Hi and welcome to HT!

I shall move your post to our Tour Operators and Travel Agents forum as it is not Tenerife specific.

Unfortunately I don't think there is anything you can do. You booked the holiday at a price you were happy with and it's just unfortunate that you found it cheaper online.

Direct Holidays is the direct selling arm of what was My Travel/Airtours who are now Thomas Cook. It has always been the case that you were likely to be cheaper with the direct arm of any of the major tour operators such as Eclipse or Portland.

luci

I found a holiday to Lanzarote for my friend on the Direct Holidays website in February.She phoned them and the agent tried to sell her a Thomas Cook holiday which was £200 dearer each for the same hotel on the same day.She asked for the Direct holiday and got it,he even undercut the web price!She flew with Thomas Cook airlines and had 20kgs luggage allowance.It included transfers and they had a Rep.
If you have only paid a deposit it may be worth cancelling and re booking with Direct holidays.

All the agents I have visited this year have said they would match or beat internet prices. This marked a complete change of strategy. Even last year, I think, you had to pressurise the shops into admitting the internet existed let alone get any to price match, which many did.
However, this year I have seen a couple of cheap deals advertised in the window and gone in for hotel details, insisting that I will check the reviews first before booking. I have then been given the Web match info unsolicited even though I have not mentioned it. In every case so far the reviews have put me off the holidays so I have not been back.
If you are worried about booking through the internet there is no need really, We have used internet booking since 2004 with no problems at all and last year we used an independant rather than a main TO.

The important things are to check all the reviews, check the small print to ensure the holidays are the same or find the differences, and then take the option that gives you the price/contentment factor that you want.
My experience is mostly with the First Choice/Eclipse Direct where the same holiday used to be hundreds of pounds different and I stress that they were the same holiday. You even had to pay First Choice.
last year was a bit more of an eye opener with the independant as they bought the hotel packages from local operators and flights from whoever. I could not fault anything to do with delivery and we met a family who took the UK TO package. They had the same hotel facilities, but as we were part of a smaller group we had better local service, so don't let the Travel Agents scaremonger you into paying over the odds.

As I said you do have to compare holidays as some offer differences such as extra for in flight meals, lower luggage allowance, extra for local transfers etc., so you just have to be wary.
Also try options, they are getting more wary now, but we had one cheap holiday where going through the "last minute" route added nearly £200 to the price compared to going through the normal route and putting in the close date and that was on the same website. One holiday I found that booking the rooms individually came up with a cheaper price than the group booking, but at least they refunded the difference when I pointed it out.

Research, do the maths, including cancellation fees, and then if the holidays match and the figures make sense go back to the TA and insist on a match or cancel and rebook online.

Have a good holiday anyway.

hi
we're off to tenerife next week, and we booked this holiday the day we returned last year.
i checked the website and was quoted £1100 for family of three. went into travel agents and exactly the same holiday, same tour operator was £1650. first they refused to match, but as we walked out they checked their website and found that the price was indeed £1100, so gave us the holiday for that price. Bargain!!!!! 2 weeks flights hotels for 2 adults and 1 child!

tracey

Hi. As others have said, Direct Holidays are the direct arm of Thomas Cook (used to be MyTravel before merger) and I have found that their prices are often considerably cheaper. Included in the price with Direct are transfers, 20kg luggage and in flight meals whereas for 2009 TC are charging £15 each for 20kg luggage and also charging for in flight meals. I have noticed though recently if you do a search on the TC website it lists Direct Holidays accomodation so perhaps you can now book through an agent aswell. One thing to bear in mind though if you do book over the phone or internet, as I've found to my expense this year, it is a nightmare if you have to contact Direct for any reason. The calls I've had to make to them this year have been answered in times varying from 15mins to over an hour all at premium rate. I have chosen to book at TC holiday for 2009 through my local TC travel agent who I have found to be extremely helpful, beating the TC internet price by around £90. I also know that if I have problems like I have this year with the booking I can let them deal with it for me.

There is a Direct Holiday travel agent in Newcastle where you can book their holidays.
I usually use Co-op travel who I have found to be very good at price matching and you get extra money off if you have a Co-op card.

Hi.

It's a case of buyer beware. There are so many sites, even when you have done all the research that one can do, you may well find it cheaper later.
We have encountered similar problems. I'm afraid after booking the holiday of your choice, their is little redress. Whatever happens enjoy Tenerife. :sun2.

