Teletext Holidays www.teletextholidays.co.uk

Teletext holidays cancelled my holiday due to coved 19. The holiday was cancelled by them 47 days ago. I have sent over 50 e mails to them asking for a full refund, they offer vouchers and credit notes etc. I want a full refund, they state they will offer a credit note which is not acceptable,. Ithink 47 days is long enough to wait for a refund, they have taken my money. The law states refunds after 14 days of cancellation........ Ive waited 47 days and still no further forward getting the refund. This company is useless and robbers. They took the cash from my account quick enough, but refuse to repay it. This company should be struck off the list. I would not reccomend this so called holiday company to my worst enemy.

So me and my friend booked a quick getaway to Spain and was really looking forward to it. I had stayed at the hotel before so knew what to expect and couldn't wait for our short break. 3 days before we flew the hotel changed our accommodation with NO EXPLANATION whatsoever! we had no choice but to accept the new location which was not ideal as we only had 3 days to go and had booked time off work and made plans. The hotel facilities were fine but the security was very poor (twice someone walked into our room with their own keys) and the noise was horrendous. The location was poor and miles from where we wanted to be and was unable to get to by transport. Thus ruining the holiday. To make it worse we were then delayed 3 hours coming home. Although I understand this is not Teletext, they took 2 months to respond with a measly offer of "Goodwill" stating they were basically not liable as they are just an agent! I would rather stay in the UK than user this company every again! Their customer service is rubbish and they do not "BOOK" or GUARANTEE your booking at all. Shambles!!

Price went up from advertised but still seemed reasonable. Researched long and hard as I'm picky about hotel. For me the holiday is the hotel. Booked it although a bit unhappy it was more money than expected but that can happen elsewhere. Got immediate quote (I will do your very good price) then confirmation. Next day advisor called to say that hotel is booked up and suggested another. I was out so he told hubby he would call next shift starting 10am in the morning. Was still waiting at 11.30 so called them. Nightmare. Said suggested hotel was not the same and wanted money back. To be fair after the first advisor got panicky I was put through to both original advisor and super. Had a shout that original guy was happily in work taking new business and decided I could hang for however long it suited him. If you say you are ringing then flippin' well do it!!! We rearranged holiday, upgrade to 4* with facilities I wanted, new fly date, new island even. Ok. But no e mail. So, having coped with family issues in between, I called them again (always fun). Was told I have to accept the holiday for it to be booked. Nonsense, booked on say so on phone earlier. She then said yes it was! Where is my e mail saying so. Oh no you have to wait til tomorrow for that. Why? No decent answer so we went back and forth on this for a while. The only thing the same about my holiday is that I have booked with them, everything else changed (except booking number) so why no e mail. I am down £1200 and only have hand written notes to say what I'm doing. Eventually she said she would pass this on as feedback. Ridiculous, in any business any changes are e mailed back surely? So in amongst having a fairly miserable few days I await their precious e mail. On top of that I have looked at the hotel details on all the sites and it is shown as variously 3, 3.5 and 4*. I reckon 4* comes from Thomsons 4T rating, which means something to them but isn't a star rating. And, most importantly, its £150 cheaper for same hol and time! She says its not the live price but it is, theirs clearly are not and its the last time I raise my stress levels by using Teletext, especially when I have so many other things going on which are managing that by themselves. Looking forward to my holiday? Never less so. How disappointing is that? Never again Teletext.

Tried to book a holiday with Teletext to Lanzarote but never actually got to. We saw the price that was displayed on the website and was happy with that so we rang up Teletext to book! Only then to find out the price had gone up £150 since looking on the website because the 'flights' had gone up. We then got a total price with transfers for then to come to an extremely high price. The price you see on the website is NEVER the price you will pay!

My boyfriend booked this holiday as a surprise for my birthday but he's now had to tell me about it and ruin the surprise because they have messed up our booking. A week ago he booked us to stay at the seabank resort in Mellieha for 7 days all inclusive , 5 days later he receives an email explaining there's been an occupancy issue and we now have to stay about an hour away in their sister hotel San Antonio in Buggiba. We checked this hotel out and half the restaurants are closed meaning there will only be 3 to eat from where as seabank hotel had 7 restaurants all of which are open and ones that are more suited to our taste. That is already a downgrade in hotel for the amount of money which had been agreed for the holiday. We told teletext holidays we were not happy with this and we'd like to stay in the original hotel. 3 days later we heard nothing back from them so we called today to find out the outcome and hey have told us they are waiting for a reply from the suppliers of that hotel. This is really not fair because our holiday is supposed to be in about 10 days time and at the moment we only have flights. And not hotel, this is very very unfair. How can they call themselves a holiday agent when they have taken our money with no holiday set in place. This is an absolute joke . And according to the woman I spoke to on the phone , if they can't put us up in the hotel we paid for we cannot have our money back. If this is not sorted il be going to the papers.

