On the beach - yay or nay?

KonkyWonky

markwilkinson wrote: »

We booked with them once, oblivious to other people's experiences of the company. We had no trouble at all! I'd probably think twice now though, having started reading this part of the board.

Same, used them for a holiday in Egypt and everything was smooth. Would probably be reluctant to use them now though.

Steviek_2

Dont touch them! We booked twice with them. They charge you lots of extras after you are so far down the line with the booking its hard to come back from. On the second occasion we got to the hotel in Bodrum and they insisted OTB had only paid them for 1 room when we had booked 2 they said this particular travel agent were always trying to pull a fast 1. If you insist on using them check that the flights are for the same number of nights as the hotel as that is another of thier little ruses to extract more money out of you

tracy0770

i just booked with them last month for a week away in june, paid in full, then had a phone call 2 days later hotel not available, had pay another £125 to change hotels, no way will i book with these again, money grabbing b........

lynn44

Hmmm
I have just booked 4 seat's for Sharm el Sheik for £1151 including 1 case, booked myself via Thomson website
Hotel All Inclusive for 4 of us £320 ...
for excatly same holiday agent's wanted £2.258 :mad:

So i say internet is our oyster :T

Sorry getting back to the point... Thomas cook and Travelrepublic very good and good price's , just search

I have heard awful things about OTB so wouldnt use them
Tripadvisor excellent and will give you price comparsion

lisaloo

After reading this thread its turned my stomach,i booked with these last month, paid £1.800 off our holiday, and still £600+ to pay

we go on the 30th august to turkey, been really exited untill i read this thread, really hope i dont have any problems with them_pale_

stephb34

tamiami wrote: »

If you want to use a travel agent then use a reputable one that has been in business for many years. And I don't mean Thomas Cook unless you want to be on hold for 6 hours if you have a problem with you booking afterwards!!

I wouldn't bother with OTB - they usually call you back to say the holiday wasn't available and ask for more money.

If you use Thomas cook book in the shop, its the same price as the phone or the net and the travel agent is the one left hanging on the phone for hours not yourself. Tc have had problems with their phones since Bradford closed but they are dealing with it.

tracy0770

just gone through my invoice with onb, they have charged me £69 for 2 transfers instead of £18 cos of change of hotel, that was not available to begin with, what a rip off, now do not know what to expect when i get there next month, suposed to be in 4 star now only got a 3 star, very noisey and not good reveiws.

NikkiOTB

Morning all,

I'm sorry to read some of the comments about On The Beach, these certainly aren't common occurrences.

Steviek - I'd encourage you to send us a message directly so that we can look into your complaint.

With any airlines or TA's sometimes prices can increase slightly, this is often driven by the airline flight prices but if it does happen, our customers get the option to take it or leave it.
When booking with a travel agent you also get added protection against your holiday and also someone there for support should you experience any problems when you're abroad.

You can also see our customer satisfaction scores on a public website called Feefo (Sorry - not able to post the link). Our current score is 90%.

Kind regards
Nikki
on the Beach

Mr_Wang

NikkiOTB wrote: »

With any airlines or TA's sometimes prices can increase slightly, this is often driven by the airline flight prices but if it does happen,

Kind regards
Nikki
on the Beach

Got to be honest, I have booked hundreds of flights direct with the airlines and have never had my ticket cost go up.

The only possible exceptions to this I could imagine is that you either don't book the flights when the customer books them through you - Meaning quite obviously they will go up.


Or you are referring to some kind of retrospective fuel surcharge?

The whole 'customer can take it or leave it' is ridiculous, you know full well you have them backed into a corner and they will pay up. The whole TA infrastructure and everything around it is geared towards fleecing the customer. The fact is Travel Agents have been ripping off customers for decades and your entire business model now rests on gullible individuals who buy your rhetoric and thinking they are getting piece of mind. The reality is you are ripping them off and they are almost always, to the tune of hundreds of pounds - Much better off booking direct with the airline and then getting their hotel through someone like booking.com or direct through the hotel.

Thats the reality.

Archergirl

Or if unsure about booking and you want to use a TA, I would use one that you can go into on the high street.