“Firstly when booking the holiday I couldn’t understand the lady I was speaking to. She wasn’t at all clear changing the mystery holiday to another destination I thought I had to pay £89 extra but worked out £289 extra. I then got the holiday. Unfortunately my husband wasn’t going to be able to go and I emailed to say could I change name and then came with a ridiculous price of over £125. I went on to check the airline and the price of the flight same dates and times was £44. I thought I was getting a good price for the holiday but if I hadn’t done it through weekender breaks it would have been half the price. I have now had to cancel the holiday and have lost all my money. I feel I have been cheated out of a lot of money which should have been a good deal.”
“I booked a Groupon Mystery Holiday and was treated utterly horribly from start to finish. Before I was even told anything about the actual holiday (you know, the exciting bit you’re meant to look forward to), Ranjit jumped straight in, barking at me that my hotel was 40km from the airport so I “wouldn’t have a nice time” unless I paid more money for an upgrade.
I told him I didn’t want to commit to that - I wanted to hear the full details first - but instead of accepting that, he just kept going. Over and over, telling me I’d regret it, that I’d have to get up at 3am, that I’d be paying more for taxis anyway, basically doing everything he could to make me feel bad for not spending extra. I had to literally raise my voice to get him to stop because he kept speaking over me, muttering under his breath about how he was “just trying to help” and making me feel like I was being stupid for not giving in.
He said he’d call me back, and when he did, he suddenly said he’d “managed to get me” a better hotel without the upgrade (like I should be grateful) and that all I needed to do now was confirm the booking. I told him clearly that I wasn’t ready to confirm anything yet, that I wanted to see the full details first - I even explained that because of my disability, I struggle to process information unless I can see it in front of me. He completely ignored that and told me I had to confirm right now on the phone or there’d be no holiday for me at all.
I said I didn’t feel comfortable doing that, and that given how pressured and aggressive he’d been earlier, I didn’t feel safe agreeing to anything. He got huffy and defensive, saying he couldn’t believe I was talking about trust after how “nice” he’d been to me. Apparently, letting me have a hotel that wasn’t 40km away was some kind of generous favour I should be thanking him for.
Eventually, after all that stress, he agreed to email me the details, but said he had to stay on the phone while I booked it. I asked if that was even allowed because it didn’t feel right at all, and he just talked over me again, saying if I didn’t book there and then, I wouldn’t have a holiday at all. I asked if I could speak to someone else, he said no. I asked when someone else might be available, he said they wouldn’t be. The whole thing was so manipulative, I honestly felt trapped.
At one point he muttered something under his breath and then quickly asked, “Are you happy with that?” - I’m pretty sure he was trying to get me to accidentally confirm the booking. When I said no, because I didn’t understand what he’d said, he just said fine, someone will call you within 24 hours, and ended the call in a weird way where he didn’t actually hang up, almost like he wanted me to hang up first so it looked like I’d ended it.
It was honestly one of the nastiest, most uncomfortable experiences I’ve ever had with another human being, let alone a company I was meant to trust with a holiday. And now he keeps calling for literally half a second and hanging up before I can answer... which I assume is so it looks like I’ve been avoiding his calls!?
It’s made me feel completely taken advantage of and honestly shaken. I can’t believe this is how people are being treated. If this company has any decency or care for their customers at all, please respond and sort this out, because right now, this whole thing feels incredibly wrong and deeply manipulative.
Thankfully I have screenshots and the audio recordings to prove it! So If I don’t receive a proper response and resolution immediately, I’ll be reporting this incident to ABTA.
Please guys, don't put yourself what I just went through, your holiday is supposed to be a positive, wonderful thing!
BOYCOT THESE PEOPLE.”
“What a lovely service this company provides
We just completed our 8 days trip to Spain and Portugal today
Everything was so smooth and awesome
We had no problems at all
Thanks priyank and whole staff of weekender breaks
Deepak Kumar
Florida”
“I booked our vacation with Weekender Breaks to go to Poland and Germany. The deal includes train transportation between cities. I asked for updates on train times about a month before the trip and was told I would get them when I got them. In the meantime, I still had to plan our trip and activities. When the train times were sent (2 weeks prior to the trip), I found that one train had us getting in too late for an activity already booked and paid for for that day. Weekender Breaks refused to change the train time and said it was all non refundable. Very frustrating since we paid a lot for the trip and requested the train times well in advance. This company will not check with you to see if train times are convenient and you won’t know the times until about 2 weeks prior to the trip. Very difficult to plan an international trip with such limited information and limited assistance/caring from the company. I would not book with them again.”
