Sorry it didn't work out for you.

Next time try to book with the hotel direct when going DIY. It's often much easier. And of course it goes without saying research, research, research!!

I have booked through Alpa rooms to go to the hotel Selomar on the 3rd January next year. Hope everything will be ok. I am a bit worried now. I normally book with Benidorm Spotlight who I have never had any problems with.

Nicole

In january2005 we booked two rooms for the noelia sur in tenerife through alpha rooms for a one week stay in August we booked it because of location close to los cristianos and because of the activities as we were taking out two teenage children also friends were staying in the columbus apartment nearby on arriving with our accommodation vouchers stating noelia sur we were told there was no rooms for us this was at 9.30pm we tried to the ring the emergency number but could not get through we had no alternative but to accept the hotel offerred which was 6 k away in Torviscas we were told to see the manager which we eventually did on the tuesday we told him our holiday had been ruined he said we dont know peoples circumstances when we move them I told him alpha rooms should have e-mailed us before we left and we would have told them that the alternative hotel was not acceptable he said he would try to refund the car-hire money back to us he said he would see us at dinner that night he did not turn up we saw him again on the morning we left and he said we cannot refund the car hire money as this hotel cost more I told him we had not chosen that hotel. On returning home I tried to phone alpha rooms and just got the message you are next in the queue I e-mailed them with our phone number explaining what had happened no reply so I then sent them a recorded deliverey letter to which I am waiting for a reply reading. I wish I had read other readers comments before I booked I will not be using them again.

I've booked with Alpha Rooms this morning to go to the El Hana Residence in Sousse, Tunisia for a week on 30th October. The reason I used them, apart from the cost, was because they had a hotel I like, having stayed there in the past. The hotel voucher came 3 minutes after I booked. Obviously I know the pitfalls, but knowing the area and the hotel, and having booked with my credit card, I don't envisage any problems (apart from trying to get a decently priced flight. Even looking at flight prices now I will have saved about £100 compared with tour company quotes I've had.

In reply to Aslemma we also booked with our credit card it did not stop Alpha rooms changing our holiday completly. We chose our hotel as we had been to Tenerife many times and we knew the hotel and what activities it had to offer. The Hotel Alpha rooms changed us to without our knowledge only had salsa dancing and spanish lessons was in a different resort 6k away. We had vouchers with the name of the Hotel on that we had booked but this made no difference we are still awaiting the reply to our recorded delivery letter.

I hope that you have better luck with them I know many people have been satisified with Alpha rooms we have booked another holiday for December but obviously not with Alpha rooms.

I too hope I have better luck than you, but to be on the safe side I'll email the hotel nearer the time to confirm they have my booking.

I've also just booked a holiday for July 2006 with alpharooms, this will be our first DIY. I guess I've paid my money now so I'll take a chance. I have no doubts whatsoever about the accommodtion I've booked as I've read every review there is to read and they are all excellent. I just hope it goes without a hitch. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, as well as horror stories there are also good which you get pretty much with anything and I can understand people saying they wouldn't touch a company again if they've experienced terrible customer service but I would like to think that there are far more holidaymakers who don't experience problems with some companies to the one's who do.

Shell

today I received a reply from Alpha rooms saying that they have forwarded my letter to their Customer Relations Department and will reply in full within the next 30 days.
I will let you know what answer they come up with for changing my Hotel and my resort and the reason why I could not get through to them using their emergency number.

Must say i have to agree with Colin. I think as long as the hotel room is provided and is not mis-desribed i.e. is 2* when advertised as 5* then the agent has done their job, quality can be a subjective term and means different things to different people, if the room was awful then i would guess complaints are with the hotel and not the agent you booked with.

Similarly, if you booked a train ticket/flight ticket with any agent and you found that when you boarded the seats were torn, toilets on board blocked and the cabin smelt then you wouldnt go back to the agent you bought the ticket from, you would complain to the airline or train company surely?

In your example lukey, I'd complain to both.

Complaining to the agent may help them put together a collection of complaints with a view to them then considering whether or not to continue selling the product/service in question.

I.e. in the case of an accommodation agent, if the the property gets so many complaints surely the agent would then block the property from their portfolio, this would be better in the long run as many other travellers would not have to suffer the same fate, after all not everyone has the ability to access the likes of holiday-truths or indeed the internet (I know its hard to believe, but surely it can still happen ).

Whoever the person booking the hotel believe's is responsible, that doesn't change the fact that there is no excuse for abuse or poor customer service (agent or otherwise), which is why this thread was started by purepauluk. They provided a service and took money for it.

I believe this is the point that RobbyW and purepauluk are trying to make.

Jazz

For me, you have to be able to trust a company and have confidence that a room will be available on arrival (that's what the service is for, or is it ???).

It's a bad start to a holiday, when you turn up at the hotel that you have booked and paid for many months in advance, only to be told that no room has been allocated.

The hotel receptionist also stated of many problems they have had in the past with Alpharooms, which seems to back up what others have said about them when things go wrong.

It's a shame, as Alpharooms have a great website, good prices, but absolutely ??? staff.

Confidence and trust is a big NO NO for me with Alpharooms, and although they won't go bust losing me as a customer, how long can they go on treating other customers this way ????
My opinion only,

Robby

I have had no problems with Alpha-rooms and in reality if the problem was with the hotel then that is who i would complain to as they are the ones who have taken the lions share of the money - alpha rooms only take an agents cut. Their staff should be customer friendly and advise how to deal with the problems encountered but ultimately they are not liable for the hotel's shortcomings

andrea_loup I never actually blamed alpharooms for the problems with the hotel. I do however blame them for making matters 1000 times worse though. They treated us like dirt, and threatened us and I will not stop telling people this.

To this day, its still the worst thing ive ever experienced with any company in my life. Ive never been treated like that before not even remotely.

Im glad that you've never had any problems with them. However should the day ever arrive when you need there help, god help you thats all I can say.

Im glad that you've never had any problems with them. However should the day ever arrive when you need there help, god help you thats all I can say.

I'll second that, that's when you see their true colours

Robby
**Unsavoury comments removed - Kath HT Admin**

Robby, is that really necessary on the forum. Ok you've had a bad experience with them but there again there must be 100's of satisfied customers otherwise surely they would go out of buisness. I've read things about tour operators and how some people have had such bad experiences with them that they'd never touch them again but then I've had a really good holiday with them. I just think there are better ways of getting your point across

Shell

Shell, if it catches on, they will be singing it at airports, all over the world

Robby

Ladies and gents..sorry to hear about your problems but why on earth atr you giving your money to a middleman??...Find the hotel you want to use and then contact them directly...You will save yourself a load of money and in my experience they treat you like royalty as you have personally selected to stay with them!

Hi Hotel Stayer,

I e-mailed the hotel direct that I have chosen for next years hols and they actually quoted me more than Alpharooms so Alpharooms got my booking

Shell

andrea-loup My problem is with alpha rooms as I said previously they changed our hotel and resort did not let us know this before we arrived We could not contact them on their emergency number, we phoned them when we got home and gave up waiting to be connected we e-mailed them no response we sent them a recorded deliverey letter to which we received a reply stating they would investigate and get back to us nothing from them as yet.

Alpha rooms ruined our holiday we had friends staying near the hotel that we had booked as the other hotel they had put us in was 6k it was very inconvienent. Had Alpha rooms had the decency to e-mail us before travel we would have told them that the Hotel they had changed us to was not acceptable .

How dare alpha rooms change our holiday out of all recongition we did not do allocation on arrival. As I said previously we have booked again for December but not with Alpha rooms.