Utter Shambles of a companyHQ29173 ref....for the benefit of Holiday Gems
Booked an adults only hotel in Dom rep last may for September 2019
After phoning rather than use the online method, 4 of us spoke to an unnamed person via loudspeaker phone just to make sure we crossed all the 't's and dotted the 'i's All seemed ok untill we arrived at the hotel in Bayahibe, Dominican Republic. We arrived at the hotel we booked the Catalonia Royal, 5 star modern adults only , only to find Holiday Gems had booked and paid the inferior 4 stat Catalonia Dominicus next door, even though our vouchers clearly stated the Royal. We had to pay $70 per room for the first night to stay in the hotel we had already paid for. In the morning a call was put through to Holiday Gems and one of our party spoke to an unnamed person who basically said .....not our problem. After trying to contact them again on there customer service number and emergency contact number there was no one picking up the phone after approx 1 hour of continuous ringing. We were left with 2 options, either pay approx $1000 per room for the holiday or reluctantly get downgraded. We weren't prepared to pay again for the same hotel. E mails then thick and fast between us and HG. We were told by HG pay and keep receipts, when asked will this be refunded when we get home they said.....there's no guarantee....we have all this on e mail. We reluctantly stayed in the inferior hotel, construction work was abundant after day 8 we arrived back from one of our dive trips to find the only pool empty and boarded off....photo and video evidence is available, again more e mails to HG....not our problem. Once home we put in valid complaint with all evidence......we then we're directed to an unnamed person in customer liaison. She basically wasn't interested. Along with our complaint we then instructed our credit card company to open a section 75 claim under the consumer credit act. Only when we started this did an unnamed person in HG start to take notice. Our credit card company found in our favour of a partial refund, yes we had flights and private transfers.....but not the hotel we booked and paid for. The ATOL certificate they issue is only valid for flights....not accomodation. They claim although not ABTA registered they abide by there standards. This is untrue. They claim on there web site to abide by the EU directive 2018 package holiday regulations....again untrue.. As for compensation, we have only just managed to get back the difference in cost between the hotels, 4 months it's taken. We were entitled to take them to court for compensation for loss off amenities, disruption and so on. That would take about 3 months and by writing this review this would have jepadised our case. I have also sent a report into trading standards as there descriptions of both hotels is totally inaccurate, this has been successfully logged. Would I use them again.....no....would I recommend them ...no. in the next few weeks I will be trying to get this true story into the tabloid press, before people start thinking about booking future holidays. Please read review sites, pay by CC and if you don't get what you paid for action a section 75 with your card company, collect evidence. I will be posting on an Advisor site that deals in Trips under holiday gems when home from this trip, pictures and videos will be posted.

After this was reported to trustpilot I have now edited the names out of the members of staff who were of help/ no help. The context of this review is true