We are planning to go to to Goa next year and had found a good price for our chosen accomodation, with, guess who. Don't think we will be taking them up on it as going by the threads the chances of getting what we booked or any where like it seems remote. Kinda of defeats the object of researching location and booking early, just as well take "Allocation on arrival".

This is a special holiday and I'm not prepared to take the risk, their loss!

We were booked with DH to go to Elba Sara in Fuerteventura in August when we arrived at the airport we were told the hotel was overbooked and the system had only shown it that day and we were to stay in a 5* hotel that had just opened instead.
We got to the hotel at about 9-30 in the evening and checked in and dropped off the cases and went out for a walk, when we got back later we had several power cuts which happened repeatedly for the whole of our stay.
At breakfast the food was precooked and cold.
At the reps meeting there were 8 other groups in the same situation as us and after much complaining about the standard of the food , water which was brown out of the tap, no air conditioning, pool water which had left everybody with red eyes due to the amount of salt, rooms not suitable for some of the families as they were only 1 bed rooms and a fold-out sofa bed, we were given AI passes to the Elba Sara but it was a 20 minute walk away across wasteland which was no good for us as my wife has been off work for 6 months with a bad back.
We spent our whole holiday having to get up early to switch hotels for the day, going back to get changed at tea time and then back for our evening meal.
We came back more tired than when we went.
While talking between our group somebody who had been moved out of the Barcelo AI to Elba HB had to pay £500 and was also bumped out of the Elba Sara, they had contacted DH the week before they left about something and were told they were not staying at Elba Sara, when they queried this DH said they would get back to them but they never did and when they phoned back DH confirmed they were at Elba Sara but on arrival they got moved also.
We wrote to DH on our return and have received a letter today saying they are investigating and will be in touch within 42 days I will keep you posted about the outcome

Cheers Mark

If anyone needs any free legal advice then call Ros Fernihough on 01922 621114.

Eljhem
Hopefully you'll be one of the lucky ones as regards to your holiday. Reading all our complaints must be so upsetting for people who have just booked a holiday with this company but I do know of people who have had no problems with their holiday. The reason why most people find sites like these is because they have complaints about their trip or the TA or TO they used. I hope your holiday goes off without any hassles.

Mark
Sorry to hear about your nightmare holiday. I hope that you are helped by the TO and you receive any compensation you are claiming. Let us know how you get on with this.

we have also put in a complaint and are also awaiting their investigation of our greivance. I know we will probably be wasting our time writing complaint letters but the more people who show their distrust and upset by the treatment by Direct Holidays we can only hope future customers will not suffer the same next summer. As someone posted earlier it is so upsetting when you dont get the holiday that you booked, and planned for so long. But what made it worse for us ,as it was our last family holiday together as the older kids will be doing their own thing next year and I felt robbed of the special holiday it should have been , as what we had expected and looked forward too was taken away from us with such disregard.

Islandgirl
I know what you mean. My hubby will not be forty again. Thats one of the reasons why we booked to go away and paid so much money. We've rescheduled our honeymoon for next year instead. But you say these things to the TO when you call them, and they make it so obvious that they couldn't care less.

These special occasions won't come round again. You keep at them with your complaint. Make them listen to you at the very least. Then, maybe, this kind of thing might stop happening to others.

i know that this doesnt help when you've had your holiday ruined but i have been with direct holidays on five seperate occasions to five different countries and have never had a problem with my flights, accommodation, delays (my travel) or changing in bookings or flight times, we havent even been delayed and thats flying from manchester where my travel is nicknamed,'might not travel'...........maybe this is just down to luck. our last one was in july this year to majorca, s'illot but after finding the same accommodation for my parents cheaper by booking straight with the hotel i wont be booking with a travel company again....its d.i.y. from now on.

Ruthbean
Great stuff. You've had some good holidays by the sounds of it. Its good to know that things do go ok for customers. But being in this section of HT usually means we hear just the complaints.

