Over the last 2 years we as a family have had a rough time which involved watching my Mum (& Grandmother) die from cancer. Due to this situation, we had not taken a holiday for 2 years so we could spend our time with my mum. She sadly passed away in October 2023 (God bless you Mum). My Mum kindly left me and our family a small amount of money which we decided to spend on a well-deserved holiday as we had not had one for some time and due to the ages of our children (18 & 17) this would probably be the last time we would all holiday together. We had never been to Turkey before but through friends and colleagues we had heard good things about the hotels and country so decided that this would be our destination. I did a lot of research through Trip Advisor and decided that the Titanic Mardan Palace was the hotel we wanted to go to as it was better than all the other Titanic hotels in the region. I looked at the Golf Belek and Lara beach Titanic hotels but the one that stood out for luxury, quality of rooms, spa and beach front was the Titanic Mardan Palace. The Mardan Palace also had the best reviews from trip advisor which is what finally sold it to us. In January I searched through various sites to see what the best deal would be for a hotel stay from the 26th of June to the 8th of July 2024 at the Titanic Mardan Palace. My search included using the following websites: On the Beach (which we have used many times before without issue), Booking.com, Trip Advisor, Trivago and Love Holidays. We chose the best deal we could get, and this was through Love Holidays, so I paid a deposit of £196 to secure a premium family room with sea or pool view. The final instalment for the holiday was due by June the 12th 2024. I paid the full remaining amount due for the holiday £7,282.25 on the 29th of April 2024 which was way ahead of the June the 12th deadline for payment and received booking confirmation that room and hotel was all booked and paid for. Ahead of our holiday and due to myself not being very good with heights I contacted Love Holidays to see if they could ensure I had a lower floor room, they advised me that I should contact the hotel. I did this and emailed the hotel with my booking reference and they replied (see email in evidence pack) saying that they had noted my request and would make notes on their system ahead of my stay. As you can imagine me and my family were so excited about this holiday and we were counting down the day’s until our trip to Turkey and stay at the Mardan Palace. The June 26th date was getting closer and closer, and I was receiving emails (see evidence pack) from Love Holidays saying only 2 weeks to go and then receiving emails saying that we only had 2 days to go. Prior to our departure date we decided to book some trips via Trip Advisor to local waterfalls, boat trip, shopping malls and old town tour which we would be collected from our hotel the Titanic Mardan Palace. These trips were exciting to us as we enjoy seeing different cultures and did not want to just stay in the hotel all the time. I received and email from Love Holidays just 2 days before and it stated on the itinerary (see evidence pack) ‘Just to let you know, your booking is unaffected by the FTI Group Insolvency’ so I did not worry and was very happy that my holiday was getting very close. The Holiday We all flew from Bristol Airport on the 26th June to Antalya airport with a 1.5 hour flight delay so instead of landing in Turkey at 9.30pm it was approx.. 11pm. I had arranged a taxi to transfer us to the Titanic Mardan Palace and we arrived at the hotel at 12pm(midnight) tired from our journey. On arrival at the hotel we were all overwhelmed by the architecture, style and décor of the hotel as it looked amazing and we were all so pleased to be there. I went to the reception and booked us in but as soon as I said my name they could not locate my booking. I showed them my booking confirmation from Love Holidays and they instructed us to go and sit outside and have a drink whilst they investigated. We sat on a lovely balcony having a drink and thinking wow this is great. About 30 minutes passed and I was called to the reception desk were the staff informed me that they could not find my booking and did not have a reservation for me, they even said to me that they thought I may have been scammed or part of this holiday company going bust (I had email saying we were not affected). Imagine my dismay, we were all tired from our travels and to be told that we did not have a booking was totally unacceptable and then to think we had been scammed and were now stranded in Turkey with no hotel or holiday. I then had to spent the next 2 hours trying to contact Love Holidays and they did in the end speak with the hotel but because it was late at night nothing could be resolved. I was informed that in order to get the problem resolved we would need to pay for a room for the night and deal with the problem in the morning when all reservation staff were available. I paid nearly £1,500 for a room on my credit card which was supposed to be our spending money whilst in Turkey. We finally got into a hotel room at 3.30am with all my family being totally stressed, worried and concerned about what was going on. We should of just been in our hotel room asleep which we had booked and looking forward to the first day of our holiday all refreshed from our travels. Instead, we were all exhausted and could not really sleep due to the stress. I was informed that I should return to the reception desk at 9am to try and sort problem out which I did following 2 hours sleep at best. The hotel informed me that they had no booking and the only room available was from 26th June to the 6th July and we could not stay there for the last 2 days of our holiday. What a nightmare this was turning into. The reception desk could not help us any further and I had to ring Love Holidays from my mobile to sort the issue out. They were speaking to the