I have just spoken to Direct holidays, and they stated that the Hotel had definately overbooked, and that no one at all from Direct holidays is staying there at the time we should be 19/9 onwards for 14 nights. Can anyone here please let me know if you are aware of anyone who is actually going there over this period? I bet no one or hardly anyone at least had booked as far in advance as us and i will be flaming if i am being lied to. I have asked for a refund now and simply cannot believe the way this has been handled.

I suggest you look further down this forum at Airtours complaints anf you will find all the info you need on this subject

Yes i have seen that thread but it rambles on about allsorts, can we keep things n here so people can see what is going on now.. here are the latest developments, i think someone is telling porkies..

My email to the Tucan.

My wife and i booked a holiday through Direct holidays to your hotel in June LAST year, yes Last year.. now less than a month before we are due to leave (19th Sept) we have had this cancelled and an alternative offered. We are not happy with this and when asked why our holiday was cancelled we were told that your hotel had overbooked and also that you had work taking place. Can you please let me know if this is the case? And also if you have any rooms available from the 19/9 for 14 nights as we originally booked.

As i am sure you can imagine we are very upset that our much looked forward to holiday with you has been cancelled and want to know the truth about this.

Regards R Phillips

Reply from hotel.

Dear Mr. Phillips:

thank you very much for your e-mail,,,, I have no idea what's going on,,,, we dont have your reservation, Direct Holidays already used all their allotment, but we stil have some rooms available,,,, can you please get in touch with your travel agent in order to get this situation taken care of.....

If we can be of any further help, please feel free to contact us.

My best regards,

Miriam Velez
Gerente Corporativo de Ventas
Corporate Sales Manager
Iberostar Hotels & Resorts

Latest correspondence.

From me.
"Thanks for your prompt reply. Can you please let me know if anyone form Direct holidays is staying there at the time we had booked. 19th sept onwards for 14 days. I have spoken to them again and they state that no one from Direct holidays is staying there over this period. If there are people from Direct holidays staying i will be very annoyed bearing in mind we booked over a year ago.

Regards Rich Phillips"

Reply.

"Dear Mr. Phillips:

I already contacted Airtours/Direct Holidays, they have copy of your e-mail,,,,, I informed them that I do have rooms available.

I have no idea whats going on, but yes,,,, as I informed you, they already used all their allotment.

I'm really sorry about this.

Regards,

Miriam"

I am trying to get clarification as to whether this means they have used their allocation for the 2 weeks i should be there, or allocation for the season. If there are people staying there form DH and mine is cancelled i am going to blow my stack. I would love to know what critria they use to cancel bookings. No way can it be last booked first cancelled. Which i think it should be.

Just in case anyone is reading this!! Here is the latest reply from the Tucan.

Dear Mr. Phillips:

We're dealing with Airtours/Direct Holidays,,,, but we can not let you know which clients are part of Airtours or Direct Holidays,,,, because is the same company for me..... as I informed you, we have clients staying during the period of Sept. 19, (14 nights)

Regards,

Miriam

Hi Rich

Welcome to the exclusive club of MyTravel customers who have not got what they contracted this company to provide for them - a guaranteed reservation at the Tucan. But I think you may take the record for giving them 14 months notice!

I don't want to bore to death other forums members again (and, lets face it, people don't really give too hoots until it happens to them), so I will send you a private message. But in a nutshell, Airtours have been cancelling Tucan reservations since May/June and Direct Holidays (same company) since about July. There's a lady on this forum who is still sweating on her wedding at the Tucan in February and I'm sure you have just added to her woes. Your email from Miriam is almost identical to the one I received from her.

We have all fallen victim of the 'downsizing' of the MyTravel group.

I'll look forward to hearing from you.. i didn't wish to add to anyones woes, but i am sure i would be rebooking if i were in the situation of being worried. Unless she can get a cast iron guarantee of the bokking coming off. Even then i'm not sure, i would think a cancelation could easily be justified judging by the amount of complaints on here.

I found my original booking invoice and it was 28/8/04 so i was a little out with 14 months, in fact it was just 12

The Tucan seem to think Airtours/Direct will contact me to sort it out, i wish i had their confidence, especially as i have now asked for a refund (albeit under the impression that no one from AT/DH was there at the time)

Rich

I've tried to PM you 3 times now, but my PC just crashes. Do you want to try and I'll reply.

Good luck I am the one getting married in Feb and Have decided to cancel.

FB - I knew this would freak you out again but, to be honest, you've no other option than to cancel and rebook with another company to guarantee your wedding goes ahead as planned at the Tucan. I feel so sorry for you by chosing to book with this disreputable group of companies. The only comfort I get from this is that people keep on posting with their experiences and hopefully a lot of potential customers will now look elsewhere.

I have telephoned Direct Holidays this morning. They tell me "we see no problems with your wedding holiday". Thats it- thats all they said and I responded " we have decided to cancel and the reason for this is outlined in my mnay letters sent to your company". End of conversation.

We have lost our dep but i wont go down without a fight .I will write to the papers and tell as many people as possible never to book with this company or their sister companies.

I would urge people to cancel if they have not got their chosen hotel, why should you let the company keep your money and send you to a another resort.

FB, just sent you a PM before I read this last post

We have just booked 14 nights at the Riu Palace, lets hope First Choice are better than Airtours and Direct.

Notgoing2tucan - hope you have a lovely holiday, the Rui Palace looks very nice. Its not what you booked all those months ago, but at least you are getting a nice holiday somewhere else.

Also, the First Choice planes are much much much nicer and more spacious than Airtours.

Have a great holiday.

Thanks everyone. Really looking forward to it now. And also a lesson well learnt.

We booked to stay in the Tucan Hotel from 19th September for 14 nights and just had our holiday cancelled by Direct Holidays and were offered an alternative hotel but again after reading reviews decided it wasn't a patch on the Tucan. Decided to cancel our booking with DH as didn't feel they deserved to keep our money after such a disgusting service. Booked our holiday in January this year and never ever expected this to happen. Pathetic compensation of £80 does not make up for it one bit. I see we are not alone after reading all the other postings tonight.

My own thoughts are that Direct Holidays are giving the rooms they have got at the Tucan to people who have possibly paid more for their holiday. However, doubt we'll ever get to the bottom of it all, but one thing for sure will never ever use Direct Holidays again!!

We were determined not to miss out on a fantastic holiday so have just booked for us to go to the Maldives instead on 18th September for 14 nights. Very good all inclusive deal with Kuoni so that has cheered us up lots!!

Hope everyone gets their holidays sorted out and the bride to be gets her wedding re-booked. I got married last year abroad and it's a stressful time enough never mind when you are going abroad and have the worry of your holiday being cancelled.

Did you actually get £80 compensation? We haven't been offered or received anything yet, we just got a refund, however a letter will be sent in the very near future!

*Edit to remove libellous comments - Glynis*

Don't know whether this helps or not, but from reading your messages it appears that direct holidays contract a certain number of rooms per week. These are usually on a 'guarenteed basis' and direct holidays would probably pay for these in advance, whether they use them or not. Consequently, they are usually able to negotiate a lower rate for these rooms. The hotel may actually have rooms available for the weeks you are due to travel, but the hotel is likely to charge the normal rate for them, not the 'guarenteed rate'. Hence, Direct hols will be reluctant to purchase extra rooms because the brochure price paid will have been calculated on the lower rate.
Don't know how they work out who gets the rooms and who doesn't, but suspect (as per previous message) that they are more likely to go to those that have paid the most..!