A couple, who bought a £99 Wowcher mystery holiday, abandoned their allocated hotel just one hour after checking in.
With travelling costs soaring in 2023, some brave holidaymakers have elected to gamble their trip abroad on a Wowcher 'Mystery Holiday Deal', which promises travellers return flights and a two-night stay in a hotel for £99.
However, as part of the deal, travellers are not able to pick their destination or accommodation upon booking.
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Intrigued to know what surprise holiday she would win, Harriet Morphy-Morris, a writer from our sister site WalesOnline, decided to test out Wowcher's offer and booked the mystery deal for herself and her partner.
According to Wowcher, shoppers could be sent to far-flung destinations such as New York, Maldives, Dubai or New York. Others could be given holidays to European countries such as Poland, Turkey and Portugal.
Upon booking the holiday, travellers can enter their desired holiday dates, number of travellers and UK departure airport. Harriet said: "I put in three different weekend options (in order of preference) as well as possible flights from Manchester Airport, which we didn't end up flying from.
"At the time of booking it was clear that anyone looking to take off from an airport outside of London would have to pay an additional £50 per person taking the price to £149 each.
"Once bought, [they said they would] email a voucher code along with the details of where to claim it. My code came to my inbox within an hour of buying the deal along with all the details of how to claim with partnered travel site, Travelodeal. I went on their site, through the email link and booked our mystery holiday.
"After this, it was all fingers crossed for a good destination and more than 10 days later we got the call to say where we were off to - Lake Garda in Italy."
Harriet says the phone call came from an unknown number and asked her for personal details ahead of the trip. She said this felt "a bit strange" but was "reassured countless times it was normal". Following the call, Harriet said she received her and her partner's boarding passes from Ryanair along with details of the hotel.
According to Harriet, the hotel was "the cause of the biggest expense". She claims that the push to spend more than £99 on their holiday began once their destination was confirmed.
She said: "Once we were given our destination, we got into the details and it was here, that the push to upgrade really started. I tried my best to resist but I did fall for an extra £30 per person for different flight times.
"The original flights we were given from London Stansted with Ryanair landed late into Milan Bergamo, around 8pm, and returned super early two nights later, around 7am, so it would have only given us one full day to explore."
"The upgraded flights left on a Thursday at 8am and landed back in Stansted at 5pm on Saturday giving us much more time and taking our spending so far to £129 each, but it didn't stop there. During our call, the adviser repeatedly said 'are you sure you don't want to upgrade the hotel package as it's a little far out' and as I wanted to stick as close to the £99 price as possible I declined and wish I hadn't.
"A tip for anyone looking to book is to bear in mind the transport upgrades they offer won't be the only options available. We declined Wowcher's airport transfer from Milan Bergamo down to Lake Garda, starting at €80 and booked a one-hour 45-minute train at €15 each."
Following their arrival in Italy, Harriet claims the location of the accommodation was "so far" from their surprise destination. She said: "To put it simply our hotel was so far from Lake Garda that it would have cost us £160 minimum in travel costs to get to and from during our trip.
"On the call to the advisor I had seen on Google Maps, it was around a 14-18 minute drive away which assuming there would be reliable public transport I thought was more than okay.
"It wasn't, as we were visiting Lake Garda during the 'off-season' there were no bus routes to Affi or train routes on the line we had travelled down from Milan from. Our nearest biggest Lake Garda side town was Pescheira - from here we were quoted €40 to €45 each way in a taxi to and from our hotel.
"This wouldn't have been a problem if our hotel was near a few restaurants, parks, shops etc but to make it worse we were on the side of a motorway toll road, next to a service station.
"Once we had checked in we sat in the room adding up the cost and figured out we would spend at least €160 over the two days in taxi fare, on top of the €80 price it cost us to realise our mistake and go back and forth the first night. To us, it was a ridiculous amount to spend just on travel to and from and I was annoyed the location was so far from our 'surprise destination'. So, we checked out after an hour and booked a hotel in Pescheira for €85 for the two nights."
Harriet added: "It goes without saying that I can't fault the location whatsoever and even though there was a lot of travelling from where we landed to our hotel it meant we could see more of the area, and overall this was a huge positive to our Wowcher trip...
"Of course, the Wowcher trip can be as budget-friendly or 'high-end' as you want it to be. We were on a mission to stick to its £99 motto as much as possible...
"But the money we spent on sightseeing and food, we spent around £230 each."
Harriet's costs: £99 Wowcher, £30 flight upgrade, £30 petrol to Stansted Airport, £15 train ticket, £20 taxi to Bergamo station, £40 taxi to the first hotel.
A Wowcher spokesperson told the ECHO that due to the price of the holiday, some hotels can be further away from the destination.
Wowcher said: "As a company we strive to make travel and new experiences as affordable as possible to as many people as possible, and receive positive feedback from lots of customers who have enjoyed the £99 Mystery Holiday. These breaks at these prices come with limitations and sometimes the hotels are further out.
"We are clear which hotel they’ll be staying in when the holiday is booked. There are always options to upgrade to be closer to everything, but we want to provide a basic option that’s at an accessible price.
"To be able to provide such cheap deals we work with a travel partner who has access to the discounted rooms and flights. It is this partner which contacts our customers directly, however we take all customer complaints about their experience with our partners very seriously and will be speaking with the travel merchant involved here.
"We were sorry to hear that Ms Morphy-Morris had a negative experience with the Mystery Holiday and we would be happy to talk to her further about this."
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