Too good to be true?

gemkstar

I've found aa really good deal for a holiday in Majorca, saving us over £100 from a deal for the same holiday on another site.

Has anybody used:
dealofthedayholidays . com

have you had any problems, are they reputable?

Thanks,
Gemma

Alan_Bowen

It is Jetline Holidays under another name. I think I have seen complaints that they don't sell holidays but just component parts and you might like to read some of their reviews here....http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews4687.html

worried_jim

Alan_Bowen wrote: »

It is Jetline Holidays under another name. I think I have seen complaints that they don't sell holidays but just component parts and you might like to read some of their reviews here....http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews4687.html

I've just booked with them on Friday and have just read the reviews in your link and so far my experience has been exactly the same. The holiday was advertised as £800, I knew that this would increase with baggage and transfers so had accounted for this. I agreed to upgrade the room for another £56, again I am happy with this but then came the clincher-the agent said he would call us back and confirm all the details. Ten minutes later he calls back and says that the return flight is fully booked but he can get us on a later one that evening at extra cost of course. By the time I had put the phone down we were £1190 lighter. Good job that I budgeted for £600 each.
AS bit peeved off but as long as everything is as described I will be happy, but now I've read some reviews in your link stating that the hotels are often double booked and you end up in poor temporary hotels for a few days, I hope that these reported cases are in the minority and those have just been the unlucky few. A little nervous now. Haven't received any details from them yet either, all though they did say that it would take ten days but I cant see why they just don't send a thank you email outlining your holiday instantly. I will report back with any info I find out. Wish me luck!

niss_2

Thanks for all your review.
Good luck, worried jim. If everything goes well, please let me know. Then I may plan my trip there

worried_jim

niss wrote: »

Thanks for all your review.
Good luck, worried jim. If everything goes well, please let me know. Then I may plan my trip there

Have since found some positive reviews for the holiday( not for the agent though) but still haven't heard anything, again it's only been a week and they did say about ten days. Will keep you informed niss.

worried_jim

Dealofthedayholidays have now emailed all the details to me on the tenth day so bang on so far with what they have said they would do. I have looked through all the paperwork and everything appears to be in order, names spelt correctly, flight timings as agreed and the dates are all correct. I had paid for airport transfers by shuttle bus but according to the paperwork we now have a private taxi. All of the details are contained in two separate emails in a pdf file and there is a third email thanking me for my business and wishing me a good trip.
The only thing that I can pick fault with so far is that there is no mention of the room up grade that we have paid for but it does mention "others" so I may give them a call regarding this. The pack doesn't really give mention to the flights except for flight numbers and times but it does state that the airline, Onur Airlines, is a ticket-less airline so I guess I just print this page and take it along to the airport, although it does state in the attached Q+A sheet that "This confirmation acts as your ticket as most low cost airlines now operate a ticket-less policy. Don’t worry if it looks like A4 sheets of paper, this is perfectly fine and gives you all the information you need to travel. Any flight tickets that need to be supplied by a tour operator will be sent 7 to 10 days prior
to departure."
So all in very happy so far with 18 days to go.

edit. I have just added up the two amounts on both emails, one for accommodation and one for flights and it comes to £1213.82 but we have paid £1190 or so we were told, so as soon as the credit card statement comes through I will recheck this as I wrote down every price as the chap gave us the breakdown at time of booking.

worried_jim

I emailed all my responses to my in box at work to do all the printing and discovered on the general thanks message they sent me there were two other attachments which I couldn't open at home. These contained a voucher for the transfer and a voucher for the hotel and everything is in order. With the transfer it also includes instructions of where to go at the airport etc so am still happy at the moment and everything looks good. I guess the proof will be in the tasting as we will find out at Gatwick or Bodrum on the 18th. All looks good so far.

karenmay33

people are always keen to air the negative's but not the positives... some people are born moaners and forget how much they have paid.... hope you have a fab time worried jim... go with an open mind :O) and don't forget what your holiday has cost you :O)

worried_jim

gemkstar wrote: »

I've found aa really good deal for a holiday in Majorca, saving us over £100 from a deal for the same holiday on another site.

Has anybody used:
dealofthedayholidays . com

have you had any problems, are they reputable?

