Another email offering a (not so) great deal.

This morning I received an email offering me a great deal on the perfect holiday for me from a major High Street travel agent.  I clicked on the link so that I could compare their prices with the holiday that I have already booked.

The first issue was that they don't fly from my chosen airport to my destination at the weekend, they only offer one flight per week on a Tuesday evening but as I only wanted to compare prices I let this slide.

The second issue was that they only offered one hotel in the whole resort, and this is a hotel that I will NEVER be staying at again, but again this was just a price comparison exercise.

The package price for two travellers was £493 per person for a week's half board in a 3 star hotel and included flights and transfers, this was for mid June.  Breaking this down, the flight was £198.98 per person, the hotel £276.50 per person and the remaining amount covers the costs of transfers and the rep at resort.

The third issue was that when I searched for 1 person travelling, as you know I always travel alone, the hotel was sold out. Change the search back to 2 people travelling, and the hotel was available again.

Booking separately, the flights work out at around the same price once hold luggage is added, however, the hotel can be booked much more cheaply.  Going to just one of the many comparison sites the same hotel can be booked for the same dates, the same board for £295 for two people, a saving of £258 on the original email offer.  With transfers costing around £20 return this is a good saving.  

You could possibly find even cheaper, this was just the first site I looked at, I usually look at a couple before I book anything.

I've talked before about shopping around, and this is another reason why.

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 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.

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 Santa Monica, Calella de la Costa

The Hotel Santa Monica in Calella is not the most attractive of hotels.

Nor does it have the best views in town.

Nestled between the main Calella road, wasteland used as council storage and a Youth Hostel it really does not sell itself.

Check in is from 12pm, I arrived quite a while after this as I was still at Barcelona El Prat airport at 11.30am and then had to walk from the coach drop off point, however checks still had to be made as to whether my room was ready.  If check in is from a certain time, then the room SHOULD be ready at that time.

My passport was held onto, something that I have not experienced in many years.

I am not sure what the hotel was trying to achieve with the decor, I kept expecting HAL (from 2001:A Space Odyssey) to speak to me.

Despite the futuristic type decor, the hotel still uses keys rather than key cards.  Also, every hotel that I have stayed in supplies a lock and anonymous key type contraption for the in-room safes, again the Santa Monica supplies a key with a big room number key tag.  I know that some of the holiday makers take the tags off as they do not want to advertise their room number incase they lost their keys.

The black key type thing works the electricity in the room, this was not explained to me and I spent a good 5 minutes when I made it to the room, the lifts are quite slow, trying to work out how to put the lights on, I had to prop the door open with my suitcase.

The room felt quite small, the twin beds were made up separately but had to be pushed together to fit into the room.

There was limited clothes storage too, I was on my own and ended up putting some things in the cupboard under the television, so two in a room would really struggle for space.

The bathroom was a good size, no bidet though, and the towels were stored over the toilet, generally hand towels are by the sink and bath towels over the bath at the opposite end to the shower.

The shower was strange too, the head was on a pivot, so too much pressure and it shot up and just sprayed the opposite room, so if you wanted a bit of pressure in your shower you had to hold the head down and wash with one hand, the other option being that you had a very weak shower.

The room definitely needed some TLC.

The balcony was not swept until the day before I was due to leave, presumably ready for the next guests.  The shower curtain was also changed.

There is a tv in the room, but there are no English language channels, most hotels offer at least BBC News 24 or CNN.

Wifi is available but has to be paid for.

The hotel offers room only, bed and breakfast, half board, full board and all inclusive.  The restaurant is laid out in military type straight lines with tables joined together in groups of 2 or 3.  Each meal time you have to show your dining card to the greeter, you are then given your table number and a hand waved in the general direction of the table.

Although it clearly stated 1 person on my dining card, I had to confirm that the table was for one every time.  Being a single traveller meant that I filled gaps in the seating, being stuck in the middle of groups and families made for uncomfortable eating so despite paying for half board I only suffered through breakfast choosing to eat elsewhere for dinner.

There was entertainment in the bar every night, with children's shows starting at 8.30 and adults at 10pm.  And it was loud!  Luckily it could not be heard on my floor which was 4 floors above.

There were events during the day for both children and adults too, all of these, apart from the ones centred on the swimming pool, were held underneath my balcony, so no siesta then.

The swimming pool was a decent size, though the strange shape made lap swimming pretty hard, and there were plenty of sun beds and chairs around the pool and outside bar.  I do not know what time the pool opened as when I left to go to the beach, generally around 10am, it was still being cleaned.

Most of the staff were pleasant, including the lovely Scottish lady who was on reception one day, the only person letting the team down was the restaurant seater.

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.

Holiday for Yoda it is - A Guest Post

Recently I was invited on holiday, it was my first trip to Spain.

It was still dark when we arrived at the coach station.  Yes, I know I am a Jedi Master, but I am on holiday.

Check in went smoothly, no excess baggage charges to pay.

Apparently it is a tradition that you have to have a pint at the airport, regardless of the time of departure, so full English with a Bulmers all round.

I bumped into some old friends (and enemies) whilst we were waiting to be called to the gate.

Eventually we made it on to the plane.

We caught the train from the airport to resort, I hope the view improves.

We finally arrived at the apartment.

Then it was time to hit the bars.

We had a few drinks

Met some friendly ladies.

And gentlemen.

Got a bit lost on the way to the toilet.

Played Bingo.  Didn't win.

Sang karaoke.

Off to Barcelona

Hard Rock Cafe!  Expensive.

 Time for the beach.

 Don't want to get burnt.

 Getting a bit hot now so off to the beach bar.  Mojito!  It's green, like me!

 It's very strong.

 Some people just want to sleep.

 A final look at the beach.

 And then time to go home.

Gegants i Capgrossos (Giants and Bigheads)

Many Catalan festivals include costumed figures known as gegants i capgrossos (gigantes y cabezudos in Spanish).  The main feature of these figures is their giant papier maché head.  

The giants are hollow figures several metres tall, the body is built around a wooden a-frame which sits on the wearer's shoulders.  The frame is hidden by cloth, and the arms have no structural element to allow them to swing in the air, the hands and head are made from papier-mache.

Every group in the parade will have a couple of giants who will dance to the sounds of the accompanying band.  Their entourage will try and get the spectators to join in.  Some groups will hand out sweets too.

There will be at least a couple of the giants who will have a recognisable link to the town, such as a founder or well known person.

Each year, a city in Catalonia is selected to be the City of Giants, in 2013 it was Calella.

On the 11th May 2013, the Giants all congregated along the walkway next to the beach in Calella for a celebration.  Some looked professionally made, some, particularly the smaller Cabezudos were clearly home made, generally by a school or a children's club, the children themselves carried these and they looked so proud.

  

  

   

The next day, Sunday, was the main parade

It wove around Calella, lots of noise, lots of colour, lots of sweaty people appearing from beneath the giants, there were plenty of stops to allow people to rest or swap over.

It was a fantastic sight and I would love to see it again.

The city for 2014 is Cervera.