Tour Operators and Travel Agents

Discussions regarding Tour Operators and Travel Agents
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Actually, now I have looked more into Hotelbeds, they only deal with the travel trade, so OTB would be your contact.
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thanks fiona,,,,,,,been doing some delving myself and found this ,,thoughts?

1.4 When the contract is made

1.4.1 By clicking to book and entering your personal and payment details on our website, you are requesting us to make an offer to the Travel Supplier to purchase the products(s) on your behalf. At this point we immediately re-contact the Travel Supplier. Each Travel Supplier will still require a short period of time to confirm that your chosen flight / hotel is still available. Although the email confirmation sent to you is NOT contractual acceptance of the Travel Supplier's ability to provide this product, it is an acknowledgement that we have received your offer, and should the product be available as detailed on our website then you have entered into a legally binding agreement to purchase this product subject to the Travel Supplier's Booking Conditions.

1.4.2 Once we have received confirmation from the Travel Supplier, we will contact you via email to let you know that your order has been booked. The contract is formed when the Travel Supplier issues its confirmation invoice and their booking reference number. Please note that once your booking has been confirmed to us, you can only cancel the booking in accordance with the relevant Travel Supplier's Booking Conditions which may involve cancellation charges. Equally you may also be subject to our cancellation charges to cover our administration costs.
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yeah i cant find any T&Cs for them either ,,,,,,,,strange that
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have you missed Sma's contributions as she may have posted at about the same time as I did.
I can't add any more but you must have agreed to T&Cs before you booked it.
Best to contact OTB who will then have to contact Hotelbeds. You do have money actually left your account and a booking reference. So start with that. But please don't leave it all unitl you arrive in Marmaris. It's just not worth it.
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andyf wrote:
hi Doe,,,,surely if i get to turkey,,OTB have a responsibilty to find accomodation?


I know what you are saying Andy, and see where you are coming from.

However am trying to put my head in the place yours will be in if you turn up with your family and no hotel.

My gut feeling is that you will then be on the phone to onthebeach, using your mobile paying premium rates and having operators at the other end who will be clueless, as basically they are just a great big call center.

The screen they will be looking at will tell them your booking is with hotelbeds and has gone through ok.

They will then try and get in touch with hotel beds or worse still tell you to get in touch with them (another premium rate call on your mobile) meanwhile hotel reception will either be fed up with you or trying to flog you a room at the hotels rack rate which is the rate you read on the back if a decent hotels bedroom door i.e £150 a night of whatever - probably not that much in Turkey.

It's not a situation I would want to find myself in.

We may be worrying unnecessarily and you gave got a bargain price, but if I was you I would have a plan B.
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2. Bookings
2.1.
Procedure. HOTELBEDS shall book the accommodation
identifying the guest and describing the room categ
ory, arrival and departure dates, and any other ava
ilable
options, providing a booking number.
HOTELBEDS will not issue a rooming list. All reserv
ations will be made solely on a "sell and report" b
asis. When these requirements have been fulfilled,
HOTELBEDS is
considered to have made the reservation and the SUP
PLIER must honour it. If the SUPPLIER fails to prov
ide booking confirmation, this does not alter its o
bligation to honour
the booking. The SUPPLIER agrees to accept reservat
ions made by HOTELBEDS on receipt of a voucher. If
the Client fails to provide a voucher, the SUPPLIER
must accept
the Client upon confirmation of his/her name and HO
TELBEDS booking number. Before turning the guest aw
ay in any case, the SUPPLIER must contact HOTELBEDS
.

extract from T&Cs
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yes doe thats my fear too lol

i think this is the way it works

i make a reservation for hotel through OTB,they provisionally take booking (booking becomes pending) ,then contact HBs who then confirm with the hotelier to provide accomodation,HBs then contact OTB who then release funds to pay for accomodation (out of my account),once payment is received HBs then release hotel voucher to OTB ,who then confirm with me the accommodation,

