Name: Holiday Gems
Rating: 4.52

“I’m still waiting for transfer from hotel to airport you Forgot about this”

Posted 1 month ago

Hello Mr Ciocan, we are unsure why you make this review almost 12 months after travel. However, we can see that it relates to a complaint following which you were advised of a refund and failed to respond to our many reminders. If you can kindly use the correct method of contact and same email threads as then, this can be looked into for you. Meanwhile we hope you may withdraw or update this negative review since it does not appear warranted as we are waiting for you to reply to our emails regarding the refund being paid.

Posted 1 month ago

“Booked to fly from east mids, website allows to pick flights and seats, the ones we selected, they now telling us 3 days before we go that these aren't selected. Now got to fly from and to Manchester even earlier start.😔”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 months ago

Hello Robert, many thanks for your review and we’re sorry you feel we did not meet expectations. Firstly and in order to explain, whilst our booking system relies on live feeds from our suppliers, brokers and airlines we are unfortunately not in control of momentary price changes, fluctuations or changes in availability provided by the same and whilst the vast majority of bookings will be confirmed without issue, we, along with many other well-known Tour Operators in the market cannot be held responsible whereby these changes affect our ability to confirm travel arrangements. In your case we can see this is exactly what happened. The price of your chosen flights had gone up but we were able to offer the alternative airport at a lower cost which you accepted. We sympathise with the earlier start but hope that you enjoy your holiday.

Posted 2 months ago

“What a joke we couldn't check in online to book seats together then got to the airport 2 hours we waited for check in to open nothing come on the screen so we was having to wonder round try find out where to check in then we was told 2 wrong locations same as everyone else so was waiting in wrong lines before we found the right one then the line was massive only 1 person checking people in we was waiting 2 hours and the flight was leaving in 30 minutes before they send more staff to help everyone was fuming we had no time we had to run for the flight couldn't even get a drink then we was delayed leaving because they was so slow checking people in waited in line for hours absolutely the worst airline I have ever used. Then the worst hotel I have ever stayed first they tried to give me a room I didnt book but I refused to accept it joke then its not all inclusive and the food was not even fit to feed to a dog they only put out 3 options fowl food. We had to eat out every day for every meal. They try charge you for everything wifi towel cards drinks only flat pop with 1 ice cube in tiny dirty plastic cups is all inclusive bar doesn't open till 10 by the pool and you have to pay for drinks? it has to be the worst place I have ever stayed they didn't once change the bedding in the room. The bed was no quilt but a cheap hospital blanket and nothing not even water provided in the room in the fridges so need to buy water to make a drink in the room at night and take a cup didnt even give you a cup in the room next to kettle? . You have to wait hours for the shuttle to get to from beach and they was days you couldn't even get a towel and only juice water offered at the beach no bar just juice machine help yourself. There was not enough places for people to sit round the pool in the evening's to even have a drink and it smelt like sewage so we went out every night. Then when we cheacked out they told us we couldn't leave reception we had to wait 3 hours to be collected in the morning they wouldn't let us go by the pool or even give us a drink joke we left the hotel went to a bar to wait so we could have coffee airconditioning and some breakfast. I would never recommend this place to anyone do not waist your money honestly didnt meet anyone there that wasn't complaining about it.”

Helpful Report

Posted 9 months ago

Miss Jones we are sorry to hear this but do not feel you have directed your review to the correct business. Both issues appear to be that you encountered the worst airline and worst hotel in your opinion and they should be allowed to respond to your complaint. We are very surprised that no such complaint was logged with us during your holiday if the impact to you was as described and this has denied us opportunity to help you at the time.

Posted 9 months ago

“Disgraceful”

Helpful Report

Posted 9 months ago

Miss Leech we regret that looking at your booking this review appears to be written in frustration that we are simply applying our booking terms and conditions to which you agreed when making your booking online with us. We are sorry we cannot agree to what is required as a result.

