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Paying taxes and resort charges on prize accommodation

posted 19-11-2012 @ 08:07 PM www
Paying taxes and resort charges on prize accommodation

Just wondering if anyone has ever had to pay taxes and resort charges on accommodation (in USA) on prize accommodation?
We are currently trying to book our trip to Hawaii won through Moccona and are finding it extremely difficult, the travel agent will only allow direct flights from Brisbane to Honolulu (which only go 3 days a week) as they have to be with Hawaiian airlines and if we need to go via Sydney we have to pay to get to Sydney (we are already paying to get the 1000km to Brisbane) and now today I asked about the taxes and resort charges on the accommodation and she says we have to pay those aswell, the resort charge is $26 US per day and taxes vary depending when you travel.

When my husband mentioned the prize is worth UPTO $6950 (we are fully aware it is upto and not at $6950 and what the difference in the wording is) but so far they are spending $5000 and he was told they work to a budget to get their share !! We have had another travel agent say this before and I`m just wondering how often it happens that the travel agent takes their share of the prize.
posted 19-11-2012 @ 08:15 PM www


Talk to the promoter i.e. Moccona about the problems. Just go over their heads. Not good enough.



posted 19-11-2012 @ 08:19 PM www


Quote:
Originally posted by kismet
Talk to the promoter i.e. Moccona about the problems. Just go over their heads. Not good enough.


We phoned the woman who sent the winning letter and she said I don`t understand what the terms and conditions mean and what you mean about codeshare flights from Brisbane - Sydney - Honolulu. It is seriously frustrating. They generously offered us a 20% discount on travel insurance which brought it down to just under $400 !!! I think I will be getting my own travel insurance LOL !!
posted 19-11-2012 @ 08:20 PM www


Quote:
Originally posted by cleanup
Quote:
Originally posted by kismet
Talk to the promoter i.e. Moccona about the problems. Just go over their heads. Not good enough.


We phoned the woman who sent the winning letter and she said I don`t understand what the terms and conditions mean and what you mean about codeshare flights from Brisbane - Sydney - Honolulu. It is seriously frustrating. They generously offered us a 20% discount on travel insurance which brought it down to just under $400 !!! I think I will be getting my own travel insurance LOL !!


Ask to speak to some-one else then...her boss.




posted 19-11-2012 @ 08:29 PM www


http://www.lottos.com.au/competitions/viewthreadlite.php?tid...


21. Major Prize Draw: The first twenty [20] valid entries drawn in the Major Prize Draw
will each win a trip for two [2] adults to Hawaii, USA valued at up to AU$6,950.00
depending on date and point of departure. Prize includes return economy airfares
(including airfare taxes) from winner’s nearest Australian capital city to Honolulu,
Hawaii, (including return private transfers from airport to accommodation) and five [5]
nights twin share accommodation at the Sheraton Waikiki. Spending money, meals,
additional taxes (excluding airline and airport taxes), insurance, passports, visas,
vaccinations, transport from departure point, transfers, items of a personal nature, inroom
charges and all other ancillary costs are not included. Prize must be taken by
30/06/13. Block out periods apply from 20/06/12 until the 10/08/12 and from the
15/12/ 12 until the 15/01/13, winners and their companion must obtain a USA visa
waiver prior to departure at their own expense.


it doesnt seem to mention any resort tax but does say ADDITIONAL TAXES (excluding airport and airline taxes )




When the world says give up

HOPE WHISPERS

try it one more time.......
posted 19-11-2012 @ 08:44 PM www


Quote:
Originally posted by enchantedspirit
http://www.lottos.com.au/competitions/viewthreadlite.php?tid...


21. Major Prize Draw: The first twenty [20] valid entries drawn in the Major Prize Draw
will each win a trip for two [2] adults to Hawaii, USA valued at up to AU$6,950.00
depending on date and point of departure. Prize includes return economy airfares
(including airfare taxes) from winner’s nearest Australian capital city to Honolulu,
Hawaii, (including return private transfers from airport to accommodation) and five [5]
nights twin share accommodation at the Sheraton Waikiki. Spending money, meals,
additional taxes (excluding airline and airport taxes), insurance, passports, visas,
vaccinations, transport from departure point, transfers, items of a personal nature, inroom
charges and all other ancillary costs are not included. Prize must be taken by
30/06/13. Block out periods apply from 20/06/12 until the 10/08/12 and from the
15/12/ 12 until the 15/01/13, winners and their companion must obtain a USA visa
waiver prior to departure at their own expense.


it doesnt seem to mention any resort tax but does say ADDITIONAL TAXES (excluding airport and airline taxes )


The resort fee is not a tax it`s a fee to cover extra`s, there is no choice you just have to pay it. The taxes are around $25 extra a day so all up over $50 a day.

