“On holiday at Jumeirah at Saadiyat Island Resort, Abu Dhabi. Hotel was very good, except that we had booked this hotel particularly because it had a sauna, it might sound a little daft but I always make sure the hotel has a sauna whenever I go away, I really like a good sauna.
Really disappointed to learn, when we got here, that the sauna was not open it was still undergoing testing. Now I can totally understand when you build a new hotel everything will not be ready on day one, but it's really not difficult to advise customers of the fact that a service is not available BEFORE they book the hotel.
This point has been raised twice on the hotel reviews before, so the hotel did know it was causing customers some frustration. I only checked the reviews when we got here.
The first time we have booked with Virgin holidays, my wife saw your new store in Milton Keynes when out shopping, and feel really conned, don't think we can trust you to tell us the truth and that is not good. We take around five holidays a year and will be booking elsewhere else in the future.”
“Spent £10k on a family holiday. Spent first day on the floor in Newark airport with a 5 yr old. No overnight stay pointed out to us. No accommodation booked. Virgin just outsourced the whole holiday to other companies. Terrible aftersales response. I’ll never book again through Virgin. No repeat business.”
“Terrible company I will never book with them again. There planes stink there was rubbish was lying around. had so many hidden costs added on to our holiday we were told we had free car hire when booking but had to upgrade to a bigger car so that is extra you need to pay then when we arrived at the airport the car company didn’t have any cars similar to what we booked was told we can take a car that’s to small for us or upgrade we had to upgrade spend an extra £400. also there was nothing on our paperwork about paying a non refundable damage deposit for our villa at resort but we had to pay it or would have to leave resort”
“2 weeks befor your due to go on holiday and virgin first lie to you saying the hotel has overbooked and then that they use a third party who were to blame for the overbooking(
didn’t realise I was going through two third parties !). There online availability was incorrect and the Room booked was not available.
We can’t cancel as it’s now 1 week before we go ( Boxing Day) and the availability everywhere is scarce they have captured us and now we are travelling under duress.
Virgins offer is that we have to have two different rooms during our stay neither of which are the one we booked.
This has ruined our holiday before we even get their not mentioning the stress it has caused at this time of year with all the sestivity and pressures already in place I feel they have not only ruined our holiday but also our Christmas and also our daughters birthday on New Year’s Day !
We will not be able to settle for the first half of our hol knowing it’s not worth in packing because after 4 days we have to pack and move then unpack again.
There service has been awful and I’ve always respected Mr Bransons business ethics. There ethics are terrible !
We travel 4-5 times a year I can’t say I will use virgin again knowing that there systems are not trustworthy !
Be careful”
“Katie at the Trafford Center was very helpfull, as a flying club member I had always booked my holls with them and while I have no complaints about them booking while enjoying a coffee and chocolate was much more enjoyable Also she went out of her way to make sure we got the seats out to Orlando we wanted and got us Premium on the way back so we could bring more home 2 bags each instead of 1 in economy (no one has ever suggested that to us before in 18 years we have been going there)she got us the hotel we wanted and my husband the sports car he wanted to drive nothing was too much trouble AND it was cheaper than if I had done it myself
Thank you Katie Lowe and Virgin Holidays🤗🤗”
“Good Morning Virgin
Firstly to whom ever receives this email please accept my apologizes as this is not aimed at you as an individual or on a personal basis.
We booked through Virgin Holidays to go to Bali and from the start the booking was a nightmare it took over two an hours on the phone to make the booking because the CSR couldn't complete the booking because he didn't realize the
flights had to be paid up front in full.
We were then advised a few weeks before we flew that out return flight schedule had changed, we were now flying from Denpasa to Jakarta there we had a 12.5 stopover then we would fly Amsterdam have another 3 hour stopover before flying London Heathrow in to a different terminal to where our car was parked so we then had to get a train to terminal 3.
I emailed Virgin everyday and most days 2 -4 times a day from the 29th of October requesting a later flight so we would not have to be collected from the hotel at 5.25 am and have the 12.5 hour stopover at Jakarta, I had spoken to Guruda airlines and they had 5 later flights with availability and they were happy to change us to one of these they just needed Virgin to email them and re-issue the E Ticket you would have thought that would have been very simple? Instead we received an email from Ollie at Virgin saying as we had now returned home we would have to contact customer services I emailed back and asked Ollie to please read my email correctly and then reply with a suitable response as I was trying to sort out our return flights . More emails were sent and received and Virgin then said there were no later flight available a complete LIE.
We were then told we would be picked up from the hotel at 5.25 am so we got up at 4.15 am and went to reception at 5.15 am to be told there was no taxi for us and that it had been booked for 7.00 am but the text I have from the resort rep clearly states 5.25 am. ( Please see below ). The same rep was sent an email from Sam asking he / she to contact us a matter of urgency they replied with a very unprofessional response not even dealing with our request. (Please see emails below.)
We traveled 39 hours to get home and when we arrived at London Heathrow one of our suitcases was missing so we left the airport minus a suitcase.
The last few four days of our holiday were ruined as I was totally stressed out with responses we received as our requests were not even being read.
How can a company like Virgin Holidays get it so very very wrong.
Please do not fob us off with another poor response as very have received enough poor customer service from 7 individuals at Virgin Hoildays.
From Linzey Le-Luan a very unhappy customer .”
“Can't say yet as Holiday not due for three more weeks but have sent you a letter. After the poorest ever dealings with an Airline / Package Holiday agent in my 40 years of travelling the world, this is my first and last time using this organisation. I asked for a full refund as matter of courtesy but would get a cancellation charge of over £6,000!!
