I booked a 2 week trip to Marmaris, Turkey at the Gokcen Hotel for me and my partner. It was booked through hotels4u.com but the travel agent was Uktravelshop..and i'm sure there was a Turkish agent involed too? Well, the flights went smoothly, taxi dropped us off outside the hotel only to find it closed and it had aparently been closed for months. The taxi drove off leaving us stranded in a country i'd never been in before with no place to stay (fair enough, it's not the taxi company's problem) but you can imagine how we must have felt!

Anyway, we'd booked to stay in Bed and Breakfast accommodation so we had to fork out not only for another hotel to stay in, but expenses for food/drink etc. Throughout the 2 weeks, both myself and my partner used £50 worth of calling credit phoning various numbers shown on the booking reference, nobody could speak a word of English and just kept transfering us to other people on the phone, who were equally as unhelpful. We went on UKtravelshop website and talked in a live chat with a representative, who fobbed us off again with another number, who also could not understand us. In the end, i had to get my Dad to email the company, which replied with the following:

"Dear Mr *****,

Thank you for your e-mail. We have tried contacting yourself or Miss ***** almost on a daily basis on the numbers provided since receipt of your e-mail with no success.

Could you please therefore contact our customer services department on 0871 472 4041 if you require further assistance?

Regards,

Customer Services
UK Travel Shop"

Erm..of course we require further assistance!.....We were not given any help whatsoever, nor any transfer to another hotel. I have evidence of received calls on my phone to prove that they did not contact me apart from on one occasion, in which they told me they could do nothing, just 'put it in writing when you return home'. Our holiday was basically ruined by worrying about costs (we're both students, we're broke as it is!) and trying to get in touch with someone who can help or actually wants to help. It's just not what a holiday is all about.

I'm just wondering if anyone can advise me about the course i action i need to take, will i get a refund, and/or compensation? Do i complain to hotels4u.com (who by the way, are STILL advertising this hotel on their website, and the hotel itself still has its website up- what a joke!) or do i get in touch with the travel agent UKtravelshop? or ABTA? i'm really confused and aparently only have 28 days to complain.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this and i appreciate any help,

L.