Travel Republic

...holiday in Funchal Madeira through Travel Republic. I found them on line and then wrapped things up on the telephone and hope that this account will be useful concerning my reasons for choosing an agency, and the experience of booking through this particular one

A friend of ours had a good stay in Madeira and, while on the spot, she kindly selected hotels which seemed suitable for the three of us. Upon her return she brought up the ...
...appear on three of the Travel Agents' lists. It was important that a using an agent or a direct booking would allow us to choose this main component

In comparison with several other agents' pages, Travel Republic's website proved to be a doddle. For example, and although the hotel itself clearly had what we wanted, one website would not or could not allow a booking for one double and one single occupancy room. Another would not permit ... more

We have just arranged a seven-day holiday in Funchal Madeira through Travel Republic. I found them on line and then wrapped things up on the telephone and hope that this account will be useful concerning my reasons for choosing an agency, and the experience of booking through this particular one

A friend of ours had a good stay in Madeira and, while on the spot, she kindly selected hotels which seemed suitable for the three of us. Upon her return she brought up the possibility of a joint holiday and I guessed that it might rest there. However, after a seemly interval, she presented my wife with a plastic bag stuffed with information and brochures, which was passed straight to me!

This was a bit of a shock and I 'sort-of' forgot to take any action, but Her Indoors was more than equal to such prevarication. She started putting the brochures on top of things in daily use and, over time, the bag moved imperceptibly closer to my recliner until I had to do something

A daunting prospect
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The process of arranging a holiday may well be enjoyable to some but I felt press-ganged; I don't particularly like holidays except in retrospect and wanted the easiest way out. A cursory look at the stack of brochures seemed to present a shortcut - apparently our friend had booked with Saga last time, so why not go for a package?

I gave them a ring hoping to get some help, but some hope - the rep. was just insisting on sending more brochures. I tried to explain that a hotel near the town would be a good idea, but she couldn't really help with that. Next I tried begging her to do some research to provide a map with cross-references to various brochures. Her counter strike seemed to conclude our conversation: "I will look into it but don't have any maps". In the end she did send a map, along with still more literature, but it only showed an outline of the island with two towns marked on it

What to do?
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Once the panic had subsided again, it occurred that a narrower view and doing things in stages could ease the pain : -
1.) First, try to pick likely hotels on line, where comparative info. is a little more accessible
2.) Establish their locations to narrow the field
3.) Compare some prices to decide which 'bargain' to accept

Details were sketchy and it was hard to make any sense of it all, location still being particularly hard to determine. In the end several places, which shared the title 'Savoy', looked about right for comfort and situation. In reviews some of them were said to be 'tired' but to provide a good and friendly service

There appeared to be lots of Savoys - one was called just 'Savoy', another 'Royal Savoy' but still others were 'Classic Savoy', 'Savoy Resort' or 'Classic Savoy Resort'. The illustrations did not help at all but eventually it dawned that the same company ran some of them. Then I discovered that these had one of just two addresses but shared facilities and were connected by a footbridge

The name seemed vaguely familiar from the Tesco bag and sure enough one of the brochures tantalisingly described a certain 'Savoy Classique', which was not too far from the restaurants - check the address and yes, that must a member of the pair I had settled on. The leaflet was even adorned by an illegible script, so perhaps this hotel had already been viewed and approved!

Comparisons: Packages vs. Agents
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A package holiday might still have been the short cut I was looking for. Right, but none of them seemed to have a Royal on the menu, while one did appear on three of the Travel Agents' lists. It was important that a using an agent or a direct booking would allow us to choose this main component

In comparison with several other agents' pages, Travel Republic's website proved to be a doddle. For example, and although the hotel itself clearly had what we wanted, one website would not or could not allow a booking for one double and one single occupancy room. Another would not permit attempts to book more than three months ahead. One would not even allow a suitable date for the return flight simply because, on my PC at least, the pop-up-diary moved the page so I could not select the right date

I chose b&b because reviews on the web said that good food was available nearby. Inclusive prices for our proposed seven day holiday varied by around 10%, i.e. It could have cost us £150 above the £1600 price in Travel Republic's offer for the three of us

(Also see the *July and *August updates below for pros and cons of the still more economical direct booking for both hotel and flights vs. TR's less than 50% deposit required for booking)

Review of web comment concerning TR
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Not much was available and a 50% average score was initially discouraging. However a closer reading of the feedback seemed to indicate that the negative comments were mostly unfair because they concerned problems for which TR was clearly not responsible; the complainers were mostly barking up the wrong tree. The positive comments glowed and were more convincing; a couple of them even mentioned repeatedly good experiences

