We have used Barrhead Travel umpteen times with no problems. They often have good offers on their website or newspaper adverts.

For information specifically about the Gambia I would suggest posting or doing a search in our Africa forum at the top of the main page.

luci

Hi Twistees,

I'd agree with Luci, have booked a few holidays with Barrhead and they've all been good. Happy with the prices, hassle free booking and good service.

Recommend them.

Phil.

I'm sure you would be happy with prices Phil, given that you are an employee of Barrhead Travel, who presumably enjoys generous travel privileges.
twistees is looking for independent and unbiased feedback from genuine holidaymakers, rather than from any staff at the company who might be posing as satisfied holidaymakers.

David

Priceless

Thanks David. That's great detective work. What about passing your skills on to Trip Advisor where so many false hotel reviews continue and the T.A. folks, despite being warned about them, keep on letting 'em through.

This is the second time in the last few weeks I've noticed a mod 'exposing' someone who was an employee. Well done you guys!

bill

I have used our local barrhead travel shop about 3 times. Always very good prices and service.

Hi, I'm in the process of booking a holiday through Barrhead Travel so have been reading reviews and wondering whom I can trust. I get the impression that there are many false reviews posted online. All I can say is that so far, Barrhead have been the only travel agent to respond to my enquiry with a proposed itinerary that shows they actually listened, and the communication has been very prompt. I'm delighted, so far. (And I have no links with the business, or axe to grind!)

Hi Swidge ... Barrhead Travel do actually have a pretty good reputation and so it was both unnecessary and idiotic of one of their employees to pose as a satisfied customer under the pseudonym of PhilFogarty. He is actually someone who should have known better, and hopefully he now realises posts such as that could adversely affect the reputation of the company.

David

spot on David......it makes you question all the other good posts, especially a post from a new member who has joined then immidiately posted with a good experience.....and this employee post was extra silly and badly judged...I mean what better could you get than a reccomendation from trusted HT Mod...what was he thinking off...tweetie

In response your question, I thought I'd give you this review I have posted on other forums.
Best of luck with your hols!!...

Beware before booking with this website!!
They will quite happily take your money for hotels on their website that they can't actually book on their system.

We booked a holiday online and paid over £1,000. We received a confirmation email 10 minutes later with an order number and a link through to the 'Manage my Booking'of their website.
The order number didn't work, so we called Barrhead to then be told that the hotel was no longer available and the flights had increased substantially in price.
If that was the case, why did they still allow the credit card transaction to go through??

We then looked again online at 4 different hotels, to be told they didn't exist on their system!!
And, with the ones that did exist, we were told a much higher cost than that on the website!

When we tried to complain, we were met initially with a girl who was very helpful, but unfortunately was not a manager and not able to make any decisions based on our complaint. We were then passed through to the 'manager' for that day (Saturday the 8th May 2010), from whom I received, by far the worst 'customer service' I have ever experienced! Her negativity was astounding and for some reason she thought the best way to deal with this situation was to talk over me for 20 minutes saying 'you've got no reason to complain!' and offered no resolution.

We then asked for a refund, so we could go and book our relaxing holiday through another operator. The 'manager' said this would take up to 3 days to do! Aaargh!

Points of advice from a consumer to Barrhead...
1. Please check the availability of the hotels and/or flights BEFORE you take payment(This should be obvious!). Blaming the website is not the best course of action and is not appeasing.
2. Consider training your staff in the art of effective customer service...
Empathise, be positive, talk slowly and offer alternatives (we received quite the opposite on this occasion); even if the customer does not book a holiday, at least they receive a professional service and may even do business with you again.

Mind you, if they had actually read the comments on other review forums, they would have noticed this is not the first experience of this sort and would have responded accordingly!!

I used Barrhead Travel last August to book my flights to Turkey, as they allowed me to pay a deposit and not need the amount in full. The person who booked the flights was shocking, he wasn't particulary interested even although we were booking and he would make commission from the sale. I paid the deposit and he gave me the paperwork, I then left and when I got home realised I didn't have the flight times on anything or the actual full cost. I had to call him to ask for these to be sent out, after another call that week we eventually got the paperwork through. He had also advised me that I had 20kgs luggage, I took that to mean 20kgs hold and 5kgs hand. I went in last week to pay the remaining balance and was asking about the API info that I have read you need to provide before travelling. I got my reply and that was fine, I then realised when I got home that I was able to see my booking online through the company that they had booked them for me. I read that I only had 15kgs hold luggage, I therefore called the office to be told that they would look into it and get back to me, but they also hadn't changed my title from Mrs to Miss or changed me to the lead passenger. I therefore asked that this be changed I know it doesn't appear on your ticket but the API info would need to be correct and seen as how I have never been married why would I be a Mrs.

The girl called me back on the Sunday to advise that the company my flghts were booked through were closed, so she was off on the Monday but would leave it with one of her colleagues to call me back. Monday and Tuesday came and went with no call. I then called her on Wednesday to be fair she apologised for no-one getting back to me. I asked about the luggage and was told we had 15kgs I asked about upping it to the 20kgs (knew it would cost me but needed it for 3wks hols) she said that she was told it couldn't be upped but she would call them again to check, she did and called me back to advise that they could and gave me the cost and I agreed. The name change would show in the next couple of hours on my booking.

