this happened to us earlier this year..but not for Gran Can.

We had booked to go to the Maldives for a 2 week scuba diving holiday. We saved for a year to go and we treating ourselves to one of those luxury cabins. 11 days before we were due to leave we had a letter from First Choice telling us to ring up a certian number and quote a certain reference number as there was an issue with our holiday. I did so. It was Friday 13th..and the bored sounding girl at the other end of the phone said it was something to do with reef conservation work and we couldn't go to our island anymore. She said she had to offer me an alternative. I thought i was going to be offered another Maldive Island. She offered me Fuertaventura.
I said something along the lines of "you have got to be effin jokin..that is like offering me a weekend in Bournemouth. Maldives/Fuertaventura....hmm"

There was no way that was acceptable...so she then said "well you will have to have your money back then" followed by "you're having a bad Friday 13th aren't you"..at which point I realised she was lucky she was at the other end of the phone becuase I would probably have punched her if she had been opposite me.

That night, as i was close to beeling my eyes out sat home alone while Rob was at work, I suddenly had the idea of going to Thailand.
I rang him and suggested it..he was up for it..so we ended up going into Thomas Cook the following day and saying "right, we have £x amount to spend, we want to travel betwen these dates, we want to go to Thailand..sort us summats out"

I bit the bullet, stuck it on my credit card and hoped the refund would come back from First Choice before the bill came for payment!
We found out that the "reef conservation work" was really "building work" and they had told us to prevent us from suing them if we had got there to find a bulldozer parked outside our cabin. We were entitled to just £30 compensation ( read it in the small print) as they had notified us so many days in advance..didnt even bother claiming but i vowed never to travel with them again..

The holiday to Thailand was awesome..we didn't know what to expect as we had everything organised for us..we didnt choose the hotels or owt..but we had 9 marvellous days in Phuket and 4 more days in Krabi..then a memorable one night in Bangkok...and i fell in love with Thailand. We were both glad we didnt go to the Maldives in the end..and i confessed i was never really that excited about going there in the first place..everything happens for a reason so they say..and I was well pleased that we went to Thailand instead as I had some fantastic experiences there. First Choice were complete gitts about refunding and paid it all back in dribs and drabs with every phone call i made to them..yet we paid them in 2 lumps...but hey ho..we were happy with what we got from Thomas Cook.

10 years ago we got married in havanna, spent 4 days there , then transferred to varadero for 10 nights, got to our hotel to be told it was overbooked and we had to spend 2 nights in another hotel about 2 miles away.
we were fine with this, but a bunch of canadians behind us given the same news were ranting and raving like there was no tomorrow !
anyway, the 'other' hotel was fantastic, brand new, we loved it for our 2 nights.
so on our return to the original hotel, once they knew it was our honeymoon, we got every single trip thomas cook had to offer for free ( which included a 2 night stay in santiago ) and also got upgraded to the honeymoon suite with our own butler !! result !
The wingeing canadians got meal tickets for a restraunt in varadero

lol
Probably more to do with the Cubans thinking they were Yanks!!!

I think it was in 1998 or thereabouts we had booked to go to the Bahamas, staying at the Holiday Inn hotel on Paradise Island , it was booked through Thomas Cook and they wrote to us telling us that we were being moved to the Atlantis Hotel as that chain had bought the Holiday Inn so they could expand their own hotel, i'm sure it cost a lot more but the hotel chain was probably footing the bill rather than the travel agent.
Anyway the Atlantis is a fantastic hotel and is built in the same style as the new one just built in Dubai, we ran up a hefty room bill as its expensive there , but then again everywhere in the bahamas is expensive but had a brilliant holiday.
One day we came back to our room a bit earlier than usual and were sitting on the balcony and heard an enormous explosion/bang and with that saw the empty/defunct Holiday Inn crash to the ground!!!

Quite a strange feeling to book a hotel and see it get blown up whilst sitting in upgraded luxury.

So our hotel was changed and i was happy with what we got and happy/relieved not to be in the one i originally booked!!!

This has only ever happened to me on one occasion in 1991. We were booked up to go to Tenerife, staying in apts in the Torviscas area of Las Americas ( we were young and had been told it was only a short walk to "the veronics") Two weeks before departure Dawson and Sanderson contacted me on behalf of Airtours to tell us they were changing our accomodation as they were no longer using the apts we had booked because of subsidence to adjacent land. We were told we would now be staying in the Columbus apt hotel and would be compensated £50 each for the inconvenience. We all agreed to stay here as it was a holiday or our money back and there was no way we could arrange another holiday in the time scale.
All I can say is we were glad we were changed, the original apts were right up on a hill way past the aqua park. We walked up there one day from the Veronicas and it took us nearly an hour!!!! The Columbus hotel was ideal, close to everything but away from the noise. I went back again in 1996 and it was pretty much the same as it had been. Wonder if it's changed much now.

About 7 years ago we were booked into the Port Aventura Hotel at Salou and about a month before our holiday was due to start we were told the hotel was overbooked and we were put in the El Paso. Travel agents weren't going to give us any money back as this hotel would have been alot cheaper to book than the Port Av until I took in the brochure, which I had kept, and we ended up getting quite abit of money back. We were delighted with the El Paso and returned to it a couple of years ago. The following year we were booked into the Cala Vinas Hotel in Majorca and 2 weeks before departure we were told this Hotel was going to be adults only during the month of October. As we had a 5 year old with us they would be moving us to the Sol Antilles in Magaluf. Had heard all the stories about Magaluf so wasn't to pleased about this but at that late stage we just went with it. Have to say it was one of the best Hotels and one of the best holidays we ever had. The Hotel was right on the beach and handy for everything and had a fantastic kid clubs. We did go out to visit the Cala Vinas while we were there and we were oh so glad that we were moved.

A few years ago we booked the Colina Mar in Pueto Rico, self catering for Christmas and New Year. When we arrived at the hotel at 1am, we were handed a note from the rep saying that the Colina Mar was overbooked and we were being moved to Playa del Cura. Told to get a taxi and keep the receipt for refund. I telephoned the rep and told him in no uncertain terms that we wanted to be in Puerto Rico, near the Europa. Within an hour we were moved to the Puerto Azul Hotel on half board basis. In addition to 14days breakfasts and dinners, we were able to take advantage of the Christmas and New Years Eve Gala dinners at no extra cost!

Regal Dive have not changed our hotel..well not exactly. They have changed our boat. We were due to go on a liveaboard dive holiday in January around the Northern wrecks and reefs of the Red Sea. For whatever reason, our boat, MY Blue Meolody has either sunk or broken..so they have moved us to MY Blue Horizon. They say they have given us a free upgrade to the master King Suite..but I will let you know if I am happy with it when I get back. The pictures look good on the web!

When we went to Slovenia in 2008, we had our hotel in Portoroz changed from the Marita (4 star) to the Grand (5 Star) due to building work at the Marita. The Grand was much nicer and had a better location so we were pretty chuffed.