Did you book on-line or in a travel agents ? If you booked in a travel agents, I would just go and sit in there until they sort it out, just say you are not going home until they transfer you to a hotel you are happy to stay in (I would try for a higher grade as you have been messed about). You must be booked onto the flight. It can't be beyond the wit of man to find you a suitable hotel if your one is closed for re-furb.

It doesn't seem right that they can't get hold of anyone in the Dom Rep, they must have more than one rep out there as they offer loads of hotels in the Dominican, also presumably they must have contacts in hotels as well.

If you cant get it sorted before you go, my insinct is that when you arrive you will be taken to a different hotel. Are you 100% that your one is closed, sometimes they try to stay open during work, which of course may also not be suitable.

Hi and thanks for your reply.

We booked in a travel agents. We have tried the 'sit-in' approach but they just keep parrotting back to us that they cannot do anything til they hear from their rep in the resort. They are supposed to have been trying to contact this person for a week now. Unbelievable or what? The closure notice on their website is unequivocal...they are closing down completely for a total refurb as from today. (Funny they didn't seem aware of that when they took our booking 3 weeks ago!)

We just feel at our wits end now!

Thats dreadful. The whole point of booking in a travel agent shop is that they help you at a time like this. This is the main thing that they have going for them over booking on the internet. If they cant help under these circumstances whats the point ?

Time is running out for you, I think you are either going to have to go back down there and sit it out all day. Take the telephone number and contact details of Ros the travel solicitor that works with this site with you and say that if you dont get any satisfaction, when you come back you will take them to court.

You need to get really difficult with them if you are going in a couple of days time, they should be able to move you to another hotel now so that you know where you are going and can read up on it.

Probably a pretty obvious question, but have you sat in the travel agents and asked them to bring the hotel website up themselves? It just seems a crazy situation- I can't understand any travel agent with the facts before them refusing to do anything.

I can understand your concern since if other holidaymakers have already been moved you don't want to be stuck with whatever accomodation is left over. Personally I think I would be persistant and go into the shop armed with a pad and pen and take down the names of all members of staff that you speak to, probably worth making them aware that should this result in legal action, both the solicitor and company head office will be made aware of everyone involved.

Good luck, this must be so frustrating for you

Pam

Thanks to you both for your replies.

I have found the contact details of Ros now and made a note...many thanks for that info. I only found this site this morning after a tip off from someone on the moneysavingexpert site. What a brilliant forum!

I have shown the T/A the notice of the closure on the hotel's website...even took a screenshot and printed it out to show them. I have been making notes of the names of the T/A people involved so far, (so many!). I have also printed out and have told the T/A that I am aware of the 1992 Package Tour & Travel regulations. We had a call from them this afternoon...just saying the same old/same old...can't do anything til they hear from their rep in Punta Cana and that will not be before Monday now at the earliest. An additional difficulty with being re-booked into another hotel is that we require 2 single rooms...I just know that is going to be a problem!!

How ever this turns out I will be making a claim for all the stress and anxiety and time wasted over the last week. Needless to say we will never touch First Choice Holidays again with a bargepole!!!

Thanks for the sympathetic ears!

My heart goes out to you,i've had my own bad time with thomas cook .It seams to me all the travel companies are the same,they take your money and run.Good luck and I hope your not too stressed to enjoy your holiday. Hassie
Fellow mse member.

Go back into the Travel shop and demand that they call a manager whilst you are there telling them of the proof that you have!
The fact is they have it in front of them that your hotel will NOT BE AVAILABLE and they are doing NOTHING about it! Get them on to Head Office! It is a major change that you are going to get and therefore you will be entitled to your money back! I know this is no good to you as you have other payments going out but you need some answers and telling them that a major change gets a full refund may kick them into gear! Don't let them fob you off! What would happen if this 'rep' in resort needed contacting by a family member in an emergency?

Sorted yet?
If not check out the reviews on the sites to pick better hotels to stay at.
If the Punta Cana Sunscape was the Sunscape the Beach hotel it was one of the best so you don't want to go down from there. There are a couple of good ones in Punta Cana and you have the Iberostar Hacienda Dominicus in Bayahibe which also was good and was a first choice hotel. It is a 1.5 hour trip from the airport but you sleep through that (well I did) and then you don't have to do that on the Saona Island or Santo Domingo trips, which become shorter days.
The Caribbeanwarehouse site splits the hotels into 3 4 and 5 star categories.
The problem would be that from memory First choice use quite a few hotels on that side, some not so good. The hotels will not be full and so they can reallocate everyone in resort with no problems - fait accompli.
You have chosen the Sunscape as the best following reviews and don't want to be downgraded so demand to know what they have planned for you and if it is not suitable demand an upgrade.

On the plus side there are some very good hotels there so unless there was something specific from the Sunscape that you were going for such as the paged A la Cartes service, you should still have a wonderful holiday. If there was something specific make sure it is matched in the new allocation.

Just checked the website link and looked at order of ranking. No 1 is Excellence in Punta Cana, No 2 is Dreams formerly Sunscape the Beach (changed hands recently I think) so an upgrade to excellence may be OK.

