On the BeachReviews 269

Disgusting company.
I booked a holiday package for next July, they canceled the flight, so I had to cancel the whole holiday.
They refused to refund the full amount, even it was bought as a package and it wasn't my fault I had to cancel.
And we are talking about next year, not next week.
The only way to contact them is their chat, where you are in a queue of about 200 every time, almost impossible to reach someone.
Avoid, avoid, avoid!

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! Worst experience I have ever had with any company in my life. Falsely advertised the holiday, over charged, 0 customer service, impossible to contact, only have chat bots, waiting up to 4 hours online with no response, no email address, no customer service number. I am ASTONISHED this company are still trading. Do not put yourself through the traumatic ordeal I have been through book elsewhere.

AWFUL... DO NOT BOTHER WITH THIS COMPANY.
I have spent a lot of money and time to get family holidays with this company. After our last experience I will NEVER go with this company ever again... They didn't only put a LIE about a hotel "Bellagio Spa Beach and Resort" in Hurghada saying it's 4 star... it's a hiddeous, disgusting place and RUDE Thieving staff members... do not visit this hotel.
They have hold of my mobile phone and are refusing to post it back to the UK I went to onthebeach for their help/ support and they did NOTHING but offer us a pathetic £75 voucher towards THEIR MESS... Also clearly didn't care that much. I spent thousands on a holiday which was completely ruined and aftercare was not provided. They do not CARE and are obviously just money orientated. I have spent lots with onthebeach and never ever will I go with them again... nor will my family and friends after my experience. My phone has been with the hotel after over a month and they are ignoring my emails my phone has pictures from our holiday in Egypt and personal photos of MY SON. MY advice is stay AWAY from on the beach and STAY AWAY from Bellagio in Hurghada.

Thanks for ruining family Easter break holiday.

Just want to share my recent experience with on the beach and Ryanair new deal as it's been absolutely awful. Will never book again.

On 12th of March 2024 booked a holiday to Agadir with OTB with Ryanair flights. Was suppose to fly 23rd of March - return 30th March.

This left OTB and Ryanair just over a week to confirm my flights as it was pending airline confirmation.

On 15th of March got in contact with them and been told Ryanair will have it confirmed by weekend or latest Monday.

Called them on Monday 25th and "no update from airline" but it's on their list and told me to wait 7 days till Wednesday.
Ryanair flight was completely sold out at this point as I checked on their website and at the point I booked on the 12th there was plenty of seats available.

Wednesday comes 20th I call them again as they promised they will call me and never did, they're saying they don't know why it's taking so long. Different agents kept saying different things and constantly lying saying will have it soon, saying it's 100% booked and will go ahead, one of them even said if I don't get my flight reference still go to the airport! But they kept reassuring they paid the airline so my seats already guaranteed.

I contacted Ryanair via their live chat twice and they told me they couldn't find any booking in my email which OTB used for the booking.
I told this to OTB and they kept saying don't worry it's 100% booked just waiting for Ryanair flight ref.

So TODAY 21st, I called them and they said by 5pm 100% I will have my flight reference from Ryanair.

Just got a call now for them to say Ryanair flight is completely sold out 🙂 and if you want you can go with Easy Jet instead same dates and just pay extra £1,600. Shocking.

And we are due to fly Saturday. The stress this has caused.

Do not book a last minute holiday with OTB with Ryanair flights as it's a mess.
Non of them know what's going on yet with this new deal they have, they're making things up and just try to get rid of you of the phone as fast as they can.

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 other 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 a 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.

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

I will never book with these again, the booking seemed so easy and then realised you get no extras included in the cost. They also allow you to pay for luggage that the third party airlines won't accept as it not booked through. Just returned after having to pay another £75 on top of the £100 bag (and ridiculous admin fee of £45) because the airline didn't accept the booking through on the beach. Currently reporting them to the ombudsmen for selling an item they legally couldn't.

Good evening

We were due to fly back to Gatwick from Lanzarote today at 19.35. Flight number BA2733. Unfortunately the flight has been cancelled.

