Many people use them with no problems but they managed to send us to a hotel from hell last Christmas.It was booked via Holiday City on teletext and thanks to Ros I got my money refunded.

I'm biased towards Alpharooms having had a bad experience with them and having terrible customer service and would never book with them again...
but others have had the booking they have paid for. If all goes well you shouldn't have a problem, but God help you if things go wrong

Pleny of other options out there, and if you post what you are looking for we will try and get you the best deal around.

Best of luck,

Robby

thanks for the advice!

I want to stop in Cala D'or Playa, Cala D'or Majorca. Tried direct but they're closed 'till May!! Can't find them available anywhere.

So I was looking for alternatives - favour the Sol Cala D'or Apartments - 17th September 2 adults 1 child for 10 nights.

Its the first time i've gone DIY - already booked the flights.

Freedom direct and DIY travel also have the Sol Cala D'or apartments available.

Any suggestions

Had a look on Sol Melia website and I can book direct.

However it asks for credit card no for reservation purposes only - you have to pay the hotel direct - does that mean you pay once your at your accomodation?

Getting slightly confused!

I would have thought they are taking your credit card details in case you cancel.

Normally you pay once there, but you need to ring the small print on their site, they may have a cancellation policy and this might be the reason they want your card number, in case you cancel outside a set time.

Kath HT Admin

Sol Melia take your card details to be able to take the cost of one nights accomodation if you fail to show , this is the common practice of any reputable hotel chain and although you don't neccessarily get the best deal from them they are ethical in their business.

Although the apartments you require are closed for the winter they will be open shortly to take bookings unless they are only bookable through tour operators, so why not wait a while and see what happens, until then have a look at WSH much cheaper than Alpharooms. if you must have ABTA credentials then have a look at Travel Republic.

Good Luck wherever you wander

Dave

Alpharooms price:

Room 1:
2 Adults
1 Child
£426.62 1 BEDROOM APARTMENT SELF CATERING


Hotelopia price:
APARTMENT (1 BEDROOM) STANDARDSelf Catering £426

Enter promotional Code: 9363 when booking and you will get a 10% discount, saving you another £42+

If this is OK, I can let you know how to save even more on this booking, around £30+. PM me and I will explain.

Robby

PS: WSH site is down at the minute, so their price is not available

Robby,

I check Alpha for Sol Cala Dor Apartments, but for the dates hippyjak wanted I get £373.00 Self Catering?

Jazz

Jazz, are you checking the correct dates ????????????? 17-27 Sept 2007

I copied and pasted the results from the sites as to not make a mistake - please check again and confirm, obviously one of us hasn't sobered up yet

Robby

Robby,

LOL you are right. I must still be pished

I'd only put in 7 nights, what a narna.

Jazz

as anyone tried http://www.freedomdirect.co.uk i find them very reliable and reasonable. cheers Jayjan

LOL you are right. I must still be pished

Thought it wasn't me, I only had one small glass of sweet sherry

Robby

Just thought I'd give a warning about Alpharooms and their 'Emergency contact' should you have problems when arriving at your destination. I've just returned from a weekend break in Poland, we arrived at 1030pm and tried to check in to our hotel (booked through Alpharooms) only to be told the booking had been cancelled and there were no rooms available, not just at the hotel but in the whole of the city due to a sporting event taking place.

No problems I thought, I'll just ring the emergency contact number - however this was the mobile number of a young lady in Spain who said she did work for Hotelbeds (who I believe own Alpharooms) but she had nothing to do with bookings and wasn't able to help us. Despite promising to ring us back with a contact number, she didn't and when I tried calling again, her mobile was permanently on answerphone! I then rang the only other number available which was the Alpharooms out of hours booking number however the young girl insisted she couldn't book anything out of hours for us as she needed 48 hrs notice! Despite desperate pleading from myself - we were 2 women stranded late at night in Poland and couldn't speak the language - they refused to help and we were left to our own devices.

We managed to find a hotel some 75 miles away and had to pay for a taxi to get there, arriving at 1.30 am.

I didn't receive the promised phone call first thing the next morning so again had to contact Alpharooms. I must say that from then on, the chap who dealt with us was very good and sorted things out - apparently the hotel was at fault with cancelling the booking.

My main gripe was the fact that Alpharooms issued an emergency contact number (thereby offering some reassurance when booking) but it was totally useless and there was no concern on their part to try and sort out the mess.

I've e-mailed today and received the standard blurb about looking into it and can I provide copies of phone bills so they can consider reimbursing me for the calls - they just don't seem to get the fact that we were alone in a foreign country, couldn't contact anyone and we were SCARED! I've e-mailed back saying I'm disappointed that I've only received a standard e-mail and that I'm still really angry about what happened and I'll be interested to see if anything is forthcoming.

I'll keep you posted but I for one will never use Alpharooms again!

as we can only speak as we find,
i have used them 3 times this year for spain, and had no problems at all.
confirmation and accommodation vouchers were e=mailed to me by return and all went very well.
i,ve not booked with them for my next trip because i got a cheaper quote elsewhere, but would have no hesitation in using them again as long as the price is right.

Have a look HERE Foreverfalcons. Give Ros a ring for free impartial advice.
I hope the "falcons" thing is the "Geordie" connection

Best of luck,

Robby

Like jimd-f, I have used Alpharooms in the past with no problems, but I think the problem would arise if something did go wrong, as in Foreverfalcons' case. I booked through Travel Republic earlier this year and noticed that the rep was based in Spain, though I was holidaying in Tunisia. As I know the area well, and had sent an e-mail to the hotel to confirm my late arrival, I wasn't concerned, but if I had been in strange territory I should have felt rather dubious.

Just been on alpharooms to price up next years holiday the price they give is for per room but when i click to book the price is jumping up 300-400 pounds i know it says estimate but this is very misleading.

How many's in your party? Children?

Probably just extra supplements that can't be determined from a basic search.

Jazz

2 adults and one 12 year old am looking at hotels not appartments so woulnt think there would be a supplement. Have knocked them off my list of websites to search as they are working out very expensive compaired to other sites.