written by Big100boss on 24/11/2014
Booked through Travel Republic in January for Florida hotel Rosen Inn @ pointe Orlando holiday in November as wanted plenty time to save spending money and park ticket money, received accommodation voucher at time of booking and had no concerns until a month before departure . Had spoken to a friend who had stayed at same hotel as us and recommended contacting hotel to ask for a ground floor room for ease of getting to pool area etc ... . Duly e mailed hotel directly to be told had no record of my booking but not to worry as this was normal practice for travel agents not to release names until 1-2 weeks beforehand , checked travel republic website and found this was true but was hidden in the queries faq's section which also mentioned you could ask for the names to be released early.
Waited to 2 weeks before contacted hotel again re ground floor room , told still had no record of booking , used travel republics customer support query to ask for name to be released , was assured this had been completed , received confirmation e mail from travel republic . Waited couple of days contacted hotel again re ground floor room using same contact to maintain paper trail had to supply booking details again , got reply still no booking . Contacted travel republic via telephone as was now starting to worry received another customer support e mail saying booking was now confirmed !!
Sent e-mail to hotel asking them to confirm this was the case received no reply , e-mail popped up from travel republic 2 days before leaving stating hotel was overbooked but had been offered a room at sister hotel which was smaller , going through a refit ,not as centrally located and had seen cheaper when originally booked or I could look for something else . E mail received at 16:35 while was at work so didn't get it till I got home , spent that night looking for alternative hotel but as was now so close to departure date prices had gone up so was left with no alternative but to accept hotel was offered day before was due to fly .
Have asked travel republic about a refund of the price difference at time of booking this has been passed to agent but not holding much hope will receive one.
To cut long story short after having received accommodation voucher and Booking confirmation in JANUARY I feel 100 % That if I had not been asking for the ground floor room would have turned up at original hote 8 months laterl to no reservation and been told at that point had been moved hotel, reason I know that is it happened to others who had also been booked at original hotel . There is no mention when you book a hotel that this is not completed till just before you go and this caused 2 weeks of stress. My suspicion is the rooms had never been booked and when the agent went to do it when I asked for the names to be released the price had gone up from what I originally paid , the original hotel had a big sign outside on international drive saying rooms available which we passed nearly every day !
Only reason have said would recommend is travel republic prices were cheaper than anyone else !
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