A family who arrived in Cornwall for a holiday after a four-hour drive were told there was no record of their booking - and were offered a break 250 miles away in Uxbridge, near Slough.
Ian Tomlinson had booked a holiday at Retallack Resort near Newquay, a location with a watersports centre, an aqua park, a floating volleyball court, a wave pool and wakeboarding.
But when the family arrived staff said there was no record of the reservation made through Booking.com - and when they were made aware the site offered the family a break another four hours away in a suburb of London.
In the email, the site said it hoped they were “having a great day”, the Guardian reports.
Ian was then unable to reach the site again and the family were forced to return home.
“Uxbridge was 250 miles away and not a place anyone would choose to have a holiday,” Ian told the paper.
“I had two very tired, upset children who were looking forward to all the resort’s attractions including a FlowRider wave machine for surfing, and my wife was in tears. We were not having a great day.”
Booking.com replied 11 days later and claimed the hotel had overbooked and that it would consider refunding his costs, but would not provide compensation for upset children.
They refunded the family's expenses and paid them £700 in compensation.
A spokesperson for Booking.com said: “In exceptional circumstances where a property is unable to accommodate a guest, we always seek to rectify that immediately and will be working with this partner to ensure all future guests have a good experience.”
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