A balcony with a sea view is our no.1 priority wherever we stay. Unless you pay a supplement there are no guarantees. On two occasions where the brochure stated all rooms have a sea view we did'nt. On both occasions we managed to change rooms but its hassle you really dont need. We had to take court action on our return against one tour operator because you get treated with contempt when you complain. Both operators changed their brochure descriptions soon after. I agree that first booked should get the best rooms but it dos'nt seem to work that way.In our experience its pot luck as special requests are often not passed to the property owners/check in staff. If its important to you avoid booking property where 'most rooms have sea view, (bit late now) I know what rooms we would end up with!!! Good Luck, nothing to lose by asking.

If you booked with a travel agent, it is always worth going back to them and they will contact the tour operator for you.If you booked online, it is still worthwhile e-mailing the operator. They do tend to be very helpful. Did your brochure advertise rooms with a sea view at a supplement? If so, and there are rooms like this still available, i would imagine though that as well as paying the extra for the room, you will also probably have to pay an admin fee which can be around £20- £25 per booking so be warned!!
I used to have a friendly travel agent and once when i had to make a late change to a booking, she managed to get the admin fee waived. Don't hold your breath though!
Good luck and let us know how you get on.

John

Hi BECKI85STAR

Try emailing the hotel directly and ask them to allocate you a sea view room, in a hotel it is usually them that allocates the rooms to guests anyway and not the tour operator but they try to take in to account any reqests made via the travel operator.

On the few of occasions when we have forgotten to request a sea view room I have emailed the hotel directly and whether by chance or as a result of my email we have been given a sea view.

Hiya,

Only a few of the Hotels actually sort the rooms out themselves, Its usually the Holiday company and the rep for that company. If you call the company and ask them, depending on who it is, they can add it to your booking, no problem. It is only a request (unless you pay the extra), and request cant be guranteed (said that a few times in my life!!!).

You're right about the preferential service you receive if you book early though, as a former rep our requests would always go to the earliest bookers not the people who paid the most money.

I would email the hotel AND ring your tour operator to request it.
I prefer holidays that charge extra for it, at least that way you can guarantee you will get one

The tour operator may charge you extra though, but I always think a sea-view is worth it

hi there, we have booked a sea view for the first time this year, we booked through first choice although we did it ourselves on line. there was a drop down menu option for sea view, garden view etc which then charged the end balance accordingly. however, once we recieved our confirmation invoice through the post this paid-for extra was simply detailed as a ''room adjustment'' i questioned this via email and was informed that i was right to have done this as the sea view arrangement should have been marked as an ''SV'' on the invoice, this is the only written proof that a sea view has been requested and paid for according to FC, they then re-issued the invoice, so it worth checking, no matter who the tour operator, especially if you have paid substantially extra as we have.