Don't worry about 2 singles, I am pretty sure they will be able to accomodate you, maybe in different hotels though.... Sorry couldn't resist it.

have a nice time regardless.

Just heard from First Choice and they have offered us the Barcelo Bavaro Caribe, (at 36 hrs prior to travel!). The independent reviews are pretty dire for this hotel but we have accepted with reservations. Just so sick and tired of the whole thing now and at least it means we travel on the 6th. If it is as awful as some people say then it will be something extra when we claim for compensation/damages re stress, loss of enjoyment and expenses thanks to their ineptitude.

Thanks to everyone for the support!

Make sure you write and state that you are accepting the alternative UNDER DURESS.

Download, print off and take the Safe and Sound booklet with you which is available by clicking on my signature. This will state what yu should do in resort if you are not happy.

luci

Oh Dear, They are sending you to the Barcelo Caribe which is directly next to the Barcelo Beach which is having major overhauling done. I hope you wont be disturbed by any noise or building work. Actually the Sunscape only informed all the tour operators right at the end of May and there was no prior warning that this would happen so really it's not First Choices fault.....see the rep after you arrive..you may be able to move to another part of the hotel/another hotel if you find the building work is too annoying...however you can use the whole Barcelo complex so there a lot more choices of rsetaurants and bars etc...so you should have a good holiday
Mindy

Hello and good evening.

I am sorry to hear about the way your holiday has started before you have even travelled. I do hope that the alternative offered allows you to enjoy what should be a dream holiday in the Dom Rep.

I don´t normally post on this forum but I view it at least once a week. As other members read on I hope I do not offend anyone. I come on here try to show the ´other side of the coin´ from the reps point of view. I try to be objective and answer honest questions.

From my last post in November/December time I got a few PM´s and I would like to think that I can give an honest balanced answer.

With regard to this occasion, over the last 6 years in the job, I have lost count of the times a hotelier has given us, in resort, minimal notice that they were closing/conducting major building work/overbooking etc.

In resort when we hear this we have to inform our UK office. Our deadline is normally 24 hours. This then gets sent to a UK dept. that deals with every resort in the world (Not just package holidays but every type of holiday that we book eg citybreaks, specialist holidays etc.)

They then have to send this information to the TA who informs the customers who have booked with them. It is a long process and one I am sure, from a customer´s point of view, is really annoying.

Whilst I am not excusing the process I thought it might help if you understood the process the TO has to go through.

It is not about "taking the money and running" as I read in a previous post. We have an obligation to our customers to keep them informed. The only problem is that we have to rely on "last minute information" from resort staff and hoteliers.

With regards to the TA saying they could not contact the rep. They would never contact the rep direct. They would contact our UK or resort office. I don´t know why they have not replied.

As I said at the start of this post I hope you enjoy your holiday with the alternative offered and I also hope I have been some sort of help.

Hi Mike
Nice to know the official process and even that there is one, however it does not excuse these occasions.
The hotels may be guilty of giving the TO short notice but surely the contracts between hotel and TO will allow the TO to seek recompense for resolving their problems, however, what we are seeing on this site quite often is the situation where the holidaymaker knows well in advance there is a problem, but the TO refuses to admit it. At the last minute or in resort the TO eventually admits the problem exists.
The holidaymaker may be aware of the problem from info gleaned over the net, but once they are aware, the procedures should be in place for the TO to raise the issue and for it to be dealt with post haste. If as you state there is a department just to handle this then they should be able to confirm or deny the situation certainly within 24 hours, maybe longer if Sunday is involved. They have internet access and can check the original data and from there a simle phone call to the hotel will suffice. If I was dealing with a hotel in resort, then I would at least have have the hotels phone number and the local resort office/rep number if all else fails. I am sure all the reps I have seen in the past few years all have mobile phones. With the hotel failing to accept clients they are in breach of contract and so any TO phoning and speaking to the manager/owner on a recorded conversation will be given the correct information. From that point official procedures can take over but they will either have confirmed a problem and procedures started, the potential of a problem and have an in resort team on the case, or a recorded rebuttal which should put the clients mind at rest.
There is a logistical exercise letting people know there is a problem but with todays computers this fairly trivial, I booked my holiday through Eclipse but got many follow up calls from FC and even the local FC shop trying to sell me services so the informations is to hand, a simple sort puts all the bookings in date order etc.

One might be dubious on these occasions as in this instance the hotel not providing the service is ranked no 2 in the DR on one website yet the one now providing the service has bad reviews and doesn't even feature on the top 40 list. I didn't raise that before the OP left in the hope that they will arrive with an open mind and have good holiday. In the past we have stayed at hotels with awful reviews but have had an excellent holiday as they suited us, hopefully that will be the case here.

But the situation is somewhat suspicious if the US TO holidaymakers had all been moved well in advance and this person was fobbed off by FC until the last minute and then placed in a hotel well down the pecking order with no time to investigate or make a rational decision on alternatives.
The suspicion is not helped by the fact that FC now expect you to use an 0871 high cost number to raise and clarify these issues with them!