My favourite hotel in Calella de la Costa.

I have been asked which hotels I consider the best and worst in Calella.

Well, the best is easy, of all the hotels I have stayed in up to now, the Maritim wins hands down and I am reluctant to try any of the others on my wishlist in case I am disappointed!  Others on my wishlist include the Bernat II and the Hotel Mar Blau.

Whilst not wanting to call any hotels 'the worst' there are hotels I would not stay in now although they do have their uses. The Olympic, for example.  I have stayed in the Olympic a few times in the past when I could not afford any better. Working full time I was determined to have a week in Spain every year but it had to be cheap which meant coach travel and budget hotels.

Similarly with the Bon Repos and its sister hotel the Esplai, when they were all I could afford I was grateful for them.

One of the problems with the cheaper hotels is that they are used by the German holiday companies who specialise in coaching in hundreds of teenagers who run riot around the hotels and resort with no supervision at all.  

One year a group were running around the hotel banging on doors at 5.30 in the morning, I was so worried that I put a door under the doorknob and I do not scare easily.  This was in the Haromar.

Another year, every non German in the hotel (the Calella Palace, or Osiris as it was then), lined the terrace and clapped as the teenagers all trudged off to their coach dragging their cases for the journey home.

Another issue is the location of the single rooms in the cheaper hotels.  They are never the best located in any hotels, usually having views of the bins, but in the Olympic I was right next to the lifts, which were not quiet and were going all night.

I have stayed in the Amaika which was a good hotel, although the standards seem to have dropped in recent years.  This is a 4* hotel with the interior resembling the Titanic, why anyone would want to base their decor on a sunken ship I don't know.

The rooms in the Les Palmeres were fantastic, but the hotel is definitely geared towards the older traveller.

I enjoyed my stay in the Hotel Vila, it looked completely uninspiring from the outside but inside it was amazing.  But it is more a weekend break type hotel rather than for a full week.

Do you have a favourite hotel?  

It pays to shop around.

I have just booked my annual summer holiday - and yes it is back to the Maritim in Calella for me.

I always shop around, although I do have a core list of online agents which tend to be my first port of call.  I tend to shy away from booking directly with hotels as they always seem to be more expensive than through an agent.

This year, however, I received an email from GHT Hotels, the company who own the Maritim, offering a discount.

I had been quoted €377 for a week's accommodation in a single room with breakfast, Alpharooms were slightly cheaper than this, but as I now refuse to book with them I passed onto the next price.

Booking directly with GHT, I have a twin room for sole use, which automatically means a larger room than I would have had, and half board meals, all for the price of €399.

I have also taken advantage of some add-ons; I have prebooked the safe in the room (the safe is always there, what you are actually hiring is the key and lock), this is normally €3 per night, or €21 for the week, I have paid €18.

I have booked a mini fridge, this is normally €30 when you pay at the hotel, I have paid €24.50.

Finally I have prebooked my drinks for my evening meal, normally I spend about €6 per night, for the 7 nights of my holiday I have paid €17.50.

The savings from paying for these additions up front has more than covered the additional €22 for the larger room and the evening meals.

Now to try and do so well on the flight!

My Holiday Complaint, a final update.

I have accepted £100 from the booking agents, I have been trying to get my money refunded for nearly 4 months now and I have to accept that I have reached stalemate.

ABTA have been no help at all.

I looked into the small claims court, but it is too much to pay out to start proceedings, I am already a couple of hundred pounds down and I can't afford to pay out anymore.

Somewhere2Stay are still refusing to comment on, or even acknowledge, the month it took them to tell me that the Maritim had refused the booking.

As well as the difference in price between the hotels and the cost of eating out even though I had paid for an evening meal, there was the cost of a taxi to the airport from Calella, this cost €120.  I had booked a return transfer and I received confirmation of the time of the return trip and pick up location.

For whatever reason, the time of the pick up was changed, the transfer company contacted all the hotels where pick ups had been arranged so that they could put signs up in the reception area noticeboard to notify the traveller.  Unfortunately, as I had been moved, I did not receive any notification.

After waiting at the pick up point for an hour, I tried ringing the contact number on the booking confirmation, but there was no answer.  I walked down to the train station and took a taxi.

I have calculated what the holiday cost me.

I expected to pay £510

I could have paid £420 had I booked the Santa Monica myself, choosing B&B and eating meals out.

I ended up paying £685.

(I laid all of this out in an excel spreadsheet but I couldn't post it to my blog!)

