“***FALSE ADVERTISING*** BEWARE!!!
Very misleading advertising and poor customer service!
During the JANSALE the offer said '10% off holidays, with airport lounge included!'
For me, that meant I could get access to the lounge foc - (included)!
I was given all sorts of fob offs from Virgin however. Everything from, the lounge having 10% off; the lounge not being available for our flights; the lounge is included in your package 'if available'.
I know the word 'free' isn't used, but to say something is included is the same for me.
Complaints via email and telephone got me nowhere!”
“Completely dreadful, do not go near this company as they simply are not interested if there are issues with your holiday.
We booked for 3 of us to go to Orlando and then on to Barbados over Xmas and New years 2019. All hotels and flights were booked with Virgin Holidays and all payments made to Virgin Holidays.
We had horrendous flight delays in Orlando which meant that we were 30 hours late getting to out Barbados destination.
Having spoken with 3 people from Virgin Holidays and written a lengthy note explaining the circumstances the company have shown ZERO interest in supporting us. No one contacted while we were away to ask if were ok, nor has anyone since we returned.
When i asked about compensation for the lost nights of our holiday, i was told it was the airlines (that they booked for us) responsibility and not their issue.
In short i will never use them again.”
“I only wish I had viewed this website prior to booking, it might have prevented me spending money on, what I consider to be the worst value ever. The villa, or I should say the first villa was below standard, pool area neglected, dirty and dark with trees and bushes growing almost into the pool area. On complaining, we were moved to another villa, slightly less sub standard, however the road noise was terrible, not the relaxing time we had envisaged. The New Port Richey area is not a holiday destination. Please think carefully before booking these villas as to get anywhere you have to traverse the US 19 one of the most dangerous roads in Florida. Book with another company that gives much more detail about the surrounding area and uses a management company that are competent and keep the villas up to standard. We neglected to do our homework prior to booking and virgin gave us little or no info. Lesson learned never book with virgin.”
“STAFF ABRUPT AND RUDE. NO FEEDBACK FROM COMPLAINTS MADE DESPITE COMMUNICATION BY EMAIL AND VIA PHONE CALLS.
VERY UNHELPFUL CUSTOMER SERVICES. THIS SERVICE NEEDS A COMPLETE OVERHAUL AND REVIEW.”
“We were a party of 14, 4 x couples, 2 x teenage boys, 2 x 11 year old boys and 2 x infants (a boy and girl). Virgin gave us a villa with 7 double beds and we were told it was allocated on arrival. Total lies and unworkable.
The villa itself was poorly maintained- old carpet and rubbish in the front garden; weeds growing on driveway and around pool; security fence around pool ripped; broken furniture; black mould under toilet rims; toilet roll holder hanging off wall; insufficient cutlery or glasses for our party; home entertainment centre without controls or instructions; no inventory etc etc etc.
In addition the Virgin website LIED that this villa came with a heated pool but when we arrived we found that pool heating had to be paid for, and, as the spa was part of the pool, that wasn’t heated either (the website has been changed since my complaint to them. We sent photos of all this to Virgin in London who responded it was just wear and tear.
The resort team were next to useless And the Customer Services in GB almost as bad, taking ages to respond.
The Virgin Holidays MD - Joe Thompson - never responded to my email to him WHAT AN IGNORANT PIG but then I suppose they get so many complaints!!!!!!!!
Don’t book a Florida Villa holiday with Virgin - total rubbish and much cheaper to book flights and villa separately.”
“AWFUL ADVICE ON A HOTEL IN ORLANDO. WE BOOKED THE COCO KEYS AS ADVISED IT WAS GREAT, FOUND TO OUR COST IT WAS A MOTEL NOT HOTEL AND SHOCKING CLIENTELE AND SERVICE. HOLIDAY SO BAD WOULD NEVER VISIT AMERICA AGAIN OR USE VIRGIN. FAMILY HOTEL WITH SEX SHOP OPPOSITE AND MASSAGE PARLOUR A FEW DOORS DOWN. AVOID AT ALL COSTS”
“False advertising and a 4 day delay in customer services returning a call.