Posted 9 months ago

“Connecting flights were miles apart waiting around for hours when other flights were available. Pick up time was incorrect on paper work stating we would leave island at 8pm when actually it was 3pm waiting in airport over 5 hrs. Where told we would get a seaplane from airport to island when actually it was a domestic flight then a boat. Every flights we had to wait about 5 hours until the next one. We asked for a room on the sea ended up with a room with garden so had to pay extra £200 for a night in a room we actually wanted. We wish we get some discounts for our next holidays or some refund please aware people 😔”

Helpful Report

Posted 10 months ago

Hello Natalie & Ali, we are sorry to read this review. Your arrangements were read back to you for acceptance and the type of transfer was given as domestic flight, we regret you made assumption this was seaplane. Unfortunately such transfers are scheduled locally and beyond our control about times of operation, the paperwork time we state refers to the minimum period you are required to be at the airport to ensure you do not miss your international flight and the local operator uses those international flight times to decide which service you should be placed onto. In addition, the international flight times were given to you and the connection time was not queried. We further do not see that a sea view was requested and this is not indicated on your paperwork which should have been queried upon receipt if this was incorrect. We hope that otherwise you had a wonderful holiday and thank you for your feedback.

Posted 10 months ago

“Caught my family and I caught COVID and they are still trying to make me pay for the holiday to cancel I totally refuse shocking company .”

Helpful Report

Posted 10 months ago

Mr Clarke, whereas we do sympathise with your situation if this is the case, this would be a matter for your travel insurance if you are ill and unable to travel. Furthermore, if you took advantage of our low deposit payment scheme, it is within our terms and conditions that you must pay any deficit that we have paid to suppliers on your behalf and this is contractually binding. We are sure you can appreciate that we cannot absorb such fees ourselves.

Posted 10 months ago

“Due to problems which I won't write down our holiday booked through Holiday Gems was a farce ( pardon my language) from start to finish. NEVER EVER will we book through them in future. Expected MUCH more from them”

Helpful Report

Posted 10 months ago

Mr Cunningham we regret you had such issues with your booked arrangements, our teams did everything to resolve matters as these arose and we apologise for the inconvenience. In the hope that you will reconsider booking with us again the relevant team dealing with your formal complaint will address an aspect of compensation to remedy.

Posted 10 months ago

“I booked a holiday online but got a call from a travel advisor the following day to say the flight prices had increased (even though money was taken out of my account). Not sure why it took a day to get back to me. I then went back onto the website and the price was still showing at the rate that I booked. The advisor (Dave) I have to say was very good and understanding of the situation, so this rating is aimed at the company and not the advisor. We then spent hours trying to find an alternative hotel and destination, but the cheapest suitable alternative was £1200 more expensive. As this was the mistake of the company I would have expected them to bear some of that cost, but no. I agreed to the more expensive holiday, only to be told that the price had increased for the new accommodation, by approx £40. At this point out of principle, I said you either stick to the price agreed for the new holiday or refund me all my money. Within a few minutes, I got confirmation of the booking, just felt like I was being drained for every penny. In hindsight maybe I should have just asked for a refund, and booked with another site. I have 2 massive family holidays to book next year, one for 12 people and another for 30 people due to their lack of taking responsibility and then squeezing me for more money, I will not be using them.”

Helpful Report

Posted 11 months ago

Hello Mr Mehta we are sorry that your original arrangements increased in price. Our website does advise about the process and timescales for the completion of a booking, but we are pleased that ultimately the agent further discounted the new booking at a Company loss in order to meet the costs expected which we hope is appreciated. We’re sorry you feel we did not meet expectations and in order to explain, whilst our booking system relies on live feeds from our suppliers, brokers and airlines we are unfortunately not in control of momentary price changes, fluctuations or changes in availability provided by the same and whilst the vast majority of bookings will be confirmed without issue, we, along with many other well-known Tour Operators in the market cannot be held responsible whereby these changes affect our ability to confirm travel arrangements. In your case we can see this is exactly what happened. When you make a booking with us and prior to the point of actually confirming the arrangements for you, we “ring fence” the amount from your payment method although, and critically, we do not debit your payment type and it is only held within your account until the point of us confirming your chosen arrangement and ourselves obtaining the relevant confirmation codes from our suppliers, brokers and airlines. Should we not be able to confirm your arrangements, your order is assigned to one of our sales agents who will then investigate and try their utmost to provide you with identical or near-matched arrangements and we will offer this to you. It is then up to yourself to proceed or not, with the new arrangements. If you do not wish to proceed, we cancel your order down and release the “ring fence” amount for you. We also note in your case, you decided to proceed with the alternative and your payment type was therefore debited. Please note, our sales agent will always try to obtain the same, similar or cheaper pricing for any alternative arrangements found however, this may not be possible as once again, we are simply not in control of pricing, yield changes and availability of our suppliers, brokers and airlines. At all times, we work within strict company guidelines and always with your interests at heart. We would also like to mention that further details of the aforementioned are listed throughout the website in our Terms and Conditions to which you duly ticked when you made your online order with us. In closing, we hope the above explanation and facts helps you understand the situation which gave you cause to issue a negative review and on balance, once you have had time to digest the above, we would appreciate any amendment you could make to your review which would then be reflective of the promised service level and experience you had with us.