The problem is I used to be a travel agent and therefore know what the person booking should have advised me especially that the luggage was 15kgs hold an 5kgs hand. This and the fact that a colleague has had a bad experience using them means I don't think I will be booking with them in the future.

Andrea

A missed opportunity Barrhead

Mrs. Kiltie phoned on Saturday (6 days ago) and gave the details of a cruise and stay that we, the extended family wished to book and the girl said she doesn't work in cruises but took the details anyway and said somebody would call us back that day, yes you have guessed no call back on either Saturday or Sunday.

Mrs. Kiltie phoned them back on Monday spoke to a guy in cruises who said he could see the call details and didn't know why it wasn't passed on, he assured us he would definitely phone back on Tuesday morning with a firm price.

Now unless I have travel through a time warp I believe it is now Thursday night and still no promised call from Barrhead Travel

So they have lost what would have been in the region of a £12,000 sale.

My wife and I have just returned from holidaying in Puerto Rico in Gran Canaria, which was booked through, and paid in full to, Barrhead Travel two months before we were due to depart on our 'holiday'. However, upon our arrival at the hotel ( Cala D’Or ), the hotel manager advised us that only two of our seven days stay had been paid for and that the other five days were to be paid immediately on arrival, before he would progress our check-in.

After some considerable time, we eventually sorted out the issue ourselves, although the anxiety and embarrassment caused by Barrhead Travels incompetence, effectively spoiled our holiday ( it wasn't helped by the fact that the manager presented me with a copy of his booking form which specified the price paid to the hotel, compared to what Barrhead Travel charged us ).

Our subsequent experience in trying to address our problems with their Customer Service Manager just made things worse, it was clearly a case of "we've got your money, so we ain't interested" - absolutely appalling business ethics.

Lesson learned is that Barrhead Travel offer absolutely no support to the traveller. So reduce the risk and book with a more reputable travel agent - or better still, book it yourself and get a significant saving as well.

Just be careful if you want to communicate with them post booking, they are completely unreliable when it comes to email comms and response. If you need to change your transfer arrangements the contract is with Barrhead not you so you cannot amend the booking without thrir agreement. I have waited a week and still no reply, hoing home tomorrow. No issues booking holidays to be fair all very friendly and efficient.

Don't go near them. They will tell you anything just to get your money. Once they have it they don't want to know. The staff are rude and insulting. I have an ongoing issue with them which will probably go to court is they don't refund all of my money.

my 18 year old daughter and her friend booked a holiday at the fort on saturday, the girl laura bullied her into signing as lead passenger on the low deposit and holiday paperwork, my daughter said l dont want to be left to pay if my friend doesnt pay her share of the holiday and was LIED TO when she was told not to worry as that would not happen it would just be that her friend would be cancelled .
needless to say l am fuming that my daughter has been coerced into entering a contract with barrhead travel to be liable for someone else and she is only 18 the girl also CONNED them into booking 14 days instead of the 10 they wanted to go with another group who already booked and she said there was no flights but on checking the dates myself there are plenty of flights.
l am disappointed that another young person would do this to two young girls she is obviously very calculating and deceitful.
l called and spoke to her manager and he was extremely nice but because he was not privvy to the conversation could not do much, l replied that there were two people told this my daughter and her friend so that is a witness to the conversation, so l am just about to email their head office and complain, dont know how that will help but the fact she was blatantly lied to about a lawfully binding contract she entered into is disgusting and should not be allowed to just be acceptable as how many other young people are conned in the same manner

Barrhead travel took our booking, good price and friendly staff. Then it all goes wrong. Due to Virgin cancelling the flight, Barrhead travel e-mailed us and offered to re-book us to travel a day earlier, whilst waiting for what seemed like a decade for their customer service centre to answer our call, we checked direct with Virgin and found the identical holiday, travelling on the new date was over £400 cheaper. We asked Barrhead travel to adjust the price in accordance with the difference in prices but this was immediately refused, no goodwill, nothing.

We cancelled our holiday with Barrhead and re-booked direct with Virgin, and saved £400

It then took over 3 weeks of chasing for Barrhead to refund our deposit.

f you want to have a holiday, book direct with the operator and do not use Barrhead as the middle man.

My new husband and I are on holiday in Cancun at the moment after booking with Barrhead Travel. I have always organised our own flights/accommodation but as this was our honeymoon we decided to get something special and pay it up. We paid £4,500 and after getting friendly with a couple who came out on the same flight as us we found we have paid over £1000 more than they have !! ABSOLUTE RIP OFF and disgusted at Barrhead Travel for not explaining that to guarantee seats together on the flight, we should have went online to book seats (£60 each way)! The cost of our holiday should have automatically included seats together which should have been done by Barrhead Travel ... what do we pay them for ??!!! As a result we had to spend 9.5 hrs seated separately!! NEVER USE THEM AGAIN !!