“Paid for an upgrade with onthebeach and I basically found out that it had been double booked so I was automatically downgraded. The rep had also confirmed at the hotel that onthebeach were aware of the double booking of the upgrade yet proceeded to downgrade me without notifying me or reimbursing. I paid 1500 for the holiday and was reimbursed 80 quid for a ruined accomodation for 14 days. Avoid. !!”
“On the Beach customer service is just a disappointment. Our holiday was ruined! We were forced to leave our hotel due to flooding. We were told we would get a room at sister property next door and there were no rooms on arrival. Slept in lobby and dormitory before being sent to horrible room. Asked for reasonable compensation and finally offered us 1/2 the amount. Disputed charge with Amex and On the Beach successfully manipulated the dispute. After provisional credit was issued by Amex, On the Beach charged our card for that amount without authorization. Do not book with this company as they do not behave with an ounce of decency. The response they give is that "we are looking into your complaint" Do not believe it!”
“Holiday from August 2022... Complained regarding the hotel which wasn't the stars that I paid for.. spent 1st week on the phone to them to be offered a move if I could find one... I have officially complained on my return and still no reply except that they will get back to me.. Hoping an ombudsman of some form can be found to get them to stick to their own SLA for customer service....Disgraceful”
“Worst customer service and after sales care I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Be aware that OTB are only ATOL registered which will protect you if they go bust but they opted out of being ABTA registered as this gives their a back up for when they let their customers down and do not see when they are in the wrong! I had a perfect experience with this company until things went wrong (they booked the wrong time transfer so I would have missed my flight - left me to sort it and no compensation for the hour and a half phone call, nor the two days of my holiday that were ruined as they left me to it!). Be warned!!”
“The worse travel company ever ,I booked a 5*family holiday in June 22 , they abandoned me and my family in Turkey when the airline cancelled our flight no alternative arrangements wer in place it cost me an additional £1500 pounds to get my family home from Turkey they have not refunded me any of the cost they have not refunded me for the flight I payed for ,they have problem taking your money they said my hoilday was atol protected wot aload of bulls--t ,,,,all abandoned passengers who travelled with tui wer taken to hotel and cared for but not on the beach passengers they were abandoned and ripped off do not book with these cowboys”
“They are not recognised by Ryan Air and give an email so you can contact Ryanair but no password so they are the only ones who control your flight ,they won't give the password they are rude ,hang up on you and fob you off ,just ca nacelle holiday with lost deposit and flight price ,rubbish never ever use them.”
“Avoid this company!!
I have just found the same holiday for over £150 cheaper, it was only booked this morning (I used the wrong link as thought it was loveholidays). I rang On The Beach and they didn’t care, they stayed if I wished to cancel my holiday I would still need to pay for the flights, no goodwill gesture just much repeated hollow apology followed by some T&C’s”
“Would never use this company again, sold us a so called five star all inclusive holiday at the Diamond of Bodrum in Turkey and would of rated it a two star, was that bad we cut short our two week stay and left a week early which cost us an extra flight to get back to the UK. I find it so frustrating the fact this company is still sending and selling this awful hotel with a five star rating ! We were both at this hotel in April 2022 and to date we have never had a email or telephone call from this company after numerous emails we sent regarding our nightmare experience! We booked with Tui to go to Spain this month and all so far our service we received is absolutely amazing & professional, they even checked us in with the flights to our destination!”
“On the Beach say they will reply to emails within 56 days. Thant's right, it will take them 56 days to answer any questions you might have. Very friendly when taking your money, then customers services couldn't care less.
There's plenty holiday providers, use any of the others...”
“Having issues with the private transfer booked trough them. They never collected us from the airport neither from hotel. Was impossible to get on touch with them to sort the issue.”
“Went on holiday to Athens, hoel Myrto, outside of Athens. The hotel and the staff were very friendly. Nowhere on On the Beach website does it say that if you book economy then your room looks onto the dual carriageway and the 24 hour noise. The website also said there was tranfers from airport which I paid for. But there was no transfers, when I phoned the transfer company on arriving. They told me they had notified on the beach months before hand, that they don't do transfer to my hotel. On the beach have still NOT returned my transfer charges, never mind the cost of taxies to and from to the airport. They are now ignoring my emails. I do NOT RECOMMED THIS COMPANY”
“This company used to be decent but in recent times it has went downhill rapidly, customer care is zero. I had a simple claim for a £56 taxi fare that I had to claim back because our airport transfers failed to pick us up. I was instructed by OTB to get a taxi to airport as they couldn't locate the driver that was supposed to pick us up. They told me to get a receipt from taxi driver and claim it back when I got home. No problem I thought until I got an email this morning telling me a blatant lie that our transfer bus came to our hotel but we weren't there and they wouldn't be issuing a refund.
We never moved from the front of hotel at our pick up point from 1600-1700 but this company have the audacity to blatantly lie to me saying the driver was there at 16.33 . Unfortunately I have another holiday booked with this corrupt company which I cannot cancel without being heavily penalised, but this will be the last time I use them and urge anyone else to stay away from them, there are plenty alternatives out there with far better customer care.”