“Booked through GroupOn. I would not recommend this travel deal to others as I felt a little cheated and pressured into a random unwanted holiday. They also want you to pay additional fees for more favourable timings. It is a scam you’re paying more for cheap flights and 3 star hotels.”
“Booked a wowcher holiday for £99pp only to get charges for outside London at £40pp even though wowcher says you 'may' incur these charges the lady says its mandatory.
She also told me because my dates were a weekend i had to pay more, I understand this if it was normal but this is a mystery holiday what happens if I get the top tier? Do I have to pay a grand on top so the company doesn't make a loss? When asking to speak to a manager the lady persisted to talk over me and say there were no managers for 72hrs to which was the time my voucher expired. She then came back to me with different dates but the same flights which I may add gets me there for nearly midnight and I leave early the day after next so essentially I get 1.5 days instead of the 2 days promised, so in conclusion I was expected to pay £160 on top of the £198 that I had already paid for 0.5 less than what was given on the days I didn't request. Oh and that was the cheapest holiday on the list to Madrid....(which i was happy with)
The woman was so rude and really had no room to budge on any prices or location or anything it was just pay the extras or lose £198.
Do not book with this firm, I've found it all cheaper elsewhere.
One positive is that I've had a good experience previously when I got Budapest and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. Which is why I'm shocked this time.”
“Was so excited to get a weekend away in Bologna for the surprise Wowcher deal. It then took 6 weeks for them to contact us to book the trip, where we were told Bologna would not be available. We were completely accomodating - saying we would try different dates and different locations, only to be told any changes would cost us £80! Complete scam -where our agreed holiday was not available but any changes would cost us. We've tried emailing weekender breaks and wowcher with no responses and no refund.”
“I booked a mistery Holiday with this travel agency for 178£ for 2 people and I end up paying 950£ and now they refuse to give me the money back.It Is the worst travel agency Ever.Avoid this travel agency Weekender Breaks.”
“Booked a wowcher mystery holiday, when they called up I was told that my promised destination would cost an extra £250 per person! When I emailed them later to cancel I was told no refunds despite not even booking the holiday. Don't use these guys unless you want to be robbed.”
“Booked a mystery weekend break for £89 and the first trip offered was less than the 40 hours in destination.
The person I spoke to couldn’t understand that I had to be at the airport 2 hours before the flight so they really couldn’t include that time as part of the 40!
They tried to offer me an alternative destination and they said they would call back in 30 mins as I needed to call my friend to check, I called them back 2 days later as they hadn’t contacted me to be told by the “agent” that it would be an extra £40 per person because we were flying from a regional airport. This was not stated by the original agent when that destination was offered.
They tried to tell me it’s in the T&Cs, but the T&Cs state there could be a charge of up to £40 per person, it seems like this company just slap the £40 on because they can!
We then tried to go back to the original destination to be told that was full but they could get us on another flight but it would be £40 per person l, the new flights were exactly the same time and same airports as the original!
I have asked for a refund as they are unable to find a trip for me in the date range and without me paying an additional £40 per person, they state that as the Wowcher has been used they can not refund me.
I emailed the company and received a reply stating someone would call me within 24 hours, I’m still waiting for a call almost a week later.
I’ve requested a refund now via my bank.”
