and VH websites (sorry, couldn't resist being nosy) that the accommodation will be new and you'll be able to use the bars and restaurants in the "parent" hotel

Paul

we were booked in to the wrong hotel by VH, we were booked into a hyatt about 20minute drive away from the one we wanted, VH wanted to charge us extra to change to what we wanted however our TA requested the tapes of when the booking was made which proved that VH had made the mistake so they changed the hotel and gave us £200 discount.

An update

We have taken the advantage of the free cancellation policy and cancelled the holiday.

It might sound extreme but we have been mucked about with getting our cricket tickets and reckoned that the total cost of the holiday was going to be around 7k

So we've decided that money would be better spent on having more holidays next year rather than 1. So we have booked a cheap fortnight in Tenerife at friends villa in February and going to look at going back to Florida in the summer and San Francisco later in the year which I think would be better value for money.

Would love to go to Barbados but would rather go when I don't think I am being ripped off just because the cricket world cup is on. [n]

So a bit down but planning at looking at prices for MCO and SFO this afternoon to cheer me up.

Lesley

Lesley

Thanks for the update. Heartened to see something significant has been salvaged and may well be better. When VH screwed up a booking of ours at a dude ranch at Easter (Monday - yes you're booked. Friday - oops no availability) we ended up finding ourselves a place that suited us down to the ground..

Paul

Does it have to be a hotel? When we went across this year we decided to do something different and rented a house.

http://www.barbadosdreams.com

It was fantastic. 10 mins walk to The Cliff and a few other nice places to eat. 3 bedrooms and private pool. We really enjoyed it... Not sure about availability though so you would have to check that out.

New cricket stadium is only about a 10 mins drive away too!

Originally posted by GreboDB
Does it have to be a hotel? When we went across this year we decided to do something different and rented a house.

http://www.barbadosdreams.com

It was fantastic. 10 mins walk to The Cliff and a few other nice places to eat. 3 bedrooms and private pool. We really enjoyed it... Not sure about availability though so you would have to check that out.

New cricket stadium is only about a 10 mins drive away too!

Hi GreboDB

Thanks for the link, its certainly something to consider if we decided to go to Barbados in the future.

I am disappointed about not getting to see the cricket, however when we looked at the costs and realised / decided that we could be able to do more this year then the decision was easy.

Besides, I can watch cricket anytime at Chester le Street, there isn't much difference [:o)]
Lesley