Having a nightmare with UK tour operator!

[nina874]

I wonder if any of you lovely ladies can shed some light on this unbelievably frustrating situation. 

 

I have booked my vow renewal with Thomsons holidays, through the Caribbean Warehouse, I have paid a fairly hefty deposit for 20 people travelling out and 8 rooms to be held for them all for 2 weeks.

 

I rang the hotel because as we booked through a travel agent/tour operator they only had a contract with the hotel for the bottom grade of suite and they told us that we would have to upgrade direct with the resort. Fair enough.

 

I ring the hotel to organise that and tie down some more details only to be told that they have no record of our booking, I assume that is an admin error and ring my TA to ask her what is going on, she rings Thomsons to be told that they do not confirm the booking with the hotel until 14-21 days before you travel !!!!! WTF!!!!!

 

I have to confirm my wedding package with the Gran Caribe Real 60 days before we travel!!! The package costs swing to a degree on how many guests are staying in resort, in addition they need confirmed guest lists which they double check to make sure that they are all Real Resort guests or you need to get Day Passes and pay extra for them.

 

I had this situation a few years ago when I booked the holiday of a lifetime with Virgin (the Maldives, glass bottom water villa, business class flights the works) only to be told  2 weeks before we were due to travel -having paid in full 8 months earlier - that the resort was overbooked and we would have to take a holiday of the same value somewhere else. Upon ringing the resort and going bananas they told me that they were sick of Virgin not taking up their allocation until the last minute and that they had released my room to another tour operator who had the decency to confirm when the client had paid for the room. They said it was standard practice for tour operators to hold onto their clients money for as long as possible before paying/confirming with the resort.

 

I have vendors that I am trying to book and they all need deposits and I don't even have a confirmed booking at the bloody hotel!! What if they release even one room?? I will be totally flippin banjo'd thats what!!

 

What can I do? I cant afford to cancel and then to book all the flights and the hotel direct separately as the flights have to be paid in full up front and I dont have that cash just lying around! On top of that I might lose my deposit and it was just over 5K. I am tearing my hair out!!

 

The Caribbean Warehouse are running around trying to sort this out but Thomsons are saying that they wont change standard practice, they will give her an email to show to the WC to prove that I have booked, but the hotel reservations (who are the only people who can sort out the room upgrades etc ) are saying that until it is confirmed to them and they have a reference number they cant help me as I am not on their system cos i dont have a confirmed booking!! Its like a bloomin merry-go-round.

 

It was actually Edgar from MPV ( what a fantastic guy!) who suggested that I post on here, he has very high regard for all you ladies and reckons that one of you will be able to help!

 

If one of you can I will be eternally grateful.

 

xx

 

 

[jenniferkuhr]

Oh my goodness....what a frustrating situation.  I wish I had some better advice, but I don't.  Your travel agent should really be doing all the negotiating/haggling etc. with the resort...not YOU! Otherwise, what are you paying them for?

 

I would definitely take my business elsewhere in the future.