WE thought that we needed to warn forum users of the bad practice that this company used towards us earlier this year.
As a family ,we booked a holiday to Kenya with Q Holidays after he death of my mum. We chose them as we had seen good reviews on another review sites and at first they were friendly and the price was competitive. We were due to travel in January 2008,unfortunately my dad also passed away in Oct 2007,so it was a much needed break. Then over Xmas the election rioting erupted and the FO advise against all travel.We were in contact with Q as soon as the trouble started,so after speaking to the FO and our Insurers, and only 5 days before we were due to travel, Thomson cancelled all their flights to Kenya on Safety grounds and withdrew all their staff.. Q had put together our package, and we had requested a direct flight.We told Q that we were not able to travel and that we would be requiring a full refund so as to book another holiday.The mood of Q changed towards us,and they became very difficult. We dealt with the same salesman throughout ,but my husband worked away from home all week so i was the main contact to the company.We spoke almost daily from the New year & i was the one contacting Q.
We were sent updated flights via E mail to my husband,no phone call to inform us of them was made to us by Q. This was on the tues and we were due to travel on the Saturday.My husband was not due home until Friday and i would not have normally looked at his E mails but we had a new Laptop and i was browsing!! We had made it known to Q that we would not be travelling the day before they sent that E mail,so I contacted ATOL and they tried to intervene on our behalf but Q insisted that we could not back out of the arrangements, and wanted us to put it in writing that we were cancelling!!!!!Which we weren't.We were taking advice and not travelling!!!! Also Q said that they did not know if a full refund was possible until they had spoken to the Hotel in Kenya,and they were unable to contact them until they had it in writing from us that we were in fact cancelling. Thereby implying that the hotel were withholding any monies due to us. They did refund the flight money from Thomson,but said that were going to keep the other 100% which was some £4,000 as they had lost out financially because we had not travelled.
Thank goodness i thought to contact the Kenyan hotel manager who was the shining light in all of this.
He told us that Q had not been charged for any cancellations and had not lost any money,all contact had been via E mail so their cost would have been vitually nil.All Kenyan Hoteliers had agreed not to charge Travel Companies as a goodwill Gesture.Its a pity that Q Holidays had not adopted the same attitude,as we had to have the assistance of our Local Trading Standards Officer to help us gain the money that they were withholding. We have secured the bulk of our money but Q still kept over 12% of the money which is not a small amount,saying that they had financial losses.
I do not believe that weren't able to claim some monies back from their own company insurances under these circumstances as the larger travel Companies would have done. So beware !!! Use this company at your peril.
As i said earlier,the Hotel Manager was key to us gaining our money back, as if we had not had his E mail stating all relevant facts from him, we would have had to take legal action to obtain it, A big Thankyou to him!!!
Q Holdays you have behaved in a disgraceful way. Shame on you!!!!!