Just to let you know I have e-mailed alpha rooms today because I was told in their letter they would reply in full within 28days this has not happened. It seems true to form of their customer relations department from what I have read of others problems. If they are still looking into my complaint why do they not inform you of this before the 28 days.Maybe they hope that you will forget.

Robby, hope you don't mind me asking but did alpha rooms do anything to help you accommodation wise or did you have to sort it yourself.
I am worried my booking won't exist when I get there(very low price)
but having accommodation voucher I was hoping alpha rooms will sort something out for me.

thanks

Shelly

Shelley, I emailed the hotel with booking ref. 2 weeks before arrival as I always do, and was told by them that no such booking existed.
I then informed Alpharooms, who told me that all bookings were guaranteed, and the hotel would be sent our names 24/48 hours before arrival.
I arrived at the hotel and no room existed, and the hotel was full.
After 30 mins or so, they did give a room, a one which was unused and ready for refurbishment, with broken windows/tiles etc. We were just glad of anything at the time as we were tired and disorientated.
When we got back home, I contacted Alpharooms, told them of the situation and asked for an explanation. They promised to investigate and let me know the outcome, but as only Alparooms can do, and despite several phone call, I got nowhere.
I was never after anything in return, the trip, apart from the hotel room was great, but would have liked the the decency of an explanation, especially when I notified them in advance that no such booking existed with the hotel. This is when they should have stepped in and clarified the situation. In total I spoke to 3 Alpharooms employees and 2 treated me as if I was a nuisance and was wasting their time, and the 3rd one just gave hollow promises.
The one thing I was told, by the hotel receptionist, was that they get loads of problems from Alpharooms bookings, so maybe this is how I got a room, as they were well used of it.
The best bit of advice I can offer, is to contact the hotel in advance via email or phone and get the booking confirmed, and if no such booking exists, then pester and pester Alpharooms until you are satisfied. If you do get confirmation from the hotel, then you should have no problems, but God help you if you don't.

The very best of luck, hope it all works out ok,

Robby

Robby, thanks for the advice. I will try to contact them and see if they have any details.

shelly

Quote taken from the Alpharooms website;

**

How out of date/untrue is that

It should be removed/updated, but will it ???? I think not.

When I get back from my hols I will email them and point them in the right direction.

I wonder if I'll get a reply

Robby
*Edit quote removed due to copyright laws - Glynis*

OK, sorry Glynis .................................

But if you want a laugh, have a look at the "quote" re: Holidaytruths, it's under "customer feedback"

http://www.alpharooms.com/about.aspx



Robby

I wonder how professional alpha rooms are. After all our problems with them and still waiting for a reply. On arriving home there was an e-mail asking us to rate the Noeila Sur (the Hotel that we were supposed to stay in) I filled it in giving details of why I had booked this hotel stating that Alpha rooms had not only moved us to another hotel but to another resort 6k away and that I would not recommend nor book with them again. I also put if you have booked this Hotel with alpha rooms you may finish up with allocation on arrival as we did. Alpha rooms have allowed me to post this on their own website?! I wonder if they realise this?

Any other names of hotel groups who offer good deals, I would be appreciated with, as it will cut out any mis-understanding, and the less involved the better.

Acorn hotels have several hotels on the islands. Their special offers can be very good. try http://www.acorn.es

After the dire warnings on here I was just slightly concerned about my accommodation at the El Hana Residence, Sousse from 30th of this month, booked through Alpha Rooms, so I sent the hotel an e-mail. I've received confirmation this morning that they have a reservation for me through JUMBO TOURS. Don't know whether that company is a subsidiary of Alpha Rooms, specialising in safaris or overweight customers, but at least I know the hotel is expecting me.

aslemma Just to let you know on the accommodation voucher we received it stated booked and paid by JUMBOTOURS/Alpha rooms I am glad your hotel know you are arriving I wished we had of e-mailed before we went but we did not know of the problems some people had had with alpha rooms. I have contacted Ros fernihough office today re alpha rooms not responding as they said they would and they are going to look at the correspondance and advise me. Hope you have a great holiday.