Travel date: September 2016

The Hotel Esplendid in Blanes, Costa Brava, Spain is the worse hotel I have ever stayed at. Please read this report carefully and do not get caught out as we did.

Terrible food. Breakfast was practically non existent and of dreadful quality. Dinner was almost the same but not entirely dissimilar. All the food was stodgy. How they can even imagine "humans" would want to eat this way beats me. The quality of the room was NOT to standard.

We went Half Board through Teletext Holidays (also known as “Truly Travel Ltd”) which was also a mistake as I can only use 2 words to describe them – VERY DODGY! They lied to us about a lot of things. They told us the hotel was one of the best in Blanes (LIE). We booked transfers through them which they booked through a company called “From2”. They told us the transfer time was supposed to be 1 hour, which is acceptable. But after paying for the holiday and receiving my confirmation documentation, it was printed that transfer time was 2 hours – Not acceptable. I questioned this and was told that this was the total transfer time including the return (ANOTHER LIE). The truth is that after flying in and landing at around 23.45pm, we went and found From2 and were then told to hurry through as the coach would be leaving at 00.30am. Beware, it’s an extraordinarily long walk! We got to the coach after walking for what seemed like ages. We got on and then sat there for the next hour whilst the driver waited for another flight to come in. It was totally disorganised. People were getting on the coach. People were getting taken off as was luggage. I just do not know what the hell was going on there. The driver didn’t even speak English so it was pointless asking him what was going on. When the coach finally got going over an hour later, we then faced the 2 hour journey to our hotel as other travellers needed dropping off at their respective hotels on the way.

We finally arrived at our hotel in the early hours of the morning. Tired and “dirty”. All we wanted to do was have a shower and go to sleep. But after having to pay a “Tourist Tax” which Teletext Holidays also did not tell us about, even after I asked if there was anything else to pay and was told no (YET ANOTHER LIE), nothing could prepare us for the next insult. And by-the-way, I have photographic evidence of everything I’m about to say. Beware, this hotel is publicised as a 3 Star. Believe me, it should be lucky to even receive a 2 Star at best. AND, absolutely not in the condition of the photos you see on-line. These were probably taken when the hotel was new.

1. There was a horrible smell of damp in the room.

2. The beds were metal “Camp beds”. Very, very hard horrible mattresses. You cannot sleep in those beds. They are so uncomfortable!

3. The door to the room was broken. Not secure. I think it may have been “kicked” in at some time in the past. A very cheep repair with filler had been applied. You cannot rest knowing that someone can come into your room at any second. You cannot leave the room knowing that your personal possessions are at risk.

4. The decorative state of the room, and even the rest of the hotel is awful. In the room there were huge cracks and holes in the walls. The heating radiator was covered with rust. The floor had small holes all over the place. In fact, the whole hotel looks like it’s in a “time warp” back to the 1970’s, which is probably when it was built and has never been updated. The walls are very thin in this hotel which means you can hear everything between rooms. You can also not get away from the noise coming from the hallways due to the doors being rubbish too.

5. The wardrobes were in a very bad state. Cracks in the backs. Mouldings missing. Unclean.

6. The balcony had damp, mould and dirt everywhere. There where holes in the side privacy panels.

7. The bathroom was disgraceful. The bath was rusty and there was mould around the edges. There were rust spots in the base of the bath and there were also minor repairs where there must have been some damage in the past and a cheep repair with filler was applied.

8. The air conditioning was not working at all. Very bad in the heat of Spain.

9. BEWARE – You have to pay for everything at this hotel. For example, they publicise that they have Wifi, Room safe, TV, etc. Paying for Wifi access I can understand, but what they don’t tell you is that if you want to use the safe, you have to pay. When looking around the room for the TV remote control, you will not find one. Go to reception to ask about it and you will be asked to pay a rental fee for it. What a joke.

I immediately telephoned the Teletext Holidays 24 hour helpline which of course is an international call charge from my mobile phone, only to get someone who sounded like I’d got him out of bed. He was of course, no help at all. I tried to tell him everything but all he kept saying was that I needed to call back in the morning. He was like a scratched record!

We did not sleep a wink that night and were definitely not able to take a shower.

In the morning I telephoned the Teletext Holidays 24 hour helpline again and explained everything again. Another international telephone call charge. I told the customer service operative that if they wanted us to stay at the hotel, then we had to be given better accommodation or we’d have to be moved to a better hotel. I’ve got to be honest, the lady I spoke with sounded quite understanding and said that someone would get back to me by 11.00am.

Whilst waiting for the call back I went down to reception and explained the predicament. When I told the young girl behind the desk what room we were in, she had a look of horror on her face. Obviously she knew the kind of room we’d been given!

At around 10.30 we were moved to what I must admit, was a better room. Not perfect, but none-the-less better. It was cleaner. Still had a couple of cracks in the walls and a minor bit of rust on the edge of the bath. The beds, although of a similar style to the previous room did have a bit better mattresses on them and at least were sleepable.

