we knew it was winter season, and brochure states some ammienties may not be open

That covers it from the tour operator's perspective then.

What hotel was it?

Mark

miracle hotel in lara beach

we knew it was winter season, and brochure states some ammienties may not be open. ( ibooked over phone, cuz web site wudnt load, so didnt have brochure to hand any how)

what about this bit?

I don't quite understand. You booked a holiday over the phone without knowing any of the details and found out afterwards that the hotel has restricted amenities during the winter season?

Mark

word of mouth from the guests and the hotel told us

I still don't quite understand. Are you saying that you booked this hotel without knowing any of the details beforehand?

Mark

You would expect the pool to be open though!

Was there any errata showing online when you booked it. Which tour operator did you book with ?

Kath x

Even though these hotels are open all year round ,it is widely known that the outdoor amenities are not open until the start of the summer season -which is usually the 1st of May. We are going to Lara beach(Larespark) on 29th April and accept that the pool and outdoor restaurants may not be open until later that week. A lot depends on the weather, if it is warm they will open the pools earlier than 1st May.
The Easter holiday has not been 'brought forward' to March, it was always destined to be that date!!!! Whether the hotel would know that (being a Muslim country) or not, I really don't know...... I'm sure they would, as Easter is a different date each year.
I'm sure you will find that the holiday company are fully covered,as this 'problem' is stated in the brochure and on the web page.

Denny

we have just come back from turkey and the weather wasnt warm enough to use a pool or go in the sea. did you not check the temps before you booked the holiday this may have given you an idea that outdoor pools wouldnt be open in march

sorry but i dont fully understand what you are talking about can you make it a bit clearer and give us some more information

If the pool had been open, believe me you wouldn't have used it.

Even though daytime temperatures may seem ok to us Brits the night time temperature is below freezing and that is waht any pool would have been in the daytime.

This is the reason the outside pools are closed and why people book hotels in the winter season that have indoor heated pools.

Not your fault but maybe next time a little resarch on here would or other sites would tell you before you book out of season which hotels would be suitable for you.

Sorry it did spoil your holiday though and besides the pool I hope everything else was to your liking

John

why did all the other hotels have pool and sunbeds out then? - and not ours. on lara beach stretch there are 7 or 8 5 star hotels - we were the only one with no pool or beds. either there is a rule about winter season or there is not! - it was one rule for one for one for another - if first choice didnt tell us - how we supposed to know?

i did expect some ammenites to be closed but not sunbeds!! - the weather was 72 - 74 degrees all week bar saturday when it rained.

the pool wud have been to cold to use - my main gripe is no beds and no shade on beach.

Unfortunately for yourselves it is up to the individual hotel what they do with regards opening of amenities. Whilst tour operators should be informed of major things like amenities not being available in high season, or refurbishment work going on, they can only cover themselves for things like this by stating what they did about things not all being available in low season.

There isn't a 'rule' that covers all hotels though often they do work in synch with each other.

I agree with you regarding the sunbeds though, with those types of temperatures you would have thought those would be available.

Turkey isn't classed as a year round resort either. You will always find that there are some hotels and bars/restaurants which do stay open year round but whilst you CAN go there at any time of the year it isn't classed as a year round resort like, say Canary Islands or resorts in spain such as Benidorm.

Sorry you had a bad experience, this early Easter has been problematic on lots of counts.

first choice - big company - rep on site - yet no info passed to head office to give us the chance not to book - for same price we could havebooked titanic next door - if you had the choice - which wud u pik? pool and beds or no pool and beds - people were in sea -and on final day (1st april) 8 people were in pool. temperature that day? - same as all week. pool was freezing - but they were in it. lara beach has no restaurants or local bars cuz all hotels are all inclusive - so this particular resort IS open all year.

"turkey - open all year round - not a resort, like some, advertised as open may to october
would you complain? - we knew it was winter season, and brochure states some ammienties may not be open. ( ibooked over phone, cuz web site wudnt load, so didnt have brochure to hand any how)"

Well you did state Turkey as a resort is year round. It's difficult, I know when somewhere is open all year round despite that resort (country in this case) not traditionally being classed as such.

I think you've been very unlucky but really you can't expect a rep to ring Head Office and alert every booked customer that the pool and sunbeds aren't open - when the brochure states it's out of season and some amenities may not be open. They covered themselves adequately and it is up to the customer to do their own research.

Yes, I would have booked the other resort had I known. This is one incidence you will have to put down to experience to be honest. I'm inclined to say that it was down to the hotel management and their decisions and not the responsibility of the tour rep.

Perhaps a lesson learned from this. Do your research here on Holidaytruths. Maybe a topic in our Turkey forum before the holiday was booked would have given you the answer on what amenities are open in the hotel during the winter season.

Mark

we emailled the hotel in turkey we were interested in prior to booking when they told us the indoor pool wouldnt be open in choose not to book there, sometimes you do have to do a bit of research yourselves i always check reviews etc for hotels before i book now, especially if i had heard some facilities in the winter werent available, being nosey i would have found out before booking. as mark says hopefully you will have learnt from this, its annoying this has happened but i doubt a complaint will help you as they have covered themselves

Here in Cyprus we are an all year round destination, particularly in Limassol and Paphos. Some hotels will put their sunbeds and brollies out around the pool, some won't and the TO's adequately cover themselves for this in the T & C's and Holiday Info in the back of the brochure and on their websites.

As for shade on the beach, if the beach belonged to the hotel the above covers that too. If not, it is up to the local municipality and not the hotel.

Louise

lessons learned...........dont book last minute with no research even though there is nothing mentioned about the problems we encountered once there - nowhere can i find evidence that sunbeds would not be available - so moral of story - tough luck - no research would have helped - my brother rang the hotel and was not informed of the pool, sunbeds or winter season - so if you dont ask every possible question then you may be dissappointed - how many of you would ask if you would be able to sit and sunbathe where ever you liked ? dont be ridiculous

first choice replied to my complaint and said cuz i never filled in form (even though i did speak to rep and get confirmation of complaint put onto hotel records) then its tough -

i wont be booking with first choice again, on principal i think we were treated unfairly.