“Awful company! Purchased a Mystery holiday with Wowcher last April and was told it was to Spain but then when they rang me they said they couldn't offer Spain any longer but could do somewhere else. This was fine by me so I waited for them to offer an alternative and each alternative they offered they told me it would be a 3 day trip and I would need to pay more money. I declined and said the reason I booked the £99 holiday was as I wanted a cheap holiday so didn't want to pay any extra (as already having to pay extra to fly from a non London airport) They promised to call me back a month later to look at dates for later in the year. Each time they called they could never offer me a suitable holiday as kept expecting me to pay more money to spend longer time which I declined. I expect this was due to flight prices and hotel prices being higher than the amount being covered by the £99 voucher but surely its this company job to source the holidays correctly. And if its not achievable then they shouldn't be offering £99 holidays. After several frustrating phone calls I left it and didn't hear from them in over 6 months, despite them telling me they would contact me. I rang up last week to book as concerned voucher would expire in April and was helped by a kind man who sorted the holiday straight away for us with no issues. Not sure why this wasn't the case last year! The only issue is, I was told this includes hand luggage, however when the information has come over it actually only covers a handbag/rucksack!! I have paid £40 extra to travel from East Mids and £30 extra to have a more central hotel (the one they offered was 45-50 mins out of the centre of the city) So our holiday that was meant to be £99 is now costing £169. And to make matters worse, when I checked the flights with Ryanair it cost £34 each for flights! And hotel is coming up as £44 per night for 2 people. So we have defiantly paid over the odds for this holiday. This holiday has cost them less than the 2 lots of £99 vouchers to book but we have ended up paying £169. I am requesting a refund of the extra funds we have paid!!! I will learn from this and won't be purchasing a wowcher mystery holiday again”
“Total scam- exactly the same holidays can be bought for much less elsewhere online. Do not buy these mystery holidays from Wowcher, they just end up a nightmare dealing with overseas staff that are awful at providing any kind of customer service”
“Groupon voucher bought for 399$ : Expectation : the worst scenario was a smooth flight and 2 days in a clean 3 -4 stars in Downtown in a safe area. what we get is, first, we got contacted by an agent that claimed that we need to pay extra 110$ for travel booked on weekend (those extra fee is not mentioned on Groupon page, neither on company website but a strategy used by sales to squeeze more money out of client) but since promised a convenient safe trip I agreed to pay it . At the airport, we were assigned low class carrier and were forced to pay extra $30 for the seats and $150 for carry on. The big surprise is when we got to the Inn the peach tree, Although it tries to pass itself off as a 3 stars hotel, it's just an old motel in a shady area that has been hastily remodeled. That means the rooms open onto the outside.The noisiest hotel we have ever been to. Broken furniture, TV is just a decoration. on the top of that there is Cockroaches in the room. I was so ashamed of myself to bring my wife here. at the end, for 2 people , We end up spending 399$ for the voucher on Groupon, $110 scammed when agent called, and 360$ paid to Spirit for seat assignements and carry on both ways.That's 469$ more than the planned budget, Plus the whole experience was horrible, Basically, I get a trip to a cheapest place in a 2 star review hotel using low class carrier. I could have planed my trip $600 cheaper than what I paid and got a better experience.”
“Early November 2024 we went to Switzeland and Milan. Weekender Breaks made it possible by planning our vacation. They purchased the airfare tickets, reserved all hotels and purchased all the Rail tickets, Swiss Pass, Bernina express and Milan rails.
The Groupon Price made affordable and we upgraded somethings. We had a wonderful experience in Monreux, good locating hotel. In Interlaken, the hotel was good. Convenient location. In Chur, the hotel was nice but too far to walk, however we took the public transportation ok. The Bernina EXpress was a unique experience. justb what we wanted. Greenwald and the Junkfrouch, top of Europe were all extras but fenomenal. We had out doubts when we purchase this tour, but everything was legit! Thank you to all the agents that answered all our questions. City taxes we had to pay as they explained, not much. Thank you for helping us accomplsh our dream trip! Ill use them again.”
“Misleading and Expensive – Avoid!
I booked a "mystery surprise" holiday with Weekender Breaks for £99, but it turned out to be far from a bargain. The destination they selected was completely unsuitable, so I ended up paying a total of £350 to switch to Morocco.
The real frustration came with the luggage allowance. During the booking, I clearly stated we would be taking cabin cases, but they booked us for a small rucksack as the only free carry-on. For a proper carry-on bag, I was shocked to discover an additional cost of over £40 each way—adding £100 to the trip! Elderly travelers, like us, do not travel with rucksacks, and this should have been booked correctly from the start.
This experience felt like a complete con. What was marketed as an affordable, exciting trip became an unexpectedly expensive and disappointing ordeal. I would strongly recommend avoiding this company unless you're prepared for hidden costs and poor communication.”
“Horrible, useless customer service. They keep trying to call me (even on a Sunday) and the first phone call made me very uncomfortable, so I have now requested to communicate only via email. They sold me a £99 pp voucher for a 'Mystery Trip' then told me I could only redeem it over the phone (I have a disability, ADHD, which makes this type of information processing very hard for me).
They then proceeded to tell me that availability for the dates I chose were very limited, and that I could only have a hotel 8km from the city centre and flights that left Milan at 6am on the last day. OR I could pay £89 extra per person for a hotel near the city. Absolute con!
They refuse to email the information so I can make a proper informed choice, and pressure you to make a decision quickly saying you will lose your money otherwise (the voucher is valid until April 2025).
Horrific - do NOT book.”
