holiday claim advice required

[sledge71]

we have just returned from marmaris turkey. on arrival we found our selves at the alize hotel and not the club alize as booked. we spoke to our goldtrail rep and she advised us to move if we were so unhappy with the hotel which we did (costing us another �150) any advice on holiday claims would be gratefully accepted

[Buenchico]

I'm a bit confused because the GoldTrail website makes no reference to the Club Alize. It doesn't feature in their range of accommodation. Perhaps the confusion arose at the booking stage?

To complain, send a letter by recorded delivery, addressed to Goldtrail Holidays, Unit 41-45, KingsPark Business Centre, 152-178 Kingston Road, New Malden, Surrey KT3 3ST.

Your letter should give details of your complaint and make it clear that you're making a demand for a refund of �150. (Obviously, you should keep a copy of your letter).

If you don't get immediate satisfaction, write again, stating why you regard the firm's response to be unsatisfactory. (This second letter is important because you can't involve ABTA until after you've made two attempts to resolve your problems).

If that fails, contact ABTA and/or the media. For further information about these options, see my responses, here:
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Travel/Question 258896.html

Chris

[B00]

you didn't state whether you recieved any form of paperwork before your departure. What accommodation was on that? How was it booked? Over the phone? With a travel agent? Even if this was a ticket on departure booking (over the phone) you should still have recieved your ATOL receipt through post.

Unfortunately if you did recieve correspondence in the post and you simply failed to notice this error prior to your departure, you won't have a leg to stand on. You can still complain, but any monetery offer they make (if any) will purely be as a gesture of goodwill.

[sledge71]

the problem arose at the telephone booking stage, having been given the name of the hotel i checked it out online finding alize hotel and club alize. when i phoned back the girl quite clearly described the newly built club alize and not the 30 year old alize, therefore i wwas more than happy to make my holiday booking. besides anyone who has been to the alize hotel would certainly not describe it as 3star

[Buenchico]

It sounds like a double mix up to me. You wanted to stay at the Club Alize apartments in Marmaris:
http://www.clubalize.com/
but the description you were given over the phone was for the Alize Hotel in Olu Deniz (which is 3 star): http://www.goldtrail.co.uk/AniteNextPage.asp?p =ACCOMMODATION_28520&s=449823

By the time you came to confirm the booking, the key words 'Alize' and 'Marmaris' were entered into Goldtrail's system, resulting in your booking being made for the 2-star Alize Hotel in Marmaris:
http://www.goldtrail.co.uk/AniteNextPage.asp?p =ACCOMMODATION_28328&s=449823

You might be able to prove that there was an error by Goldtrail's staff but, if you've phoned them trying to book accommodation which isn't even in their portfolio, this could be difficult. (If your call was recorded and you referred to booking a 'hotel' called Alize, rather than an 'apartment complex', things could be particularly tricky).

Chris

[B00]

What did your paperwork and tickets state sledge?

[sledge71]

i found the holiday online and booked it through a firm called holiday discount centre

[sledge71]

having checked my tickets they say the accomodation is Alize

[B00]

Your only backup sledge will be if your paperwork, tickets and hopefully taped booking conversation (and I do mean the booking one, no other conversations will be taken into account) correspond.

I worked for four years as a complaints officer for a holiday company, and believe me these companies try every trick in thr book to get out of paying you back anything- lets face it they know the industry inside and out!

Saying that though, there's no harm in trying, see how far you get, good luck :-)

[sledge71]

i genuinely feel i was led to believe we were staying in club alize. the written confirmation of our holiday had no bearing on me as i had no idea goldtrail didn't deal with club alize certainly having visited the club alize there is no way any likeness could be found to alize hotel. i am on the verge of forgetting the whole thing only i do believe i have been mislead.