I am writing to complain about the lack of contact from you about the cancellation and when the next available flight is. It is your responsibility to get us home. Trying to get through on your contact number is impossible, recorded message saying lines are closed at 5 but says 7 on our booking.
Appreciate it has been a difficult day but the lack of contact from you is worrying and unacceptable.

I'd booked and paid for my holiday but then I wanted to add on an extra passenger. I was helped by Vicki, Nicholas M and Barbara.
They made it so easy and stress free. I've booked a few times with On the beach and never had any issues. Would definitely recommend. Thank you

Worst booking operator ever. Mis-sells holiday packages as fully inclusive, where client is faced with a number of extra charges at destination.
In our example we booked a fully inclusive (expensive) package, only to be charged Eur 300 extra at the hotel - just to use the hotel. (This was not the standard tax which we also paid on arrival). Towels and daily rental of them were on top (irrespective of one using them or not) and water was the only 'included beverage'. Any other drink (inc soft drinks, teas and coffees) was extra. Their customer service did NOT answer the phone when we tried to reach them from abroad, and takes them weeks to respond to a complaint - saying sorry cannot help. Never ever again!

The onthebeach hoel reps(!) in Turkey are forcing Customers to buy excursions. They are not even hotel reps. They buy customers personal data from onthebeach hotel supplier for 3 pounds per person. Just ignore those hotel rep(Thieves) do not buy nothing

Ruined our holiday! Hotel had to be evacuated due to flooding. Lied to us regarding new accommodation and then fought us when we demanded a partial refund. Ended up just giving up. They are just so unethical. Book elsewhere!

MYB*******B I've booked this holiday for September2023. However, I need the room to be Twin only, as it's me and my friend, I can't do anything on my online account, I need someone to do this, please help. Sue

56 days. That's how long On the Beach will take to answer any questions you might have. No delay before your holiday when there's money to change hands,but 2 months after raising a query they've still not given a reasonable response. Jet2 are a much better holiday provider, don't use On the Beach, they couldn't care less.

Booked our Honeymoon with on the beach. Unfortunately my passport did not have the full 6 months required to travel when booking ( I was not aware I required 6 months as have not travelled for some time).
Our booking was accepted without any mention of the issue. We booked with less than 10 days to go before we were due to travel. I noticed the issue when I was checking all of our travel documents. I attempted to call the company- their offices were shut due to the hot weather. Then when I finally received contact from an on the beach employee. I was told that due to it being less 14 days until we travel there was nothing they could do and our £3,700 holiday was at full loss- I could maybe try insurance but no guarantee.

Essentially we were never going to be able to travel with them, as they had accepted the booking knowing full well that my passport was not valid. Their policies allegedly prevented them from making changes as we were so close to departure date.

I then received further contact the day before my wedding, from a different handler stating that they could contact the hotel for us to see if we could transfer the dates etc. We didn't reply as a) the wedding took priority and b) we were in full contact with the hotel and had emailed them directly to ask them this.

When we explained the issues we were having with OTB the hotel initially denied any knowledge of this and stated that OTB had not been in contact with them. I informed them of all that had been happening and requested that we arrange to change the date of the honeymoon- we have never had a reply.

We are now over £3700 out of pocket due to the poor practices of on the beach. I understand that my passport was not valid. HOWEVER before taking our booking we were asked for our passport details/ expiry dates prior to them accepting our booking. As a company do they not have a duty of care to their customers to advise?

I have since attempted since July unsuccessfully to contact on the beach. I will continue to try.