11.00am came and went and I got no call back from Teletext Holidays, so I called them again. Another international phone call charge. I spoke to another customer service operative and informed her that we had been moved, and although a better room, we would stay there under certain circumstances. Those being, that, I wanted us to be downgraded from Half Board to room only as I was no way going to eat that disgusting food, and that for the problems of the previous night and room, that I would expect a reimbursement of £200. I asked her if she felt I was being unreasonable, to which she replied no. The call was ended by her telling me she would speak to the complaints team and have them call me back.

The final insult:

I received a call from a man in the complaints team, and this is what I was told.

If I wanted to move hotel, I would have to pay to do so.

My only option was to stay…. AND that all they were prepared to reimburse was £20 and that the minimum they could downgrade us to was Bed & Breakfast which is publicised as “Free breakfast” anyway .

£20?????

For all the trouble they’d put us through and the downgrade, that’s all that was offered?

Well, I suppose, it just shows what the quality of the food is, if the Half Board package is worth only £20.

So, the question is:

Would I ever travel with Teletext Holidays (Truly Travel Ltd) again? – NO

Would I ever go to the Hotel Esplendid again? – Absolutely NO

I will of course be taking this matter further. But I can only say this. Travel with Teletext Holidays (Truly Travel Ltd) at your own risk. You can see how they have treated us. I would hate to see anyone else having to go through what we have been through. Also, go to Hotel Esplendid at your own risk or if you like that sort of thing.

Update: Since returning home, I took the matter up with Teletext Holidays (Truly Travel Ltd). Provided them with everything they required for their investigations, including all the photographic evidence. AND, despite making all that effort, you can guess, they’ve washed their hands of it.

Once again:

Would I ever travel with Teletext Holidays (Truly Travel Ltd) again? – NO

Would I ever go to the Hotel Esplendid again? – Absolutely NOUpdate 14 November 2016 I contacted then directly beforehand and offered them the chance to

rectify the issue before I went "public", but as countless people before

me have experienced, they are dreadful to deal with. Mine is not just a

rant, but a real life experience. They need to be put out of business.

Book through this company and its overseas call centre only if you want your email etc to be hacked within a few minutes of contacting them.

Their staff are less than honest and they promise you the sky but do not deliver.

I contacted them earlier this month to get a deal they were advertising. But they said it was 'sold out' and I had to settle for a more expensive deal. As soon as I gave my email details someone tried to hack it a few times within a few minutes ! Was it a coincidence ? I think not ! It was an overseas call centre office.

Then the staff there forced me to part with almost half the total package cost immediately though they advertise that you only have to pay 10-20 % of the cost initially.

The staff also 'promised' me to contact me again soon to inform me about the 'Double-bed' room and vegetarian food availability at the destination hotel. I am still waiting to hear from them.

In short this is a crooked company employing dishonest staff.

Beware ! Beware ! Beware !

Keep clear of this travel agent. I booked our first family holiday 12 months in advance after a lot of research picked the ideal hotel.

Teletext holidays use third party suppliers.

6 days before we were due to travel I receive a call saying the third party supplier had gone into liquidation and we didn't have a hotel for our holiday. This particular company went into liquidation 4 weeks prior to my phone call that's right 4 weeks.

If they had acted straight away we would still have had our original hotel. It took 36 hours and a lot of stress for them to find us a hotel which was in a completely different resort and substandard.

I have complained on numerous occasions to no avail. They have not had the decency to give me a full response. It is now 6 weeks and still no correspondence from teletext. TERRIBLE COMPANY

One of the worst companies I have ever had to deal with. Found a holiday online for a week later advertised for £400 per person rang was told total cost £1850. Live price. Booked an thought all done. How wrong was I. They rang me back half hour later hotel full so they booked me on a allocation on arrival 220 km away but needed £400 to do this. I refused and asked for a refund. Was told cannot refund. I asked to speak to his manager . He refused. After lots of we will call u back calls nothing. I looked online again an there was my original booking being sold cheaper. I rang again and booked it . Never got to payment stage but have the email references. I did this a further 3 times. They was still selling the holiday and changing it when they had your money. Teletext holidays use Indian call centres. The real teletext holidays is called truly travel based in uk. I did get a hotel refund but not my flights. They also rang me for days trying to get me to book the holidays I knew was not available .  I would never even look at there website again

I upgraded on the phone to a room with a kitchenette for self catering, however when I arrived at the hotel I got a standard room only room.

I spoke to the two women on reception who said that they didn't have any kitchenette rooms and it wasn't their problem.

I rang the emergency line on Monday, they said they'd have a reply within 24-48 hours. 4 days later I rang back (after still no reply) and was told the same again "24-48 hours". It's now been 11 days, I'm back in the UK and still no reply.

We had to take out a lot more money and use our credit cards to be able to eat out for 3 meals a day for 7 days as the room was tiny and had nowhere to store any food, so we've spent a lot more than we planned. I'm most annoyed that I paid extra for something that I didn't have and that the customer service is awful. They are very quick to take your money but are not at all interested after! Avoid...