agent in Turkey and also with the hotel and said they would ring me back. Time kept on passing and we knew that the hotel room we were in needed to be vacated by 12pm as we had only paid for one night. I went to the reception desk and was informed again that no rooms were available even the ones they had mentioned before. I rang again from my mobile phone to Love Holidays and they now said we are trying to find you another hotel. This was a big kick in the teeth as we had planned our holiday around being at the Titanic Mardan Place and we had all been really looking forward to this and as mentioned before, we were all blown away when we entered the hotel and were so excited and even had trips booked from this hotel. Love Holidays finally contacted me by email to tell me that they were moving us to The Titanic Golf Belek Hotel and the only rooms available were a garden suite or a corner suite. I had looked at this hotel when first booking our holiday and was not as impressed by this one as I was with the Titanic Mardan Palace otherwise I would have booked this to start. Following a very tiring and stressful start to the holiday at least we were now being put into a hotel albeit not our chose, at least we could relax in the fact that we didn’t have to fly home which at one point we thought we were. This situation is totally unacceptable, and we should never have had to pay to stay in a hotel out of our own holiday money, we had to cancel our trips that were booked and get our money back from these and also we now did not have any spending money for our holiday. Love Holidays offered me a £300 compensation which I refused as this goes nowhere to compensate for the stress and anxiety that was caused by them. They did say they would refund my expense of the hotel room which they have done but it did not return to my account until I was back in the UK so I could not use this for spending money whilst on holiday! The Titanic Golf Belek We arrived at this hotel via taxi and on entering the hotel we could instantly see that although it was nice it was no where up to the standard of the Mardan Palace hotel. The reception greeted us and I showed them the new booking reference I had been sent and was told to wait in the bar until 3pm as this was when we could check in. We were finally given a room and taken to it with our bags at around 4pm (most of the day gone now!). The rooms we were given were next door to each other, so my children were in one room and me and my wife in another room next door. The rooms had separate small balcony’s which were not next to eachother, so we could not be together as a family. (see pictures) and the view was of some tress and a golf course. The room we had originally booked was the premium family room at the Titanic Mardan Palace which was one suite with a door between rooms and a shared balcony with either a pool view or sea view (see pictures). These rooms were not up to the standard we had booked, and we wanted to be in one suite all together as, our children are teenagers and as every teenagers at times, do not get on. We were then forced to split up again which meant me and my wife stayed in separate rooms. Due to worry of my children being in rooms on their own and us as parents not really knowing what they could be doing this including worrying they may just go out alone at night. The whole point of having a family suite was to ensure we could spend quality time together and ensure things were safe at all times. This was a special holiday, but we did not get this which completely took away any joy of spending time in the rooms. The hotel was very busy with lots of young children and to be honest we were all feeling rather deflated about our holiday as it did not meet our expectations. There was a constant reminder on various TV screens throughout the holiday of how luxurious the Titanic Mardan palace was, it felt like rubbing salt into a very open wound. The reminders was another blow to why we had chosen to book the Mardan Palace in the first place. As a family we made the best of what we had but in all of our minds every day was that we were on a holiday that we had not booked and would not have booked. We all wanted to be in the Mardan Palace and this was taken away from us and our dreams of a fantastic holiday have been shattered. We did not have any money to venture out of the hotel as our spending money had been spent on the hotel room on the first night. This meant for the whole holiday we had to stay in the hotel and could not do any of the activities, trips and tours we had planned for our holiday in Turkey. Conclusion We booked a holiday through Love Holidays which was supposed to be as mentioned at the start of this document, a very special holiday. Instead the holiday turned into a nightmare giving all of us lots of stress and anxiety affecting everyone’s mental health, from the minute we got to the Hotel we booked. We still do not know why our holiday booking at the Titanic Mardan Palace was not honoured and we have had this explained to us by Love Holidays. The hotel which were transferred to was a downgrade to what we had booked regardless of the same star ratings. Love Holidays were not very helpful with the situation and even stated in an email that the Golf Belek was a like for like Hotel with 5 stars, which yes the rating may be the same but I did my research on the Titanic Mardan Palace and this is by far a superior hotel with better Trip Advisor reviews hence why I picked it. The hotel rooms we were given were just standard rooms when we had booked and paid for a premium family room at the Titanic Mardan Palace. Our special holiday was also ruined due to the fact that the spending money for outings, trips and shopping had been taken from me as I needed to pay for my first nights stay in the hotel, I was supposed to be in. This is totally not acceptable and spoilt our whole Holiday. They have offered me £259 as compensation , what a joke.