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In September my OH and his mates went on a driving holiday for a week.
OH Says...
Any ideas?
OH Says...
So we called up Alpine Elements and reserved a group booking for 12 people at the Charmonix BDN hotel. This was booked under Ant's name, we did this through their UK agent (Mike) in London.
We were told that there was secure parking opposite the hotel, we explained that we all had expensive cars and need somewhere secure to leave them. We also made it clear that we were booking 12 individual beds for 12 people. We then all had to phone up one by one and pay for the hotel on our credit cards. Mike was very chatty and wanted to know all about our cars when we called him, so he knew exactly what was turning up at the hotel, he banged on about my Lotus for ages when I called him and reconfirmed the secure parking situation.
When we arrived there was no secure parking, in fact there was no parking at all, we had to use the local multi-story. Once we attempted to check in we discovered that the hotel only had 6 beds, however, they did find two fold up beds for us making a total of 8. Due to people pulling out there were only 9 of us, but it wasn't good enough. The rooms were substandard and had shared toilets. The camp bed in the chalet made that room sleep 4 people and it was a real squeze, even the single occupancy rooms were tight.
We all decided not to stay as we felt the accomodation was substandard and not what we had booked. The guy on duty at the hotel was totally understanding and although he could not refund us he did whip out a printed A4 complaints and refunds form book (never seen anything like that before, how many complaints do they get?) filled it out and told us to get it back to Alpine Elents who would refund us. He also told us that Mike at Alpine Elements had told him that we all knew about the sleeping arrangements, which was, of course, another lie.
We found 4 star accomodation around the corner in a far, far, superior hotel for roughly the same price as we had paid for the BDN Charmonix.
After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing Alpine Elements have now refused to re-imburse us, claiming that the booking was for 10 individual beds, not 12.
Funny then, that they only had 8 individual beds (at a push) available when we turned up.
What now?
We were told that there was secure parking opposite the hotel, we explained that we all had expensive cars and need somewhere secure to leave them. We also made it clear that we were booking 12 individual beds for 12 people. We then all had to phone up one by one and pay for the hotel on our credit cards. Mike was very chatty and wanted to know all about our cars when we called him, so he knew exactly what was turning up at the hotel, he banged on about my Lotus for ages when I called him and reconfirmed the secure parking situation.
When we arrived there was no secure parking, in fact there was no parking at all, we had to use the local multi-story. Once we attempted to check in we discovered that the hotel only had 6 beds, however, they did find two fold up beds for us making a total of 8. Due to people pulling out there were only 9 of us, but it wasn't good enough. The rooms were substandard and had shared toilets. The camp bed in the chalet made that room sleep 4 people and it was a real squeze, even the single occupancy rooms were tight.
We all decided not to stay as we felt the accomodation was substandard and not what we had booked. The guy on duty at the hotel was totally understanding and although he could not refund us he did whip out a printed A4 complaints and refunds form book (never seen anything like that before, how many complaints do they get?) filled it out and told us to get it back to Alpine Elents who would refund us. He also told us that Mike at Alpine Elements had told him that we all knew about the sleeping arrangements, which was, of course, another lie.
We found 4 star accomodation around the corner in a far, far, superior hotel for roughly the same price as we had paid for the BDN Charmonix.
After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing Alpine Elements have now refused to re-imburse us, claiming that the booking was for 10 individual beds, not 12.
Funny then, that they only had 8 individual beds (at a push) available when we turned up.
What now?
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