Episode 12

Travel booking sites are popular with holidaymakers to grab a deal but they don’t always deliver what customers ask for.

In the last year one in four of us have booked trips using booking sites. Most holidays will go without a hitch but where do you stand when you don’t get what you asked for?

Sue and Pat O’Reilly from Llandysul booked the hotels they needed for their road trip to Yellowstone National Park, USA using travel giant Booking.com. They received booking confirmations for all their hotels so were confident that everything would run smoothly. But they were wrong.

Booking.com had failed to make any of their hotel bookings so when they tried to check in they had to make new booking or in one instance find a new hotel altogether. Sue said, “It makes you wonder what the purpose of a confirmation is.”

Another couple who’ve had bother with their booking site are newlyweds Paul and Damian Bridgeman from Barry. Paul chose to arrange their honeymoon using Expedia. He made it clear that because Damian has Cerebral Palsy, he needs an accessible hotel room. The couples travel documents confirmed this and they jetted off to America confident that everything was in hand.

But when they arrived, they were shocked to find out that Expedia hadn’t told either of their hotels about Damian’s needs. The rooms that had been booked were not accessible and not suitable for Damian. Paul said, “I expect to get what I ask for and if the company can’t provide it they shouldn’t offer it.”

Consumer Law expert, Professor Margaret Griffiths’ advice for using booking sites is to, “know exactly what your right and remedies will be if something goes wrong and never forget if it's worth more than £100 pay with your credit card because then if you can't get satisfaction from the company concerned you can go back to the credit card company and ask them to intervene on your behalf.”

Booking.com have apologised to Pat and Sue for the standard of customer care they've received. They blame a glitch in their computer system for the hotel rooms not being booked - so the couple will be getting almost £650 pounds back.

Expedia have also apologised and admit they made errors in Paul and Damian's case. They're reviewing their processes to prevent this happening again, and they've now offered them a full refund for the hotel rooms, eighteen hundred pounds, and given them compensation of £200, so that's a total of £2000.

Buying your freehold should be straightforward but sometimes it can be fraught with difficulties. The residents of one housing estate near Pontypridd tell us their story.

Angela Thomas has lived on the Crown Hill Estate in Llantwit Fardre since 1969. Her home is really special to her as it’s where she brought up her family. She’s now retired and her mortgage is paid off but something is troubling her.

Like many others on the estate her home is Leasehold. As a leaseholder it means you don’t own the land that your home sits on, what you have bought is the right to live there for the number of years on your lease.

Angela would like the peace of mind of owning her freehold as it can be tricky to secure a mortgage on a house that got less than 80 years left on its lease. But when she was offered the chance to buy her freehold she was concerned about the range of prices she was quoted. Leasehold Property Management Ltd, who manage the freehold for the landowner first wanted to charge her £2195 but then upped the price to £15,996 – eight times as much. Angela was shocked at how much it was going to cost her.

Chartered Surveyor, Martyn Burnett knows the estate well and says Angela is right to be concerned. He says the value of a freehold takes account of the value of a house, the ground rent paid and the length of the lease. He says the freehold for homes on the Crown Hill Estate should on average cost around £5000.

That tallies with the figure given to another resident on the estate Ann Hughes by the surveyor she hired to value her freehold. Ann wanted to buy her freehold so made LPM an offer but couldn’t believe their response. LPM said it would cost her an astonishing £27,000.

X-Ray has spoken to numerous families across the estate who want to buy their freehold at a fair price and are furious at LPM’s high prices.

Anthony Essien from the Leasehold Advisory Service says that with so many families in the same position it would be beneficial for them to work together. He first suggests that a couple of them try and meet with the freeholder to discuss the prices and if that doesn’t succeed then they would be looking at something more formal. That could mean taking their cases to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal where a fair price can be determined.

LPM say they're sorry for the confusion over the prices, which they blame on computer problems - that still haven't been fixed. As for the massive difference between their figures and the ones given by the surveyors we spoke to, LPM say there could be a 'negotiated settlement' - but they're not yet in a position to offer a final price. The residents say they're now seeking legal advice as a group to fight for a fair deal.