Listen folks, if you're travelling east stick to Cathay, Eva Air or Singapore. Stick to what you know.
I will tell you the details if this holiday takes place!! Don't hold your breathe.
What a dire organisation.
My Wife and I are not adverse to spending money on what we want on a holiday. Seems that Virgin want to sell a standard package holiday and if any deviation, such as upgrades from Economy to Business is requested then Virgin can't cope with it. Additionally, they do not read the Itinerary before emailing it to you. To this day my Itinerary is not correct and is worrying my Wife.
Poor, poor and poor.”
“My wife had serious accident a few weeks before our planned departure to Barbados, meaning that we could not travel.
The on-line brochure advised that the hotel was not suitable for persons in wheelchair.
So I contacted Virgin Holidays, explained the situation and requested that the holiday be delayed for a few weeks - happy to pay any additional costs.
But Virgin Holidays refused our request, and would only offer cancellation.
With eight weeks before departure Virgin Holidays insisted on 75% cancellation fee whereas booking conditions says 30%.
Emailed CEO of Virgin Holidays but got no help, he added that cancellation would increase to 100% if not cancelled in few days.
As very loyal customers of Virgin Holidays feel really upset at a horrendous treatment from Virgin Holidays.”
“Rubish. Booked a holliday with virgin holiday and they cancelled it by email without any kind of explanation. A total waste of time, nighmare customer service.”
“Villa in Bradenton dirty, old and dated! We spent a whole day of our holiday finding alternative accomodation. As it was August we had to book 2 hotels and split our family up. We did get s whole refund in the end. Lots of inconvenience not yo mention disappointment! Yes we’ve complained to be fobbed off. Its obvious the letter was not checked as a sentence does not even make sense 😡
Also made to feel very uneasy by a passenger stood by the exit next to our seat putting his teffyln on. No, we had no idea what this was and it looked very suspicious! Staff should have asked him to return to his seat.”
“Went to pay for my holiday in the metro centre branch Gateshead not the one in Debenhams that lady was really nice in there but the other in metro centre Won’t accept cash as payment what the monkeys I’m very disappointed with yous virgin”
“Hope Virgin Holidays read the Daily Mirrors article (see below link)and understand what a terrible hotel the memories Varadero Cuba was, staff were rude, you couldn't use the facilities incase you caught some disease as they were messy with other people faeces all over the lobby toilets, i showed them all the pictures and videos i have and i also complained to the virgin Rep on resort upon meeting him the following day but they wasn't interested but why would they be, I'm no celeb or Richard Branson himself, they sold us a pig in a poke of a holiday, 4 star my arse, it was a joke and I'm never booking through them again. If anyone wants to view my news paper article just look up on the daily mirrors wed page.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/.../brit-couples-fury-over...”
“We have not got anywhere yet !needed 5 days extra to pay Paid all monies but £500 Was told by store no problem great all pay days in Got voicemail while at work to call. My husband called not a chance for 5 days as we don’t meet criteria What criteria she could not answer we paid on day We are very disappointed and hope holiday is ok Won’t use again so another tour operator will get our £5000 Disgusted”
“Would never book with them again.Hotel not as advertised. Poor hygiene so many complaints. Complained in resort and on return. Once they have your money don’t care. Rotten customer service,”
“Went on The Taste of China tour.
The tour was excellent and most hotels good.
Only issue for me was that the tips should be charged upfront. Either by Virgin or by the tour guide on arrival. Its not fair to have to worry about tipping different drivers and guides when your up at 5am in the morning to leave to a different location. Get it out of the way and let us enjoy our holiday.”
“Virgin Holidays - NEVER AGAIN !
We booked a holiday of 4 in March 2018 in Cuba and paid almost 11k for 2 weeks on all inclusive. Also premium class in the plane. The staff in the plane could not give a monkeys about us, on the return flight had to ask 2-3 times for drinks.
Resort (accommodation and food) was below average and local Rep (Vladimir) proved to be very untrustworthy. We landed in Havana and Virgin advertised as a max 2 hours transfer. It was actually more like 3 hours. Toilets and lights in our room not working upon arrival and had to wait for an hour.
Booked a romantic cruise dinner for 4 which got cancelled twice due to weather and a refund was promised and we were even give a refund credit card slip. It took almost a month and a half to get our money back, dozens of calls, web chats and emails which mostly remained unanswered.
We thought we would give Virgin a go but never again. Once they get your money this is where Customer Service stops.”
“No service was booked between resorts so we were assured that we should get a cab and Virgin would reimburse us. 5 emails sent to no reply, called - apparently, its being sorted, but we've been back 3 months and nothing!
Useless customer service!”
“Product/holiday titled as Cape, Kruger & Falls. Never informed at point of sale that there was 2 itineries. Natually assumed we were allocated to the accommodations advertised on the website / brochure, which was confirmed 2 days later after booking 10 months ahead. Established following final payment that all 4 accommodations had been changed, apparently we had always been allocated to these itinerary 2 accomodations. Research indicated 2 of them were lower ratings and also we were allocated some 50 kms from the Kruger NP. Pre holiday raised complaint with ABTA and received compensation for VH miss marking and miss selling. Post holiday, have raised another complaint regarding itinerary timings leading to missed inclusive tours and turning up at 1 of the hotels only to find our booking had been made for the same date but for the previous month.
In summary Virgin "Howler" Holidays obviously outsource to suppliers and undertake NO due diligence checks. Their South Africa supplier Thompson SA think they can just cut and paste between their itineries 1 & 2 without auditing whether the changes seriously impact inclusive tour events.
WILL NEVER USE VIRGIN HOLIDAYS AGAIN”