RESORT CHARGE



Starwood Hotels & Resorts in Waikiki now charges a daily Resort Charge posted to each guestroom to offer our guests an array of generous amenities and services for a nominal all-inclusive fee.

The Sheraton Waikiki includes the following benefits and amenities to guests for this charge:

•Wireless internet access in guest room
•Self-parking for one (1) vehicle (Valet Parking for a nominal fee)
•Unlimited local and 1-800 telephone calls
•Up to 60 minutes of long distance and international telephone calls per day (cumulative both domestic and international phone calls per day, unable to carry over)
•1 Liter of Bottled Water replenished daily (based on usage)
•Adult Pool Floats (Orange bean bag adult pool floats on a first come basis)
•Use of MP3 player featuring Hawaiian music, Portable DVD player with 8" screen, and selected, newly-released Movies will be available at the pool on a first come basis. Guests can sign out for them. If not returned, they will be charged
•Fitness Classes
•Resort Cultural Classes (Ukulele Lessons, Lei Making, Hula Lessons)
•Collections of Waikiki coupons
•Children 12 & under eat for free from Children’s Menu in designated dining outlets with paying adult. One paying adult for one child
•Free 4x6 photo per room per stay through Photo Events Solutions

This charge will be billed directly to all guests at a Daily Rate of $26.18 tax inclusive, per room per day. RESORT CHARGE RATE AND INCLUSIONS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
posted 19-11-2012 @ 08:50 PM www


With their budget all that should be covered.



posted 19-11-2012 @ 08:57 PM www


Resort fees - what a rort! Those things should be pay as you need as most are not what you want!
posted 19-11-2012 @ 08:59 PM www


The terms and conditions say from nearest Australian Capital City, so why isn't the travel agent covering from Sydney to Brisbane if the flight only goes direct from Brisbane?
posted 19-11-2012 @ 09:04 PM www


Quote:
Originally posted by compson
The terms and conditions say from nearest Australian Capital City, so why isn't the travel agent covering from Sydney to Brisbane if the flight only goes direct from Brisbane?


She says Brisbane - Sydney - Honolulu is not from our nearest capital city it is from Sydeny which is not our capital city so we have to pay.

They only start the direct flights from Brisbane to Honolulu on the 26th of November so who knows what would have happened if we said we wanted to go before then. Also they only fly out of sydney and after the 26th Brisbane so how do people who live in Hobart, Adelaide, WA, Darwin etc etc go are they supposed to get themselves to Brisbane or Sydney?
posted 19-11-2012 @ 10:12 PM www


Is Brisbane your nearest capital city? If so, then that is within the terms and the cheapest option for them.

I would argue the resort charge is part of the accommodation and therefore should be paid by them. Don't refer to it as a tax:P

Gee winning prizes gets difficult!:spin:
posted 19-11-2012 @ 10:21 PM www


Quote:
Originally posted by ReallyAddicted
Is Brisbane your nearest capital city? If so, then that is within the terms and the cheapest option for them.

I would argue the resort charge is part of the accommodation and therefore should be paid by them. Don't refer to it as a tax:P

Gee winning prizes gets difficult!:spin:


Yes Brisbane is my capital city, the problem is the flights don`t fly direct every day only every second day so trying to get one there and back is not easy we either have to pay for an extra night or pay to get to Sydney.
posted 19-11-2012 @ 10:37 PM www


I rarely enter international holiday comps. I won one once and it cost me thousands to take the prize. I would have had to travel 3 full days with kids before I had the accommodation part which was in rural England so I had to pay for stop over accommodation. I had similar issues with 'nearest capital city'. They couldn't get flights direct from Brisbane so I had to pay to get from Townsville to Sydney at my own expense. I was happy to pay from TSV to Brisbane (my nearest capital city) and I thought they should have paid from flights from Brisbane onwards but they refused. Instead I also had to pay to get from my nearest capital city to the nearest departing city.
posted 20-11-2012 @ 08:49 AM www


Quote:
Originally posted by Lesley73
I rarely enter international holiday comps. I won one once and it cost me thousands to take the prize. I would have had to travel 3 full days with kids before I had the accommodation part which was in rural England so I had to pay for stop over accommodation. I had similar issues with 'nearest capital city'. They couldn't get flights direct from Brisbane so I had to pay to get from Townsville to Sydney at my own expense. I was happy to pay from TSV to Brisbane (my nearest capital city) and I thought they should have paid from flights from Brisbane onwards but they refused. Instead I also had to pay to get from my nearest capital city to the nearest departing city.


