Some travel companies seem to be using to force parents to pay a premium is by charging MORE for children than they do for adults. Website HolidayPirates have got some operators rumbled and have shown that some parents are being hoodwinked into paying premium by charging them MORE for children than they do for adults. In one case, they found that a holiday was being sold as £245 per person (including all extras for the school holidays), but the holiday is based on four adults sharing. However, if you swap two adults for two kids – for the same flights, same hotel, same everything – the price goes up to £344 each. Some tour operators will tinker with prices dependant on the child’s age. If you book one holiday for a family of four (two adults, one infant and one child aged 12) and one for exactly the same sized family but with the child being 13 (two adults, one infant, one child aged 13), you’ll see a big hike in the price of £133 each. http://www.holidaypirates.com/others/three-ways-tour-operators-are-ripping-off-families

Hello, I paid for a holiday package for four people for a sum just over £20,000 - this was supposed to be a highly deluxe holiday, however turned out to be not as thought. In summary; £20,000 was agreed The tour operator added £1,500 a day before the holiday explaining that you would have to pay this or face cancellation I have evidence of the rooms we received in photograph and video form He has admitted various regulation failures on the PH/PTR 1992 He simply says he has the proof that he did book the hotels, however I know he did not pay for them or reserved them for someone else, he takes great confidence in this but never provided us reference numbers The reference numbers on the itinerary were his own, he justified this as saying he keeps the original information (again admitted in letter). I also took a picture of an email the hotel staff showed me, where he books a room a few hours before arrival, the email name is the same as the reference number on the itinerary, but none of the hotel codes meant anything on his itinerary. He put this down to their error, giving us below standard economy rooms, even though we were promised the top rooms, and then refuses to make up the difference in compensation. I gave him every opportunity to resolve our complaints but he simply said pay the 1500 or face court action, he has now issued a claim and his evidence is one paragraph of gobbledegook. I have now issued a counter claim for £10,000. Solicitors so far are asking for £3,000 on account, meaning they can't be bothered looking until they are guaranteed something, and one solicitor confirmed the case has prospects following the PTR and SoGA (Sales of Goods Act) for not taking due care. Trading Standards are assisting, though this is not conclusive at this time, and would not provide any benefit for the claim (as far as I know). So, does anyone have any tips or experience in dealing with this? This tour operator has acted very badly and really has abused us.