Bulgaria Ski discussion board

We have booked with Inghams today-going to Borovets on 25 Feb and staying in 2 twin rooms (2 adults in one room/1 adult and 1 child in second room) 7 nts at the Rila Hotel, half board and also booked ski packs including skis, lift pass and lessons for 6 days for everyone. The total price was only £412.30 per person! (this also included a £29 p/p flight sup because there were only flights out of Heathrow left and we needed to pay a supplement to fly with BA)

I ended up phoning Inghams, because I noticed there was a 2 for 1 deal on the ski packs (normally £195 per adult and £135 per child) if you stay at the Rila for the dates we were going and I couldn't book this on-line for some reason. (when I looked closely at the quote, it didn't calculate this) Also when I did a quote for 2 adults in a twin room it gave me a LOWER price than when I did a quote for 1 child and 1 adult in a twin room.

When I rang, the Inghams reservation staff were really helpful- they gave me all the "internet discounts" on the phone (there were 2 different ones), there was also a £25 "cash back" per person (I don't know why, but who cares) and they also gave me the same special offer discount for the child (£240) as they gave for each of the adults (and on top of that, they still gave me the higher "internet discount" for the child, even though we were now getting the £240 adult discount) and they also booked the 2 for 1 ski packs. (got £195 off for the pair of adults in the first room and the cheaper £135 child rate off for the one adult/1 child in the second room)

If I would have booked on line without looking carefully, I would have paid £570 more for the holiday in total. Or more correctly, I wouldn't have booked the holiday with them at all, as I would have been able to get cheaper elsewhere!

The bottome line- I think the Inghams on line booking system can't keep up with the complicated discounts they were offering, especially as these probably can change daily.

So my advice to anyone would be to be aware of the discounts available and read the small print on the resort/hotel pages of the operators internet sites regarding offers-also, it's probably worth giving any operator a phone call and say you're having difficulty booking on line and see what they come up with- go armed with info (e.g I said to them it makes no sense for a child and adult in a twin room to pay more than 2 adults in a twin room and I also said it wasn't my fault that I couldn't book the 2 for 1 ski packs on line and it clearly said on Ingham's Hotel Rila page it was available for the date I was trying to book)

Well good luck everyone with getting the best deals this year!! I am more than happy with ours- it was a bit long winded to get it sorted, but worth it in the end!!

C