Who was your trip booked through Lesley73 ?

I think lottos members have complained before about the company I am dealing with.
posted 20-11-2012 @ 09:41 AM www


Oh for the good old days when most holiday prize expenses were included and stress free, now everything is nickled and dimed!
posted 20-11-2012 @ 09:57 AM www


Cleanup, are you dealing with a travel agent face to face, or online with Free2 travel? I won a trip to Fiji in the previous Moccona comp and all arrangements were done via email. They could not have been more helpful. They allowed us to extend our stay (even got us a deal) and were more than happy for our son to come along (at his expense of course) Doing it by email wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be. Perhaps phone them, there must be someone who can help you.
posted 20-11-2012 @ 10:15 AM www


Quote:
Originally posted by cleanup
Quote:
Originally posted by Lesley73
I rarely enter international holiday comps. I won one once and it cost me thousands to take the prize. I would have had to travel 3 full days with kids before I had the accommodation part which was in rural England so I had to pay for stop over accommodation. I had similar issues with 'nearest capital city'. They couldn't get flights direct from Brisbane so I had to pay to get from Townsville to Sydney at my own expense. I was happy to pay from TSV to Brisbane (my nearest capital city) and I thought they should have paid from flights from Brisbane onwards but they refused. Instead I also had to pay to get from my nearest capital city to the nearest departing city.


Who was your trip booked through Lesley73 ?

I think lottos members have complained before about the company I am dealing with.


I honestly cannot remember who I dealt with. It was 5 years ago now. But it taught me a valuable lessons about reading T&C on what was included in holiday comps. I don't enter many now as a result. I am now a single mum and couldn't afford to go on most prize holidays because of all the extra costs involved.
posted 20-11-2012 @ 12:18 PM www


Quote:
Originally posted by karbeg
Cleanup, are you dealing with a travel agent face to face, or online with Free2 travel? I won a trip to Fiji in the previous Moccona comp and all arrangements were done via email. They could not have been more helpful. They allowed us to extend our stay (even got us a deal) and were more than happy for our son to come along (at his expense of course) Doing it by email wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be. Perhaps phone them, there must be someone who can help you.


Free 2 travel via email, tried via phone they are not interested all they seem to care about is THEIR budget not what the prize is worth. We have won from them before also and had one good experience and one bad experience.
posted 20-11-2012 @ 12:27 PM www


I also had my trip organised by Free 2 Travel, Natasha couldn't have been more helpful, hope things work out for you!
posted 20-11-2012 @ 12:41 PM www


Yeah....holiday wins do not always run smoothly I've discovered! I've had two wonderfully organised trips domestically.....seamless! Another one I won to Dunk Island was a bit more effort to organise but ended up great and then there is the overseas holiday win I won earlier this year! Big headache! First I had real issues trying to get Kumuka to book my holiday....had to drag promoter in to get things moving! Then I had to deal with 3 T&C's......2 given to me after the prize was won and they were not consistent! Finally got everything booked and then Kumuka went belly up! They hadn't paid for the accommodation and the promoter had to get someone else involved in the promotion to pay for it! Which they did! Thank you Roadshow! Everything finally sorted but I'm a tad nervous as I have no travel agent and am hoping everything goes smoothly as basically I have to do the confirming myself......I do have all the tickets and bookings etc though! All I want to say is thank god we picked the holiday we did as it just involved flights to Austria and 6 nights accommodation at a hotel......all the other holiday options (I had 4 to chose from) had a tour involved and who knows what would have happened there? as Kumuka no doubt would have been running the tours and they have gone belly up!

Anyway, headache over, I have everything paid for and no out of pocket expenses for the holiday I won.....we are just paying for some additional nights and train travel to 3 cities while there organised with another travel agent ourselves......just a headache to get there in the end! If everything runs smoothly, I'll be sending the promoter a basket of goodies coz he has been fantastic! without him, I seriously doubt this holiday would have gone ahead!