Amongst the agents: Travel Republic Won
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TravelRepublic.co.uk seemed the most economical for the hotel. However the transfer service offered by TR was about £10 more expensive for the hotel-airport taxi at £48. For simplicity I got a quote for the lot on TR and then booked with them on the telephone

The Travel Republic experience
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The TR website claimed to have won an award in 2006, which could not be found, but was certainly the most flexible

Although all the obvious features appeared to be offered on TR, the insurance link no longer worked, which raised the question as to whether, if the website was out of date, the rest was organised any better. However a search for suitable insurance through Money Supermarket arrived at a best quote from Rock Insurance, the same company for which the link failed on the TR website; it was the cheapest and maybe it was not the fault of TR

Having easily got a quote for everything on line I could have booked with TR as well. Instead I phoned to make the bookings and the call was answered very quickly. A pleasant representative explained things thoroughly, especially as to who was responsible for delivery of the contract, and the position of TR as agent for the contractors. Although the taxi driver would meet us personally at Madeira airport, no courier or other representative would be provided at the hotel. Also we would need promptly to address the Hotel management, or the airline, ourselves in the event of a problem, and check the return flight

It was explained that the flight, taxi, and hotel bookings were contracts with those three individual contractors, namely Avro, the taxi firm, and Med Hotels, as specified on the three 'vouchers' which were quickly sent by email. The vouchers also gave a clear breakdown of the timetable and various costs as well as useful but concise general information and all contact numbers and addresses

I was informed that TR was a 'full' ABTA member and a check on the ABTA website confirmed this. Also I made a mental note to contact the contractors to confirm, after a few weeks for the details to permeate their systems, that the bookings had really been made

Communications
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After the successful initial telephone contact with TR's Sales, the wait for Customer Services from the recorded option proved interminable on the occasions when, incompetently, I twice wanted to add special requests concerning access facilities on the flight and at the hotel

At first I cheated by using the booking option to get to speak to someone straight away, and the response was as courteous and helpful as before. On the second occasion, as advised by the voice message while hanging on, I returned to the website to the 'manage your booking' facility. A reply became available in the personal message section within two days as promised. To back this up the required 'special request' forms arrived in the next day's post, together with a prepaid return envelope - little things make a difference

Conclusions
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On a gloomy day it is anticipated that having three contractors might mean a triple chance of things going pear shaped, the way they tend to go. On the other hand, and when the sun shines and the wife is approving, I reflect upon happy experiences of past trips, and upon the packages when the extra paperwork and on-the-spot reps did not do much to alleviate the uncertainties

Now I am really quite looking forward to a holiday to add to those rose tinted memories. For economy and convenience so far I would certainly recommend using a travel agent, especially TR, over the seemingly opaque and inflexible packages as well as the direct booking options

Summary
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Travel Republic appeared to offer us a very competitive service which was easy to use on line and by telephone, and at first it felt like a relatively small organisation doing its best. Communications were fairly good and the information was comprehensive and concise

@tranx June 2007

*Update July 2008 - Direct Booking Wins
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Perhaps due to more practice or price changes, and a month later, a search for direct bookings proved that better value could have been achieved

A quote for the hotel at another of its websites, while not allowing a price to be shown for one person in a double room, gave a price which was only £10 more expensive for two double occupancy rooms and B&B for four. So, for just a couple, a room and b&b could have been much cheaper

A quote directly from BA for the flights offered a possible saving of £140 for the 3 of us, and probably £42 more as well because BA's website displayed a comparison to reveal the cheapest day of the week; even using an agent, this is worth a look before you decide

Moral:- don't always look for the easy way out, but see below

@tranx July 2007

*Update 23 August 2007 - Travel Republic Wins
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A month after booking, and 6 months before we were due to travel, BA changed the flight time from 10.45 to 07.20am, not TR's fault, but this would have meant getting up at about 3.30am to travel to Gatwick airport. BA's agent, Avro, would not discuss the matter and referred us to TR

It was especially annoying that I had originally chosen the more convenient and expensive flight time of 10.45, rather than the 07.20 one which was being foisted on us

What might have happened if we had booked directly with BA? : The Ts&Cs were very hard to uncover; the phone line was constantly engaged but, in response to an email enquiry, a late reply was:
" A significant change to your flight is if you are on a short haul flight and we have changed it by 2 hours or more or if you are on a long haul flight and we have changed it by 4 hours or more. If this did happen then we would contact you to advise you and look at various options for you." and when asked for a definition: "A Short haul flight is defined as Europe and North African countries with a coastline on the Mediterranean Sea. A long haul is defined as the rest of the world."

