forgot to add my friends are in their 60's with limited mobility so spent quite a bit of timelooking for right hotel flat, near to transport ,beach shops and good food places to eat . we changed 1st hotel as we found out we had to cross the main road and cross a uneven piece of land to get to the shopping/bar areas/transport areas too far from anything my friend would have been stuck in the hotel and although we are going ai we are only going that board to gain the soft drinks by pool in the day and free sunbeds/parasols by the pool and free aircon as all the others we looked at we would have had to pay for in different hotels

Hi,

I would not agree that you got nowhere with Balkan, they offered you an alternative hotel or stay in your original at take £50 comp.

CSM

Yes but the alternative hotel that has been offered is not suitable, due to groovygrannycat needing a suitable hotel, in aspecific location, with a swimming pool due to having arthritis, so that she can swim everyday.

I don't see how the holiday is still fit for purpose.

If the holiday is not until 3rd September 2011, then you have time to get in contact with the solicitors who work with this site and see if they will get you a full refund so that you can book somewhere suitable.

They are no win no fee and I think in the initial telephone call will tell you if you are entitled to a full refund.

I think they may be keeping quiet about the obvious third option. Since they admitting that there is such a major change to the advertised holiday do the T&Cs allow cancellation with full refund? You shouldn't even need a solicitor - it should be written down in the paperwork you have.

I've done some adding up ( I lie, I used an internet calculator). If everyone on that departure was sent the news at the same time, those getting letters would have 64 days notice. I bet the threshold for them paying extra compensation for cancellations due to major changes is 56 days! Call me a cynic but when exactly was the pool closed down - I bet it wasn't the 28th!

thanks for youe replies all i got was you can move to the sun palce we consider it to be a upgrade or stop at the nessebar beach where the authotities have now filled the pool in. I've since been online they are still advertising the the hotel no mention of trhere being no pool. we didn't want to go to sun palace as its opposite the kuban /nightclub right on the strip NOT what we want at all. I've only paid the £400 deposit [i got email to remind me payment was due in full by the 9th June the day after I'd rung to say Not going to sun palace] they told me the onlky thing i could do was to stop at the nessebar beach except the £50 compensation but by my reckoning that's not even enough to pay for the sunbeds and parasols on the beach.
When i said the only other hotel i'd consider going to down town erea might be hotel globus been there before as that's suitable at a push she said they would have to price the holiday up again and i would have to pay THE DIFFERNCE even though going from AI to half board when i said i wasnt prepared to do that i'd cancel the holiday she said i'd lose ALL my deposit or write to the predeparture team [not ring WRITE] we still want to go to bulgaria i love it there been 5 times now had no trouble before but really need to be in the area we'd chosen as its best for us i really need to know where i stand and what i can expect them to do before i pay the rest of my holiday it just seems to me we spend hours, days, weeks, even months picking our holiday then the powers that be seem to think that the pool is just a minor part of a holiday [tell that to my grandaughter who came with us last year she was in it every day from getting up till they closed the pool] and i dont like the way they treat you like a fool and the way they talk to you when something goes wrong its totally different when your ringing up to book a holiday they cant do enought o help
sorry enough of my winging i dont usually just dont know what to tell them tomorrow when i ring back up and only got 6 days left to pay the rest of my holiday or lose the £400 already paid

we are talking about the well known Balkan Holidays and not Balkan Tours of Belfast aren't we?

Balkan Holidays do have a 56 day threshold as I suspected but there is a clause in the T&Cs that says you can't have a free cancellation if they offer a move to higher graded accomodation - which according to their list they have. So they have covered the easy option.

The obvious question we should have asked is where did you read the bad reviews? Tell me we're not getting worked up about something found on TripeAdvice.

yes balkan holidays and i've been on several holiday sites just typed in reviews for sun palace sunny beach bulgaria

I have just looked at some of the pictures of the food and rooms on trip advisor and they turned my stomach. uggg.
It would be enough to make me not want to go

I have also just looked at the pics on TA and cannot see anything wrong with it.
How on earth can you say the food turned your stomach without tasting it.
This is typical of peoples reactions.