HBs T&Cs which im rubbish at reading

sry cant post links :(
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RESERVATION
S: HOW TO BOOK HOTELBEDS TRAVEL SERVICES.
Simply search for the chosen travel service (accommodation,
tour programmes,
transfer, excursion, ticket,
group special offers, car rent and other destination services), the service supplier (concrete Hotel, etc.)
at
the desired destination
, booking pax and dates,
then
proceed to the final booking page. Details of
CLIENT
selection will be featured at the website.
The CLIENT shall
carefully check the dates, the price, the
destination and the
service
supplier
details
before
completing
the
booking.
The CLIENT
will also see details of the cancellation fees that will be levied
for the booking
.
To confirm a booking,
the user
must be authorised to make the booking by
the CLIENT and by
all persons
named on the booking and
their parent or guardian for all party members who are under 18 when the
booking is made. By making the booking,
the CLIENT
is
confirming that all persons named on the booking
accept the Terms
and Conditions
and that
the CLIENT
will inform the other pers
ons named on the booking
of the confirmation details and any other appropriate information. By making the booking
the CLIENT
also
become responsible for making all payments due to HOTELBEDS.
Once HOTELBEDS has received
the CLIENT
booking and all approp
riate payments, HOTELBEDS will,
subject to availability, confirm
the
booking
once the
service
supplier
concerned
confirms to HOTELBEDS
.
HOTELBEDS will confirm
by issuing a confirmation e
-
mail containing a
booking voucher
.
The booking request will not be
confirmed by HOTELBEDS and the transaction is not considered
completed until the CLIENT has paid in time the full price of the services, irrespective of whether the final
consumer, intermediary or the remaining interested parts, have paid the referred pric
e to the CLIENT.
Therefore, HOTELBEDS will confirm the booking once the full price is paid by the CLIENT.
In any case,
if the CLIENT has been requested to return a Credit Card
Payment
Authorisation
(for payment
using credit card)
,
the booking confirmatio
n will not exist until HOTELBEDS receive
s
the Authorisation.
Should
CLIENT
do not return the Credit Card Authorisation,
HOTELBEDS
cannot
process the payment and
then,
confirm the booking
.
This Credit Card Authorisation is requested in order to ensure that
CLIENT is
the
Credit Cardholder and that no fraudulent use is being carried out with
CLIENT
credit card
3
CLIENT shall check the booking voucher carefully as soon as the CLIENT receives it and contact the
HOTELBEDS customer services immediately if any info
rmation which appears on the booking voucher or
any other document appears to be incorrect or incomplete. As HOTELBEDS acts only as CLIENT’s
travel
agent
,
HOTELBEDS will have no responsibility for any errors in any documentation except where those
errors w
ere made by HOTELBEDS while processing the booking.
Reply
as i see it you have a valid booking with Hotelbeds that has been confirmed and has been paid for and a valid contract is in place.
OTB and Hotelbeds have done their bit and all that can go wrong now is if someone spots that the price you have paid is a bit low.it is not neccessarily wrong as it could have been a special offer, just a bit low.the chances of that happening before you go i would think is small. if they do spot it before you go then you should get full refund for hotel but they should offer you an alternative or ask for the balance,
i would price up and save copies of the prices at similar hotels now just in case things go wrong
if on arrival the hotel decides to bounce you as they are overbooked then it is too late for Hotelbeds/OTB to wash their hands of you as you have a valid hotel voucher and they would have to bear the cost of moving you elsewhere. standing your ground at reception demanding the manager and holding up everyone else should get them moving to get a solution.
personally i would keep the balance of the money separate and if it did come out that they have made a mistake then i would just pay the balance.
bear in mind that people get bounced at receptions every day because of overbooking so the problem is not unusual for hotels but with a valid hotel voucher even the police would not let the hotel just disown the voucher.
i think there is a bit of a moral question in the middle of this so everyones views will be slightly different. my view is that both OTB and Hotelbeds have had the opportunity to check their prices twice, at quotation stage and at the offer stage so i would have no qualms about just accepting the situation as it is -BUT i would have a PlanB
.
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Oh dear. What at first seems a bargain, becomes a major headache. This will certainly take the shine off your looking forward to the holiday. I would again speak to otb to ask them the implications of a mistake not of your doing. Ask what the worst scenario could be and your legal rights. They surely have a duty of care for customers.
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The hotel are unlikely to know what you've paid Hotelbeds, via OTB, unless the cost is on the voucher which we be very unusual. What they charge their customer (OTB) and what OTB charge their customer (you) is not known by the hotel. Both will put their own mark up on the transaction.

