Active Hotels www.activehotels.com

You show Hotel des Vignes in Luxembourg as having facilities for handicap guests. This in UNTRUE and I had real difficulties. You should take care of the information you provide. Judging from the comments posted here, you are not very professional!!!

DO NOT USE ACTIVE HOTELS IF YOU DONT CANCEL THE BOOKING WITHIN 2 DAYS THEY CHARGE YOU FOR THE FIRST NIGHT. i BOOKED 2 DAYS BEFORE FOR A HOTEL IN BARCELONA AND IMMEDIATELY CANCELED AND WAS CHARGED BEWARE THEY ARE A RIPOFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I booked and paid for a room at the Crowne Plaza in Birmingham through Active Hotels but on arrival the hotel had no record of the booking despite my having written confirmation with me. So that I had somewhere to stay they arranged alternative accommodation 10 miles away at an inferior hotel which charged significantly less than the Crowne Plaza and I had to take taxis from there back to the NEC where I was attending a function. Since then neither the hotel or Active Hotels have accepted responsibility and neither have offered to reimburse me for the difference between the rate I paid for the Crowne Plaza and that charged by the alternative. Neither have they offered compensation for my inconvenience. What use is a confirmation of booking if the hotel are not advised of it and haven't any rooms?

Nice people, a clean room, a quiet place, a good english breakfast and a cheap price as well. A little bit far from the city. I will probably come back if I have enough time!!!

This was definitely my very worst hotel stay. We had booked for two nights but checked out after the first. Due to our flight times we did not get to the hotel until very late otherwise I would not have spent even one night in it. The staff were very surly and not in any way helpful. There were no pillow cases on the bed and the bed clothes were disgusting.

Booking meant absolutely nothing. I was double booked and had no accomodation. Had to find my own. Booking agent blamed hotel - guess what - hotel blamed booking agent. Better to phone the hotel and confirm.

Booked 2 months ago - have still not received my confirmation of booking. Very unprofessional. Snap your booing and your credit card details very quickly. Then that its....nothing!? Absolutely nothing. Can't even find the hotels email details to contact them to see if my booking is legitimate!

For anyone that's interested, here are the two messages I sent to www.activehotels.com, to which I have received no response to date (circa 1 month), not even a "sorry, we can't help in this case".

On their investor relations website (news link below) the following information is proudly advertised "one of Europe's fastest-growing Internet hotel services and we possess an extensive knowledge of the European hotel business environment and an entrepreneurial spirit that we expect will fuel future growth for Priceline Europe and priceline.com,"

Here goes my messages to them:

Dear support at activehotels, no reply received as yet to my previous message (see below).

Regards, Mark Bxxxxxxxxx

========================================

Message Received: Jul 19 2006, 01:23 PM

From: "Mark Bxxxxxxxx"

To: [email protected]

Cc:

Subject: Hotel Contact Problems - Hotel Booking, 33******

Dear Active Hotels, I booked online to stay at Campanile B thune - Fouqui res-les-B thune (France) from Friday 14th for 2 nights (see transaction confirmation below).

Due to a delayed ferry crossing from Dover, I arrived at the hotel at 23:15 hrs to find nobody at reception.

Fortunately (I thought) I had with me a print of the hotel details web page which states:

"Late arrivals: Guests must arrive at the hotel prior to 23:00. Your room cannot be guaranteed after 23:00. If you can't change your time of arrival, please contact the hotel prior to 23:00 local time". But this page does not advertise the telephone number of the hotel reception!!

You see my problem, I knew I was going to be late well in advance of 23:00 hrs, but was unable to contact the hotel reception because of a simple error in the web designer omitting the telephone number for the hotel!

There was an automated room key dispenser outside, but a special booking code is required to access the key, I later found this booking code was only available from reception, but of course reception is closed after 23:00!

I therefore only stayed at the hotel on Saturday 15th (I have the check-out receipt to confirm this), and the receptionist said I should only be paying for the one night.

In view of my unfortunate circumstances in having to stay awake all night waiting for reception to open at 08:00 on Saturday morning, all for being 15 minutes late, and unable to contact the hotel due to the telephone number for the hotel being omitted from the Active Hotels website for this hotel, can you please refund me 1 nights accommodation at 65 Euro?

It would be much appreciated.

Yours sincerely, Mark Bxxxxxxxx

P.S. all other aspects of the hotel and service were most satisfactory!

There you have it, a situation any customer orientated company could resolve quite easily. Instead, activehotels.com choose to ignore this kind of query. Unsatisfactory.