Hotelsbooked.com

We arrived at hotel Dino in Lake Maggiorie for a 4 night stay (advertised on Travelzoo) and were told that our room had not been paid for and that they were owed alot of money from Hotelsbooked/Holidaysbooked.com. We argued on the telephone (at great cost) with them on and off for 3 hours before they agreed to pay for our room by credit card and we were then given our key !!!!!!

Very very unproffesional - not to be trusted.

Had one of our best ever holidays in Madeira courtesy of Hotelsbooked via Groupon. Everything went like clockwork. Hotelsbooked politely answered every query we had and took the trouble to contact our hotel with additional requests. The hotel, Calheta Bay, was excellent. We were on half board...and that was all that was necessary because the food was gut-bustingly good and hugely plentiful! Evening entertainment was laid on and was good and varied...something for everyone. Hotel staff were excellent, nothing seemed to be too much trouble. We would go again at the drop of a hat.

From my experience, their policy is "if we don't write it into your travel document then you don't get it" even when it's part of the package. We asked them repeatedly to correct the document they sent us, each time they sent us back a document with the incorrect details and that was all we got in the end. We complained, they said they'd review and reply within 28 days. They didn't. How can you ensure they will write into your document what you have booked and paid for? Answer: you can't. Therefore I suggest you use this crowd at your peril.

Watchout for the misselling!!

The price you see is not the price you get. I paid for the whole trip and 2 days later I got asked for £150 extra for exactly the same itinerary. Supposedly they waited too long to book the flights and the price went up..So they decided to throw the cost incurred for their admin inefficiency at me.

They even had the audacity to threaten if I don't pay up I will forfeit everything I paid. At the end, I had to move the travel dates to offset some of my cost.

booked a 7 night holiday to the 5 Star Enotel Lido through Hotelsbooked not only did I get a great bargain £399 Half Board, but i had all my paperwork witihn 24hours of booking.

There were no nasty surprises, no additional add ons, everything was detailed in the Ad, unlike all the other companies on Travelzoo who hide all the extra charges.

Great service, great price, great Hotelsbooked, I will use them again as they have the best prices and the best staff, Many thanks Mrs Davies.

Saw holiday to madeira on travel zoo news sheet. booked by phone everything went like clockwork, the whole holiday was a great success the hotel do santo was in a quiet area but with the curtesy bus and a bit of effort with taxi and buses my wife and I had one of our best holidays.

The holiday was advertised with Dealcheckers - must admit a little dubious at first after reading reports about Hotelsbook.com but our experience was totally different to most of the other reviews. Melanie dealt with our booking and everything was as she said and our details came through in a couple of days. Our holiday was perfect and we got the service she said we would.

Please dont be put off by the negative reviews.

1. Booking

We saw an offer from Travelzoo. It was a seven-day holiday in Sardinia in a 4-star hotel with half board. This offer was made by hotelsbooked.

We (total 3 persons) have reported there and we have asked whether an extension for a total of 12 nights is possible, we had interest in one double and one single room). Over time we have received three bills for each of three components: air travel, commission hotelsbooked and the price that had to be paid locally to the hotel. The air travel was the same in all accounts, the other two components varied. We have by all accounts the highest amounts paid to hotelsbooked by direct debit on the credit card and the highest amounts locally to the hotel. Thus the offered price for the trip has been considerably exceeded. Especially since hotelsbooked said that they had forgotten to charge the supplement for the single room, the price then increased accordingly (2 days before departure).

The correspondence with hotelsbooked was somewhat difficult, and we waited for the confirmation of travel quite a long time. With the settlement made, we do not agree and are working to correct the situation.

2. Travel

The flight with Ryanair is connected with the well-known imponderables. We had booked 15 kg more luggages per person in addition to the allowed hand luggage of 10 kg. That was absolutely necessary for us. However, we had hoped to distribute weight differences for the luggage of the three people, so that only the total weight of 45 kg had to be observed. The Ryanair has not allowed this approach. We had to compensate for the weight variation in the airport by repacking the luggage.

On the way back there was no balance available in the hotel and therefore this procedure of arranging the weight of the luggage in the necessary portions had to be done at the airport. A container with a pocket knife in it got for reasons of weight into the hand luggage, not thinking in the hubbub about the consequences. The knife was detected by the screening control and was collected.

