Please bear with me, this is my first post.
In March we booked our 3rd package holiday with VH and therfore qualify for frequent virgins status. Prior to that we also booked flights through Virgin although we booked the hotel independantly.
We have each time stayed at the same hotel in Anaheim as we love it so much there. We (up until now) would also not consider travelling with anyone else other than Virgin but are seriously considering using another company in the future and would appreciate your advice/thoughts.
This holiday in August is for my sons 18th birthday, we informed VH of that when we booked in March. On 3rd May, some 6 weeks later, we had a phone call to say that the hotel we had booked into were refusing to accept any bookings and that we would need to go to another hotel. We queried this as by looking at the hotels own website there appeared to be accomodation available for the dates of our holiday. My husband even called the hotel direct to confirm that what we were seeing on the website was indeed true and we were told by the hotel manager that VH had oversold their allocation and had been specifically told not to sell any more holidays.
We relayed this info to VH and asked them to make sure we were booked into the hotel that we had chosen, had been to three times before for which we had paid our deposit and received written conformation and for which we knew there was available accomodation.
To cut a long story short, we received a call the following day to say the hotel HAD agreed to take our booking but that VH were waiting for written confirmation and would forward us a copy of the e-mail when it was received. Two days later we had heard nothing and so (again) I called VH only to be told that we were not in fact booked into our hotel!!! I have to wonder if I had not picked up a phone when VH would have got in touch to let me know?
Adding insult to injury the following day we received our welcome package from Frequent Virgins the next day......if you also have received it you will know that on the box it arrives in it says 'Are you ready for some special service?'.........this just felt like a slap in the face.
It took a further week of waiting and endless phone calls before we knew for sure that we had indeed been booked into our original choice hotel. VH will tell you there have been 'contractual issues'. The hotel tell us that Virgin oversold their allocation and always knew that. We are just the customer stuck in the middle.
We have suggested to VH that as this is for a special occasion and that they kept us waiting for over a week before letting us know that the matter was resolved, the fact that WE had to make several international calls to the hotel ourselves to check on availability etc and that we often had either wrong information given or were promised return phone calls by VH that never came.....that VH ought to be looking at free upgrades. They have today told us that they will not consider this but as a 'gesture of goodwill' they put us back into the hotel we had originally booked into.........a gesture of goodwill!!!! I told them what we thought of that so they then offered me £10 per person to go out for a meal and I again told them that I thought this was an insult after the way they have messed us about.
I have been at the airport when they are overbooked and they have no hesitation in offering free flights plus accomodation costs to anyone prepared to travel on a later flight so in comparison I don't think my request for upgrades is unreasonable do you?
Can anyone suggest the best person to contact? We are fully prepared to put this in writing to Richard Branson if necessary. My husband said to VH today that we accept that everyone makes mistakes (and in this case we are clearly the victims of an issue between the hotel and VH) but that it is the way you handle the issue afterwards and do what you can to make sure that the customer goes away satisfied, at this rate we would never book with Virgin again.
In March we booked our 3rd package holiday with VH and therfore qualify for frequent virgins status. Prior to that we also booked flights through Virgin although we booked the hotel independantly.
We have each time stayed at the same hotel in Anaheim as we love it so much there. We (up until now) would also not consider travelling with anyone else other than Virgin but are seriously considering using another company in the future and would appreciate your advice/thoughts.
This holiday in August is for my sons 18th birthday, we informed VH of that when we booked in March. On 3rd May, some 6 weeks later, we had a phone call to say that the hotel we had booked into were refusing to accept any bookings and that we would need to go to another hotel. We queried this as by looking at the hotels own website there appeared to be accomodation available for the dates of our holiday. My husband even called the hotel direct to confirm that what we were seeing on the website was indeed true and we were told by the hotel manager that VH had oversold their allocation and had been specifically told not to sell any more holidays.
We relayed this info to VH and asked them to make sure we were booked into the hotel that we had chosen, had been to three times before for which we had paid our deposit and received written conformation and for which we knew there was available accomodation.
To cut a long story short, we received a call the following day to say the hotel HAD agreed to take our booking but that VH were waiting for written confirmation and would forward us a copy of the e-mail when it was received. Two days later we had heard nothing and so (again) I called VH only to be told that we were not in fact booked into our hotel!!! I have to wonder if I had not picked up a phone when VH would have got in touch to let me know?
Adding insult to injury the following day we received our welcome package from Frequent Virgins the next day......if you also have received it you will know that on the box it arrives in it says 'Are you ready for some special service?'.........this just felt like a slap in the face.
It took a further week of waiting and endless phone calls before we knew for sure that we had indeed been booked into our original choice hotel. VH will tell you there have been 'contractual issues'. The hotel tell us that Virgin oversold their allocation and always knew that. We are just the customer stuck in the middle.
We have suggested to VH that as this is for a special occasion and that they kept us waiting for over a week before letting us know that the matter was resolved, the fact that WE had to make several international calls to the hotel ourselves to check on availability etc and that we often had either wrong information given or were promised return phone calls by VH that never came.....that VH ought to be looking at free upgrades. They have today told us that they will not consider this but as a 'gesture of goodwill' they put us back into the hotel we had originally booked into.........a gesture of goodwill!!!! I told them what we thought of that so they then offered me £10 per person to go out for a meal and I again told them that I thought this was an insult after the way they have messed us about.
I have been at the airport when they are overbooked and they have no hesitation in offering free flights plus accomodation costs to anyone prepared to travel on a later flight so in comparison I don't think my request for upgrades is unreasonable do you?
Can anyone suggest the best person to contact? We are fully prepared to put this in writing to Richard Branson if necessary. My husband said to VH today that we accept that everyone makes mistakes (and in this case we are clearly the victims of an issue between the hotel and VH) but that it is the way you handle the issue afterwards and do what you can to make sure that the customer goes away satisfied, at this rate we would never book with Virgin again.
. As you say, we're more likely to hear about the bad than the good.