Booked to go to the grand Orlando hotel in Florida. Virgin gives this resort 4/5 rating. It’s a absolute hole... dirty, damp, drug use by ‘family pool’ and unsafe fittings in room. I immediately emailed virgin reps to request a move and had no response for 4 days. They then offered a 3/5 rating hotel and said if I didn’t like the situation I can break contract and find my own place.
Totally below standard customer services. They are absolute amateurs. I had to move for the safety of my family. They’ll honestly ruin your holiday.”
“Similar to previous posts if there was a '0' rating I would have used that. Virgin Holidays have categorically been the worst holiday company we have used for holiday bookings.
We had an issue with them some years ago regarding lost luggage and at they were shocking then and we had never used them since. However, we booked a holiday to Sri Lanka this year through Virgin, giving them the benefit of the doubt, and the service has been a disgrace.
Whilst I completely appreciate that the tragic events in Sri Lanka were completely outside of any travel company control they did not deal with the situation professionally or with any personal conduct. Despite being in constant communication with Virgin from April until the beginning of June (driven by ourselves) to determine whether our holiday would still go ahead, we were finally assured that given the Foreign Office had declared it safe to travel, we would be travelling as normal on 18 July. We then proceeded to arrange and pay for Visas, and organised consultations and vaccinations (all within relatively short timescales) in preparation for our trip.
Low and behold we received a voicemail last week to advise that Virgin were no longer sending travelers to Sri Lanka and our holiday was cancelled, with only 2 weeks before travel. No apology, no explanation, no alternative. Following a call, they still could not advise the rationale behind the cancellation only that there could be a Health and Safety risk or something wrong with the infrastructure, but the lady on the phone could not give a definitive answer. She did say she could look at an alternative and similar holiday; offering us a trip to Asia at an additional £4k on top of what we had already paid. As we declined she advised there was nothing further she could do to help and provided a full refund, which did not reach our account until c.4 days later.
I will be avoiding Virgin Holidays at all cost in future.”
“Absolutely the worst holiday company ever. Care only about the cash. We had a health problem before flight and couldn't travel that day. They were not interested in moving any of the holiday and wanted another 4k to book more seats.
They are not the same company as Virgin Atlantic. They are owned by a completely separate company.
You don't need to use this company. I have since booked a further two holidays to the Caribean. I book the flights direct with Virgin Atlantic and the holiday direct with Sandals. If they are not going to be bothered when things go wrong I may as well take the risks myself.
You have lost good revenue here my friends! Serves you right.”
“We had a fly drive holiday booked with virgin in may this year. The flight was horrendous we had been given seats next to two very very large people. The lady was sitting half of her bum over my seat. I complained and I had to move and spend the rest of the long flight not being able to sit with my husband. We picked up car and went straight to first hotel we had jet lag and needed sleep. 1st hotel comfort suites Kissimmee. Terrible hotel the room was not clean and the breakfast terrible kitchen unclean too. 1 night stay. On driving down to next hotel to Fort Lauderdale husband did not feel well so we swapped places and I drove down to next hotel on itinerary in Fort Lauderdale. Husband was in hotel room very ill for 2 days 5 6 may then hospital for 7 to 21 may. Transpires I was bitten by bedbugs and husband was bitten by a venomous brown recluse spider in 1st hotel. He was so bad he nearly died. We told the hotel comfort suites and virgin about my husbands sickness. The whole holiday ruined. No holiday just a nightmare. We think the comfort suites no virgin customers should be booked in to stay here as it not only is unclean it is dangerous to stay there!”
“Again, would be a 0 if it was a choice. Agree a holiday and a price then they change a lot of to and you just have to accept the changes with no recompense. Absolutely dire customer services and even worse Cheif Executive Office. As others have said, so many bad reviews can't all be wrong. Choose a different company if you want the holiday you booked and one you will enjoy.”
“Again, would be a 0 if it was a choice. Agree a holiday and a price then they change a lot of to and you just have to accept the changes with no recompense. Absolutely dire customer services and even worse Cheif Executive Office. As others have said, so many bad reviews can't all be wrong. Choose a different company if you want the holiday you booked and one you will enjoy.”
“0 stars if there was an option. There’s is such lack of communication when you book a holiday. I very recently had an experience where virgin had changed there flight time completely and didn’t bother letting me know so I ended up spending 9 hours in the airport twiddling my thumbs. No compensation no nothing.
