tigi - the snorkelling is wonderful! The beach is on the other side of the hotel from where you will be and a good walk, but you can hop on the little shuttle bus which runs between the 2 sites and it will take you to the beach. Once you get in the water from the jetty, you will be amazed at what you see!

The rooms are lovely and very spacious and you should have a great holiday. So glad you got this sorted out at last and can relax and look forward to it.

That is such good news Tigi . Well done to you . I do hope you enjoy

I just book holiday in Costa Brava with OnThe Beach and...?i have to cancel!
They phone me after 2 days and ask me fo an extra £45 becose the price of the fly (RyanAir) increase hah,hah,hah!Joke!
Then i book desame holiday with Travel Republic-good value for money as well.
Hope this time everything going to be ok.Wait and see.

Good luck. Hope you have a trouble free - fab and fun holiday!

I think I have mine sorted now (fingers crossed). Will report end of sept.

Good luck to u to tigi.cheers.

I have never experienced such a nightmare as I have with this company. I have experienced the following problems:

1. I booked a hotel which was supposed to be all inclusive. I then look on another website which stated this hotel did not offer all inclusive. This took a week to sort out after constant calling.

2. You are advised to go to the manage your own booking as it is 'quicker and easier' according to the lady on the hold music. Well not sure about anyone else but half the time you cannot log into this as an error message keeps coming up.

3. I booked airport check-in but was sent email saying i would have to check in online. I called about this but told us thats all I could do. I mentioned how I had paid more money and was told that there was nothing else they could do. I then put a complaint in and got an email back saying we could check in at the airport. You then go on the Ryanair website which tells you cannot check in at the airport. Confused?

4. My friends booked with Travel Republic the same hotel as us. They were informed on sunday 6th Sep (20 days before holiday) that the reserved hotel was closing offereing alternative or refund. As I received nothing I emailed OTB. My friends on the monday called Travel Republic and were offered alternative straight away and a refund. I called OTB on the tuesday and was told I would need to wait 48 hrs to see if I could be allocated the same place. In this time allocation is going down and prices up. Im still waiting for this to be sorted. I then said that would it be easier to get a refund? Well what you then have to do is send them an email requesting this (even though this wasnt my error and Travel Republic do not require thsi)...even more hassle so I said no, i'll give them every opportunity.

5. Just to add the disater I have had, I called up chasing my new accommodation (only 2 weeks before I go) and got transferred. I was waiting 55 mins to get through. I was pretty annoyed so on another line called OTB main no as on the website. I got through to a guy and expressed that I was annoyed at waiting for 60 mins. He offered a freephone no but no apology or expressed no understanding. The response was well sir, you should have sent and eamil or gone on the website. After turning round and saying 'you really dont care about what your customers think do you?' The response was 'well for customers with an attitude like your s we dont want your custom either'! I laughed as was in shock and he laughed back and hung up! This has been lodged as a complaint but again you cannot do this over the phone as OTB insist you put it in writing, even more hassle.

I would like to point out that I have had several decent reps try and help but from my experience they are a rarity and teh way OTB do business is more the problem. Judge for yourself and the results of google and OTB complaints whether you feel confident in booking with them.

Still not heard anything. Been in queue to OTB waiting 20 mins already trying to get through. Received email telling me the hotel is not part of the Sirenis chain (3 days late). Funny that as my friends who booked through Travel republic were told it was closing early! Adding insult to injury they have offered me a an alternative with a premium room, funny that as premium rooms are not available at this hotel. Im still waiting for the phone to be answered...

40 mins and still waiting. Called sales and got through. Explained my wait, guess what, no apology. I explained that 48 hours had passed and no callback had been made with offer of accommodation. The lady then said I should send an email. (bear in mind you get the generic we will respond in 48 hours). I said this was not acceptable as my friends had sorted this on monday, she then said it was probably because they accepted the accommodation offered. I then explained to OTB that Travel Republic had sorted them new accommodation and sorted a refund that day. On the beach simply replied, they cant comment on Travel Republic. WELL I CAN. THEY OFFER A GOD DAMN BETTER SERVICE THAN OTB AND GET THINGS SORTED QUICKER!

Sorted. The accommodation I wanted has gone up £20 whilst OTB decide availablity but the main thing is I dont need to have to call them again...hopefully!

Interesting read

http://www.ttglive.com/c/portal/layout?p_l_id=61139&CMPI_SHARED_articleId=2959964&CMPI_SHARED_ImageArticleId=2959964&CMPI_SHARED_articleIdRelated=2959964&CMPI_SHARED_ToolsArticleId=2959964&CMPI_SHARED_CommentArticleId=2959964&articleTitle=On%20the%20Beach%20refutes%20false-pricing%20claim

this has been sorted now thanks to Holly, seems one of the few at OTB that should be allowed to work in customer services! teh 48 hour delay in OTB sorting did mean a £30 increase but bearing in mind at 10p a minute and an average of 60 mins to get through, I cann at least put this one to close. OTB you have lost yourself any future custom from me, sure your not bothered but there is only so long you can keep treating customers like sh*t, your reputation will catch up with you!

well, going by the comments, it seems this travel site has a mixed reactions. i am gonna give it a try on my next travel trip booking. Let's see how prompt their services are!

Highbright:

Why on earth would you give these clowns your business, at the end of the day it is your money but just don't get worked up and rant on here when it goes wrong. If everything is as what it says, then your one of the lucky ones.

On 3 of the main travel review sites, onthebeach has pages and pages of bad press from customers on every site.

I work for an online company myself but we don't treat our customers in the ways that have been explained by people.

highbright
Strange company to pick when you are in India??

Yes highbright, if I see mixed views I usually exercise an element of caution! Why would you book a holiday with OTB when you are in India? Why would you also go on a thread re a complaint when you have had no experience whether good or bad? Do I need to ask any more questions?

Odd thing to say as your first post as well...

Just wondering if anyone has had any trouble when they have added extras as they call them to there booking like increased luggage allowance when we booked our holiday it didn't say what our luggage allowance was to be so had to email them to find out we only had 15 kg so we increased it to 20kg and were charged £60 can anyone remember when they booked did it give you how much luggage allowance you were allowed as we are looking to make a formal complaint to either the trading standards or ABTA.
Geovil

geovil, I have just booked a holiday to Egypt with OTB and had to pay £60.00 for 20kg for wife & I. At time of booking, we were told that as we had booked a no frills airline (Globespan) with them, ANY hold luggage was extra. I half expected to pay more for baggage anyway, so went ahead and booked it.
After receiving booking confirmation email, I went into Globespans web site to check on my reservation. It said I had booked hold baggage at £8.00 per leg (£32.00), so OTB charged me an extra £28.00. If I had waited, I could have done so myself for £32.00. My own fault I suppose. While in Globespan's page, I also booked extra leg room, and could also have booked choice of meals for £7.50 each.

So my story is, if you book with OTB, any flight extras you want, wait until you have your flight confirmation and book them yourself. It could save you a lot.

PS. I went to Spain with OTB two years ago, no probs., so hope this one will be the same.

baz.

After we booked we tried to book extra weight with Thomas cooke who we were flying with but couldn't they told us we had to book it with the company we booked the flights with so had to do it thru OTB.
Geovil