I booked my holiday for 2 adults, 1 child and 1 infant to Kos with transfers. The total cost was £1592. 11. I wasn't happy with my room so I requested an upgrade and added an extra night. My request was accepted and charged accordingly, and I was sent the amended paperwork. This brought the total cost to £2317. 97. After having completed payment I received a message to say that the supplier couldn't give us the room we'd paid for due to my party exceeding the room's capacity and they offered me I quote 'a complimentary upgrade to a family 2 bedroom suite mountain view with sharing pool' which was the exact room I had originally booked! I have all the supporting paperwork to prove this is the case. So what they tried to do here was pull the wool over my eyes by pretending my original room was an upgrade from the room I'd paid to upgrade to?! I of course objected to this and we went back and forth a few messages but still the supplier was adamant I could not have the room I paid for. I then decided I would call the hotel directly myself. The reservations manager explained that he received 2 requests to upgrade and rejected both due to the fact that the size of the party exceeded maximum capacity of the room. So at no point in time did they have a booking secure for me in the room that I had requested and been charged for. He advised me that I needed to query this with the supplier or the agent as the fault lay there and not with the hotel. So I did just that, I explained everything that had happened and simply asked for the extra that I had paid to be refunded to me. During this time my flights had also been cancelled, so I requested a refund and paid extra to book new flights completely separately. At this point I was advised that I would receive a refund for my flights (total £420.91) which is usually in 7 days. I didn't, and had to chase it. The refund was then issued to a card that I have never had which leads me to believe there are data protection issues here also. I received a message to say that the supplier would offer me a refund of £274.48 despite having paid an extra £725.86 for this upgrade. In my response I did express my frustration, but also did say that I appreciate I'd also booked an extra night in the hotel So would like the cost of that in my original room deducted from £725.86 and felt that this would be the only logical and fair amount that I should be offered as a refund, taking into account that this entire scenario has been at absolutely no fault of my own. In this message I also asked for a proper breakdown of how that figure had been reached. I went through a mock booking on the hotel website to checked the cost of 1 night in the family suite room which came to 225 euro's which is approximately £194. So I'm aware of how much should roughly be deducted for that. I Then received a message back to say that the £274.48 was based on my hotel costs only and didn't include flights. I saw this as a huge insult to my intelligence and the second time someone had attempted to pull the wool over my eyes as the cost of flights would of course not have any impact on the refund amount, as they were already included in the original booking total. This is simply a refund on the EXTRA I had been charged for the room only. Also despite having asked for a breakdown, I did not receive one, I just had the same figure thrown at me again and another attempt to push for me to accept it. I declined and expressed I would make a formal complaint, to which I then received a further couple of messages offering me the same plus an £80 gesture of goodwill which I also declined. Then to add complete insult to injury, 1 day before we were due to fly I received a message from an agent called Bruno A to say I quote' good afternoon and thanks for your message (which just said that I was not accepting the refund amount offered) please note that the hotel cannot accommodate you in the original room. Apologies for any inconvenience' and that was it! No solution, no explanation, no anything! This put my stomach in knots! I for a second time had to spend money calling the hotel to check they still had a booking for us which thankfully they did. It is now working day 74 since I complained and I still have not received a response to my complaint. My bank has been investigating and since, on the beach has unethically and totally against protocol, directly taken money back that had been temporarily refunded by my bank without going through the proper channel. Not only that, but have now taken an extra £531.86. Words can't express the infuriation. I will be pulling out every single stop and fighting this all the way until justice has been served here.

