No idea but I have been assured by Trading Standards and Consumer Direct that what I have booked is a Package Holiday. The conditions as I have had it explained to me is if you book 2 out of 3 elements, i.e flight, accomm, etc and it involves a trip of more than 24 hours or an overnight stay and it is sold as a package at an inclusive price, then its a Package Holiday and the Package Holiday Regs apply. If the hotel and flights are booked and paid for seperately, even from the same agent then it does not apply. We paid an inclusive price for flight, hotel and transfers. We could not purchase one without the other and only had one bill. Having had discussions with my colleagues in Trading Standards they have confirmed I have a Package Holiday.

Here is the trading standards explaination. Trading Standards liaise with Consumer Direct in these matters...........

What is a Package Holiday?
You've booked a package holiday if your holiday booking comprises two or more components from the following list:
 Accommodation
 Transport (including flights, trains, cruise ships, ferries etc)
 Other tourist services - such as pre-arranged trips
 Any holiday which lasts over 24 hours and is sold at an inclusive price, or includes overnight accommodation.

Your holiday is classed as a package if it meets the above conditions and irrespective of whether you book by walking into a travel agents' shop or whether you put components of a holiday together via a website

Anyway, surely most travel agents act as agents?? The clue is in the name!

This is why i say you need to double check your paperwork as the flight price and accommodation price is listed separately and shows more than one payment transaction then this is a split contract.

If it is triton, which is the in house accommodation supplier for Global Travel who i believe holiday gems are part of then it may be a case that they have acted as the organiser/ tour operator in which package regulations should apply.

Again, this may be dependent on how the holiday is booked and whether triton operate as a separate company although mainly sold through global who holiday gems are part of.

Triton was set up to provide global with the direct contracting of accommodation whereby they benefit from generally cheaper rates and better terms such as amendments and cancellations.

Give them a call as a general enquiry asking what they would do in situations like this and ask whether customers using them lost all their money for the accommodation in the recent incident.
Telephone: 0844 844 0855

Bad trick i know but i would imagine holiday gems using an inhouse providor would have far better terms than any other agent and they are just being pure greedy, might be worth a call to globals head office too, might work. I can understand loosing say 2 nights accom cost but the whole amount is a little extreme consdiering nearly most suppliers have managed to waive the cancellation fees.

let us know how you get on

We have just returned from being stranded in Dubai, we had booked through The Global Travel Group, a complete waste of time.

Global are closed at weekends and when we did speak to them, they didn't want to know, i am complaining to ATOL and the DailyMail who were partners in the holiday package. The travel industry should be regulated and using one ATOL Number for every francise should be banned, Global appear arragant and believe me they are, they don't care.

Dont book with them, it will only end in disaster

I've just recently booked a holiday with holiday gems and yes it was the same old story!! Got a call to say that the airline had increased the price of the flights from a total of £344 to £389, then baggage had to be added on plus 2% credit card fee bringing the total up to £413.10 pp. There is some difference in £344.00 and £413.10!!! However I explained this to the rest of the party members they agreed and thought that it was still an ok price and decided to proceed. Therefore I confirmed the booking and paid using my mum's credit card and received a receipt. However got a call from my dad saying that there account had been debited for nearly £5000!!!! this meaning that the holiday had been paid for twice!!!!!!!!!!!!! total nightmare!! Im currently on hold at the moment to the customer service to see what the hell is happening...but i cant get anyone to answer the phone!!!! Ready to crack up!!!

I will NEVER EVER be using this company again and im advising everyone to stay well clear!!!

Good Experience
Firstly I have to say we had a fantastic time in Sharm el Sheikh, Georgeous Weather, we stayed at the Rehana Sharm just outside of Naama bay fantastic hotel, staff were lovely and they love then English, Would highly recommend to anyone!!!!!

I see a few posts on here that holiday gems are a bad company, We had no problems at all the holiday was nearly £300 cheaper than in the travel agents We will DEFINATLY BE REBOOKING in September, You all mention this call back thingy about flights going up in price, We had no issues like this at all, a gentleman called the day after we put the booking through online and said that our holiday was all booked and asked if we would like to add luggage, I couldn't believe they were charging for this but looking into it further its not the company who are charging its the airlines because of the increase in fuel prices... Understandable really i suppose!! but overall fantastic holiday and fantastic company!!

