Do Not Book Your Holidays thru IslandsAccomodations.com
Posted on February 21, 2008
Filed Under Holidays and Travel | 7 Comments
Remember that short post about a travel agency office? I guess, now I am ready to explain further why I warn you about booking your holidays (in the Philippines) through this agency office.
As you know well, we just had our holiday in the Philippines and to my mistake; I have let this incompetent travel agency book a resort for us. I have personal choices of resorts but since it was the Chinese New Year week, all those resorts were fully booked and so IslandsAccommodation.com recommended a resort which still has available rooms. Olman’s View, Bohol, Philippines—that was the resort they highly recommended. After hearing some of their praises about the resort, I asked a very particular question; “Does it have a beach where we can swim?” Sounds like a very stupid question but you see, the stupid bitch from IslandsAccommodations.com said that Olman’s View is a cliff resort so I wondered if they have a part of the sea where their guests can swim. The very same stupid bitch said; “Yes, ma’am. The sea is just a few steps down and there’s a small beach where you can swim.” I thought OK so I said, I’d take it.
Aileen (that’s her name), said they cannot fully confirmed my booking unless I pay the booking’s total amount. So I said “fine”. But this absolutely incompetent travel agency by the name of IslandsAccommodations.com, doesn’t accept credit card payments. They want the payment in cash. Duh! How ancient is that!? But because I was afraid that I lose the reservation, I agreed. I withdraw the money so I can deposit in their bank account in an almost non-existent bank. It took me a day to find a branch of their bank which is not available in the city where I live so I have to drive to the next province. Can you imagine? Transfer from my bank to their bank will take a few days and I can’t do that becuase they gave me a deadline.
In good faith, I did what they instructed me to do—pay the full amount by depositing it to their bank account then fax the deposit slip to them. After that, they confirmed my booking.
To cut the story short, my husband and I got to the resort and we were like—how can IslandsAccomodations.com recommend a place like that? Olman’s View is so awful I also wrote a post about them in a separate blog. Olman’s View doesn’t have a decent beach to swim in. A harbour is about 200 meters in front of it so you can imagine how the water is like. Yep, it was totally disgusting. I didn’t complain to the resort because they were not the ones I talked to (although they are also evil). I complained to the freakin’ travel agency. I mean really, how can they recommend a place like that???!? Don’t they understand that for people going to the islands in the tropics, a beach to swim in is very important? And to think that I particularly asked them that question. What that does make of them? A money grabbing company who doesn’t care if their client’s preferences are met. They lie to their clients, take the money, send their clients to that next resort/hotel available and that’s it. How cunning and evil is that?
I complained. Very strongly. I point out their a-holeness and demanded that we be transferred in another decent resort. The stupid bitch from IslandsAccommodation.com denied that she recommended the resort to me. How pathetic and incompetent!
Anyway, IslandsAccommodations.com agreed that we get out from Olman’s and move to another resort. Olman’s View agreed too but not without taking the 50% cancellation fees. Hah!
So we transferred to another resort. We got a standard, non-airconditioned room with NO hot shower and NO freshwater (the water coming out of the faucet is salty) but in fairness, this resort have a lovely white sand beach. Anyway, the room cost 1240PHP/night. That’s the only available room in that resort so we took it. Based on the 3100PHP/night deluxe room we originally booked at Olman’s, I believe we are deserve a refund. But no were not able to get that. In fact, the thick-faced, highly incompetent travel agency wanted to charge us more!?!
I refused to pay the 50% cancellation fees at Olman’s. It wasn’t our mistake. We showed up. We didn’t like the hotel—yes but it’s because we were tricked into booking in that hotel. IslandsAccommodations.com. misinformed us so they should shoulder the cancellation fees.
I argued and fought with the a-holes from Islandsaccommodations.com until they succumbed and agreed to cover our accommodations at Alona Tropical (the resort where we moved into) and not charge us for more money. They refused to give us some refund but fine.
The stories about their stupidity and incompetence in all of my blogs will be the refund.
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7 Responses to “Do Not Book Your Holidays thru IslandsAccomodations.com”
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thanks for the review..yours was the only one we could find online!!!! Do you have any recommendations as far as travel agencies go? we are balikbayans and we were about to fall for the islandsaccomodations scam when i came accross your blog! Thanks!
Hello Lee,
well there are other travel agencies like
wowphilippines.com
travel-agency-philippines.com
scorpiotravel.com
and there should be more.
but here is my advice, try to get in contact with the hotel directly, get the infos from them directly and book the rooms yourself.
or
if you must go through a travel agency…don’t book your complete vacation yet. book for 1 or 2 nights just to see if you like that hotel and the place becuase if not you can move out. There should aways be other hotels around in the area you choose to spend your holiday in.
thank y0u s0 much!
Lee,
i have booked thru a different travel agencies and every travel agencies has their cancellation policy, the good thing happened their was the agency provided you an alternate accommodation and i think that was a good move. i have this experience when i booked through http://www.alltravelspots.com and it was a disaster. we arrived at the resort without a reservation and same with you we fought till the agency fix it and we ended up taking the rooms that we didn’t booked and no refund has been made.
To be fair with the islandsaccommodations.com i have booked to this agency and they give me a good service fair enough to see the smile of my girlfriend contented with the tour and accommodation that we had.
white_neck
well, to be sure, check for policies on cancellations & refunds next time. travel agencies have those. they sell CHEAP but cheap always has a catch.
my experience with regards to a request for refund due to cancellation have been different though. I WAS NOT GIVEN AN ALTERNATIVE ACCOMMODATION & I WAS NOT GIVEN A REFUND. i know the policies before hand though, when you cancel during your stay it’s 100% cancellation charge.
at least the agency you booked in cared enough to try and fix your problem. while i… i wont even begin to tell you how messed up one of my holidays have been because all the agency could say it was something beyond their control… to top it with cherry, the flight I took was one from Cebu Pacific and i had problems with that as well.
let’s just say, next time it would be helpful to go to http://www.tripadvisor.com prior to any trips to some how get the pros & cons of a holiday choice.
hi Lee,
I dont think Islandsacommodations.com would reccommoend a resort/hotel that is awful as what you have said.
The rate you gave to the travel agency is just enough for Olman’s.
I dont think you have to blame the agency, you have to blame yourself for that.
Hi All!
Do NOT use islandsaccommodations.com if you want to keep your money! I am a US tourist who got scammed by this agency into sending money to them and booking a vacation deal in Bohol. Upon arrival to Bohol, the agency informed us that they were not able to follow up and book the hotel for us. This is the night before our vacation was supposed to start! After continuous calls to this agency and false promises of a refund, they had not returned the money. Do not use to book travel. Individuals who I dealt with at this agency were John Levi Santiago and Ivy Lorraine Murillo.