Any dispute re underpayment would only occur when Hotelbeds actually pay the hotel. As they will have rooms on allocation they may not even pay the hotel until after you've left the hotel and gone home.

OTB are only the agent and are only passing on the costs they've been given. IF the hotel was aware and tried to charge you more, yes OTB should try to help, but ultimately it would be between you and Hotelbeds to sort out.
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Andy, from what sunaddict says that sounds quite promising.

Perhaps it was a genuine offer and you just got lucky. It would seem that the hotel won't see any figures as to what you have actually paid, and hotelbeds probably don't settle up with them until the end of the season I suppose, when they probably transfer all monies for the season across (I'm just thinking out loud here).

You have a valid hotel voucher and if the hotel themselves do try and bump you (which can happen to anyone) hotelbeds will have to find you a comparable hotel, so it might be a good idea to have a few researched to suggest to them if the worst happens, rather than take the first one offered to you.
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JMD-F thats exactly what im thinking,ive downloaded the actual hotel voucher ,and they dont receive the actual amount i paid for stay ,i tried 3 times today to get through to OTB but never got through,,,,,,i emailed the hotel to ask for a high level away from pool,,,,,i got a reply from them and they said they would put request on my reservation file,,,,so at least i know the hotel have receievd my booking and im down on their list,

Sunaddict and doe, thanks and im feeling a wee bit better on this scenario,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,i also will have enough funds just in case it goes all pete tong.
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Good luck Andy. I can imagine the stress you are going through and most probably, until your safely ensconced in the hotel, will continue to feel.

Please let us know how you get on. Post from the hotel if you don't hear anything before then PLEASE :tup

All the best - we are all rooting for you :tup :cheers :sun2
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Ps Marmaris is a big place with lots of accommodation so I doubt you'll be homeless if the worst does happen, but let's hope for the very best outcome :tup
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Looking at the acc voucher details, it appears to state 0 A/I after room details. Could this mean the cost is just for the room?
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The Casa de Maris is a beautiful hotel and that price does seem cheap.
Check the price with Thomson and see what they are selling it for on the same dates for 11 nights.
If you get it for the price you have paid you have certainly got a bargain. :tup
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hello andy,

I would like to know if you still have your holiday booked with OTB as we had the same thing as you but they cancelled our holiday yesterday
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hi candice

yes our holiday did get cancelled despite me calling them up just to confirm everything was still ok with booking,(last thursday ) we got a call from them,,,which my wife returned she was told everything was ok ,that the hotel was on a STOP/GO ???? and that everything was ok RESULT...................NOPE
we got a call on thiursday afternoon which i took it was from a manager who was informing me that hotelbeds werent honouring the price i paid and as a result have cancelled hotel,,,,but they offered me a good deal to put what i had already paid for flights and hotel towards new accomodation which i have done ,i rebooked the casa de maris but could only get 10 nights for some reason,and for one night we stay in club anastasia (just somewhere to sleep as we leave in the morn),,,so i paid an xtra £530 which i didnt mind ,,,,,all in 11 nights holiday 10 all inc,and 1 SC for £1700 not bad i suppose,,,,,,,although raging that our original hotel that jet2 cancelled us on is now open the green nature diamond,

did you get any deal off them candice was it also the casa you had booked?
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