Alpha rooms and On the Beach agencies Avoid like the plague

I just wanted to warn travelers about these two companies.

DO NOT BOOK THROUGH THESE COMPANIES, WHEN ANYTHING GOES WRONG THEIR PAT ANSWER IS
YOUR CONTRACT IS NOT WITH US BUT WITH THE HOTEL.

Jan this year I booked two hotels in the Sharm el sheikh resort in Egypt
When we arrived at 10.30 pm we found the first hotel was closed, security told us it had been closed some months.
We tried the second hotel thinking we could add on the additional days and again security told us the hotel was closed.

We could have found our selves in a potentially serious safety situation thankfully our taxi driver interpreted for us with the security people and we found a sister hotel where we stayed for the night.

When I contacted the companies the following day, both companies said they did not know the hotels were closed, the hotels hadn't informed them and my contract was not with them and I should take the complaint up with the hotel concerned.

Now wouldn't you think that these companies who are selling beds would ensure that the hotels are at least open.

My husband and I are seasoned travelers we spend at least 3 months a year traveling but I have learned something from this experience and that is to check with the hotels first to make sure they at least exist before parting with my hard earned money.

Pass on this information, I wouldn't want anyone to find themselves in the same situation

Travel safe

A seasoned traveller would know that all third party booking sites are ONLY booking sites. They do NOT 'sell beds' as you put it. All they do is provided a place for someone who does not want to take the time to contact hotels directly, to seemingly find a lot of hotels they can book with, in one place. Third party sites are simply parasites making money of the laziness of those using such sites.

My advice for your future travels is to learn from this that if you involve a middle man, you leave yourself in the position of being given the well known old ploy used by the auto industry for many decades. In their case it is, 'it isn't the wheel, it is the tire' and of course the tire industry replies, 'it isn't the tire, it's the wheel.' If you want to avoid this you eliminate middle men. You book with a hotel, an airline or anything else, DIRECTLY.

Your comment re the 'pat' answer would apply to any third party website you care to name. Possibly the most well known users of that pat answer at the moment are Airbnb and Uber. Both use that line to deny any responsibility for what anyone using their 'service' does.