I just want to share the experience I had with laterooms.com
I booked my flight to Croatia and I was looking forward to spend a great holiday with my partner when I decided to use laterooms.com... I booked the hotel on wednesday, I received the confirmation immediately... on Friday I left the UK to reach my deserved summer break via Budapest. Everything went ok, booking confirmed up until... on my way to Croatia... when I was contacted by some Croatian Travel Agent telling me that my hotel was not available and that I should go somewhere else... The best part of the whole story is that the hotel in the area were all full or more expensive and what it was supposed to be great holiday... turned out to be a NIGHTMARE...
Attached is how I was treated and how simply Laterooms.com simply do not hold any responsability on their booking...
My advice? Use another website!
1 email:
On 2010-07-17 12:43:30 +0200 xxxx wrote:
Dear Sir,
According to our yesterday phone conversation regarding the accommodation at hotel Mare Nostrum starting from July 18 until July 24th, unfortunately there are no available rooms at the requested period. Unfortunately in Zadar area most of the hotels are already booked for the requested period, but we can suggest hotel Mediteran in Zadar that
has one room left available for the requested period.
Please check the hotel description here:
http://www.galileo.hr/en/hotels-croatia/hotel-review-12948-hotel-mediteran-zadar.aspx
The total price for 6 nights stay is 603,72 EUR
Price is based on overnight with breakfast in double room, type standard.
Please inform urgently if the offered meets your requirements, because
we are able to hold this option until today at 14:00
If the location of the hotel is not important to you, please inform and
we will try to provide other possibilities on Croatian coast.
Awaiting for your prompt reply.
Best Regards,
KB
My reply:
Dear K,
I am not willing to pay any extra money for something I am not responsible for. The mare nostrum was picked for its good reviews and for the discount received. I will surely write a complaint to the customers relations dept of lateroom.com as I believe it's totally unacceptable the way that this booking has being handled. The booking was made on the 13th (tuesday) and you first tried to contact me on friday afternoon when I'm already on my way to Croatia. I would have stayed at home or I might have choose an alternative holiday destination and I hold your company responsible for this. I will surely seek advise for a suitable compensation for distress caused.
Regards
SF
Once back in the UK I receive an automated message from Laterooms.com asking me to review my fantastic experience at the hotel Mare Nostrum in Croatia...
From: Simone Fedolfi
To: xxxx
Subject: Fw: Leave a review for Hotel Mare Nostrum, Sveti Petar
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:30:43 +0100
Reviews???
I am so disappointed and upset about the whole experience that I can't see myself using your website ever again.
I did not sleep at that hotel, and my holiday that I was so looking forward to... has been ruined by the incompetence of your travel agents network.
I ended up sleeping in my rented car on Sunday night!
Booked the hotel on Tuesday night... all confirmed... on Saturday, while I am already in Croatia I find a message on my mobile phone and an email stating that my room is not available anymore...
After 4 days??? they realized it??? I would have gone somewhere else!!! The only options given was a room in another hotel almost 200 eur more expensive.
here below the correspondence I had with this agency you use for your croatian hotel bookings...
Just be aware that Kristina did not replied to my last email... and I ended up sleeping in my rental car on sunday as the whole hotels around Zadar were fully booked:
Reply from Lateroom customer service (after more than a month)
From: xxxxxx
Sent: 07 September 2010 11:41
To: Fedolfi, Simone Mr
Subject: Re: Re: FW: Leave a review for Hotel Mare Nostrum, Sveti Petar
Dear Simone,
Thank you for your e-mail regarding your booking.
I am very sorry but we have not yet received a response from the hotel. I have chased them up with this now.
May I take this opportunity to thank you for your patience.
If you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best regards
AG
LateRooms.com Service Team
my reply:
From: Fedolfi, Simone Mr
Sent: 2010/09/07 11:51:34
To: xxxxxx
Subject: Re: Re: FW: Leave a review for Hotel Mare Nostrum, Sveti Petar
Hi ,
I am really sorry to hear that they are not replying, but my holiday was ruined because of this. I don’t believe that I should wait 2 months to get an answer and an apology is not making up for the fact that my holiday was ruined and that I had to sleep in a rented car in a foreign country.
I believe I should be seeking compensation for this, and I would expect this occurrence to be handled in a more professional way by the Lateroom Customer Service team.. The customer service I have receiving was APOLING and I don’t think a customer should be kept waiting 2 months to get compensation.
Regards
Simone
And Finally.... they simply wash their hands... saying that they are not responsible...
Dear Simone,
Thank you for your patience whilst I have been investigating your concerns raised with the Hotel Mare Nostrum.
All hotels featured on LateRooms.com are responsible for setting up, maintaining and monitoring all aspects of the information displayed about them on our site. They access our site via our hotel extranet, where they load their photographs, hotel descriptions and inventory. This is then fed directly onto the LateRooms.com website. The terms and conditions of use of our site include specific reference to the hotels’ responsibility for maintaining their information and stock availability on the site. your booking was made using allocation which was provided to LateRooms.com by the hotel. I am very disappointed that the hotel made contact with you to advise they were fully booked. When this occurs the hotel are to make contact with you and provide an alternative which as you can see from below is what the hotel did, however this would have incurred more costs to you. I have spoken with the hotel and have run through the procedures in place for when this happen and they now fully understand this so no future problems should occur. Unfortunately the hotel are not able to offer any compensation for your booking. If you wish to take this further please contact the hotel on XXXXXXXXXXX.
On behalf of LateRooms.com I apologise for the inconvenience caused.
If you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best regards
AG
LateRooms.com Service team
Nice...
MY ADVISE? Use Opodo or Expedia... Lateroom simply ruined my only summer holiday.
