Hi ZMech and welcome to HT.

That does not sound right to me, when you make a booking they have to reserve the bed etc with the bed bank (which is Hotel Beds here). The 2 weeks before thing does not sound right, its either booked or it is not.

I would suspect that if it is overbooked OTB would have had to inform you to make another decision. They are not a small outfit and while mistakes do happen I have not heard of anyone being de-frauded by them. There too big for that and have a brand from a public perspective to try and uphold.

Depending on the deposit you have booked it may worth trying to explain that you will book with Jet 2 directly and you want your money back as they have sold you something that is not available.

I do not think though that OTB would leave you without accommodation so soon, I have heard many cases where travel agents (including OTB) ring after making a booking to inform you the hotel is overbooked, but not this late in the day. If OTB have told you it is not overbooked then I would not be too concerned..

Let us know how you get on..

Jet2 could still be showing availability as they may have block booked a certain amount of rooms for their customers. This does happen. You sometimes can't book directly with the hotel as their website shows fully booked but Thomson's for instance have availability. This is because Thomson's have booked X amount of rooms for their clients.

I understand your concerns Zmech & it's because there are 3 companies involved, the hotel, hotelbeds & OTB.

Have you asked OTB to contact Hotelbeds to confirm your booking is safe? Is it possible for you to speak directly to Hotelbeds just for piece of mind?

Have you managed to get this sorted?

Hotelbeds buy in allocation (most bedbanks do). So they will buy, lets say for example 84 rooms. Because they have their allocation they often don't send the guest booking details until 2 weeks before (sometimes less!)
However even if they have an allocation the hotel will overbook and cause a rejection of the suppliers allocation.
I would ask the hotel to email a copy of the rejection notice they sent to Hotelbeds (bet there's nothing there with your name or details because the hotel simply don't have it.) They will have just contacted Hotelbeds to advise that x amount rooms on these dates are not available.
It's not just On the Beach or Hotelbeds,other bedbanks do it too. Get it writing from the hotel and get OTB's side in writing then force them to argue it out with Hotelbeds between themselves.

Travelperson. It is great to get some input from an ex employee.

Yes, thanks Travelperson for the explanation. 👍

Happy to help. I know how frustrating the whole thing can be. Hope you manage to get it sorted Zmech21.