We travelled to Antalya, Turkey on 6th September to 16th September and was overall a horrible experience. Our flight was cancelled a week and a half before we were due to fligh out and the options given were pay £700 extra for new flights or cancel the holiday all together. When i enquired about changing dates/airports they found same dates at a different airport at no extra cost so was peeved they didn't offer that to begin with. When we arrived at Antalya airport we met the rep for our transfer shuttle which was booked with Golden Sea travel and after an hour and a half of waiting and constantly asking for an update, we were told they have no idea when or if they were coming and was told to book a private taxi at our own cost. The rep booked the taxi for us and made us pay 2800 lira (I later found out average price for a taxi to our hotel were 1100 so the rep ripped us off to line his own pockets!) We stayed at Eftalia Splash resort for 10 days which was advertised as a 4 star hotel but it definitely a 3 (at a push)! The whole experience was horrible, the food was worse than what you would get at a hostel, just chicken nuggets, burgers, chips and pizzas. The photographs of the food served was nowhere near as good at what we got during our stay and my 2 year old would only eat chips for the whole stay as there was nothing on offer to cater for children.
Quite a few facilities were closed as well like the Effes bar and the kids pool was closed 4 of the 10 days we were there also which wasn't great.
The rooms were fine and housecleaning was regular so no quarrels with that but the walls were paper thin and could hear all the neighbours arguing and partying until the late hours which kept us all up. The pools were nice enough but again the photographs made them look much nicer than what they actually were. Eftalia island was a quick shuttle away and we spent most of our time there. The food on offer was pretty much the same but much nicer pools and better choice for small kids.
We ventured out to the local shops once and had every shop owner try to scam us left and right so we stopped going out for fear we would be tricked into paying for something like a photograph with a camel that quickly turned into a camel ride and then demanding 800 lira for the experience despite stating we didn't have any cash on us in the first place.
The 'clientèle' was just parents looking to let their kids run wild while they inhaled as much free booze as they could get their hands on which made for the hotel to be extremely loud and rowdy when everyone was trying to sleep so stay away if youre looking for a quiet, relaxing holiday with your family or young children.
On our way home our flight was leaving at 8.15am and our transfer shuttle (Golden Sea travel) told us they would pick us up at 4am which didn't give us much time but there wasn't anything we could do about that. 4am rolls by and no shuttle... My family and 3 other families waited until 4.30 and despite several phone calls to the company they advised they didn't know where our driver was or if they were even coming. After chatting to the other families we learned they also did not get picked up from the airport either and had to pay for private taxis.
Another 1000 lira to pool with another family for a taxi and we finally got there at 6am so it was a mad dash through airport security etc and made our flight with minutes to spare!
Overall this has to be the worst holiday experience I have ever had and unfortunately was our daughters first. Luckily she will forget the horrible experience over time but I sadly will not.
If you are thinking of staying at this hotel or you have already booked it and are looking for transfers DO NOT use Golden Sea travel and change hotels if you have time (or cancel your holiday with On the beach if you still have time!). Their customer service is shambolic, their responsibilities to you are a service provider are non existent (as they clearly like to state all over their website) and it will take weeks or months to get back to you with a reasonable response due to closing their customer service call centre, which is convenient for them but not for you as a customer.
Go with TUI if you can or just don't book an all inclusive holiday in Turkey and expect a high quality hotel with the 'great' facilities they advertise with aesthetic pictures that aren't the same in person.

I've made a complaint directly to the transfer company in Turkey and one with On the beach for my out of pocket expenses (4000 lira) and the £98 I paid for the airport transfers that we did not receive and will make sure I book with a more reputable company in future

I would advise you all to avoid On the beach and Eftalia resorts like the plague!

That company has only 1 function - taking the payment. Apart from that nothing works. Cancelled outbound flights were not replaced and not refunded. Now, I'm abroad, and our inbound tickets are nowhere to be found. Now, I have left only 17 hours to my flight, but I can't obtain boarding passes. Emergency " help line" doesn't work due to COVID (?!), my messages are ignored.

If I could give a zero I would. Absolutely shocking experience 4 days before we flew out. We booked a holiday for our family of 4 in April only to receive an email, not a call 4 days before we were due to fly stating our hotel was over booked. The same hotel that other family members looked at booking 2 weeks prior but didn't due to price more than doubling. We were offered a supposed like for like hotel that was 20km away that had poor reviews which we declined. 2 days later, now 48 hours before flying offered 2 more that were even worse. Now finally talking to someone our options were hotel refund but lose flights(package holiday so we thought) or except a below part hotel. In the end we excepted first alternative as best of bad bunch.

Lack of communication, lack of customer service, lack of customer respect and most of all a complete lack of care. We have emailed Customer care but advised this can take 56 days for response.

Separate hotel review will be listed also. Probably a 2 out of 5.