I managed to book some really cheap flights in July to Salou in Spain and then all I needed to get was some cheap accommodation. I surfed around for a bit checking out all the usual so called 'cheap' websites and couldn't really find anything I was looking for. Which was pretty much a decent 3* hotel in a good location for 4. We weren't bothered about sharing a room so air conditioning was a must and also a non-fresh water pool. On every website it brought up the usual 2* no pool or very small fresh water pool self catering and no air conditioning for about £100 each for the week. Then there was nothing showing available for anything better. I then ventured on to www.alpharooms.com and was pleasantly surprised to find that not only were they selling the cheap low star accommodation at £20pp less than most websites they were also selling some good 3* half board hotels for around £140pp which I thought was a real bargain. £20 a night for half board, good location, air con and nice pool cant be bad.
Alpha rooms claims to have over 19,000 hotels available throughout Europe, North America and Australasia. They are based in Sheffield but conduct most of their business online. Their online booking service can be accessed 24 hours a day 7 days a week and all the details can be dealt with online but if you prefer to speak to a human you can ring and book over the telephone everyday except for Sunday.
ACCOMMODATION Alpha rooms sell all types of accommodation from motels, caravans and chalets
to luxurious 5* hotels. You just provide the date and country you are visiting and they will be able to find you accommodation from £4pppn (hopefully) if you are looking for late availability then you might not be able to get a good selection but if you are booking a couple of months in advance you are bound to find something to suit your pocket. All the rooms are described as twins, doubles, triples or quads. You can book a triple or a quad if there are only two of you but it will cost you more money. However if you want to book a room stating only twin or double you can still book for 3 or 4. I was a little wary about this because my thought has always been twin or double means 2 people only. It did allow me to book 4 into one of these rooms though so I emailed them and asked was this was a blip or 4 could really occupy the room and I was emailed back very promptly advising that this was fine and the hotel would just add 2 extra rooms, and this is what they did. It turns out a lot cheaper if there are more of you sharing a room. They offer room only, self-catering, bed and breakfast, half board, full board and all-inclusive options depending on the accommodation you chose. Once you have booked you will be asked to pay a 20% deposit and the remaining balance 5 weeks before your stay. Once you have paid your full balance Alpha will send you your accommodation voucher, which you just show when you arrive at your accommodation.
Alpha rooms don't just sell accommodation they also sell
INSURANCE Insurance is compulsory when you go on holiday so Alpha rooms are selling it as an extra like most travel agencies do but at a cheap online rate not at a huge profit. They use a company called Mondial Assistance and they sell single trip and annual European cover and a single trip and annual worldwide cover. They are very competitive and you can get an instant quote you just click on the dates you need cover and where you are travelling to and it brings up the price it is about £12 for European insurance £50 for a skiing policy and about £60 for worldwide cover based on a week. You can also add extras on if you are going to be doing water sports etc. The cover insures your personal baggage, cancellation of holiday, passport, medical bills and delayed departures. Once you have purchased your insurance you are insured straight away and they send you a confirmation through email. The cover is strictly for UK citizens and for under 65's only.
