“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.”
“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,”
“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”
“Virgin Scum are shockingly bad HOW MANY BAD REVEWS WILL IT TAKE
Virgin are shockingly bad. They are utterly disgraceful They will cancel anything you buy at full price and tell you take it or leave it They don't care about you at all once they have your money.. Utterly disgraceful no one there cares once they have your money You won't get it back BEWARE
I had to add they are like modern day pikeys DO NOT TRUST THEM
We all pay up like good British people then these scum come along and rip us off”
“Virgin are shockingly bad. They are utterly disgraceful They will cancel anything you buy at full price and tell you take it or leave it They don't care about you at all once they have your money.. Utterly disgraceful no one there cares once they have your money You won't get it back BEWARE
I had to add they are like modern day pikeys DO NOT TRUST THEM
We all pay up like good British people then these scum come along and rip us off
Edit”
“Booked a holiday to Barbados travelling in premium economy on 1st June 2017. Found out today that the premium economy no longer existed and that I had been put into economy. I have a serious back problem and have been saving for years in order to have this amazing experience.
However the virgin rep I spoke to really couldn't care less and was delighted to give me back my deposit (held by virgin for over 9 months) in order to cancel the holiday and just get rid of me as a huge disappointment.
Appalling service and will never holiday with them again. How they have a reputation as a quality product just shows what good media can do for this company because the reality is that this company simply do not care.”
“Sorry Guys but its another 1 star review for you!!
We've been in a similar situation to others here with flights changed and only being notified AFTER Virgin Holidays have taken our final balance payment, no communication beforehand at all.
Re-visited the Trafford center store where changes were blamed on Virgin Atlantic. Whilst I appreciate the need to change aircraft for maintenance I'm really annoyed at the lack of communication.
We'd booked Premium Economy seats and amended our holiday dates to fit in with direct flights as my wife has a bad back so needs plenty of legroom and room to move in the cabin, the option after the amendments from Virgin Atlantic was economy seats with a stop-over in Atlanta - take it or leave it!!
We've decided to cancel but we're now left with 3 weeks holiday booked at work and having to start from scratch on finding something else suitable.
Even when we cancelled Virgin tried to take a cancellation charge even though we'd been promised a full refund!! Another few days and another few phone calls and we eventually got the full amount back but if Virgin are using this policy on everyone has everyone got the full refunds they're due? and how much is Virgin raking in in interest??
Really disappointing about the lack of customer care for a company perceived as offering "Rockstar Service" and although I've been on a number of Virgin / Virgin Ski holidays before I won't consider booking with them again.”
“Booked a year ago through the trafford centre branch, great communication about paying our balance. Once they had our money no communication about a flight change that meant we would miss our connection in Atlanta, found out through a third party seven weeks before departure. Went into store ... they blamed Virgin Atlantic .... half an hour to get through to Virgin Atlantic .... they blamed Virgin Holidays. Changed flight but left with a sour taste. Mr Branson is famous for saying 'look after your staff as they will look after your customers' ... well they don't!”
“I have always been a fan of Virgin, I am even a flying club member, but not from now on. I booked a holiday with them in November to New Orleans, as they were my go to option. However, after looking into the holiday in more detail, I have realised they are charging me over £1000 more per person that British Airways and other companies!
I live chatted with one of their customer service representatives to see if they could price match, or if there was just anything they could do, as £1000 per person is a lot. Her initial response was "you can cancel your holiday with us, but you'll lose £200". I didn't even mention cancelling, I just wanted to see if there was something they could do.
However, she pretty much refused and just kept repeating that I could cancel. So fine, I will cancel and I will not recommend them nor book a holiday with them again.”
“When we arrived we were told our 11 and 9 year old had no beds as Virgin booked a non existent room for us. Second hotel no bed sheets for children and didn’t get any until after midnight food was very poor three people in our family got food poisoning. Virgin changed our hotel last minute to a hotel we would never have chosen was like 18-30’s with smoking in swimming pool inappropriate games / entertainment and adults having sex in the pool. No option to move hotel or come home early awful customer service since we have been home. Would never go again with virgin”
“Booked a holiday with Virgin to Mexico 10 months ahead of our travel date. Had to travel on a Saturday due to work commitments and paid over £600 more to fly on the Saturday. 4 months after paying for the holiday I logged on to reserve seats to see the flights had moved from the Saturday to mid-week. I contacted Customer Services to be told they were no longer flying on a Saturday and it was within their rights to change our schedule. I asked when we were going to be informed of the change to be told ‘they would have got around to it at some point’.
I said we couldn’t fly mid-week so the holiday needed to be cancelled to be told I would incur a cancellation fee! I asked why, as this is not the holiday I had even booked to be told that is their policy. I eventually got the holiday cancelled but will never book with Virgin again due to their shocking customer service”
“Shocking duty of care failure and poor customer service after being flown out to Florida against our wishes into the already known path of hurricane irma only to be evacuated the day after we arrived. Now they won't give us a full refund. Like earlier posts I will not be booking with Virgin Holidays ever again.”
“Virgin flight staff very rude encouraging customers to complain chief air hostess abrupt. Hotel not up to standard for a 5 star hotel, glasses left all over the floors, smell of fish lingering over pool, staff have a could not careless attitude, food cold from main restaurant in the shingle creek hotel Orlando. Night porters talking outside rooms at 2.30am in the morning. Room next to us had more than three fully grown adults staying in it, very noisy so could not sleep. Virgin staff were never around to discuss issues. Virgin handbook does not tell you where you nearest meeting is. Virgin customer services is an absolute joke, they don't care at all about your experience they just want your money. An absolutely appalling honeymoon. I would not recommend virgin or there holidays to anyone.”
