dkapz wrote:

we had this. spent hours deliberating over accommodation and finally booked a holiday, only to have Travel Republic contact us the next day saying the room was no longer available. Super lame. Spent an hour and a half on the phone with Travel Republic trying to figure out an alternative, which we finally decided on. When we arrived there, there was massive construction work right next door, waking us up at 7am on the first morning of our holiday. I'd specifically asked the Travel republic agent on the phone about construction, as it had been mentioned in some trip advisor reviews. He said there was nothing noted so the construction work was finished.

We then had to spend a half day+ on our well earned holiday dealing with moving hotels. We've raised a complaint to get back the cancellation fee the hotel imposed. We'll see how they deal with it but if I don't get that back, I'll never be booking anything again through Travel Republic.

Agree with Sunaddict, are you sure it's the hotel imposing a cancellation fee you didn't have a contrat with them?

I've always been a fan of TravelRepublic, having worked for 5 years at TUI (as a self employed IT contractor I hasten to add) several years ago I came away with the impression you were paying way over the odds for what they were selling. TR seemed like a breath of fresh air and enabled me to take my large family away at a price I could actually afford to pay.

Times have moved on though, and I think a lot of people - myself amongst them - have gotten a bit older and wiser. Now I take the extra step of looking for the ideal holiday on TR, making a note of the flight carrier and the hotel name, and then going to the respective websites and booking direct. The end result is the same, you have a series of separate bookings which combine to make a holiday. But I'll guarantee you it's cheaper.

In fact I'd argue you are getting greater protection -

The booking is directly with the operator, at the price they are actually selling at the time of booking. That means no after sales price hikes at a later date.

The operators site will usually reflect what is actually available, not what TR thinks is available. When you purchase from TR, at the point you fill in your card details and press the book button, you haven't bought anything from the airline / hotel at all. TR will at a sometimes much later point try and make the actual booking which is when the whole process can fall apart from what I can see (air fares have risen, or hotel no longer has what's been sold etc).

I'm planning an October half time break at present. Tracked the right flights to Norwegian air, went to the site directly and £5 cheaper per seat - 7 of us means £35 quid saved already.

the hotel was the peach though. Villamarina in salou. Spotted it, liked it, contacted the hotel direct.

Turns out the hotel closes 5 days before we even get there!!! It's still available as I'm writing this to book - and pay for - on the TR site though.

Found another hotel on TR, went to the hotels site - same booking £93 cheaper.

I don't feel guilty using TR to do my leg work. Over the years, before I got wise, they got their fair share of commission out of me.

I booked a return trip from Faro to Sagres with Travel Republic to save time and money. I got to the greenbus company at 10:30am on Saturday the 14th of May and was told that they did not have my reservation. 30 mins later, I was told that travel republic had not sent them the reservation and that I need to wait 45 mins for a taxi. I then had to take a taxi to the hotel which costed me 140 euros.
I did take the return back with greenbus but asked Travel republic for a refund for the first journey.
This is what I got back:
Dear Miss xxx
We are writing to update you in connection with your booking with Greenbus which you arranged through Travel Republic.
We regret to advise that we have been unable to obtain a formal response from Greenbus as requested within 28 days.
We have again contacted Greenbus requesting they give your complaint their immediate attention.
We will contact you again as soon as we receive a response from Greenbus or in any event within 14 days from the date of this letter to confirm that we are still actively pursuing a response on your behalf.
Best Regards
Kim Daplyn
Customer Relations Manager
Travel Republic Limited Customer Services
I had to wait 29 days for this! I am not very happy and would definitely ask people to never book anything with Travel Republic. Really bad service and you'll lose your money.