Posted 11 months ago

“Customer service isn’t the best ( if anything ) really hard to talk to someone, the number you get given is a premium number , and they leave you hanging on the telephone ( on purpose )”

Helpful Report

Posted 11 months ago

Peter we are disappointed to hear this and will ask for our customer service team to pass us comments about this so we may respond accurately to this review.

Posted 11 months ago

Peter we understand you have now been contacted and the situation clarified including that you were using an old telephone number for contact to us. We no longer have premium numbers and our calls are charged at local rates (depending on provider). We trust this now satisfies for you.

Posted 11 months ago

“Picked up my holiday and paid for it, only to be phoned the next day by holiday gems and asked for another £70 as the price of the jet2 flight had gone up. I priced up the holiday again to find it had only gone up £20 BUT!!!! It would be full board instead of half board. I phoned Holiday gems only to be told ,they had the live price and it would be £70 more but they could give me full board. I don't think I would use them again.”

Helpful Report

Posted 11 months ago

Mrs Luke many thanks for your review and we’re sorry you feel we did not meet expectations. Firstly and in order to explain, whilst our booking system relies on live feeds from our suppliers, brokers and airlines we are unfortunately not in control of momentary price changes, fluctuations or changes in availability provided by the same and whilst the vast majority of bookings will be confirmed without issue, we, along with many other well-known Tour Operators in the market cannot be held responsible whereby these changes affect our ability to confirm travel arrangements. In your case we can see this is exactly what happened. When you make a booking with us and prior to the point of actually confirming the arrangements for you, we “ring fence” the amount from your payment method although, and critically, we do not debit your payment type and it is only held within your account until the point of us confirming your chosen arrangement and ourselves obtaining the relevant confirmation codes from our suppliers, brokers and airlines. Should we not be able to confirm your arrangements, your order is assigned to one of our sales agents who will then investigate and try their utmost to provide you with identical or near-matched arrangements and we will offer this to you. It is then up to yourself to proceed or not, with the new arrangements. If you do not wish to proceed, we cancel your order down and release the “ring fence” amount for you. We also note in your case, you decided to proceed with amended arrangements and your payment type was therefore debited. Please note, our sales agent will always try to obtain the same, similar or cheaper pricing for any alternative arrangements found however, this may not be possible as once again, we are simply not in control of pricing, yield changes and availability of our suppliers, brokers and airlines. At all times, we work within strict company guidelines and always with your interests at heart. We would also like to mention that further details of the aforementioned are listed throughout the website in our Terms and Conditions to which you duly ticked when you made your online order with us. In closing, we hope the above explanation and facts helps you understand the situation which gave you cause to issue a negative review and on balance, once you have had time to digest the above, we would appreciate any amendment you could make to your review which would then be reflective of the promised service level and experience you had with us.

