Pontins, a UK-based travel company, has enraged its customers by cancelling sold holidays that were due to be taken over the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee weekend.
The company has cancelled the Jubilee weekend holidays that were booked in January, for rates commencing at £33.07 for seven nights. Citing a computer glitch, the company has subsequently re-listed the same holidays at 15 times the original cost, with rates commencing at £550 for six nights.
In an interview with The Daily Mirror, a spokesman for Pontins, said, ‘We apologise that our computer booking system did not work in this case and the cancellation was issued as soon as we realised the problem. It only affects around 17 bookings.’
The breaks were all for stays at the company owned, Brean Sands resort in Somerset, and the Jubilee Weekend Offer was also picked up by discount website, Hot UK Deals, earlier in January, 2012.
A customer, Nicky Biggs, aged 38, said in an interview to TravelMail, that while she had booked the vacation and had called the company to confirm, ‘They basically said it was an error, but they would honour it and that I had got myself a bargain.’ Recently however she has received an email cancelling her booking. Similarly, Scott Foster, 31, said in an interview with the Daily Mirror, ‘We are devastated. We looked around for an affordable holiday as we are on a tight budget. We booked with Pontins as it seemed a very good deal. The reason given for the cancellation was the park being oversubscribed.’