When I emailed about the problem it took two weeks to get back to me!!
Would not recommend as a company to anyone”
“Initially my husband and I couldn’t have the room type we had booked and paid a considerable amount extra for. This was sorted on our second night but we were only in NYC for 5 nights so this was a disappointing start. The rest of the holiday was very good until I had to deal with Virgin customer services or lack of service!
The hotel then overcharged us by £1573.99. We tried to get a refund via the hotel but Virgin’s intermediate company meant we could not get the money back direct and we had to deal with Virgin customer services.
It took a significant number of phone calls and emails over two months before I finally managed to get a manger to send me the supposed refund documents but they clearly showed the money had been refunded to a different random account to the one charged.
During this period on three separate occasions customer complaints staff had told me that I would hear back either by a phone message or email on the same day - this never happened.
The manager has never responded to my email responses or when I have tried to speak with her she has never been directly contactable.
After pointing out the account number error I have been refunded £1385.97 and still have £75.65 of interest charges due to the length of time this has gone on for (initial overcharge was on 14/12/18). Therefore, I am still owed £263.67 despite all my efforts and time wasted writing emails and making phone calls - several of which were never even answered.
For a company which supposedly prides itself on customer service I hope very much that this is deemed unacceptable and I hope to get all the money back soon.”
“My partner and I had booked to go to Jamaica in October 2019 to stay at a Sandals Resort in Ocho Rios so as you can imagine a very expensive holiday. We were really looking forward to it. We had nearly paid off to outstanding balance then received an email which stated ‘’Your flight has been cancelled and this will effect your holiday plans. You have two options.. 1-loose one night and gain £100 refund. 2-gain 2 extra nights and pay us £780 more. I phoned them twice trying to talk about alternatives or just to cancel. In the end we cancelled because they said they can’t cover the cost even though they are at fault. Every time I phoned, I was put on hold, no apology or explanation. We have been into store where we booked it and they kept sending us away saying there’s nothing they can do. They were quick enough to take our money yet can’t deal with their consequences! We felt like we’d been conned. After a few weeks of stress we finally got ALL of our money back, after having to prove the exact amount we were owed! I just feel like it was handled very poorly by virgin over all and I never write bad reviews but we are so disappointed.”
“Booked holiday to Orlando over £8000 11 months prior to travel. Booked the V room. 4 months before due to depart flight changed. 18 days before due to travel e mail received to say lounge fully booked, refund due. Obviously someone didn't carry over the full booking when the flight changed. Due to late notification, no other lounges were available. Very poor customer service. Did a complaint but got a reply which basically said tough. Never book with them again.”
“On holiday at Jumeirah at Saadiyat Island Resort, Abu Dhabi. Hotel was very good, except that we had booked this hotel particularly because it had a sauna, it might sound a little daft but I always make sure the hotel has a sauna whenever I go away, I really like a good sauna.
Really disappointed to learn, when we got here, that the sauna was not open it was still undergoing testing. Now I can totally understand when you build a new hotel everything will not be ready on day one, but it's really not difficult to advise customers of the fact that a service is not available BEFORE they book the hotel.
This point has been raised twice on the hotel reviews before, so the hotel did know it was causing customers some frustration. I only checked the reviews when we got here.
The first time we have booked with Virgin holidays, my wife saw your new store in Milton Keynes when out shopping, and feel really conned, don't think we can trust you to tell us the truth and that is not good. We take around five holidays a year and will be booking elsewhere else in the future.”
“Spent £10k on a family holiday. Spent first day on the floor in Newark airport with a 5 yr old. No overnight stay pointed out to us. No accommodation booked. Virgin just outsourced the whole holiday to other companies. Terrible aftersales response. I’ll never book again through Virgin. No repeat business.”
“Terrible company I will never book with them again. There planes stink there was rubbish was lying around. had so many hidden costs added on to our holiday we were told we had free car hire when booking but had to upgrade to a bigger car so that is extra you need to pay then when we arrived at the airport the car company didn’t have any cars similar to what we booked was told we can take a car that’s to small for us or upgrade we had to upgrade spend an extra £400. also there was nothing on our paperwork about paying a non refundable damage deposit for our villa at resort but we had to pay it or would have to leave resort”
