What's the worst start to a holiday you have ever had?

Whereere

Having to call maintenance out within 10 minutes of arriving due to no electricity

MeadowsVale

Can't say I've had a bad start but then again I don't go for cheapness.

Exodi

We have the occasional hiccup at the start, but then we've been on a lot of holidays.

On a package holiday to Greece we arrived in our room and... it was tiny... absolutely nothing like the pictures. You couldn't open the wardrobe doors fully because the bed was in the way. The aircon was also constantly dripping water.

We mention it at reception, showing the stark difference with the advertised pictures and were told they'd move us into a different room tomorrow (note this wasn't a cheap holiday, the resort was just full of multiple little bungalows of varying sizes, though all marketed as the same. I guess it's luck of the draw).

We got a much bigger room our second time round, yes! But hold on, the aircon doesn't work and it's 30-35 degrees outside. They mention that they'll get it fixed by tomorrow and I have probably the most uncomfortable nights sleep ever - the bed was like a slip and slide by the morning.

Next day, man comes to fix the aircon as promised - and rest of the holiday is fantastic!

On another holiday, the keycard module in the door seemed to be on the blink, causing us to get locked out of room twice (with the cleaners unable to help us get in either). They replaced the module the next day (and we left the back door unlocked as our backup plan!) - otherwise rest of the holiday was again fantastic.

We're not big complainers, we understand this things happen, if a room was a bit dated or hadn't been cleaned very well we'd typically look the other way, it's just sometimes you're left with no choice. It's not as if we stay in cheap resorts either (I wish!).

Exodi

MeadowsVale said:

Can't say I've had a bad start but then again I don't go for cheapness.

You don't have to stay in a cheap resort to have a bad encounter or for mistakes to happen - appliances can malfunction whether you're in a 3* hotel in benidorm or a 5* lodge in the Maldives.

We nearly exclusively stay at (proper) 5* resorts, or god forbid a top rated 4* (not my decision, my wifes unfortunately) and we still encounter issues now and then.

Appreciate of course that there is likely correlation to the price, but don't think you're immune to issues.

Voyager2002

How about getting deported?

After the best part of twelve hours on a 'plane, it turned out there was a visa problem... I had a day stuck in the airport, and then they put me on the same 'plane back.

At least I drank some good coffee in the airport there, and made friends with the chief immigration officer. 

(Khartoum, Sudan, 1988)

Westin

Voyager2002 said:

How about getting deported?

After the best part of twelve hours on a 'plane, it turned out there was a visa problem... I had a day stuck in the airport, and then they put me on the same 'plane back.

At least I drank some good coffee in the airport there, and made friends with the chief immigration officer. 

(Khartoum, Sudan, 1988)

Might be a hard one to beat...

MyRealNameToo

Due to get the 06:15 flight to CDG to get a connection to fly to South America on around 18th December there had been bad snow and cancellations in the preceding days but the forecast for that day was much better.

Get to the airport at 03:45 to see the flight states to go to the customer service desk; already a queue there. Coincidently some friends were due to be on the same flight and so we were in the queue together.

Customer service desk opens at 8am so 4 hours of queuing. Get to the front of the queue and we see one of the agents and the friends see the other two. All of us are told they can get us on the 9:30 flight which means we will miss the connection but they can get us on the flight the next day. We all agree, the three agents walk over to the printer that was around the back, their CS agents come back, handover the boarding passes and tell them the colleague will fast track them through security.

Our CS agent comes back, nothing in hand, and says he can get us out on the 9th January. We obviously pointed out we'd agreed to take the 9:30 and he said that those seats had gone to someone else whilst he was saying goodbye to a colleague who was leaving the job. 

Eventually improved slightly with a flight to CDG on the 19th and a flight to our destination on the 20th in business but it's the closest I've ever gotten to hitting someone. 


The other one was getting to LHR, queuing, getting to the check in, handing over my passport and the Mrs finding she doesnt have her passport. Clearly our fault (or in her words, my fault as I'd confused her) but the agent just told us to get out the way rather than giving any advice. The telephone staff and accommodation was much more reasonable thankfully and agreed to adjust our dates back by one week at no cost. When we got home she realised she'd decided to change which handbag she was taking and her passport was still in the zip compartment of the first one and wasnt my fault after all. 

TadleyBaggie

Getting into apartment to find the bed hadn't been made since the previous occupants had left. 

daveyjp

After many hours in the air circling Dabolim airport in Goa for close to two hours with a possibility of having to divert to Mumbai.  Dabolim could only handle a small number of large aircraft and one which should have left had technical issues so no apron for our aircraft.

I've also had missing baggage, but thankfully it had just fallen off the conveyor outside of the baggage hall.

Exodi

I think if the flights are considered as part of the holiday, then this thread might quickly transform into stories of flight delays and sleeping on floors in airports.

elsien

Flight leaving Heathrow unable to takeoff due to snow. Flight then unable to land at the planned airport in Norway as they couldn’t cope with the rain instead of snow so diverted elsewhere.
No mobile phone to make arrangements for the boat that would shortly be leaving without self and elderly parent. Transport arranged courtesy of another passenger, after which we were dumped at a random petrol station late at night and told to wait for someone to turn up. Still with no means of contacting anyone.

Taxi finally arrives and is legging it around the Norwegian fjords to catch the boat  while I throw up out of the window because I get travel sick. 

Needless to say I did not partake of the welcome drinks when we finally managed to get on board.