So lesson learnt, make sure the company you are ultimately booking with is reputable.

My Holiday Complaint, a further update.

As you will recall I have been trying to have the difference in cost between the hotel I booked and the hotel I was actually accommodated in refunded by the travel company, this is for a holiday booked back in April of this year.

The latest reply from Somewhere2Stay, via Alpharooms, advises that they are not going to increase their existing offer of £50 and if I want more compensation then I should continue with my claim via a third party.  

Very professional.

And is a refund of an overpaid amount really compensation?  I don't think it is.  Yes, I would like compensation, more for the fact that this has dragged on for so long, but primarily I am just trying to collect money owed.

I discovered this week, that Somewhere2Stay is a sister company of Monarch Airlines, and this really surprised me as Monarch have always been completely professional in all the dealings I have had with them, I think that for my next flight I will be returning to EasyJet even though that means a 2 hour journey to the airport instead of 20 minutes up the Birmingham road.

ABTA have been as helpful as the travel company so now I have contacted Watchdog to see if I get any joy there.

The only step I have left is the Small Claims Court.

An update on my holiday complaint.

I had a reply from ABTA, eventually, advising me that they cannot intervene until I have reached stalemate with the holiday company, so that was a waste of a couple of weeks waiting.  I will be going back to them shortly though as I do feel stalemate has now been reached.

I rejected the £50 goodwill offer made by the travel company as it goes nowhere near compensating me for the difference in price of the hotels, even ignoring all the additional issues.

I had asked the travel company to tell me when they actually sent my booking to the hotel.  At the same time I contacted the hotel to ask the same question.

The travel company have refused to tell me, however the hotel have replied that they received the booking on the 13th May and refused it straight away as they were fully booked.  I have now contacted the travel company to ask why it took a full month for them to notify me of the hotel move.  

Given a month, I could have cancelled and made other arrangements. - including booking the Santa Monica myself for half the price that I had paid for the Maritim.  I wouldn't be having this fight to get my money back then.

The tmeline currently stands as

• 20/04/14 - Accommodation at the Maritim booked and deposit paid.
• 05/05/14 - Outstanding balance of accommodation paid
• 13/05/14 - Booking sent to hotel and immediately rejected.
• 13/06/14 - Notified of hotel move
• 14/06/14 - Date of travel
• 21/06/14 - Date of return and complaint put into writing.

Once I get a response to this query I will be able to go back to ABTA.

My Holiday Complaint, and current progress.

Back in April I booked a holiday, travelling mid June.  As you may recall less than 24 hours before I was due to travel I was moved to a cheaper hotel, still a 3* but much cheaper.

I complained at the time and certainly made my feelings felt, but as cancelling would have meant losing the flight, transfers, insurance and, more importantly, my week's annual leave I grudgingly accepted the move.

I was not happy with the quality of the hotel I was moved to.  To put it bluntly, if it happens again, I will cancel and take the hit.

On my return, I put in a complaint to the agents, mostly because of the un-refunded difference in prices, but I included aspects of the hotel which I was not happy with.

Below are two screenshots of the relevant hotels, the departure date is the same for both, 3 weeks ahead, I do not have screen shots from the time of booking as I did not ever envisage needing them!  But you can clearly see the difference.

I had booked the Maritim and was moved to the Santa Monica.  I always select a double/twin for single use as single rooms everywhere abroad are notoriously tiny.

According to ABTA rules, travel agents have to respond to complaints within 28 days.  Despite asking for more information to support my claim, (why, they moved me, they know the difference in price) the travel agents have failed to do this.

I have moved to the next level in my complaint, I have sent notice of my intention of going to ABTA, I just have to give more time for the agents to respond.

I will keep you informed.

Update

Today, 31st July, I had a reply from the travel agents, as it wasn't their fault I was moved, they were offering me £50 as a goodwill gesture.

As there is such a difference in price to the customer, I feel it is safe to assume that there is a corresponding difference in price to the travel agent, and therefore I should receive the full difference back, at least.

If there isn't a difference in price to the travel agent, then why is there such a disparity in price to the customer?

I have forwarded the offer on to ABTA for their consideration.

Hotel Changed

Just a quick post to update on my latest trip.

This is the hotel I booked and paid for 9 weeks ago, the Maritim

And this is the hotel I have been moved to with less than 24 hours notice, the Santa Monica

I would like to point out that I did not book with Booking.com, but they were the easiest to screenshot.

Ignore the dates as I could not find availability for today for both, but you can see the difference in price.