If I were you I would cancel lose my deposit and rebook. I assume the deposit is something like £100 each so you would still gain.

Sue

Hi i paid £40 (low deposit) found the holiday i booked cheaper off the net and was told i would have to pay the rest of the deposit £480, if i wanted to cancel!!this was through a travel agent, selling a First choice holiday to me.Managed to get £80 knocked off the holiday, it's not the same as the net price but....

Unfortunately Beermat, that is a risk you have to take.
If you find a holiday in a travel agent you have to make the "on the spot" decisions of Is is the holiday I want and at the price I want to pay.
The risk you run is that if you decide to do any research then you may lose the holiday.
Personally, I always go and investigate. I actually inform the TA that I wish to investigate the hotel reviews and reports and without fail they have all replied with "we will match the internet price" even though I was only going to investigate the hotels and not look for cheaper stays so they must be used to that as an excuse for not booking!
Incidentally, the reviews have put me off every bargain so far, so I have not been back to see if the price matching did occur.

I thought there was a sliding scale of deposit lost on cancellations depending on how far into the future the holiday was, but it sounds as if the TA you used would not go out of their way to assist, still £80 is better than nothing. We had one which really stitched my daughter up but thankfully that set of staff has now been replaced. I think the company cottoned on to the fact that in a small town gossip spreads!

Anyway if you look at it as you were happy to get the holiday at the original price and you now have £80 off, it is a result.
Ok next time you may not use the agent or may do a bit more research before finally booking, but this time round just go and enjoy your holiday.

Have a nice time.

Hi stevebell thanks for your reply. i did say to the agent about the price difference, they had given me the first price avail and hadn't looked at the price difference for the next room down on the web which was £379 cheaper , so i was more than a bit miffed at that and told them so. so they phoned fc and got me that money off the holiday.i have learned by my mistake and will not be going with that agent again, fc shop said i should have went to them and they would have matched the web price

Ah, Beermat - The cunning room ploy!

I have come across that on the FC and Eclipse websites and now always check the prices for the different rooms to see if there are better choices. I think I had the same experience with Thomsons site as well. I stuck the kids in the cheapest room options saving hundreds but when it came to it, the hotel put us all together in the same rooms as they were not full, so that was a good result, but not one to be relied upon.

I assume you have a better room then, many people willingly pay for the upgrades so it is all swings and roundabouts.
BTW what the other agents say is not necessarily what the other agents do when it comes down to it - guess which one gave my daughter grief!

The only gripe I have is when companies charge for a room upgrade when there aren't any lower spec rooms anyway! Happened to some people on holiday at the same hotel last year. My TA had already pointed out that all the rooms were the same standard so the advertised free upgrade was a bit of a nonsense as they would have extreme difficulty trying to not provide one, however the other people had actually had to pay extra for their room upgrade with their TO!

No I didn't say anthing to them - they had a brilliant holiday not realising that we had the same one but a bit cheaper.

Regardless - you were happy with the original booking - some of the cheaper room alternatives are diabolical - so enjoy the better facilities and have a "better" holiday.

Hi stevebell the rooms have the same in them only one says romm for 1-4 and the other says 2-4 and there is a price difference of £379 sorry can't think of the ta your'e on about, don't tell me it's the same one i'm booked with

I must admit that there is not often much description on the room differences but for them to come up with a hefty price differential there should be a difference, maybe in location or room layout.
Thinking back to the rooms we have had, some have had enough room for the beds and not much more whilst others have been like palaces. Some have had air conditioning whilst with others it has been an extra, some are close to amenities others are closer to home.
I'm afraid you won't really know until you find out but you are in a tricky situation; you have committed to the holiday like it or lump it so further research to get the answers to your questions could put your mind at rest or turn your holiday into a nightmare before you even leave.

Regarding the other bit, I was just pointing out that a TA who doesn't have the booking can say what they like, the proof only comes too late.
I know that if you go into some of the TOs and show the internet quote they will match it when they make the booking, but I am sure I have read of some who have taken bookings at the normal prices and then when people have gone back saying it is cheaper on the web have stated that if you had pointed it out first they could have done something but now it is too late etc.. and maybe making a gesture. Have no fear, according to your message the TO who messed my daughter about was not the one you booked with.

that's good in one instance, but sorry about your daughter's booking. hope it worked out.ye, iv'e had some huge rooms that you could have a dance in and sometime we had smaller, i'll just have to wait and see when we get there.