While I am really grateful for the holiday win....so looking forward to it!!!! it is disappointing to have to deal with loads of issues getting it booked....it does dampen your excitment about your win for awhile.....but am sure we will have a fab once in a lifetime holiday and will forget all about the issues to get there!
posted 20-11-2012 @ 01:19 PM www


Quote:
Originally posted by Cheshire_Cat
Yeah....holiday wins do not always run smoothly I've discovered! I've had two wonderfully organised trips domestically.....seamless! Another one I won to Dunk Island was a bit more effort to organise but ended up great and then there is the overseas holiday win I won earlier this year! Big headache! First I had real issues trying to get Kumuka to book my holiday....had to drag promoter in to get things moving! Then I had to deal with 3 T&C's......2 given to me after the prize was won and they were not consistent! Finally got everything booked and then Kumuka went belly up! They hadn't paid for the accommodation and the promoter had to get someone else involved in the promotion to pay for it! Which they did! Thank you Roadshow! Everything finally sorted but I'm a tad nervous as I have no travel agent and am hoping everything goes smoothly as basically I have to do the confirming myself......I do have all the tickets and bookings etc though! All I want to say is thank god we picked the holiday we did as it just involved flights to Austria and 6 nights accommodation at a hotel......all the other holiday options (I had 4 to chose from) had a tour involved and who knows what would have happened there? as Kumuka no doubt would have been running the tours and they have gone belly up!

Anyway, headache over, I have everything paid for and no out of pocket expenses for the holiday I won.....we are just paying for some additional nights and train travel to 3 cities while there organised with another travel agent ourselves......just a headache to get there in the end! If everything runs smoothly, I'll be sending the promoter a basket of goodies coz he has been fantastic! without him, I seriously doubt this holiday would have gone ahead!

While I am really grateful for the holiday win....so looking forward to it!!!! it is disappointing to have to deal with loads of issues getting it booked....it does dampen your excitment about your win for awhile.....but am sure we will have a fab once in a lifetime holiday and will forget all about the issues to get there!


I hope you have a great time after all your drama.

I wish companies would offer a holiday of your choice so you could go into say Flight Centre or online at Webjet etc etc and if it`s valued at say $7000 and you spend $5000 you get the other $2000 for spending money. I would really enjoy choosing a holiday then.

Anyhow I can only hope I have a cash win between now and when we go to pay for it all, it`s been a bad week for things going wrong/costing us money and I probably wouldn`t have even been looking at booking it except my husbands family were pushing for dates when we were going so they could meet up in Brisbane afterwards, it probably wouldn`t have seemed so bad if I didn`t have everything else to deal with.
posted 20-11-2012 @ 02:05 PM www


Sorry you are having problems. Personally I'd just be happy to win a holiday! Then I may have some advice to offer. Living in hope!:yes::yes:
posted 20-11-2012 @ 02:48 PM www


Several years ago, I had real problems with Free 2 Travel with a luxury Tassie holiday worth $7,800 and not UP TO, it also had $2000 spending money. The agent made up an itinerary I did not ask for and which I had priced by 2 other travel companies, it came to around $3,300, less than half the prize value. Talk about making a profit

I called the promoter who told me to make up my dream itinerary and faxed me a letter to send to the travel agency stating I could spend the entire amount which I did, they were not happy and tried to withold the spending money
, they released it very quickly after the promoter (who was absolutely fantastic) got stuck into them. I hada really amazing time, but FREE 2 TRAVEL are on my blacklist
posted 21-11-2012 @ 09:54 AM www


Sounds like a bit of a first world problem, I would just pay it ... most people would kill to win a trip like that
posted 21-11-2012 @ 10:25 AM www


Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with them but I won a travel voucher from Free 2 Travel earlier last year and found them fantastic to work with. They even let me transfer it to my son and communication was regular and prompt ensuring my son's trip went smoothly. Everything was covered by the voucher, flights, taxes, accommodation, insurance, side trips. They were excellent to deal with for us.
Quote:
Originally posted by gayleforce
Several years ago, I had real problems with Free 2 Travel with a luxury Tassie holiday worth $7,800 and not UP TO, it also had $2000 spending money. The agent made up an itinerary I did not ask for and which I had priced by 2 other travel companies, it came to around $3,300, less than half the prize value. Talk about making a profit

I called the promoter who told me to make up my dream itinerary and faxed me a letter to send to the travel agency stating I could spend the entire amount which I did, they were not happy and tried to withold the spending money
, they released it very quickly after the promoter (who was absolutely fantastic) got stuck into them. I hada really amazing time, but FREE 2 TRAVEL are on my blacklist




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