TRANSFERS This is a service we I also booked and had great success with. Once you have booked your hotel you are asked if you need any extras and to be honest I didn't think we did. I thought we would arrive off the plane and then just grab a taxi. The more I thought about it the more I thought uum flight lands at 9 in the morning we will have been up since 8 o clock the previous morning I don't think we will want to wait around and 4 young girls bartering with a taxi driver is never any fun. So I clicked on transfers added my flight and hotel details and was give a price of £14pp return which I thought was not great value and a taxi when we got there would be probably cheaper but I checked around some other websites and couldn't find anything cheaper so we opted for this. Once you have booked and paid for your transfer you are emailed a transfer voucher which you just show to the rep at the airport who is yes standing there with a big sign saying your name (how embarrassing) and are taken to your hotel. When you book you are advised your transport is not guaranteed it could be a taxi, mini bus or coach. Luckily for us we didn't have to wait long as they took 4 of us and 3 others in a mini bus straight away so no hanging around hurrah! On your returns paper it tells you to ring a local low rate number to confirm your taxi booking for your return journey 24 hours before. We did this but were told it was already booked anyway so we didn't really even have to do that. They were all very organised which gave you a good feeling about the service you didn't feel like they were going to forget you or try and kidnap you. The taxi arrived on time 2 hours and 20 mins before our flight. The taxi was a brand new Audi A6 so no clapped out old banger. It just didn't seem big enough for 4 girls extra large suitcases but he managed to get them all in at a squeeze which we all thought was very impressive. The drivers are all polite and do not drive erratic in anyway. On arriving at the airport we were a bit worried as we had spent all out money so didn't have any spare Euros for a tip. We need not have worried he didn't even stick around for a tip anyway and just wished us a good trip home. I would definitely use alpha for private transfers again as the service is second to none.FINANACE This is something I find to be a bit strange for an accommodation website. There is a section where you can apply for a loan! Why you would think of doing this when you are looking for a cheap hotel room I do not know. Whether they get an excellent commission rate for it I am not sure but it is not a service I would use. There is a form to fill in to get a quote from a company called personal finance and they offer loans from £3,000 to £250,000 to 3 to 25 years. The reasons you may wish to take a loan they give are for
Debt consolidation
Home improvements
New car
That special holiday
A conservatory
A new kitchen So I think they are probably doing it to tempt people into spending more on their holiday I don't know.
THE BIG PRICE PROMISE If you make a booking and you find that the exact same accommodation can be booked on the exact same date as you have booked you can send them an email and they will investigate it. If the details are verified as being cheaper than Alpha rooms will refund you the difference as long as you have advised them within 24 hours of the booking being made. I wish I had seen this offer as the same hotel was offered on a website called gospain.com for £10 less but I wasn't sure on their reputation and didn't want to risk my money over £10, but didn't see this option so didn't have the chance to claim my money back LCANCELLATION POLICY If you make a booking and you realise you need to cancel you should let them know straight away as to avoid large cancellation fees. If you cancel more than 35 days in advance you just lose your deposit. If you cancel 15-35 days you lose 30% of your holiday cost. 7 to 14 days mean you lose 50% of the holiday cost and 100% loss if you need to cancel with less than 7 days to go. If you book and decide within 48 hours you need to cancel you are still in the 'cooling off' period and you lose nothing so that is a good thing if you need to cancel.
OTHER FEATURES Alpha rooms has a very informative website and it helps you out a great deal when you are trying to booking a holiday. If you haven't decided where you want to go or you have booked somewhere but know little about the area you should check out their guides page. It is very useful and they have one for all the countries they sell accommodation for and it provides details on nightlife, cafes, bars, dinning, shopping, business facilities and practical information such as transport etc.
EASE OF USE Alpha rooms website is extremely easy to navigate and I would say anyone that has a basic knowledge of the Internet would get on well with this website. When you approach the front page you are faced with their list of different services at the top eg transfers and insurance. Then there are 4 different options to choose from when choosing a hotel. 1. The quickest if you know what you want is the availability check where you type in the dates you wish to stay, the amount of people staying, where you wish to stay and the currency you want the price to be in. This then directs you to every accommodation option available at that time. 2. The pick of the week is where 4 different hotels are shown because they have been the most popular choice. This is good if a country you wish to visit is featured as they are mainly a mix of good quality cheap hotels and 5* accommodation at a reasonable price. 3. Special offers is the third section you may wish to click on this is usually made up of a country showing their cheapest rooms and then a section like 'summer sun' which shows you the special offer of like £4pppn etc. The offers are good but only if you can get a cheap flight to match them. 4. The 4th section is probably the most random it is called top destinations and is split into 2 sections beach and city. This section has the main places you would expect like Amsterdam, New York, Las Vegas and then Cyprus, Turkey and Ibiza. Once you click on a country that takes your fancy you will then been shown a list of accommodation they have in those places. So it gives you a taster for what they sell. There is no mention of price and obviously no availability but it does prove they have a lot of different types of accommodation.
If you have any problems or you have any queries if you click on the FAQ button you will probably find the answer to any questions you had there and if not you can always give them a quick call or drop them an email.
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Aug 7th, 2006
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