Posted 11 months ago

“Unhappy that the price on screen was not the price I paid. Apparently prices had gone up in 2 hrs and was called to be advised. Will not use again”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Hello Mrs Thorpe many thanks for your review and we’re sorry you feel we did not meet expectations. Firstly and in order to explain, whilst our booking system relies on live feeds from our suppliers, brokers and airlines we are unfortunately not in control of momentary price changes, fluctuations or changes in availability provided by the same and whilst the vast majority of bookings will be confirmed without issue, we, along with many other well-known Tour Operators in the market cannot be held responsible whereby these changes affect our ability to confirm travel arrangements. In your case we can see this is exactly what happened. When you make a booking with us and prior to the point of actually confirming the arrangements for you, we “ring fence” the amount from your payment method although, and critically, we do not debit your payment type and it is only held within your account until the point of us confirming your chosen arrangement and ourselves obtaining the relevant confirmation codes from our suppliers, brokers and airlines. Should we not be able to confirm your arrangements, your order is assigned to one of our sales agents who will then investigate and try their utmost to provide you with identical or near-matched arrangements and we will offer this to you. It is then up to yourself to proceed or not, with the new arrangements. If you do not wish to proceed, we cancel your order down and release the “ring fence” amount for you. We also note in your case, you decided to proceed with the alternative and your payment type was therefore debited. Please note, our sales agent will always try to obtain the same, similar or cheaper pricing for any alternative arrangements found however, this may not be possible as once again, we are simply not in control of pricing, yield changes and availability of our suppliers, brokers and airlines. At all times, we work within strict company guidelines and always with your interests at heart. We would also like to mention that further details of the aforementioned are listed throughout the website in our Terms and Conditions to which you duly ticked when you made your online order with us. In closing, we hope the above explanation and facts helps you understand the situation which gave you cause to issue a negative review and on balance, once you have had time to digest the above, we would appreciate any amendment you could make to your review which would then be reflective of the promised service level and experience you had with us.

Posted 1 year ago

“Absolute disgraceful company. I wish I had never booked a holiday with them - booked online, then was told nothing was available anymore at that price. They still advertised the price for days after. Could not get through to anyone on the phone and was only called back when I confirmed I would cancel. I had already made a payment online - so was informed that I would loose my £299 deposit of I cancelled - EVEN though they could not fulfil the original holiday. As I didn't want to loose my deposit, I booked another destination over the phone. Then contacted a week later to say they flight outbound has been cancelled - there us another flight but you have to pay more? What kind of company is this? I have asked for conversation in writing and have been told I need to wait - I have asked for my telephone booking recordings as I was misold and misinformed information and I have been told I need to pay for these recordings. Now, if I want to cancel the holiday THEY cannot fulfil - I still need to pay for the return flights? Do not book with Holiday Gems - con artists”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Miss Henry, we are sorry you experienced so many issues with your booking but can assure you we are not con artists and that is a libellous statement you make. Our booking system relies on live feeds from our suppliers, brokers and airlines we are unfortunately not in control of momentary price changes, fluctuations or changes in availability. We regret that you have since had a flight cancelation which, since we do not operate flights, have no control over either. Our booking terms to which you agreed online when placing your order do state our position clearly about that and the type of flights you accept can apply to your arrangements, but we will do all we can to assist you in such situations. Indeed there has been some contribution towards your costs already.

Posted 1 year ago

“APPALLING COMPANY - I BOOKED A FLIGHT DEPARTING ON THE 9TH OF APRIL AND RETURNING ON THE 14TH OF APRIL AND ONCE I RECEIVED THE CONFIRMATION IT TOLD ME I WAS LEAVING ON THE 9TH OF APRIL AND RETURNING ON THE 9TH OF APRIL. I CALLED THIS COMPANY TO BE TOLD IT WAS AN ERROR FROM THEIR SIDE AND ANYONE CAN MAKE A MISTAKE (DEBBIE) - REALLY !! FURTHERMORE, I HAD PAID FOR AND REQUESTED CERTAIN SEATS ON BOTH FLIGHTS TO BE TOLD THAT HOLIDAY GEM HAD NOT CARRIED OUT THIS ONLY TO BOOK SEATS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TO WHAT I HAD PAID FOR. I WOULD STRONGLY REQUEST FOR NO ONE TO USE THIS COMPANY AS THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ABSOLUTELY USELESS. I AM SURPRISED BY THEIR ACTIONS BUT AT LEAST THEY DECIDED TO BOOK THE RIGHT DESTINATION AND HOTEL”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Mrs Lerner we do apologise again for the human error in the dates showing on your paperwork. Of course, had we booked incorrectly, we would have arranged to rectify that but it was all booked for the right dates with the airline. As you will be aware, the arrangements were provided to you as a package in an offer to purchase them and we regret that the offer of the seat number was not available when the booking was actually confirmed. We sympathise that this was the case and you were provided with the next available. Unfortunately, we have no control over that and our website terms of use do cover that our booking system relies on live feeds from our suppliers, brokers and airlines.