The room maybe.

Is this the same hotel as original booking.

On expedia is states that there is also an indoor pool?? Would that help your swimming during the day?

http://www.expedia.co.uk/Bourgas-South-Black-Sea-Coast-Hotels-Sol-Nessebar-Bay.h1409491.Hotel-Information?icmdtl=zZ110704pIS2HqR2upbegsDmysGYYgAAI.1409491.ExExWwF.A.BOT.604169.ch.0.303648.en_US..&icmcid=TRIPA.ExpediaHotelsExitUK.11642.A&eapid=21187-1&rm1=a2

It certainly doesnt look like they are offering you an upgrade looking at the photos on TA.
Since we stayed at the Marina Palace in Nessebar 7 years ago I have always wanted to go back and the Nessebar beach hotel is one that I would like to visit.
If the indoor pool is going to be open I would stay at your original hotel.
By the way when we went we travelled with Balkan to a Balkan hotel but used Kwik Travel and it was half the price that Balkan holidays were asking for the same hotel on the same flight.

no thats not the hotel wish it was its the nessebar beach hotel was known as the sozabel [ i think ] before refubishment about 15 mins away from town centre on sea front at far end but near some nice bars and resturants we've been to before we always eat out evening meal only will use hotel for drinks during day and probably the odd snack so not bothered about the AI but theyre still advertising it with no mention of the pool being filled with sand [ how can they getaway with that i dont know] i just want to know what to expect when i eventually get throught to the predeparture people who the lady i spoke to friday said i had to speak to she said that was all she was authorised to offer me the sun palace hotel or 50 compensation and stay at the nessebar beach hotel with no pool facilities or cancel my holiday and lose £400 deposit paid in january, she said the only other option was to pick another hotel and she'd price it up and we'd have to pay the difference but we've budgeted for this hotel another that's not what we wanted in the 1st place i told them i wasnt prepared to move as it wasnt suitable being across from the kuban on the main road and very noisy i didnt say anything about the reviews i'd read or that most sites viewed it as a 3 star not 4 like she was trying to tell me it was she said she would make a note on my file and we left it at that . then the next day i got email to tell me the rest of holiday payment due 9th july NOW i'm more than willing to pay for my holiday if i'm getting what i want BUT i'm NOT so what do i do ,i couldn't get through today so going to try to ring them again tomorrow only got 5 days left to sort it out before i pay up or lose deposit

Have you contacted the solictitors as suggested by doepsmc? As time is running out that's what I'd be doing alternatively if you don't want to pay higher amount (and in fairness I wouldn' either) and have no real alternatives then all you can do is accept their offer 'under duress' and if your holiday is absolutely dreadful you can take things further when you get home.

i've been trying to find the solicitor mentioned but must be because i'm going round and round in circles i cant seem to find it can you point me in the right direction please i'll send her a quick email before i get in touch with balkan holidays later today
thanks

the solicitors have a big flashing advert at the top of the screen!

I didn't have much time yesterday but I did spot that the complaints posted elsewhere tend to be more about food than location and that they go back years, although not many per year. But what I did find odd was that several other companies also offer the Nessebar Beach and none of them seem to be mentioning pool closure. I find the allegation that the authorities filled the pool with sand a bit odd (What happened to the water a start?). I get the feeling there's a lot more to this story than you are being told and you weren't told about it as promptly as you should have been.

The hotels are also used by German and Dutch operators so I'll try other language boards tomorrow and see if they have any more info.

Hi groovygrannycat .... if for any reason the advert is not displaying for you, full contact details for Simpson Millar can be found on this page:
http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=149252

David

groovygrannycat

Balkan website clearly states (or it did yesterday when I looked) that the swimming pool is not available.

I found a bulgarian newspaper (then ran it through a translator) and the filling in of swimming pools in Sunny Beach seems to have been done because they have been built illegally so it may be a common problem. And one that may have been known about in advance.

And the publishing date of that article is June 2nd. And then one in a paper with english translation too is 26 June

These are the two articles I mentioned

TheBulgarian Article Date is top right in red just above the video

And the bit in the english version of a bulgarian paper.