As so many times before, it may well be that the hotel itself has bumped you, selling "your" superior room on a direct booking, where they can make more money. TR book through a bed bank, and so (usually) pay less than those who book direct with the hotel; given that, some (less scrupulous) hotels deliberately overbook, and its 3rd party suppliers like TR, and therefore you, who suffer.
If I'm right, I don't really see what more TR can do - you can still have a holiday in the same hotel, albeit not in the superior room you booked, and a 10% future discount, OR you can walk away at no financial loss. I feel for you, I really do, but I can't see what can be done, sorry.

best solution is dont book with travel republic, yes it is their fault they need to sort it out. there is always someone with a excuse for them ..its not their fault etc.

TR have resolved the problem in line with their T&Cs - the fact that the OP is not happy with the solution is a different issue, as is the telephone manner of the staff from the sound of it. Not good customer service, especially when it happens close to departure and a customer is understandably going to be agitated. Yes, they probably will never book with TR again but that is no consolation to the OP at the moment because their contract for the hotel room is almost certainly with a 3rd party supplier and not TR. Without more information it is not possible to know whether the scenario outlined by Doonhammer32 is correct or not but it is the most common one when complaints like this arise with on-line TAs like Travel Republic and On the Beach.

This is one of the risks of booking with an on-line TA where different components of the holiday are put together based on booking with different 3rd party suppliers. Some people think that is too big a risk and don't use on-line TAs for that reason, others think that the potential savings outweigh that risk for them. That doesn't alter the fact that there is always the risk that this will happen and when a customer clicks to say that they accept the T&Cs, they are also saying that they accept this risk.

As I have mentioned on other threads here, I am a repeat customer of TR who has never had problems and will probably use them in future too. But I do fully understand that I am running the risk of this happening and that it could well happen to me in the future too. If it does, then I will have to take the responsibility for the consequences because I have booked well aware that it could happen because I have always read the T&Cs thoroughly. This isn't about making excuses - it's about explaining why a customer has very little redress in these situations and has to decide whether to take the refund and book accommodation elsewhere or accept the alternative offered. If they want to pursue the line that they should get the room they originally booked then this has to be taken up with the bed supplier that the contract is with and not TR.

SM

This will no doubt be the fault of the hotel and not Travel Republic.

Hotels are notorious for selling off the odd room on the hope there will be a cancellation at some time - obviously, the hoped for cancellation has not happened and so the hotel will "bump" out the people where it will cost them less money (ie Travel Republic or other bed bank agency) rather than a tour operator (they will pay a slightly higher price but there's still no guarantees booking with a TO you will always get the room you want) and they will rarely bump a direct booker (accommodation where you reserve your room in person with the hotel direct) as that's where they make their most money.

All information above is gleaned from working in a UK tour operator customer service department for 10+ years.

So basically, if you want cheap accommodation - book with a bed booker (ie Travel Republic / Sunshine.co.uk / Booking.com etc) but don't assume that your choice will always be safe.... (I can say with hand on heart we've never been overbooked or bumped using the first 2 mentioned in the 10 years of coming to live in Cyprus).

If you want to feel a bit more secure - book a complete package (flights and accommodation combined) with a UK tour operator but understand that sometimes the hotel may very well sell the tour operators rooms to a direct booker for more money without their knowledge until around 14 days before you arrive, when the hotel receives the confirmed rooming list of arrivals.

If you're happy to pay top whack and not wish to be overbooked - then book directly with the hotel either on their website or by email.

johndoe wrote:

best solution is dont book with travel republic, yes it is their fault they need to sort it out. there is always someone with a excuse for them ..its not their fault etc.

How is it TRs fault if either their supplier, or the hotel, overbooks?

My sister used to manage a hotel and found several bed bookers used to ignore the amount of rooms available and take bookings. It then was down to her to try to find a solution which didn't involve annoying the potential customers. So sometimes it's not the hotel's fault.

A quick click on the " Holiday Complaints " forum shows on the first two pages .

TR problems.

TR terrible customer service .

TR being unreasonable .

DO NOT BOOK WITH TR.

TR bad experience so far .

TR mess.

TR nightmare .

TR disaster .

MIs sold room type TR .

I know people have problems , and many companies have occasions when suppliers let them down or get things wrong but its how the selling company respond to put these problems right , how they try to help THEIR customers , it's not good enough to sneak in an email 24 hours before departure with weak and poor options .
The standard set answer is always .... It's never their fault ..... The T&CS are ....it's never their fault .....computer says no ......it's never their fault .....

I now actually now believe its not their fault ........that they offer rubbish customer service ( based on the facts that people seem to post complaints about them quite often ) I think there is a TR Fiasco thread somewhere too , that's 10 threads found easily by scrolling through 2 pages , they must be doing something right .!!!

Along with complaints about Thomas Cook, Thomson, On the Beach, Lowcostholidays, Holidays4u, Sunshine holidays, Hayes and Jarvis etc, etc. It's hard to find a TA or TO that doesn't feature on the Complaints Forum!

SM

Yep , count them up , they have the most , thomson and TC are massive companies , they get various complaints about general things , TR always seems to be about letting people know at the very last minute that the room they booked is not available or they are moved to an inferior hotel , always the last minute ....never their fault .....same old story .....never their fault , as you said earlier you book with them at risk because there is always someone else to blame when things go wrong .