Posted 1 year ago

“Booked a holiday and the the price increased by £120”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Mr Pugh many thanks for your review and we’re sorry you feel we did not meet expectations. Firstly and in order to explain, whilst our booking system relies on live feeds from our suppliers, brokers and airlines we are unfortunately not in control of momentary price changes, fluctuations or changes in availability provided by the same and whilst the vast majority of bookings will be confirmed without issue, we, along with many other well-known Tour Operators in the market cannot be held responsible whereby these changes affect our ability to confirm travel arrangements. In your case we can see this is exactly what happened. When you make a booking with us and prior to the point of actually confirming the arrangements for you, we “ring fence” the amount from your payment method although, and critically, we do not debit your payment type and it is only held within your account until the point of us confirming your chosen arrangement and ourselves obtaining the relevant confirmation codes from our suppliers, brokers and airlines. Should we not be able to confirm your arrangements, your order is assigned to one of our sales agents who will then investigate and try their utmost to provide you with identical or near-matched arrangements and we will offer this to you. It is then up to yourself to proceed or not, with the new arrangements. If you do not wish to proceed, we cancel your order down and release the “ring fence” amount for you. We also note in your case, you decided to proceed with the alternative and your payment type was therefore debited. Please note, our sales agent will always try to obtain the same, similar or cheaper pricing for any alternative arrangements found however, this may not be possible as once again, we are simply not in control of pricing, yield changes and availability of our suppliers, brokers and airlines. At all times, we work within strict company guidelines and always with your interests at heart. We would also like to mention that further details of the aforementioned are listed throughout the website in our Terms and Conditions to which you duly ticked when you made your online order with us. In closing, we hope the above explanation and facts helps you understand the situation which gave you cause to issue a negative review and on balance, once you have had time to digest the above, we would appreciate any amendment you could make to your review which would then be reflective of the promised service level and experience you had with us.

Posted 1 year ago

“1 star is too much for the rate Please avoid avoid avoid form this Company I was a regular customer with you, if you review your record you see I had previously Holiday with you. But I will never do it again. I had another issue with my previous Holiday and I did not get a lesson. Unfortunately, I did the same mistake to book a holiday with you. 1- your advertised price is not much for what we booked. 2- Your price is much high for the Hotel and package 3- the Holtels you included in your package is rubbish 4- you telling lie not the truth during the booking 5- stealing money”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Hello Mrs MUHAMADSALH SAEED, we regret you place such a low review and content about your booking experience, not least since you booked online on our website and selected the hotel yourself. We would expect customers research themselves before booking to ensure a property meets requirements. We only booked the hotel at your request. We have subsequently given you information about amending that if you wish. Turning to the price of the package, you had a choice not to proceed if you did not agree with any price but have in fact been booked at the price you wanted, so this comment is confusing to us. We further deny any lies or that money has been stolen as you claim and would suggest that this comment is removed since it is libellous.

Posted 1 year ago

“Really disappointing. No way to check if luggage is included and then find out its an extra £420 on top. Paid my deposit and was given a final balance date in May. I received an email the day after making my booking to say I was late on payment and it all needed paying off immediately! Absolutely shocking.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Mrs Endicott we are sorry to hear this and receive such a low review from you. Our booking terms and conditions that you accepted when making your booking online on our website do state about luggage - ''Optional extras are not included in any of the Package Holidays we advertise or sell (unless otherwise stated). For example, checked baggage, meals, refreshments, extra leg room, priority boarding, pre-allocated seating may need to be added at extra cost at the time of booking or will be payable at the airport or on-board the aircraft. In many cases optional extras will be limited and are at the discretion of the airline concerned. Please enquire at the time of booking for details of optional extras.'' We are therefore similarly disappointed that you did not make enquiry before proceeding to book. Turning to the balance payment, these are system generated and of course can be incorrect or erroneous therefore we would have expected that you contact our customer service team to query any discrepancy so it could be looked into for you. We do not see that this occurred so we had no opportunity to address and resolve it perhaps differently.

