“Stay away , don’t waste your time. I have booked holiday for may 2024 , same issue I can see many customers have with this operator , my booking went in pending to be confirmed in max 48 hours. After the 48 hours has expired I went on the phone with customer service (80 minutes waiting time to get to them! Unbelievable ! ) and a “gentlemen” had explained to me as following; the option we choose for the hotel is not available anymore but they can ofer us something very similar for only 120-130£ extra each , also the flight price went up ! Not much only 15-20£ each person each way… 😅 just some clowns they try to rip off peoples money”
“Booked with OTB on Monday 29th Jan, received automatic response they will get back within 48 hours
Its now Wednesday I called i'm number 45, I nearly dropped the phone in shock waited until I was no 35 then hung up
It's now Thursday I called i'm number 76, didn't bother wait.
It's now Friday 2.2.2024 writing this review”
“Booked 5 different holidays and had all 5 cancelled..how can this happen..
Then get a message telling me to ring you when it clearly states you will ring me...
Spent absolutely hours trying to get in touch with no luck whatsoever really bad company and customer service..”
“STOP USING "IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR" AS YOUR ADVERT SONG!!! IT'S NOT CHRISTMAS ANYMORE AND WE DON'T NEED REMINDING ABOUT IT 24/7!!!
AND NO, REMIXING IT IN THE SUMMER DOESN'T CHANGE THAT FACT!!”
“First time used - booked a hol for next year for family celebrations and already hit issues - booked a hol that wasnt available, had a call from a rude Customer Service Rep - Andy! who basically said find somewhere else or cancel, spent over 2hrs on a call to a Manchester number to re book at more cost (customer support more professional and helpful than earlier person) - others in group received £50 discount voucher due to inconvenience - we didnt! Mentioned holiday still available to book - told updates are needed & changes when comes through - we had a few families still booking an unavailable holiday. Now read there are issues when trying to book your flight with Ryanair - which you pay for as part of the booking - not even here and dreading what I have done - May become an expensive lesson learnt”
“Awful, awful, awful. Lied about the booking, stole my money when I complained, tried to charge me £150 to cancel, their rep on the phone repeated 'Too late now mate' and then hung up on me. TUI I will never cheat on you again.”
“Absolutely Disgusting Company as previous reviews are also stating. I am currently waiting on a solution from them. Generic emails, non existing telephone customer care, if you have a spare two hours to wait to be answered, I hung up. Infuriating and Disgusting Company. Will now approach ATOL and BBC to Highlight this Company's failings.”
“I urge everyone to be cautious with On The Beach.
I 'booked' a holiday with them last week, or so I thought, only for the experience to give me nothing but frustration and stress. I shall not be using them again.
Communication has been a shambles. The company took my money only to then tell me 5 days later that my booking would not be available, thus causing more expense as availability lessened and prices got higher. There was no advance warning when booking that there would be a wait for confirmation and prices would therefore not be guaranteed. This is a scamming practice. What kind of travel agent in this day and age doesn't have live up-to-date access to availability for bookings?
Communication given from the website or from staff via telephone was either misleading or false. Three times I called the company, each with a long wait between 45 - 75 minutes just on hold (and on one occasion suddenly getting cut off), and information given from staff just didn't add up or give me any confidence that they were in control. Once things started to look fishy there was no way for me to cancel my 'pending booking' online , nor an effective way to get in touch with them, but yet they still had taken my money.
Just looking at recent reviews from customers with similar bad reports is alarming. Allowing customers to book a package holiday, where they select preferred flights, but then later informing them to book their own flights?? With a prepaid credit card number given that often doesn't work, and having to use a weird unique gobbledegook
email address that isn't the customer's own? It's all so dodgy.
Voicing my complaint and concerns on their Facebook page in one single post, in a constructive and mature manner, has had me blocked from the group. What does this tell you?
And the scammers that are targeting worried customers concerns with the fake whatsapp number thats all over their social media posts is still going unchallenged by On The Beach.
I am now left in a position of finding On The Beach untrustworthy, and anxious over if my holiday will have problems that will leave me unsecure or out of pocket at last minute whilst abroad.
Very shocking.”
“Booked with OTB expected the process to be easy but wasn't made aware when booking that we would have to book our own flights the voucher didn't work phoned customer service waited over an hour for phone to be answered the customer service person said she could book the flight for us assured us that we'd get confirmation within 24 hour STILL waiting for confirmation 48 hours later Don't understand why”
“Booked a straight forward flight and hotel with OTB. They cannot book the flights so had to do it myself using the OTB 'virtual credit card'. This was declined by Ryanair. Called OTB and cut off after 38 minutes. Tried again going from 27th in queue to 1st in 35 minutes only to be cut off. Third time lucky, got through and they apparently paid for the flights there and then, all done...NO! Flight now appearing on Ryanair but cannot access so, called Ryanair. Yes, I was validated but the OTB payment had been declined (AGAIN!) so no flights were booked. Decided to book my own flights and all done in a few minutes with confirmation from Ryanair. Back onto OTB, 3 calls (2 cut off around 40 minute mark) and almost 2 hours later (and these calls are around 16p PER MINUTE) spoke to someone to get a refund on the money I had paid to OTB for the flights they were supposed to have paid for. Cut off after 1 minute. Then received email from OTB saying the flights they had booked were fine and paid for and to cancel the flights I had booked. I still cannot access this booking on Ryanair so will be keeping the flights I have booked myself. Hours spent, a pile of unexpected stress when I could have done the whole thing myself, direct, in 10 minutes. Absolute nightmare!”
