Six weeks ago I booked two rooms for five people in Hotel Ses Savines (Ibiza) through onthebeach.com for a week beginning the 24 July,an hotel in Ibiza in which I stayed with friends last year and really liked.I received an email yesterday stating that rooms were no longer available in the hotel which I had booked and we would had been moved to the Sanfora.This hotel is further inland, and looks really grotty from photos and reviews. Comparing it with the price of Ses Savines (which is no longer available on the onthebeach website but is around £200 more per head through Thomson holidays than the cost of the Sanfora through onthebeach.com) this strongly suggests we have been downgraded.
I have been offered a refund for the price of the hotel but not a refund for flights.I have phoned Ses Savines, my chosen hotel, only to be told it is full until September We would not be going had I known my chosen hotel was unavailable. Having scouted forums, BBC watchdog etc I realise that onthebeach are well-known for taking bookings they cannot honour and then absolving themselves of any responsibility. ABTA have advised me that my battle is now with the service provider, a third party agency and not with onthebeach. In order to find out the contact number of the service provider, I have had to wait for 15 minutes on an 0871 number (10p a miute) in order to get through. I gave up. I reckoned this way was easier. Any advice? Apart from telling me never to book through onthebeach again of course.
Did you read this on the front page of the OTB website before you booked? It does form part of their Terms & Conditions to which you agree when making a booking.
You have booked what is called a “Dynamic Package†where each part of the holiday is booked with a separate supplier – Flight – Transfers – Accommodation. OTB simply act as agents on your behalf and your contract is with the various suppliers not OTB. For that reason they have made you an offer of a refund for the accommodation only, the flights, and transfers if applicable are still in place. It is quite possible that having made the booking on your behalf the supplier has decided in effect to reject your booking, OTB would normally, like similar suppliers try to find a substitute and in this case have put forward the Sanfora..
Whilst this may be not satisfactory from your point of view you did accept those conditions when you made your booking.
To be fair OTB are not the only company that operate in this manner and we hear similar tales here on HT on a regular basis. It does seem that some of these hotels intentionally overbook and then without warning simple cancel some of the bookings.
fwh
On The Beach act as an agent providing a web search interface between you and various third party suppliers of travel products (e.g. flight, hotel or transfer). Each product you choose has its own price independent of other products booked at the same time and creates a separate contract between you and the supplier of that product.
You have booked what is called a “Dynamic Package†where each part of the holiday is booked with a separate supplier – Flight – Transfers – Accommodation. OTB simply act as agents on your behalf and your contract is with the various suppliers not OTB. For that reason they have made you an offer of a refund for the accommodation only, the flights, and transfers if applicable are still in place. It is quite possible that having made the booking on your behalf the supplier has decided in effect to reject your booking, OTB would normally, like similar suppliers try to find a substitute and in this case have put forward the Sanfora..
Whilst this may be not satisfactory from your point of view you did accept those conditions when you made your booking.
To be fair OTB are not the only company that operate in this manner and we hear similar tales here on HT on a regular basis. It does seem that some of these hotels intentionally overbook and then without warning simple cancel some of the bookings.
fwh
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