Posted 1 year ago

“They changed the price after I made my booking they called me the second day and upend the price not really happy.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Hello, many thanks Mr Abdullah for your review and we’re sorry you feel we did not meet expectations. Firstly and in order to explain, whilst our booking system relies on live feeds from our suppliers, brokers and airlines we are unfortunately not in control of momentary price changes, fluctuations or changes in availability provided by the same and whilst the vast majority of bookings will be confirmed without issue, we, along with many other well-known Tour Operators in the market cannot be held responsible whereby these changes affect our ability to confirm travel arrangements. In your case we can see this is exactly what happened. When you make a booking with us and prior to the point of actually confirming the arrangements for you, we “ring fence” the amount from your payment method although, and critically, we do not debit your payment type and it is only held within your account until the point of us confirming your chosen arrangement and ourselves obtaining the relevant confirmation codes from our suppliers, brokers and airlines. Should we not be able to confirm your arrangements, your order is assigned to one of our sales agents who will then investigate and try their utmost to provide you with identical or near-matched arrangements and we will offer this to you. It is then up to yourself to proceed or not, with the new arrangements. If you do not wish to proceed, we cancel your order down and release the “ring fence” amount for you. We also note in your case, you decided to proceed with the alternative and your payment type was therefore debited. Please note, our sales agent will always try to obtain the same, similar or cheaper pricing for any alternative arrangements found however, this may not be possible as once again, we are simply not in control of pricing, yield changes and availability of our suppliers, brokers and airlines. At all times, we work within strict company guidelines and always with your interests at heart. We would also like to mention that further details of the aforementioned are listed throughout the website in our Terms and Conditions to which you duly ticked when you made your online order with us. In closing, we hope the above explanation and facts helps you understand the situation which gave you cause to issue a negative review and on balance, once you have had time to digest the above, we would appreciate any amendment you could make to your review which would then be reflective of the promised service level and experience you had with us.

Posted 1 year ago

“Antalya is a beautiful holiday destination, but o wouldn’t recommend this hotel Side Premium unless you are Russian or German . It doesn’t cater for British whatsoever. Food repetition and non existent entertainment. There are lots of other hotels I would recommend . Management need to sort out seating arrangements in lobby as it isn’t acceptable if you do not get to lobby before 8 you are having to sit on steps . Bar are also very choosy who they serve . Choosing to serve paying Russians who behave like animals”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“Not happy with the service at all, myself and to daughters booked a holiday in 3 bookings all together and it all went through untill following morning, when 1 of our bookings got transferred to a totally different airport, so now we have to travel at totally different airports and due to this my daughter now has to travel with her autistic daughter with out our support..”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Miss Holden We regret you feel our service warrants this review. Your bookings were made individually and our website specifically says if larger groups want to be sure of sufficient availability for any flights/hotels they should call our call centre. You all ticked to accept the terms and conditions and we are sorry this was overlooked. Our website states that you are making an offer to purchase the Package Holiday selected and if it is available at the price it is confirmed. This appears to have been the case for 2 bookings which we are pleased could be the case and whilst we sympathise with the situation now encountered, we have no control over the availability of flights which are affected by supply and demand.

Posted 1 year ago

“I phone back to request my Ryanair email address I need to check in and he couldn’t have been less interested and unhelpful if he tried he then gave me an email address which I thought was wrong and told him that but he said it was the right one and then hung up and of course it was the wrong email he provided me so I’m now trying to phone customer services and have been on hold for 30 mins so far No way would I use your company in the future or recommend yourselves if this is the way I’m treated A Maclean”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Alistair we are sorry to hear this and will ask for internal investigation.

Posted 1 year ago


Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Postal Service
Average Delivery Time	Next Day
On-time Delivery	96%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Under An Hour
Customer Service	4.5 out of 5

Holiday Gems Reviews