I do not think Madeira is in the Med. so there would have been no redress; BA's own flights might have been cheaper in the first place but their full cost would have been due at booking, so cancellation and re-booking would have meant forfeiture of around £500

As expected the TR Customer Services line was always busy and the ploy of phoning Sales failed because it only evinced a referral to CS, but they did agree to leave a memo for someone to phone us. Instead, and five days later, a message was left on 'manage your booking' at TR website; it just repeated the apologies and offer of cancellation of the flights for £225, which would have left us to book others

Again I requested a phone call, and this time Jackie contacted us on the following day. She took the trouble to explain everything thoroughly: although, on TR website, BA appeared to have another flight available at 14.20 this was out of date (by a week or so); anyway the outbound flight could not be changed on its own. After discussing the situation I asked her to cancel the original 7-day holiday and re-arrange it from Monday to Thursday, when I had previously noticed that flights looked cheaper. She first checked if this was possible and then arranged it

It turned out that an 11.15 Thursday flight was actually £224.53 less expensive, providing us with credit balance of 47p after foregoing the deposit! - The whole thing, flights taxis and hotel booking, were moved to a different period without any other penalty. All this might have been insurmountable with direct bookings - Full Marks to TR

Lessons: 1. Before you book, compare the COST of FLIGHTS on different days; the cheap days can be 50% less expensive in the same week, and 2. If you choose a convenient flight be aware of the Ts&Cs which apply if they switch you to 7.0 am!

Jackie did mention that the flights could be changed again so heaven knows what will happen if we ever get to Madeira. Perhaps we should stay at home

*Update 4 October 2007
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The departure flight time was just changed again by BA, to a more inconvenient one. A pattern seems to be forming - it looks as if the airline is disregarding customer's preference to fill the less popular flights

On 26th Sept Consumer Direct South East said "...and It may also be possible to argue that the terms and conditions that exclude liability for a change in flight times are unfair under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, or the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. However, this is a complex area of law which is beyond the scope of advice that we are able to offer at Consumer Direct. Therefore, I will refer your case to Hampshire Trading Standards for the appropriate advice to be provided. Hampshire Trading Standards will contact you in the next 5 working days to offer further advice on this matter."

Hampshire Trading Standards said "I am not best placed to offer advice in this situation. I can however recommend that you contact the Civil Aviation Authority for advice" and also offered addresses for two other agencies!!

Trading Standards:
A month after sending reams of papers to the Office of Fair Trading I phoned to ask them to acknowledge receipt, and was informed that their committment was to respond in a month, so I reminded them that they only had 2 hours to go! Sure enough, two hours later, they phoned me to say just "We are dealing with your enquiry"!!

Travel Republic:
We were sent an itinerary giving the intermediate dates and flight numbers, so whoopee we thought, we could get up at 06.00 instead of 0400! - but, grudgingly, TR sent us a corrected version

*Update 23 November 2007 - WHAT!!
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The time had come to check with the Hotel that our booking was in place. The bookings manager promptly responded to my email to say that there was a reservation for a double room, for slightly different dates, but NO reservation for the single room

The 'manage your booking' facility on TA's website was out of action and I could not get through on the phone, so a recorded delivery letter was sent

26 Nov.
There was a communication muddle, but TR may have said to a member of the family that there were two numbers to quote, but they did not phone back to speak to me as agreed. It was also reported that they said "we do not have any direct contact with the hotel" - of course we do not either, but we did manage to send an email to the hotel without too much trouble!

Anyway, and eventually, I worked out the following without 'help': -
On the booking receipt there was only one 'Accommodation Provider' reference number for both rooms, while the same number was called 'Locator number', and was quoted together with another number for the two rooms. I have emailed the Hotel, attaching both of the 'hotel room vouchers', and asking them to check both reservations again

We may actually have somewhere to stay after all, if we ever do get to Madeira

27 Nov.
It seems that I might have guessed wrong - the Hotel replied that they were '..in contact with the travel agency, in order to get this matter clarified..' which does not look too good. ("The travel agency" was not specified and I guessed it could have been the intermediary, Med Hotels). Left details of progress at TR's website. Glad I bothered to check and would not have enjoyed having this circus upon arrival.

Hotel emailed us again five hours later, confirming bookings for our rooms. TR phone us a few days later to confirm that all was well. Again it seemed that the problem was between Med Hotels and the hotel itself. 

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