Did you fill a complaint form in when you were at the resort?

Mark

As far as I know Holiday Mate are an agent. Who did they book your accommodation through?

I'm not sure I understand the post!

It starts off "beware Holiday Mate" but the complaint is mostly about the hotel. That does get an appaling write up this year on TA (seems it changed owners) with many of those complaints coming from Thomas Cook customers, but we wouldn't expect a "beware Thomas Cook" post. The bare bones of this complaint do tally with those on TA so "beware Pineta Park" would seem to be appropriate.

However, Holiday Mate claim to have offices in UK and Turkey which makes them sound solid but the website is registered to a small house (maybe flat) in a narrow street in Tonbridge which isn't quite the picture they paint. So there may be grounds to be cautious but not for the reason posted.

The wording of the post looks as though the complaint is addressed to HT and we are supposed to arrange the refund, that's not how it works! I'd suggest the OP sends an email to stuart@holidaymate.com which seems to be a direct line to one of the directors who is probably in Turkey. Don't forget to include holiday date and booking reference number.

Steve
Holiday Mate are member of the Travel Trust Association for over 10 years which covers fully for financial failure. A lot of the small independant agencies are run from peoples houses, 100% online and are members of such associations.
Not saying that makes them sound, but also doesn't make them anyone to cautious of.

I did say "the picture they paint" - the website shows a very imposing office building which I assume is the Turkish one and which builds the company image up. I just get a feeing that the Tonbridge address is a mail drop and there is no real UK presence, not good if it ever got to court action. The limited company is registered to an address in Sevenoaks which seems to be a firm of accountants. The company may have been members of TTA for 10 years but the current directors only go back to 2005. I'm not saying they can't be trusted in the criminal sense, I just get the feeling the company isn't as big as it makes out and may struggle to assist when things go wrong.

Fair comment Steve. I was rushing to get out the door for an appointment I maybe cut myself short, so to speak
I take your point. It's just that I know one very successful and reliable Florida specialist, that is totally web based, runs ads on forums for disney etc, and they operate out of a semi on a housing estate.
There are a lot of dodgy, as well as reputable smaller agencies around and it does pay to be careful.

Totally agree that the OP gripe should not be with the agent.

I posted a list of things that were wrong,bit hard to understand. but the thruth is holiday mate are the prblem with rude reps in resort and when i got home the holiday mate custmer service were not interested in my complaint or other holiday makers. beware of booking with holiday mate.theres no after sales care in resort or at home.

Posting of a gripe - if that is what you want to do is fine but HT - and this section in particular - is dedicated to helping people - Help - Advice and Information is what we do.

If you would like some assistance in pursuing a claim for compensation then just say so.
First question is did you complete a Customer Complaint Form whilst there?
Second question who was the holiday actually with? Thomson, Thos Cook or someone else? Holiday Mate are an agent not a Tour Operator.

fwh

Actually they do seem to be an operator of sorts, their T&Cs have a quote about offering flights and hotels at individual prices and not constituting a package. Plus you can get quotes for various lengths of stay which the big TOs wouldn't offer. The interesting thing is that where a hotel has a rating at TA they display a link to see it - and if you click the one for this hotel you get what I found earlier. So they are at least being open - obviously the whole thing is automated so if they don't respond to complaints they'll keep on taking bookings.

The OP does seem to have grounds for complaint about the company (poor rep and no answer from customer services) but if the person handling the complaint is Turkish and the complaint was written like the post here they probably can't follow it, let's be honest the English wasn't very good and it lost some of us! But the hotel appears to be absolutely dreadful and that's a problem that will affect a number of operators so slagging off just this one isn't very helpful.

Advice for taking it further is as before, email using the link I supplied and use clear English with paragraphs. If they don't respond court action will be difficult, the Tunbridge Wells address (sorry, I said Tonbridge earlier) used to register the website was sold later on so the only addresses we have are the PO box shown as the contact, which could be anywhere, and the Sevenoaks address shown as registered office which is only the accountants.

Steve it sounds like they are just selling flights and accommodation from separate companies as it states they only act as agents and contracts are with the supplier (so not selling packages). The rooms may possibly be through a bed bank and the flights will be from whoever. A lot of agents, on line and otherwise, sell like this and lots of people think they are booking a package. Advantage is being able to book any number of hotel nights required, so far more flexible.
When I worked in travel the vast majority of our business used to be like this, but we did package ours properly, and then we became the tour operator.

Have to say, me and my boyfriend booked through them when we went to Marmaris and it was all spot on, had a superb time. Perhaps you were just unlucky with the hotel.

We are going to use them again next year if we go back.

From my experience in tour ops in a past life, I would say "beware of all things Pineta."

I've never heard anything good from the Pineta names....

We are just writing to say what fantastic service we received from the Holiday Mate in Ovacik/Hisaronu. My partner Nick fell over and hurt himself the first day and the reps arrranged an English speaking doctor and a trip to the local hospital where we were treated within 2 hours and only had to pay the excess on our holiday insurance. Fantastic - thank you! Will definitely travel with you again, Nick and Jan from Swansea.

I have to agree that Holiday Mate are not a company that I would use again or recommend.
I had issues with our transfer and S**** K*** (manager) agreed these were unacceptable.
I was told to email Falcon Tourism as they are in charge of the transfers. i did this but the only response was them disputing my facts point by point. I had proof (and so did they, if they had bothered to check time of arrival at hotel). I was as much called a liar, though there were a dozen of us claiming wrongdoing. I never received any more replies from Falcon Tourism.
I further contacted Mr K*** and he still disputes it is out of his hands although it was to Holiday Mate my money was paid.
Disgusting service. Deplorable after sales.