There are (at least) 2 companies using the Happy Holidayz name. Which is the problem?

i don't know which one its also freedom travel company,booked holiday lasy year travelling in less than 7 days no tkts various excuses but no firm answer what happens next

Well guess what, Freedom Travel isn't a unique name either!!

However, there is a Freedom Travel Group which is part of the United Co-op in Stoke on Trent who seem to act as a coordinator (not owner) for a number of small independent travel agents and allow them use of ABTA and ATOL facilities. The Happy Holidayz company from Farnborough seems to be one of these. Seems to be a very small outfit which may explain not getting through on the phone. They trade as hotelsbooked.com which is an internet room booking service - which raises a question.

What exactly have your friends booked? Is it a full package or have they just booked accomodation on-line? Because if it's the latter there may be no conventional tickets in the post, there may be an email voucher.

its certainly booked with a tour operator

tkts arrived today..better late than never

Just for information, we booked an advertised 5* holiday advertised on Travelzoo offered by hotelsbooked.com. Payment was made to Happyholidayz. We also paid for a late check out at the hotel due to the times of flights.
The holiday certainly was not 5* and the hotel never received the late payment fee from Hotelsbooked or Happyholidayz and we had to pay again at 100 Euro for six hours use of a room!
We complained to Hotelsbooked.com and they just tried to fob us off so we commenced cival court action againt them. The court served papers upon them and Hotelsbooked.com did not even respond. As such we have now had a County Court Judgement served against them, and still no response.
Hotelsbooked.com and Happyholidayz are just two of around 276 holiday company's operating under the Freedom Travel Group.
Our next step is to issue against the Freedom Travel Group itself. The Freedom Travel Group does have both ATOL and ABTA coverage and offer it to all its listed subsidiaries which you can find on the ABTA website.
We did complaint to ABTA and were told that due to the high number of cases they are dealing with that they cannot deal with our complaint for around six months!!
Such is the state of our holiday company's I guess!.

Anyway, people should be very wary of dealing with these company's because they certainly do not have the customers best interests at heart.

Hi golly48,

I've been watching this thread with interest and was wondering where you are at with your proceedings against Hotels Booked/Happy Holidayz. The sooner rogue travel agents are taken out of the business the sooner we can all enjoy trouble free holidays.

Hi travelgiant, love the name by the way!

Well we now have a county court judgement entered against Hotelsbooked.com as they never bothered to respond to the court papers although the court office have proof of delivery. They did the same to my first couple of letters, just ignored them. I have been advised by the court to wait 30 days for payment to be made, which we all doubt will happen and then action can commence. However, as Hotelsbooked.com and Happyholidayz are part of the Freedom Travel Group, it may pay to go straight for the Freedom Travel Group as it is not known what assets are held by Hotelsbooked.com given that payment was made through Happyholidayz. The 30 days are almost up so I will be making the decision on my next course of action soon and will keep you posted.

Golly

Further to my last posting, Hotelsbooked.com have not paid the County Court Judgement that I have taken out and when I booked my holiday payment was made to Happy Holidayz. Happy Holidayz Ltd have an address at Unit 23 Hewitts Trading Estate Elmbridge Road Cranleigh GU6 8LW. If you check the ABTA web site it shows The Freedom Travel Group Ltd at this address but postal enquires shows its Happy Holidayz.

Companies House shows that they are a small trading company so I would not be surprised if they do not have much in the way of assets!

It seems that The Freedom Travel Group Ltd offer out their ABTA and ATOL cover to companies that pay it a fee to be a member of a larger group so they can obtain bulk holidays at lower costs. I have not approached Freedom Travel Group as yet but when I do I just know they are going to abstain from any responsibility for anything that their 'members' do wrong.

I think this has to be a BIG WARNING to anyone booking a holiday with these smaller outfits, people should look at the ABTA and ATOL website, key in The Freedom Travel Group and look at the 270 odd small companies registered with them and then make a decision on if you trust your money with them.

I am going to write to both ABTA and ATOL to ask them what they think about this kind of arrangement, or do they just get a bigger payment from Freedom Travel and turn a blind eye!!

Interesting to note that that ABTA could not look at my complaint for around 6 months due to their work load and they have not been back in touch since, perhaps they are hiding something!!
My county court judgement still stands and is unpaid by Hotelsbooked.com lets see how we get on with Happy Holidayz!!

Golly48:

Freedom Travel group are a huge company, part of the Co-Operative Group and what they do regading the ABTA/ATOL outsourcing is not unusual i am afraid. Hays Travel who are very large also do the same and this is acceptable to both ABTA and ATOL.

I would try the and speak with Freedom if you can to at least get some kind of conversation with them. ABTA are useless and i wouldn't bother with them if i were you.

Let us know how you get on.

Hi Guys,

Here is the latest news:

I have spoken to the head of Freedom Travel Group (TFG) and explained the situation. They have been helpful so far. Hotelsbooked.com and Happy Holidayz are franchisee members of TFG.

They have offered to try and resolve the issues and I have to send documents off to them which I will do today.

Under the terms of the franchise Hotelsbooked.com and Happy Holidayz should only make the booking and payments should be made direct to TFG. In our case Happy Holidayz took the money so they are in breach of their franchise agreement.

If anyone else has problems with these company's you should make contact with Jane Atkins, Head of TFG on telephone 0178 2309100 which is the main Co-op swithcboard and ask for TFG.

A warrant has now been issued against Hotelsbooked.com and I wonder exactly what the Bailiffs will find at the office!!

Will keep you posted.

Latest Developments:

As previously stated Hotelsbooked.com and Happy Holidayz are both franchise operations held by the Freedom Travel Group and so long as they operate under the terms of their franchise they have the ABTA/ATOL coverage.
It has now become aparant that in our case they were not acting under the terms of the franchise, they were in breach of the franchise agreement, as such it is highly likely that the ABTA/ATOL protections did not apply. So Beware. They should be selling holidays via the Freedom Travel Group i.e. The Co-op, if they take payments dirct to Happy Holidayz, then they are selling you a holiday outside of the franchise agreement.

Also, Hotelsbooked is only an entity, it has a website and a postal address in London and it appears it is the front for Happy Holidayz which is a Ltd company and has an actual office in Surrey. If you read the terms and conditions of Hotelsbooked.com you get the clear message that they are not acting as a travel agent, they are only buying holidays on your behalf.

However, they are acting as a travel agent as Happy Holidayz who do not have a web site and does not have any terms and conditions. The Managing Director for Happy Holidayz if Fluer Mintz and the Freedom Travel Group also know her as the MD of Hotelsbooked.com even though it is only a website.

So if things go wrong, they will obviously hide behind Hotelsbooked.com. So dealing with either organisation you are at serious risk of your holiday NOT being covered by ABTA/ATOL.

You will now find on the Hotelsbooked.com website that they are now listing the registered office for Hotelsbooked.com is the same address where Happy Holidayz is based.

If you start to have any dealings with Hotelsbooked.com, do not bother writing to the London address as it is only forwarded to the Surrey address.

The FTG have now written a fairly strong to Fluer Mintz asking what has taken place and requesting that she contacts me urgently, so far no contact.....

After doing an internet search I found this thread and read it with interest. My wife has just booked a family holiday through Hotels Booked and with the complaints I've seen so far, I'm not filled with confidence about it.

Golly48, I was wondering if you could give us an update on your claim, and any new information you have regarding these companies

Hello golly48.

I was wondering if you had any updates on the situation with HotelsBooked/Happy Holidayz? Did you get anywhere with getting them sorted out?