is this the hotel

http://www.holidaygems.co.uk/moreinfo.php?h=FABLWF36L2LD9NPBXGACUFPL15&t=ResDirect&n=Sol

Thanks AP1408 ... that appears to be two different pages on the Holiday Gems website for the same hotel, with different definitions of the hotel's Adults Only policy.

David

If you didnt book on the web site and with one of their sales reps and they confirmed the booking you may well have a case.
Best to seek advice from Simpson Millar Solicitors.

Thank you for your advice.

I will contact them with the information tomorrow to see what they think.

Thanks again

Yes, there is clearly conflicting information on the Holiday Gems website, which may have been the source of confusion for the person accepting the booking. But I see no reason why you should be the victim of that confusion or misinformation. Rather than try to explain all this on the phone to Simpson Millar, you may find it easier to email them tonight with links to the pages on the Holiday Gems website, and then follow that up with a call tomorrow. You may find that the misinformation on the Holiday Gems website disappears very soon, so try and save a copy. Of course you have the booking confirmation as added evidence.

Good luck, please keep us informed.

David

Adding to the confusion the official site says bookings from 16 years.

So BOTH Holiday Gems pages are misleading

I have just conducted a 'dummy' booking for the Sol Menorca via HolidayGems website (which you can try too) and you can make a booking on line for an adult and child aged 11 years or any age actually!!! I've gone all the way through the form right until the point where payment is to be made and at all stages it lets you make a booking for a child.

I have just conducted a 'dummy' booking for the Sol Menorca via HolidayGems website (which you can try too) and you can make a booking on line for an adult and child aged 11 years or any age actually!!! I've gone all the way through the form right until the point where payment is to be made and at all stages it lets you make a booking for a child.

All the more ammo for your case !

Totally unrelated to Holiday Gems or Sol Hotels, the Admin/Mod team encountered another case of 'Adults Only' confusion yesterday with a new hotel in Spain. Some booking websites verified it to be an Adults Only hotel which didn't accept any children under 16 years of age, while others made no mention of the fact. Even the hotel chain's own website failed to mention the Adults Only policy, in fact on the contrary, it said children must be between 2 and 12 years. It highlighted the fact that it had a kids pool section, one photo showed kids in the pool, and their online reservation facility allowed you to check availability for adults and kids. I wonder how long before we start getting complaints about that one from people who didn't get what they thought they had booked, due to website misinformation. !

David

I was wondering why I hadn't had an email alert about this complaint since I am subscribed to the long running Holiday Gems thread but I've realised that the OP has started a completely new one. The original thread http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=123804 explains the somewhat wobbly admin of the company and it's relationship to the Global Travel Group. More importantly the MD of holiday Gems also seems to subscribe to that thread and in the past has sorted a few complaints out straight away. So maybe it would be useful for a Mod to merge this complaint onto the back of the original thread, not just to keep this site tidy but to boost the chances of it being sorted out - because on past performance of the compnay the OP will need all the help she can get!.

Merged. PM sent to tas0299 with link to here.

Hi
Just to let you know I have spoken with a Simpson Millar Solicitor who has been extremely helpful and given me some great advice which I shall be following. I will keep you posted about events, but I'm certainly not prepared to wait 10-12 weeks as stated in their letter to me whilst they conduct their investigations. The matter is one of clear negligence that they failed to provide accommodation suitable for the purpose. I will be requesting they settle the matter within 14 days otherwise legal proceedings will be issued. I would recommend that anyone with an issue about HolidayGems Ltd contact not only Simpon Millar who have been great, but also Consumer Direct and Trading Standards. Conumer Direct have also been very helpful and forwarded my case to Trading Standards who are currently assisting me.

Thank you to everyone for your comments and assistance. Watch this space!!!

T

Thanks for the update tas0299, fingers crossed for a speedy resolution.
David

We booked a week in the Canaries for £333 per person on their website at the weekend

We got a call from them this morning (Monday) to say that Monarch had increased the plane ticket price so an additional £68 per person was needed

We told them to cancel the holiday and we would use another company

If they had told us the right price when we booked, we would probably have gone ahead with the holiday

Just to add to my earlier post - I just checked their website again and it is still showing the original price @ £333 per person

I was going to suggest you did that, it doesn't come as great surprise. That said, the same would probably happen with any of the other companies working this type of business.

We have now booked to go to the Canaries on the same dates with another company for £428 per person.

They did not give us the "run around" with the prices and so we were happy to pay more to go with a company who have told us the truth from the outset.

If HolidayGems had told us the correct price from the outset they would probably have got our business, but now I doubt that we would ever look at their "offers" again.

I've just booked with Holiday Gems and the same thing happened, the next day my wife took a call from them telling her the flight had changed to a low cost carrier which was cheaper but baggage was extra £39. She didn't ok the extra payment and asked the agent to call back when I came home from work to discuss it with me . I never got the call back I rang them and was told the full amount had been taken without authorisation. They have refused to refund the money.
What can I do?.

Well what you do if they had taken the cash from your pocket without authorisation?

If it's your card (not joint name) then they clearly needed your permission, you could report it to your card company and make a complaint against them, which wouldn't help their status with the card company and should get that bit of the money back. Also if you were lead name on the booking contract they can't alter it on someone elses say so (you try doing it the other way round and they'd soon tell you that!!).

The big problem here is the phone number, I suspect that it may randomly divert calls to agents working from home which makes it difficult to speak to anyone in charge.

Phone them early in the day, ask to speak to Jason (the boss), give him till close of work to call you back and if he doesn't you should call the card company and report them.

Thanks for the advice it maybe worth a try. I was thinking of something stronger.