Be aware, Avanti Resort taking payment from TC guests-UPDATE PAGE 5

[Lindaelaine]

Originally Posted by dreamisawish

Honestly I don’t understand ATOL and ABTA 100% but I do know this- because it was my job at the hotel I worked at.

Charging the company is always done at check out.

Let’s say you book with TC.

They contact the hotels reservation team- normally through an automatic email- and say ‘Mrs Smith, five nights from x date to x date’ and then the rate they paid for the room at. This is not the rate you paid for, which is always more.

Anyway, the hotel reservation department make the reservation. They input the data for how much each night is coatings TC based on the rates on the email.

Then you check in, you stay five nights and check out. Whilst you where staying the system hasn’t yet charged anyone for your stay.

Then someone- me at my old job- opens the reservation, makes sure the rates are correct and charges TC.

TC may then also take a few weeks for the payment to come through, from what I understood it came monthly but I didn’t work in finance.

So basically what I’m saying is if you booked through TC and your holiday was cancelled you get your money back through ATOL and that’s it done.

But if you stayed anytime this last month in a hotel then you’ve had your holiday so ATOL won’t be paying you back but some hotels- not all- may try and backcharge you for their missing money.

And if you are currently at the hotel then it’s even worse because they can pressure you to pay in person- as we’ve seen happen.

Some hotels have this in their terms and conditions, that they can charge you if your travel agent goes.

Long story short- hotels aren’t paid until after you’ve left, so if your travel agent goes bust even after your stay the hotel hasn’t been paid for it and they might start looking for money.

It’s all a massive mess though, hopefully if people are backcharged they can contest it or ask ATOL to repay because it’s completely putting all the blame on the holidaymakers who are just left in the middle of this.

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That's really interesting, I can only think that you may be able to claim the money back if it was charged to your credit card .
Here is the funny thing , in the last few years we have been on at least 20 TC European holidays booked in store and paid for by debit card, we don't use a credit card . None of the hotels we have stayed in have ever asked for a card, if we pay for things like safe hire or towel deposit we have always paid cash. That's why it seemed strange to me that the hotel isn't paid by the holiday company till after the guest has checked out. We often take a holiday around this time of year, thank goodness we didn't this year 😱we would have been held for ransom 😂

[dreamisawish]

Originally Posted by Lindaelaine

That's really interesting, I can only think that you may be able to claim the money back if it was charged to your credit card .
Here is the funny thing , in the last few years we have been on at least 20 TC European holidays booked in store and paid for by debit card, we don't use a credit card . None of the hotels we have stayed in have ever asked for a card, if we pay for things like safe hire or towel deposit we have always paid cash. That's why it seemed strange to me that the hotel isn't paid by the holiday company till after the guest has checked out. We often take a holiday around this time, thank goodness we didn't this year 😱we would have been held for ransom 😂

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That’s something I hadn’t thought about, honestly at our hotel we didn’t always have a card on file for travel agent guests and wouldn’t ask for one at check in, but sometimes we would get hold of their info from room service, telephone calls etc. Basically anything extra that wasn’t included and wouldn’t be paid for by the travel agent. That card would be added to the reservation account in a separate window with all the private transactions that the guest has paid for separately. I know that we did charge these cards on quite a few occasions after a guest had left for multiple reasons.

But for damages, etc we normally wrote to the travel agent to cover the cost, which they then would contact the guest themselves to ask for payment I’m assuming.

It’s all complicated, but basically if they have a card there’s a possibility they will try and charge it.

[Peko]

Originally Posted by Lindaelaine

I can't get my head around this .
I pay TC £1000 for the hotel, that is the amount that comes off my card .
TC go bust, no problem I will get that money back, I haven't had the holiday yet and I get the £1000 back .
I pay TC for the hotel I have stayed in I'm leaving the day they go bust, no problem I have had my holiday, next thing I find the hotel have charged my card £1000 because TC have not yet paid the hotel, so I have lost £1000 because I have had my holiday ?
So my question is are you only protected if you don't have the holiday?
How can you get the the money back that the hotel have charged to your card?

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If you’d already checked out before TC went down, and were subsequently charged, contact your credit card company for a chargeback.

They can’t charge you like this, the credit they gave TC was their risk, although they are probably also in a bit of a desperate position as a result. Obviously the great majority of media and public sympathy is with travellers and TC staff, but a lot of suppliers who relied on TC, especially smaller independent businesses, will also be under financial strain themselves as a result.

[Mel5678]

What happens to people who have booked villas through TC? Is that the same?

[Lindaelaine]

Originally Posted by Peko

If you’d already checked out before TC went down, and were subsequently charged, contact your credit card company for a chargeback.

They can’t charge you like this, the credit they gave TC was their risk, although they are probably also in a bit of a desperate position as a result. Obviously the great majority of media and public sympathy is with travellers and TC staff, but a lot of suppliers who relied on TC, especially smaller independent businesses, will also be under financial strain themselves as a result.

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You may have misunderstood me, I am not actually caught up in any of this I was just wondering how a hotel can take money from a card when you don’t actually have a card and wondering if they can legally detain you until you give them your bank details .

[Lindaelaine]

Originally Posted by Mel5678

What happens to people who have booked villas through TC? Is that the same?

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That’s a good point as would the Villa owners/ management company even have your bank details seeing as it’s booked through TC .

[Peko]

Originally Posted by Lindaelaine

You may have misunderstood me, I am not actually caught up in any of this I was just wondering how a hotel can take money from a card when you don’t actually have a card and wondering if they can legally detain you until you give them your bank details .

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Nobody other than law enforcement officials can legally detain you in any country. Whether the law allows for such detention may vary by country (I would think not in most cases). Whether hotels might try to do it is another matter, as has been seen in Tunisia and Cuba. As I said, on one level it’s understandable, even if not the way to go about it. The reality of in-house guests on unprotected (non-ATOL) bookings is that they are likely to be charged directly.

I was answering the question about people being charged on cards after checkout. I did mistakenly think you were impacted, but nevertheless, my answer stands for those who were.

[Lindaelaine]

Originally Posted by Peko

Nobody other than law enforcement officials can legally detain you in any country. Whether the law allows for such detention may vary by country (I would think not in most cases). Whether hotels might try to do it is another matter, as has been seen in Tunisia and Cuba. As I said, on one level it’s understandable, even if not the way to go about it. The reality of in-house guests on unprotected (non-ATOL) bookings is that they are likely to be charged directly.

I was answering the question about people being charged on cards after checkout. I did mistakenly think you were impacted, but nevertheless, my answer stands for those who were.

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Yes it’s a strange one as you will have actually had the holiday so are no longer ATOL protected but the hotel has taken the cost of your stay from your card so you are now out of pocket as you have now paid twice for the hotel, I wondered how you would get that money back as it’s now a battle between you and the hotel .

[wdwlife]

We're staying here in November, won't be back after that. The treatment of guests there is an absolute disgrace and I'll be making sure I take a dormant card with me so nothing gets charged.

[stanleycamel]

It is being featured on BBC Watchdog now.

Edited to read Yes they did feature the Avanti.