“I have booked 4 separate holidays with on the beach to different destinations and received an email for all 4 holidays saying sorry things didn't work out this time and cancelled them all the company and customer service is absolutely rubbish and obviously advertising holidays they haven't got.dont waste your time.”
“Their ridiculous system allows you to book unavailable holidays. They then tell you to contact them - waiting times generally over an hour at 13p per minute (nice little scam). They refer to their “Beach Experts” - I suggest Beach Bu**”. Avericious, chaotic and immoral is way too complimentary.”
“Don’t book with this company they totally rip you of and u have no way of contacting anyone with any common sense. Iv had two holidays ruined by them and there is no way of solving it. AVOID THEM.”
“An operator to avoid.
This online travel agency is a big scam.
Firstly, when I booked the package (Flight + Hotel) on September 5, 2023, the agreement was to pay the full amount over 4 months (October, November, December and January) but last December I realised that They planned two payments in the same month of December. I had to call to delay the second payment for December until early January. They agreed but of course they charged me £10 for it. Despite this agreement which cost me £10, on December 27 they made a second direct debit for the month of December. This direct debit was declined by my bank for insufficient balance and which cost me £10 in bank fees.
Secondly, after paying in full for my vacation booked on September 5, 2023, they inform me at the last minute that the hotel will be closed and they force me to cancel my vacation instead of finding another hotel similar to my initial hotel. So I was forced to cancel my vacation booked 4 months ago and I have to wait another 7 days for them to refund me the full amount already paid. That means my January 2024 vacation is ruined. In addition, they made fun of me by asking me to cancel and rebook with another operator knowing that at the last minute it is too late and impossible to find a similar stay at the same price for September 2023.
They didn't even offer me any commercial gesture or compensation for all these costs and time wasted for nothing.
I strongly advise against this operator because they do not respect these commitments to customers and because of their unprofessional and poor customer service.
Better to pay a little more with another more serious and professional operator in order to avoid these last minute inconveniences and find yourself without a hotel or flight at the last minute and you will be forced to cancel your vacation. This was my case.
In order to obtain compensation for my damage, I decided to initiate the procedure with the ombudsman.
Below is a copy of one of these responses to my complaint:
We can offer full refund for your booking including your flights and you can look to rebook through another operator>
Kind Regards
On the Beach”
“What an awful company. They have no integrity. Don't trust your family in their hands. Booked a taxi 3 months before we went on holiday. Cancelled just days later and were charged the full price. Complete thieves.”
“Me and my family booked a holiday to benidorm for next October .My daughters partner unfortunitly died this November Ive tried loads of times to cancel the holiday sent them the death certificate they have been no help whats so ever we are all grieving the loss of jamie and shouldn't have this hassle to cancel the holiday so absolutely disgusting”
“Hate this horrible filthy arrogant company..
To summarise..
Our friends and I paid this stinking company £140 odd pound each deposit.
Unfortunately one of our group passed away..
Now they have been sending threatening letters asking for the payments for the flights..!!!
Not one mention of the person that recently died.
They are never getting a penny from us..!!
DO NOT EVER BOOK WITH THIS AMATEUR OUTFIT.
Cold,Callous, Rude and totally unprofessional…
WE HOPE THEY GO UNDER..
The sooner the better…!!!”
“I have booked an holiday with them, and they have provided me with some information for Ryanair, but Ryanair charged me £230 to make the check in.
on the beach is just taking your money and wouldn't support you or give you the write instruction.
I have also booked for the transfers to be 4 stops maximin, but it was 20 stops on the going and return.
sure i wouldn't' use them again.”
“First time using On the Beach in September 2023, paid for transfers to and from hotel in my package to Tenerife the pick up on return trip didn't happen despite following all guidance inc the hotel and English rep advise. Had to pay for a taxi almost missed flight waiting for the pick up from hotel. Never turned up. Appalling service from Sarah at On the Beach lots of lies and contradicting. Then still awaiting for complaint resolution over the specified 28 in complaint email. Latest email from Tanya (no surname or ref) today 20th Oct. Still no resolution even with clear evidence provided.
Now second trip using On the Beach to Lloret De Mar loads of hidden fees getting on to the plane and now getting ready to return home. Second complaint being logged upon my arrival.
That's twice using the same company On the Beach more fool me after the first disaster using them.
Basically from my personal experience I'd say not to use this company and use someone else which is exactly what I shall do on my next holiday.
Dissapointed and confused as to why they sit at excellent on here?
Appalling service all round on each of my two holidays using this company.”
