hiya

as far as i am aware, if it said in the brochure and on your booking confirmation that it would be a balcony or terrace then that is what you should have got. if you were on the ground floor then it would be a terrace or patio area, if on an upper floor it would be a balcony. definatly complain to the operator as they have not delivered what you booked.
with regards to the rep saying that requests cant be guaranted, that is true. however from what you say you didnt actualy request a room with balcony or terrace as this is what you should get anyway.

you should at the very least get an apology for the fact you didn't get what you paid for.

hope this helps

I have just had a look at the hotel you booked - the hotel cala'n blanes in menorca???

It does state that some rooms have a balcony or terrace. You are not always guaranteed these unless you pay extra or unless all the rooms have such facilities.

With regard to the fact that you wanted to get away from kid's clubs etc. this is one of the reasons that we have not visited Menorca - it is very geared up to families and personally I think staying in an all inclusive hotel on a family island is probably not the best idea for a couple.

Pippa

yeh i've just had a look in the brochure aswell.and it does state that 'some rooms also have a balcony'.as this is the case im afraid that you dont have a leg to stand on.
you may have requested one but they never guarante it.
perhaps you could still complain that the wording on your booking confirmation wasn't very clear. howver i am sure they will just say the you should have refered to the brochure.

I know now what it states in the brochure, my issue is with the confirmation I was e-mailed and also send in the post as I booked on line as there seems to be no consistancy. The website says some rooms have a balcony, no mention of tereece which is different to what the brochure stats (popped in travel agent in my lunch!) I booked on line and during the booking process I was prompted to pick room type by FC! I spoke to other couples (its couples that recieve these rooms, this is the hotels own addmission!) who also had no mention of rooms not being guarenteed, one couples own travel agent said to ignore it, they would get the room that was stated on their confirmation. There is no additional cost for these rooms. The receptionist said they get this problem alot and upon seeing my confirmeation confirmed this should not say what it does for room facilities and that it was FC fault.

I used to live in menorca, in Santo Tomas and can fully appriciate it is family orientated island, however, we are on a tight budget and this was the only All Inc available for the dates I could travel, It would have been nice to have had somewhere quiet in the hotel to go to with a drink, just for 10 mins as we paid to go All Inc. We did not even get any chairs in our room! !

ive been messed around by FC we got a tottally different hotel on arrival sat the airport. they all tell you different things and say you were wrongly informed by the previous person!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

write to them with your letter of complaint and a photocopy of your proff

good luck

If it states on the confirmation invoice you have a balcony (BL), then this is what you should get, unless there is something in the small print to say the room you booked is not necessarily the room you will receive.

Kath HT Admin

Trades Descriptions! If it says in writing what you have booked, payed for and will be getting and you do not then they are guilty. For once I agree that a claim should be made for compensation. As the TO are the people who sold it to you then they are responsible.

fwh

I agree with the above comments re your booking confirmation. If it said balcony or terrace then that's what you should have got.

We stayed in this hotel 9/2002 and we didn't have a balcony. We had double doors that opened inwards with a half railing. We overlooked the trees on the left of the hotel. Our friends however had a balcony at the entrance to the hotel (the back if you like) and they suffered from coach noise during the night.

I think those at the entrance and those at the front (ie sea view) were the only rooms that had balconies/terraces.

Thanks for your support!

I have sent a letter of complaint and a copy of the confirmation and I am awaiting FC's response. I also read the the confirmation that was sent to me in the post and there was no mention of the facilities not being guaranteed. (at least there is some consistancy there!) The confirmations tTO send are legal documents and the least they can do is ensure they are correct! Some of the other guests who found themselves in the same situation have also complained. I let you know how it goes!

We have just travelled with First Choice to Cozumel in Mexico and had a list of complaints. We complained at the hotel and when we got home regarding everything about the holiday. It was awful. Also we got stuck in the hurricane. We should have flown home on the Sunday when the hurricane was supposed to hit the island. The flight was delayed until the Tuesday and we were evacuated to a shelter (just across the road from the sea). We knew 5 days prior to the hurricane that it was destined to hit the island at a cat 4/5 and First Choice refused to send the plane early. It was awful. Our hotel (Iberostar Cozumel) was destroyed. Anyway as soon as we got home we wrote a letter listing all our complaints and the response was a bog standard reply and they have not fully investigated our complaints. We phoned Customer Services and were told we would have to write ANOTHER letter of complaint but we were told they would not be paying any compensation or offering any refund even though they were misleading in the brochure. I wouldn't use or rate First Choice ever again. They don't care once you have paid for your holiday.

why do people travel to these places knowing full well its hurricane season and then moan when a hurrican affects their holiday?? amazes me

As someone who was evacuated from Mexico after Hurricane Emily, I understand there hasnt been a hurricane in that area so early in the season since the 1860s. I think you'll find that people are not moaning about the hurricane but about the poor service they receive from the likes of First Choice customer relations when they try to complain about the TO not doing their job properly.
Bridd

We were told the hurricane season for Mexico was actually September, thats why we booked to go in July.

shows you shouldnt take anything people tell you as gospel - always do your own research - a simple internet search would have given you the mexico hurricance history and shown you that you were at risk in July...here endeth the lesson///