Thanks Wifie. I've just noticed Jumbo Tours is mentioned on my hotel voucher. I'm glad I've checked with the hotel though, especially as I'm flying into Tunis and getting the train to Sousse, so I wouldn't have been too happy if there had been a problem. I originally sent an e-mail to the address on the Hotel part of HT but had no response, so 'Googled' it and got another e-mail address.

Just to let you know I received a reply from alpha rooms offering me £200 in compensation they said they were e-mailed the night before we travelled and told about the overbooking and as their office was shut they never received it till the next day. In the letter it sates please be aware of our terms and conditions that you agreed to at the time of making your reservation online Alpharooms reserve the right to change your accommodation at anytime. It states the £200 is a gesture of goodwill with no mention of the change of resort. I am sending a copy to Ros Fernihough today to ask her if she thinks this is a fair offer.

Wifie,

Alpha's terms say that they will substitute alternative accommodation of the same or superior standard in the same resort in your obvious overbooking situation (most probably the hotel selling more rooms than it has available to cater for cancellations).

Personally I'd say that £200 would be a suitable level of compensation if the alternative accommodation you were given was of equal standard or better to the original.

If it was lower standard and in a different resort to your original, you may possibly be entitled to a bit more but it would certainly depend on the value of your booking. How much was it if you don't mind me asking?

Jazz.

jazzman
We paid £960 for the two rooms the hotel they moved us to was a five star spa resort the reason we were most annoyed with was we had been to tenerife many times and we chose the Noelia Sur because of its activities for our teenage children and the location as we had friends staying nearby, there was no activities in the other Hotel apart from salsa dancing and spanish lessons the Holiday turned out not as we planned.
Considering the other Hotel was a five star the night before we left the drain cover in the bathroom came up and sewage and water poured out into the room, we called reception the plumber said he would get some tools we then went to dinner and out on returning the room was still full of sewage (I took photographs) and there was a note asking us to contact reception. They told us all the drains on the corrider that we were on had a big problem and we had to pack and they gave us another two rooms for the night we had to stand on towels that were soaked with the sewage to pack they had not cleaned it up. During that night there was heavy rainfall and this continued to the next day after breakfast our teenagers went back to their room and this was flooded with rainwater had we left any of our cases in there they would have been soaked. I know this could have happened at the other hotel and some people would have liked to be upgraded to a five star but we had no choice. I have sent all the details to Ros Fernighough for her opinion my husband said to accept the offer. I will let you know was Ros says thank you for your opinion.

i booked through alpha rooms 10 nights 7-17 th october on arrival at our appartments we were told they were fully booked. just about to explode when the appt people said we'd been booked into the hotel next door untill the following day then we could take up our rooms as booked. not sure if it was alpha-rooms who sorted this or the hotel themselves. but it was efficiently handled.(a plus was i got a free brekky! mind you i didnt ask first!)

wifie,

Had anything back from Ros yet?

Jazz

Jazz

Ros said that £200 is not a fair offer and to write to alpha rooms telling them that we have taken third party advice telling them that the offer was not acceptable. I did this and received a letter back from Alpha Rooms stating the settlement would not be revised. Ros has now taken up the case on our behalf will let you know the outcome. Since returning home I have booked two further holidays one for December and one for next year obviously not with alpha rooms.

Booked a hotel through Alpharooms back in July 2007 then found out from them less than 3 days before travel that the hotel could not accomodate us because it was overbooked. Speaking to their call centre staff revealed that they had known about this problem for one whole week before contacting us, the reason given for the delay was that they had been dealing with other priority clients. We ended up losing our air fare, as due to the short notice could not find an suitable alternative. We did propose a compromise of splitting our stay between our original choice and the suggested alternative (according to the Alpharooms web-site this proposal was possible), however Alpharooms stated that they were unable to confirm that this would be possible ahead of our scheduled flight time and so we did not feel secure in travelling. Basically the week that was wasted is what cost us, this week would have provided valuable planning and preparation time in which we could have found a solution to making use of the flights.
We did get a refund of accomodation costs but lack of concern for associated costs and disruption to long made plans would make me think long and hard before using an accomodation only agent again.
Did try to complain to the managing director but got a reply straight back from customer service staff stating that the managing director is unable to respond direct to customers, if anyone knows how to get my complaint past this barrier and onto the desk of the man at the top I would appreciate that information.

These are the perils of booking DIY although i think you can now get insurance that covers diy holidays