In May 2001, We booked a holiday with Libra over Christmas and New Year at the Laura Beach hotel in Coral Bay, Cyprus, and we had been eagerly looking forward to it. However, thanks to Libra we didn't get it, or indeed a holiday approaching anything remotely like it.
Instead, Libra:
Altered our flight times at the last minute causing us considerable extra expense and inconvenience, as we arrived back home a day later than we should have, and had to take an extra day off work.
Told our travel agent we had no right to cancel at that point, and that we would lose all the money we had paid, when as we later discovered, we had every right to cancel at that point and get our money back because of the inconvenience which had been caused to us by their last minute flight changes.
Deceived us into travelling to our holiday destination
by maintaining the false impression that the holiday we had booked was still available, when the hotel we were due to stay in had in fact been closed for renovation 3 weeks before we travelled, and we had been on the computerised booking system of the hotel we were moved into since the end of October!
Tried to make out at the airport when we arrived that they had only just found out that the hotel was closing a couple of days before we travelled and it was not their fault; which was complete and utter nonsense, as holidaymakers who had travelled with other tour operators had been told weeks to months beforehand that the Laura Beach was closing and had been offered the choice of moving to the hotel we stayed in, or obtaining a full refund.
Decieved us into thinking that the hotel they put us in had all the facilities of the hotel we had booked when it most certainly did not, and was not at all suitable for our needs.
Omitted to tell us when we arrived at the Airport that there was a hotel being built immediately next to the hotel we were being put into, (which we had a lovely view of from our bedroom window) which meant that we were woken by the noise every day between 6.30am-7.00am, aside from the day that we came home.
Stuck us in a hotel which catered mainly for pensioners with no organised children's entertainment whatsoever, lousy service, and no entertainment to speak of over the Christmas and New Year, unless you count bingo, quizzes, and a duo who only seemed to know a dozen or so songs and sang them over and over again night after night,including on Christmas Eve and New Year.
The weather was dreadful for practically the entire fortnight, and as the hotel which we were put in lacked the comprehensive facilities the hotel we had chosen offered to keep our son amused if the weather was bad, and there was no organised children's entertainment whatsoever the entire time we stayed there, he was bored to tears and our holiday enjoyment was ruined as a result.
Despite the fact that we had specifically chosen the Laura Beach because we knew it had a reputation for catering well for vegetarians, and we had told them when we booked and when they moved our flights that we required vegetarian food, they totally ignored our needs in this respect and we spent most of the festive season surviving on sliced cheese, bread rolls and boiled vegetables.
Libra's rep fobbed us off entirely in resort, and made no attempts whatsoever to resolve our complaints during the time we were staying there. Or indeed any of the complaints which were made by the many other people we spoke to whilst in resort who they had treated similarly.
Although we complained both verbally and in writing while we were on our holiday and we have been back now for 3 weeks, we have had not even one single word of apology or explanation from Libra over the way which we were treated; nor have they offered us even a penny in compensation - not even the £30.00 per person compensation their brochure promises to pay anybody without quibble if significant changes are made to their holiday arrangements at very short notice.
In all the years we've travelled abroad we've never experienced anything like it, and we came home feeling like we needed a holiday, instead of having just been on one.
If the CIAO rating system had allowed us to award 0 stars, in our honest opinion the service we received from Libra regarding this holiday would genuinely qualify.
Should Libra respond to the complaint we have made since returning home in a more acceptable manner than they did in resort, and offer us a full refund and reasonable compensation, then we may possibly be prepared to revise our opinion. Till then our recommendation would be to give them a very wide berth indeed when booking a holiday.
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I was just about to book a holiday with them: after reading this I'm going elsewhere.
LucyJW 04.02.2003 13:48
I have just travelled with this company and luckily everything went to plan except the rep was very rude and late for the transfer on our return and diddnt even apologise in fact she laughed! I know for a fact that they are ATOL protected. Another tour operator tried to do this to my sister but she managed to get the full money out of them and was able to book another holiday. Don't give up, thats what they want, please check out www.atol.co.uk they will be able to give you some very good advice.
Susanlj 01.02.2002 11:02
Thank you all for your supportive comments. Our family are in the process of setting up a web site with photos and further details of our complaint, should anybody be interested in finding out further details.
The url is: http://www.dreamwater.net/jonesfamily/index.html
There's not much up yet, aside from a few opinions of other people we met on holiday who were similarly treated and a lovely view of the building site from our balcony window, but it should be fully up and running in about a week or so, I would guess.
As I commented originally, if Libra are prepared to respond to my complaint and offer us a sensible amount in compensation, then I might possibly soften my opinion of them somewhat, and if this happens, then I will comment further.
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Jan 30th, 2002
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