| Product: |
octopustravel.com |
| Date: |
11/06/03 (977 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Wide Variety of Choices, Good Prices
Disadvantages: You print off a "Voucher", Don't book immediately, £20 cancellation fee
I used Octopus Travel to book a hotel in Birmingham for an overnight stay on the 9th of June. I chose Octopus because they had well priced accommodation and a varied selection. So I booked a room with them at the Crowne Plaza hotel.
This is where things got unbelievable: -
I booked the hotel and they sent me a confirmation e-mail telling me that I needed to take a "Voucher" that you yourself print off, which you hand in at the check in desk on arrival. This in my opinion was a stupid, which made me start to think that they have a very odd system and I had worries that things weren't going to be straight forward. So I e-mailed them asking if my room had been booked. They replied repeating the instructions about the "Voucher." So I proceeded to ring the hotel asking if the room had been booked under my name. The answer: No. They checked for a booking under Octopus Travel. The answer: No.
So I rang Octopus Travel up again. They then told me that the room isn't booked with the hotel until 5 days before travel! UNBELIEVABLE!!
*They had already charged my account for the booking yet done nothing on their part*
Is this fraud?
If the room isn't booked until 5 days before travel and they have charged me the amount for the room, how do they guarantee my room????
So I had no choice but to cancel. I then found out that they charge £20 for refunding the payment for "administration costs." But in my opinion they hadn't done anything to warrant a charge for "administration costs!"
Octopus Travel will never have my custom again. Completely unreliable and a rip off for what they actually do!
If I were you, I'd search for hotels online. Price up different ones, and book directly with your chosen hotel. In fact with anything that concerns travel.
I'd hate to think how they book plane tickets!!!!!
Summary:
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Last comments:
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- 25/07/03 Howitworks is spot on. They pre-book the rooms and confirm the names 72 hours before arrival. I think you just jumped the gun. |
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- 23/06/03 I am sorry to say that it was you who made a mistake by cancelling your booking.
You will find that large travel agents like octopustravel will have a certain allocation of rooms guaranteed at the hotel. These are kept by the agent until they are released back to the hotel if they remain unsold.
There is no need for the agent to inform the hotel of the names on the booking or even of the booking until they have to tell the hotel how many rooms out of the allocation they have sold.
The hotel would rather be told of all bookings in one go rather than get 20 different notifications.
T he reason the hotel will not have known about octopustravel is that they trade on the internet under a different name.
Octopus is a catchier name than the one they have been using for the past 25 years, they are in fact the internet arm of a travel agents that has a turnover of more that £400m a year.
Not very dodgy if you ask me. |
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- 11/06/03 Hmm. I think they're a partner in some way of Qjump.co.uk (they advertise each other), and I've had such bad experiences of them I'd probably not use Octopus for that reason alone! cheers, John |
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