Thomsons, TC etc are tour operators, and contract direct with the hotels. Agents don't do that, and have no control over overbooking situations. They can only tell their customers when their suppliers tell them. Often when it is the hotel that has overbooked it is very last minute when they get told, if not on arrival.
I think you might be surprised how many complaints TC and Thomsons get.

I don't think I would be surprised , I find it unacceptable that TO and TA s can keep letting their customers down , people spend a lot of money and just expect to get what they've paid for , the recurring situation seems to be customers being let down and not enough proactive service to put things right . The main complaints on here about TR are not so much about the changes but the lack of effort , the lack of responsive service from the agent , it feels like a shrug of the shoulders and its not our fault , they should be fighting for their customers , trying their best for them .

There does happen to be an unhealthy amount of complaints directly about TR on here which I have highlighted above they do total more than thomson and TC recently , so if I'm suppose to be surprised at how many complaints they get ( I'm assuming you mean nationally ) how many complaints must TR get nationally ? If we use the trend on here as a yardstick

TR were very good with me when I wanted to alter my booking which was obviously not their fault. They dealt with it swiftly & phoned me back within a very short time.

There does happen to be an unhealthy amount of complaints directly about TR on here which I have highlighted above they do total more than thomson and TC recently , so if I'm suppose to be surprised at how many complaints they get ( I'm assuming you mean nationally ) how many complaints must TR get nationally ? If we use the trend on here as a yardstick

That's mostly because the "customer" doesn't understand the difference between booking with a "bed booker" (or when they have booked a dynamic holiday) and making a complete package holiday booking with a Tour Operator.

Tour Operators don't send the confirmed rooming list to the hotel until 10 to 14 days before arrival - and that's when the problem is first likely to arrive.

The hotel will then frantically see who he can chuck out as he's sold rooms from under their noses and of course, it will be the little guys (or the big guys with a bigger bargaining tool) who get the brunt of it - but usually not until the very last minute when the hotel has no other option.

What the tour ops and bed bookers ideally should do is tell the hotel they will no longer work with him and will pull all future bookings and then watch him squirm as he realises the consequence when he has no further income. Unfortunately, this will never happen because then it mean the tour operators and bed bank agents will all have to try and relocate "their" reservations and of course, it will be their name that will be mud...

In my previous job, my team deducted any compensation we had to pay to our customers for the hotels' breach of their contract with us for each and every individual overbooking from their next payment invoice.

We were in control of a £3m customer care budget per annum and were targetted with recovering 75% of all compensation paid out from the rogue suppliers. We smashed our target every single year that I held that position.... This was in agreement with the hotel/suppliers - and they don't agree unless they are at fault!

andy66 wrote:

I don't think I would be surprised , I find it unacceptable that TO and TA s can keep letting their customers down , people spend a lot of money and just expect to get what they've paid for , the recurring situation seems to be customers being let down and not enough proactive service to put things right . The main complaints on here about TR are not so much about the changes but the lack of effort , the lack of responsive service from the agent , it feels like a shrug of the shoulders and its not our fault , they should be fighting for their customers , trying their best for them .

There does happen to be an unhealthy amount of complaints directly about TR on here which I have highlighted above they do total more than thomson and TC recently , so if I'm suppose to be surprised at how many complaints they get ( I'm assuming you mean nationally ) how many complaints must TR get nationally ? If we use the trend on here as a yardstick

People use cheap OTAs because they are drawn in by a cheap price. They cut costs to be able to sell cheaper than the tour ops, and yes, lot's of it is down to customer service. You get what you pay for. If you want the cheapest, that usually means you get the cheapest after sales service as well, when it comes to travel. I'd like to see someone say TC or Thomsons fought for their customers when it comes to sorting complaints out

Just because you see more complaints on what is one very tiny forum where holidays are concerned, doesn't mean that other companies don't get the same amount of complaints on the bigger and more popular forums.

So many complaints about OTAs on here, and elsewhere are down to people not reading T&Cs before accepting them so it often does seem like they get more, usually because they are the type of complaint that wouldn't be generated by not reading a tour ops T&Cs.

Yes, there are complaints about being bumped late, but that is not the fault of the OTA, or even a high street agent, and it doesn't just happen with TR or any other OTA. It happens with TC and Thomsons as well (although not as often as they have more 'clout' with hotels than bedbanks, and it is less likely to happen to them).

This thread, amongst others, highlights what little TR can actually do if things go wrong. Whilst I know that any company I book through can have similar problems I have seen too many problems with this company's CS and personally I do not look at them when booking hotels.Perhaps I am missing out but I do use similar companies who can be a bit more proactive in CS. I don't want excuses why things didn't happen.
Perhaps we need a praise section where a company has gone the extra mile when things have gone wrong? It may help balance the feedback out?

Did they go or did they stay? either way they cant be feeling to happy, It would be good in the future to here the outcome and If TR did pull there finger out and sort it

I don't understand why people use OTAs when they can book it all themselves, and then can sort any problems themselves. I really can't see the point, especially when you are more likely to get bumped in an overbooking situation.

It would be interesting to see if TR customer service has changed, either for the better or worse, since they were sold.

Generaly I find that going direct to the hotel is dearer and the only way is going through a OTA now. Most of our recent holidays are with Thomson/First Choice as they beat DIY easily

Help where is the edit button?