Hello everyone. Just thought I would let you all know how our holiday went - Got back yesterday.
We had the stress of the cancellation to KABC the night before we were due to fly (1st July) and the manic rush to finalise packing as we transferred to a four star plus Hotel in Turkey and a earlier flight so we only had a few hours sleep before we had to get up and travel to the airport.
Although we were annoyed and frustated with FC cancelling 24 hours before we were due to leave, the alternative holiday was a better star rating and the specification of the hotel looked fantastic, plus we received the 20% compensation as well so we thought fair enough, crossed fingers we would still have a nice holiday.
We arrived at our four star plus hotel in Turkey to find out that it had only been open a week and wasn't finished! Groan!
Have to admit that hotel and location was beautiful and the rooms, although small, were clean and new.
However, as the hotel had only been open a week, the customer service was awful and staff just didn't have a clue! Only a few people spoke good english which was a nightmare.
We booked the KABC because of the several restaurants on site (my hubby has a stomach problem so we needed the option of several places to eat) and the activities that they offered and when we accepted the alternative we were told that there was a restaurant at the hotel plus an Al a carte and several beach bars.
The restaurant at the hotel was not open and we were informed we had to eat at the buffet next door at the sister hotel (3 star) - The food was awful and they couldn't cope with the amount of people there!! We could only eat at the al a carte twice during our 2 week stay.
We complained to our rep who eventually offered a transfer to another hotel but informed us it would cost us over £500.00. We were livid. We told her it wasn't good enough so she came back and said we could eat in the al a carte restaurant every night! Okay, the food was reasonable but they offered the same menu every night so we only ate there a few times.
We basically spent the 20% compensation eating out for breakfast and dinner.
The hotel restaurant did open after we had been there ten days (ten days of lying by the pool listening to the builders banging, drilling to complete it....it was on the top floor.....open air!) but again because it was new the staff were running around not knowing what they were doing and the food wasn't up to scratch although it did get better.
We spoke to lots of people whilst we were there who were also having the same problems and were eating out.
Anyway, we got the rep to sign a complaint form whilst we were there and we are now going to write to a letter of complaint to first choice.
All the money that we took with us for excursions was spent on food which was so frustrating. We paid for an all inclusive four star holiday and ending up spending most of our time away from the hotel.
Just hope that we recieve some kind of apology from FC and some money back for what we spent outside of the hotel.
Hope everyone has managed to get their hols sorted.
Janenmick, glad to hear that you had a nice time in Kos.
Nicola