Thanks,
Gemma

Having returned now from my holiday I can give you the run down of the Jetline/deal of the day experience.
Turning up at Gatwick without a ticket was not a problem- didn't even need a copy of the booking email, just handed passports over and that was it booked onto the flight. I flew to Turkey with Onurair, the flight was on time but the temperature on the plane was very hot and uncomfortable, there were no free drinks/meals and the prices for food was a rip off. Fortunately Boots in the departure lounge get rid of all there sandwiches from 9pm onwards so everything was 75p- a real airport bargain so we took a few onto the plane.
We had paid for a transfer from the airport (£40 both ways) - could have got a taxi cheaper as it was only 8 miles. It was a small four door car (Mazda) and there was another couple sharing with us (that's 5 people crammed in) the driver couldn't fit the luggage in the boot so had to leave the boot open and tie it down with string. On the return journey they sent a Citroen C3 to pick us all up - he had to make two trips as there was no way we could all get in with luggage, this caused quite a bit of stress for the other couple as they were then worried about missing their flight. This is the company - http://taxitransfers.co.uk/ if you want to avoid them your selves in the future.
The hotel. Oh the hotel. When we arrived at 6am it was pitch black- all the lights on the pathways and drive ways where out. The reception had a desk a tv (all security guards watching it) and nothing else- no what's on boards or adverts for trips/things to de see etc. Jetline had charged us another £42 to upgrade our rooms which we paid but all the rooms were exactly the same with the same view so this was another unnecessary spend/rip off. The hotel was AI but the food was disgusting we ate the for one evening meal. I has to queue for 25 minutes for some bbq chicken- I could have ran that grill more efficiently- when you have taken some cooked food off, put some fresh on. We went to lunch most days, although I only has bread and butter, that is until they ran out of butter during the second week and didn't get any more! Slicing the bread was a chore as well as they has the world's bluntest bread knife. I naively thought that there would be pitta bread, humous and olives to eat but sadly not.
The pool and beach were very nice. However during the second week the pool became unusable as it had turned dark green and you couldn't see the bottom. It was useable after two days. The beach had a water slide going into the sea but again was not usable as there was no water flowing down it from the top as the pump as broken. The beach was private and view was stunning, the water was warm and clear and a real delight. It was just a shame that it wasn't cleaned and was covered in fag ends.
Other facilities at the hotel included a tennis court (no rackets or balls) a ping pong table (no bats or ball) a dartboard (only one dart). There was also an entertainment team and they did work very hard, well for the first six days of the holiday and then they left so no entertainment for the last week of the holiday.
We found out that the hotel was owned by a government corporation so the staff were practically un-sackable, we saw a huge fight between them one morning. They were very friendly but I have a suspicion that as soon as your back was turned they were being quite unpleasant about you in Turkish. By the end of the first week most of the staff had left as we found out the hotel was closing on or about October 10th see we could see why everything was getting wound down around us, those staff that were left did work. It seemed that the workforce was bloated so no body bothered to do anything as they just thought that some one else would do it instead.
The AI bar was always running out of drinks, white wine was the first to go followed by red (never replaced). Vodka often ran out but there was always some more the next day. The beer finally ran out for good on our last weekend, the draught had ran out a few days previously but they has been pouring Skol from big plastic bottles.
During the two weeks there were 5 power cuts (three of these affected the whole town) and two I would put down to Thunder storms. Our biggest issue was when the hotel ran out of water for seven hours! Not bottled water, but turn your tap on have a shower flush the toilet water. We tried a fire hydrant and this was dry too, we asked in reception what fire cover they had in place and were told if we don’t like it go to another hotel.

Of course we had read the reviews on trip adviser before we went and we thought that is surely can’t be that bad- it was. The town, Gulluk, (http://www.gulluk.co.uk/) was a delight and we had a fantastic holiday and would definitely go back to the town again- the friendliest place I have ever been to.

Would I book through deal of the day/jetline again? Definitely not. If I go to Turkey again I would only go self catering and if I didn’t book an apartment privately then I would use a big tour operator.

stephb34

Hi can you name the hotel and what star rating was it.

worried_jim

stephb34 wrote: »

Hi can you name the hotel and what star rating was it.

It was the Mavi Holiday village- http://www.mavikoy.com.tr/index.php
It was advertised as four star (on Teletext/Icelolly)but there is no star system in place in Turkey and after speaking to the manager he stated that there was nothing on the hotel displaying or saying four stars (which there wasn't).

The hotel closes for good on October 10th- we were lead to believe that it had been bought by an Arab company. The site is fantastic and has so much potential. I and none of the other guests (including an ex M.P.) could understand why it had fallen in too such a poor state.