Years ago this type of currency surcharge used to be quite common. I recall tour operators in the UK making quite a thing about offering a "no surcharge" guarantee when advertising holidays. I think over the years people have grown used to expecting the price not to change once they have booked but many travel companies have specific clauses in their booking conditions to cover this posible eventuality.

The Package Travel Regulations, Regulation 11, requires all tour operators to comply with strict rules relating to the imposition of surcharges to a package holiday. A surcharge being defined as a supplementary amount requested from clients after the booking has been confirmed by the tour operator, and which is levied in addition to the original confirmed package price.

It would seem Billyana Golf is a Turkish company (albiet with a UK office and an ATOL licence which they need to offer air inclusive holidays). They don't appear to have ABTA membership. If they were an ABTA member certain guidelines apply and once you've made a booking an ABTA tour operator can only add a surcharge to your holiday price in certain circumstances. They must also obtain ABTA's permission to surcharge. An ABTA tour operator would also have to absorb the first 2% of any surcharge and to have reserved the right to apply a surcharge in their booking conditions.

It however would seem that you have booked with a non ABTA travel company so what they can and can not do regarding a currency surcharge will be very much down to what is in their booking conditions. I have a feeling that you may end up having to pay they surcharge or accept their offer of a refund on the holiday - unless you can show that they booking conditions don't mention their right to surcharge. Even if the latter is the case - you are dealing with a small Turkish company who may not have the same business acumen as perhaps one of the larger UK tour operators.

Thanks for that Ihad a feeling we would have to pay.Iam going to email Billyana and ask them if they offer a discount when currency fluctuations favour the customer.The euro has been strong against the pound for quite some time now yet this has not been mentioned till we paid the balance.Sharp practice ?

Hi doghead and Traveller

Correct me if I am wrong but where do euros come in to the equation? Is your holiday to Turkey? I believe they are still on the turkish Lira. They are not in the EU. It seems strange reasoning to me that they have to pay in Euros.

Just thought I would chuck in my twopenn'orth!

Yiamass, Jean

It's not that uncommon for companies who buy travel services to contract the services in a "hard" currency. Caribbean hotels may be contracted by a tour operator in US Dollars, Aviation fuel in USD Dollars, Turkish hotels in GBP Pounds or Euros. The Turkish Lira used to fluctuate wildly and I believe the majority of hotel and supplier would want payment in GBP or EUR.

The euro has been strong against the pound for quite some time now yet this has not been mentioned till we paid the balance.Sharp practice ?

The £29 you are now being asked to pay is in effect the 'discount' that would have been available to you at the time you booked had you then paid in full because the £ was so strong against the Euro at the time.

I booked flights to Seville on the Internet not that long again with a Spanish airline who quoted thei prices in Euros - by the time the transaction actually appeared on my statement the flights appeared to have gone up because the exchange rate had worsened. Lesson learnt - should have used the debit card at the time instead of thinking I'd be clever and take advantage of the 0% interest rate on purchases with a new card. Similarly, I've watched the cost of the privately arranged rental on the apartment we'll be staying in go up because we agreed to pay in cash in Euros on arrival - that 900 Euros is going to cost me more at the Post Office now than it would have done if I'd bought them when we first booked. Sharp Practice? No, just one of the consequences of the current financial turmoil and one of the possiblities you just have to accept when you don't book through an ABTA or ATOL bonded company that gives a guarantee re currency surcharges.

Of course this can work in the opposite way too - friends have recently done well out of the travails of the US dollar. They watched their DIY holiday progressively drop in cost to them. Is it sharp practice that they did not offer to pay the hotel at the exchange rate that would have applied when they booked as opposd to the one that actually applied by the time they went? Of course not. Once you step outside of the ABTA/ATOL system with companies that are large enough to absorb currency flutuations, you'll always be liable to pay at the prevailing rate of exchange when the money is due. Sometimes it works for you - sometimes it doesn't.

SM

A colleague of mine took a Bilyiana golf holiday in February (which he was extremely impressed with). On his return he told me that everywhere they went prices were shown in Euros rather than lira - in fact they took euros with them!

Whether I think they're right or wrong re: passing on the increase, this is probably the reason why the euro has been used as the base currency for calculating the actual cost.

I wonder if it had gone up you'd have recieved a letter saying you'd now paid too much?

I have sent them an e mail asking that question no reply as yet, think i know the answer though.

I do find this a little strange considering this is a recent booking.

Yes the £/Euro thing is creating a lot of problems.

TOs have sent brochures to print many months ago and the exchange rate has altered by far much than the TOs could have been expected to take account of.

I would expect that the price for a booking made in January would have taken all this into account.

I do suspect that someone should have applied a percentage increase to the price you were quoted to take the changes into account and failed to do so.

fwh

Im a travel agent and we had a tour operator do the same thing to a customer of ours. It was a company we had never used before, and they were charging an extra £150 surcharge becuase of the euro rate changing. They covered themselves though in there small print saying they could pass charges down. The rate they had printed in there brochure was 1.45! And it hasnt been that for months now!
I do find it very disgusting as it seems its only the small companies that are passing the charge back down to the customers, not the bigger companies.
And you know if the rate was reversed, that they wouldnt give you a refund either!

the rate seemed to bottom out whilst I was away (typical!!) 2 weeks ago. Since then it has been recovering at about 1 cent per day. So, will these companies be sending out new letters saying you're Ok, the panic's over, they don't need so much surcharge now......

I do find it very disgusting as it seems its only the small companies that are passing the charge back down to the customers, not the bigger companies.

But it's the small companies that tend to be operating on smaller profit margins so they can compete with the large companies and the economies of scale that they benefit from. Also the larger companies are much more likely to be in a postion to 'hedge' their foreign currency transactions. Hence, I would be more disgusted if it was the 'big boys' who were imposing surcharges - they are in a much better position to absorb them. And if I was your customer, I might have felt more disgruntled with you for not drawing this clause in the T&Cs to my attention but in the end, it is our responsibilty as customers to check the small print for ourselves - as you no doubt told the customer if they blamed you for it.

SM

Hi Everyone

I read in one of the national papers (Express I think) the other week that the TOs are quite at liberty to add a surcharge.
However they are not allowed to do it within 30 days of travel. The surcharge must be no more than 10% and I think they are supposed to offer a full refund as an alternative.

Looks like the Euro/£ rate is recovering slightly at the moment. http://www.comparetravelmoney.co.uk/.

Happy holidays, Jean