3. Stay

Hotel Nadir in Castelsardo is built quite well and has a good location and permits - especially from the terrace of the restaurant in the 5th Floor - a beautiful view of the sea and the surrounding area. The staff is quite to very friendly. The eating rules are simple: there is breakfast from 8:00 - 9:30 clock (rolls, biscuits, jam, yoghurt, stewed fruit, coffee and tea and corn flakes, no sausage, no cheese). Dinner is served from 20:00 - 21.30 hour. Once we were late in the evening when we made a journey to the south of the island and appeared at 21.33 clock, with the result that we got no dinner more. We were advised, that we have to appear at the latest to 21 hour. The restaurant would close at 21.30 hour.

The temperature of the flowing water in the bath room - whether warm or cold - was in the majority of time about 24 degrees Celsius. If there was hot water, it was almost impossible to use the bidet, because the water was too hot there; otherwise trying to use cold water only then came the water with a temperature acceptable in principle but only in contiguous drops from the crane.

Inside the lift it was reported, that this lift is appropriate for 6 people or 480 kg. However, if it was used by two people with luggage, it stroked. So it was impossible for us (three persons with a total of 220 kg (net)) to use the lift together.

Dinner was usually a satisfying first course (eg, spaghetti Bolognese, or spaghetti with clams and squid) and a suitable main course for the figure (eg, 3-4 thin slices of roast beef with a little sauce or fried fish). Side dish was either a salad or steamed, unseasoned vegetables (spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green beans) available on the buffet. One evening the side dish beside the others mentioned before were fried potatoes. Regardless of the ordered side dish (salad or vegetables), this found a lot of encouragement from most guests. The dishes were repeated in quite a short time interval.

The breakfast we have supplemented through purchases of vegetables, meat and cheese in the supermarket. Since we already did pay attention to our line, the food was ok for us from the quantity; however, improvement in the quality is necessary. In terms of quality and quantity may be cited an example: a fried salmon slice (thickness less than 1 cm), the fish was apparently not free from the shed before cutting, so that the shed by cutting the fish into slices were distributed on the whole slide.

4 stars of the hotel in our opinion could result only, if the service and facilities of the hotel were improved very significantly.

4. Summary

There were deficiencies listed by examples, but in terms of the low price the journey was acceptable for us. The service could easily be improved significantly - with regard to mutual communication of linguistic possibilities, as these are in Italian and limited English language.

We enjoyed the stay and are very pleased to Sardinia. We had very nice rooms with sea view and beautiful sunsets could be observed. The nearby sea (about 150 m away) was clear and pleasant temperature (end of July, early August). We visited many beaches, and the next beautiful beach in La Bagnu is about 4 km away. The island is culturally and scenically extremely interesting and worth seeing. The always beautiful weather has made our holiday very enjoyable and contributed significantly to our recovery.

My confirmation email from them made no mention of the car hire, even though it was costed in the price. "administrative error" was the reply, but despite repeated requests I never got an itemised invoice that showed I'd paid for car hire. When my Car voucher wasn't sent, I called again, and again and again, eventually getting the voucher just before travel. I was also told our holiday charge included Ryanair priority boarding (it didn't) and a Focus sized car would be available at the airport (it wasn't). On my return, I received an invoice from Europcar for car hire even though I'd paid the agent. Hotelsbooked.com (alias happy holidayz) raised the incident number and then failed to respond to Europcar for more information. So far, down £275 and having to recover the overcharge myself as this agent cant be bothered.

We agree with the review on The Costa Azul Hotel, in Ballestrate, Sicily. The hotel was clean with a lovely pool area and the staff were pleasant enough, with the exception of the owner who was extremely unfriendly, and never spoke to any of the British visitors during our week's holiday. The hotel is not well placed for exploring the surrounding area - some guests in desperation hired a car. Several big functions took place whilst we were there, and the handful of British tourists were made to feel a nuisance, and in the way. The stinking uncollected rubbish everywhere, (except in the town centre) and littered beach, spoilt what would otherwise have been a pleasant area. Although Sicily is a beautiful country, we do not feel that this hotel should be recommended.