“This company is an absolute joke! Their team are incompetent and have no idea what they are doing! A holiday that was meant to be stress free was basically the holiday from hell.
We booked a shared premium shuttle from the airport to hotel (return) max 4 stops with on the beach. We waited a total of 2 hours to get our transfer and then took us 3 hours to get to our hotel with 6 stops and the driver taking a 20 minute break along the way. It should only have been around 1h15mins as said by on the beach when I booked. After a full day of travelling and landing at 7pm we didn’t get to our hotel until midnight! Furthermore, we confirmed our transfer as on the beach said via holiday taxi online to be given the pick up time of 4:15 only to be messaged by the taxi company the afternoon before travelling staying pick up would be 3:10am our flight was at 9am and we could only check in 2h30mins before our flight! We waited at the airport for over an hour and a half before we could check in!
Our hotel rep appointed by on the beach was difficult. We booked a few activities with him and the first one we booked we were unable to attend as messed up our transport to the destination and then tried to blame us! We waited 40 minutes for our coach to this activity. At 7pm we contacted Cengo to find out where the coach was to which he stated it was 5-10 minutes late and we should continue to wait. After 20 minutes had passed he said it was still on its way and we should wait. After waiting 10 more minutes he called the hotel to tell them the bus was not coming. Upon calling him he stated firstly the coach was no longer coming when asked why he could not give a reason and then he changed his story and said it was our fault as we had missed the coach! He said the next day he would give us a refund however we are still waiting!
The hotel food was appalling. To say the least it was the same food every night, cold, undercooked and caused some stomach upset. As a result, we ended up eating outside of the hotel at restaurant’s not using the “all-inclusive” aspect of our booking that we had paid for and spending more money than necessary. This is not okay and a waste of our money and time especially whilst on holiday.
A of total 3 members of hotel staff that we interacted with had a base level understanding of English and we’re able to communicate with us on our trip. The rest of the staff were un-accommodating and did not understand any English. They would nod and say yes when asked a question and say they understood you when I’m reality they have no clue what you’re talking about or do the total opposite of what was asked or ignore us completely. They were extremely biased towards us and would noticeably go out of there way to avoid us when asking for help or assistance and help Turkish residence instead. Due to the hotels poor wifi we were unable to use a translator app to help communicate with staff making it even harder.
The man we spoke with at the guest relations desk to try and book reservations for the hotel restaurants was rude and to put it nicely a piece of work. They only had one day (Sunday) where we could book in for a restaurant so in the end out of 3 hotel restaurants we could only chose 1! Please note: prior to this I had contact the hotel via the enquiry form linked on their website for information on any special extras or packages for the room and to see if we could book the restaurants before arriving so this issue did not happen however received no response. He laughed when I mentioned this enquiry.
On the beach customer service
My bookings team (portal)
The my bookings team via the portal were very unhelpful when I bought the issue of the transfer and the rep to them! they stated l they would issue feedback to the transfer company to improve their service which did not resolve my issue and when I questioned this further they stated they would be investigating this issue. After 2-3 days of back and forth they finally stated they could not help and I should email the customer care team and call the in-resort team.
In-resort team
I called the in-resort team and waited a total of 40 minutes with no response or anyone picking up before the line cut out and I was unable to call back! What is the point in having a contact number to use while away if it does not work or there is no one available to take the call. I made the call during working the working hours based on the UK.
Overall, I have sent a more in depth email to on the beach’s customer care team however taking 56days to reply to a complain is a joke. This was a poor experience with this agency. Going forward we will not be using them. Our money has gone to waste and who’ve returned home more stressed than when we left.”
“Booked and paid in full for our holiday then we have to book our seats with Ryanair. On the beach give you a unique e mail address to access Ryanair’s system where then you have to verify who you are. Tried numerous times and locked out. On the beach stringing us along for over a week saying they will sort it. Ryanair rudely hang up on you. We have now got to go to the airport the day before to see what seats are left. Will never use on the beach again. Lots of time out of work, additional costs for lengthly phone calls, now fuel costs and stress. I will never use them again NEVER”
“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 refund nor 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 have that but 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.”
“The worst agency ever !! We had a flight to Mexico but obviously from Mexico with no reason they send us home the same day with the same plan. No one was expected anything why. Ok that’s fine. When we back to UK, was trying to contact on the beach agency and they couldn’t help me at all!! Obviously I paid over £2000 for NOTHING! For flights to both ways at the same day !!! And the lady who was on the line she didn’t even said at least sorry, was really rude ! AVIOD this company!!!”
“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 for 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 its 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 neighbouring rooms 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 surrounding streets just to look around once and had every shop owner trying to scam us left and right so we stopped going out for fear we would be tricked into paying for something eg a photograph with a camel that quickly turns 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 4.30am 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 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!”