Anyway a big Thumbs up for holidaygems!!! Thankyou

You should have taken the quote to a good agent, and ask them to price match!

Wish I had read this site before I booked with Hol.Gems - same old story of flights increasing yet a week later they are still selling them at original price !! What a rip-off. Will never use them again.

hi
After reading these posts about holiday gems I have been nervous to say the least about a recent booking Imade . I'm very pleased to say that my response by holiday gems has been a very good one . I've had no problems with phone calls or communication! Infact I've got through on the phone on all occassions I've needed to. All staff I've spoken to have been very helpful and answered all my queries and so far so far good and if this continues I will definately be using them again. Kind regards to Daniel and Jason for their customer service.

I have now had a full refund from Holiday Gems. I dealt with Jason via email and phone and found him a reasonable person to deal with. Everything he said he would do he did and kept me in the loop at all times. Ultimately a satisfactory outcome to what was an unfortunate situation that was no-ones fault. All's well that ends well I suppose!

Glad to here you got your refund. There seems to be a lot of unhappy people, including me, that are fighting for refunds from The Global Travel Group of companies. My case is now at the second letter stage and still no response from them. I have also been corresponding with other people who are fighting for refunds and who have contacted consumer direct we have swapped complaint reference numbers so that trading standards can cross reference the cases. I dont think this company realises the damage they are doing to their credibility as a provider of holidays.

Good luck. I hope you all get the money back that you are owed. I read their Terms and Conditions and even they say they will refund all monies paid if a holiday is cancelled prior to departure. The only get-out for 'Force Majeure' is that you can't claim compensation over and above the refund, which is fair enough.

Anyway, best of luck.

I have had a telephone call today from their legal department who said 'As this is force majeure you are not entitled to a refund' what a joke. I have now passed this information onto trading standards.

This is direct from their T's and C's.....

c. cancelling or accepting the cancellation in which case you will receive a full and quick refund of all monies you have paid to us.
Please note, the above options are not available where any change made is a minor one.
If we have to make a significant change or cancel, we will (as a minimum where compensation is due), pay you the compensation payments set out in the table below depending on the circumstances and when the significant change or cancellation is notified to you subject to the following exceptions. Compensation will not be payable and no liability beyond offering the above mentioned choices can be accepted where we are forced to make a change or cancel as a result of unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which we could not have avoided even with all due care. No compensation will be payable and the above options will not be available if we cancel as a result of your failure to comply with any requirement of these booking terms & conditions entitling us to cancel (such as paying on time) or if the change made is a minor one.

Seems clear to me!

I know their only trying to avoid paying and they are liable for the refund. Its the fact that they actually think people are that stupid and that they are actually prepared to allow customers to take the matter through the small claims courts.

Take it all the way! They dont have a leg to stand on! Good luck.

take it from someone who knows, most of the comments on here, unfortunately, are true!!

when you are on the website you are only ORDERING a holiday, it is then up to the sales agents to try and get you to pay more for the same holiday by advising you the price has gone up. in a way, this is true, but the only reason it is true is because the margins on the holiday gems website are so low. If they actually allowed your 'orders' to go through they would be losing money hand over fist as most of the prices are below the actual flight companys selling price?!?!

anyone can find this information out just by checking say a thomas cook flight on thomas cooks website and a thomas cook flight on gems site. easily 70% of the time the flight will be advertised cheaper on gems yet how can a travel agent sell a flight cheaper than the actual flight operator??????????

there are also no baggage charges on gems website, it just tells you that SOME operators now charge for baggage when in fact the only airline that includes baggage is Olympic. So yet again, you place your order and someone calls you to ask about bags, now if you get someone with half a heart they may tell you bagage is 20-40 a case, however if you get someone with no scruples you could get told the baggage is 50 or even 60 per case!

I know there is a lot of competition for online companies out there but at least the main ones compete for it fair and square, not the underhanded way that holiday gems seem to operate!

You can add Media Travel / Jetline Travel / On The Beach / A1 Travel and Bookable Holidays to that list too

what you see is never the price you pay, why they have to use such methods i don't know, you only have to do a google search to get a whole load of reviews bad mouthing them with false prices and very poor after sales service.

think some of them need to go back to school and learn manners !!!

I would have to agree with travelagent1...... wholeheartedly!