Put your good news postings in the Tour Operator/Travel Agents section as we are trying to get threads started that do mention any good stuff that happens to customers when dealing with TA/TO's.

Best wishes to you.

hi ,everyone reading about direct holidays ,at the moment i am awaiting a court date about direct holidays as i will not take any s**t off any holiday company i treat them the way they treat me. this has been going on since last augast i know it takes a long time to sort out but do not let them get away with it. roz is looking after my case at the moment i can not tell you why i am taking direct to court but with a bit of luck once over i will put a post on this site. please if you have a complaint dont be put off get in touch with roz
from steve

We have booked to stay at Oro Playa apts in puerto pollensa with DH next June for my 40th I am really concerned now.
Should I be worrying can anyone tell me who does not have a gripe what DH actual position is at present???

For general discussion about Direct Holidays, not related to specific complaints, please check out our Tour Operators forum.

David

Trina

You will find plenty of good reviews for DH throughout other forums on this site.

Like all holiday companies DH will have complaints and this forum is the place for complaints to be aired, so please don't get concerned about your holiday based on this forum.

We have just returned from Corfu with DH and received the exact holiday as per our booking.

Trina
Kiltman graham is right. This is a forum for complaints. But i'm sure there are loads of DH customers who's holidays have been as they planned them.

Please don't worry.

Thanks everyone have posted thread on tour operators and have recd very posisitive comments.

Kiltman-Graham

Any idea what happened to First Officer?

Hello Dizzy
Still waiting for my letter from DH getting on almost two months now! Hows your situation going?

Futurebride, when things started going wrong with DH and their mexican hotels, First Officer just vanished

He / She was a good source of information, I hope they return soon with good news.

Futurebride I hope all is going as well as it can be with your wedding plans after your problems.

Graham

I did notice he vanished on this topic but I was wondering did he pop up anywhere else.

Perhaps he/she feels responsible for promoting the tour company. FC did not hide the fact that he/she was connected in some way with the company and while First Officer was great for information on holidays and putting future customers minds at rest about booking with the Tour op, when these customers really needed some advice when it all went terrible wrong he/she vanished.

I hope he/she is ok and how wonderful it would be if first officer were to come back and help those who have had their holidays ruined. With the same eagerness he had for promoting the company of course!!!!!

Hi FB
My situation is at the beginning of what will probably be a long argument between myself and the company. The company wrote to me a couple of weeks ago saying they are investigating the 5 page letter of complaint I sent to them. I've heard nothing since but even if they do take me seriously, it'll take them a while to investigate all that happened. I will be patient as long as they do look into everything.

I'm still unwell and seeing the doctor who's refferred me on to the GI consultant. But i'm back at work and trying to get back to normal.

Hope this is the same topic!
We booked with Direct Holidays in May to go to Mojacar in Costa de Almeria staying at the Gran Vista Apartments.
When we got to Almeria Airport the rep was waiting for us, she told us the apartments "weren't quite ready" - me being naive thought she meant the beds weren't made or something!
They tried to place us in a hotel in Roquetas de Mar which is south of the airport (we needed to be north as we were viewing properties to buy). Anyway to cut a long story short we persisted for about an hour (we had been up all night travelling to Manchester Airport and waiting for flight so we were v. tired and I was upset), they kept trying to get us to go and sit in the cafe but we didn't move an inch (we were obviously bad for business) and eventually conveniently found us a room at the Hotel Oasis Tropical in Mojacar which we were satisfied with.
This does not alter the fact that they should have let us know before we set off as we run our own business and a week in somewhere like Roquetas which was no use to us works out v. expensive.
Anyway, chunter over, we had a good week after all and Almeria inland is a beautiful place and we are looking to move there next year (away from the wonderful customer care of the UK).
Thanks for listening (or reading!)
PS. Went to look for the Gran Vista Apartments - they didn't actually exist!!!!! (Surprise Surprise) If they did no-one who lived there had heard of them!