First Choice - www.firstchoice.co.uk

DO NOT USE this company for a holiday, there customer service is terrible they don’t care about you at all as long as they have there money they couldn’t care less about you! I was informed 46 days before my holiday that the hotel I booked wasn’t ready for customers! I wanted a hotel on the beach which my initial hotel was, to get that I had to pay an additional fee. I don’t see why I should have to swallow the extra cost when it’s the companies fault not mine! With two months before the holiday my mind was on holiday clothes etc not money for a holiday I believed was all paid off!

When I emailed the company basically they said it’s up to me as I chose to go for the different hotel! But the initial one wasn’t on the beach which is what we wanted. I feel like they should have let us know sooner the hotel wouldn’t be refurbed in time, they just don’t care about you at all.

I will not use them again

I'd just like to make everyone aware that First Choice/TUI do not follow UK Law, Care about their customers or have a complaints department that can actually read and respond to a complaint in a correct manner. Late last year my partner and I went on a holiday to Costa Rica, Dreams Las Mareas with First Choice. This was a remake of our honeymoon as shortly after our initial honeymoon my wife was diagnosed with stage 2 cancer. First Choice were made aware of this and the way that it was partially funded by members of the family and friends. In short the problems we had with the holiday were as follows: 1. No food on the 12 hour outbound flight for myself even though we had paid for Premium Class (catering malfunction). 2. Described as a hotel with a private beach - which in fact was public and had people coming up trying to sell you things constantly. 3. The room was advertised as having a shower in bath within the room - which in fact was just a stand in shower. 4. The room was advertised as having a whirlpool bath on the balcony - which in fact was a normal bath 5. Private Taxi ensuring a quicker journey - which in fact was the same amount of time as it followed the coach and was utterly dangerous as the driver kept nodding off. 6. The all inclusive minibar was not restocked along with tea and coffee making facilities. 7. The restaurants staff could not understand what you wanted or didn't care. One evening for example I had a steak bought out for dinner just by itself. A steak by itself nothing to accompany it. 8. There were constant power cuts and the AC did not work. 9. There were sewerage smells where the sluice pumps were out of action. 10. On collecting my suitcase from the outbound flight (new suitcase) it was torn open with some of my clothes damaged and missing. On highlighting all of this to First Choice in short they have told me that it's a hotel matter and they can take responsibility of how the hotel is advertised on their site. They have offered £100 compensation for the lack of any food on the outbound flight even though we paid £800 extra for premium service. They still have yet to address anything regarding the food, sewerage or power cuts. Finally they've told me to sort my own baggage claim out with my insurance because First Choice are covered under some convention.

I booked a holiday then realised the following day I couldn’t make the date I had booked, tried to find somewhere on the website to cancel it, couldn’t find anywhere so went into my local shop who said they couldn’t cancel it as I booked it online? So they gave me a contact number which I rang and got someone from the other side of the world who didn’t speak the best English, but asked if I could move it a couple of days which the person said they had no availability, so I asked him to cancel it and he said it would cost me £200, which I said I wasn’t willing to pay but accepted I would loose my £75 deposit he then said okay and that was the end of the call, this was in December. Att the start of February I got an email stating the rest of my holiday money was due around the 23/2/18 which I thought they had sent by mistake so I ignored the first email. Then I got another email a couple of weeks later, so I contacted them again and they said i hadn’t cancelled it? To which I said I had, they said I just enquirer about cancelling it and I would need to wait until the full payment was due and the payment team would be in touch?? I then emailed them and gave all the information and they gave me another phone number which I rang and tried to sort it out again they said wait until the payment was due and the payment team would be in touch it is now February and i still haven’t been able to sort out after 4 phone calls and 3 emails. I wouldn’t recommend that anyone ever use first choice for there holidays as I won’t ever use them again.

Hotel:- St George gardens in Cyprus, Papos.

I have always booked my holidays through first choice and never been disappointed. However this time round I could not have been more disappointed the hotel pictures had been severely photo shopped and our holiday was described as a family friendly hotel with lots of day and night time activities, this description of the holiday could not have been more wrong the hotel was spread out over 5 floors lift one took you to floor 5 and 4 witch where accommodation level 3 was reception and also there was a bar that only opened in the evenings then down to floor 2 (more accommodations). You then had a 8 minuite walk though the hotel and an out side area to a second lift that took you from floor 2 to the ground floor (floor 1 was the restraint and on the ground floor was the small pool and pool bar). The 2 lift in question where very small and could only fit one pushchair and 3 people so my partner often used the stairs with the kids.

We was very unhappy the day we arrived the room was not very clean and our view was of the car park and a building site. The room was not easy to get to with the lifts being the way they where. When we arrived we had to wait till dinner time (7pm) to get something to eat after leaving the house at 4am to get an early flight. We was only aloud 1 room key so if I went back to the room with my youngest he would often be woken up by the others having to knock on the door to get in to the room. but our rep was not in till 12pm the next day so had to wait till then. We called the 24 hour helpline and told them we was unhappy and that the hotel was not as advertised. They said they would inform our rep and she would get us moved to another hotel. When we went to meet our rep she said she couldn’t do any thing unless we payed a lot of money to change hotels.

The pool was small and you could kneel in it and still have your head above the water. The pool tiles where coming up from the bottom of the pool and you often found floor tiles floating around in the pool. The chlorine levels in the pool where very strong and if you swam under water for any period of time your eyes would start to feel like they where burning. We have a 14 month old son and where the area around the pool was so dirty and slippery he could not walk around so was very much a prisoner in his pushchair for the whole 10 days. There where no life guards at all.

We reported the pool several times to our rep and the hotel management only to be told they are aware and that there should be a Matt down. Our rep even went on to tell us that they had filled in several incident forms where people had been hurt over the year and yet first choice still continued to send people there putting them at risk.

The 2 female pool bar staff where amazing but that is the only good thing about this hotel. The bar staff where told to reuse the plastic drink cups people drank from and you often saw them washing them up. The fizzy drink was very watered down and tasted flat so the only other things to drink was hot drinks, water, slushy or pure juices.

The food in the restaurant was very much the same every day every thing tased very salty. Breakfast was the worst time of the day as the eggs where undercooked and the sausages where full of lumps of fat and got worse and worse as the 10 days went on. There was no children’s buffet at breakfast or lunch and every evening the children had a choice of fish fingers, chips and chicken nuggets. One night we even witnessed a cockroach on the floor when we pointed it out the waitress stamped on it and then walked off got a tissue and picked it up and put it in the bin she then continued her work (not once did she wash her hands).

The entertainment consisted of 2 girls in the evening doing a 15 minute mini disco before they went on to the sister hotel next door. Followed by a different person each night singing to different songs (very much like karaoke). This was done in an outside area next to the swimming pool so if you have young children you are constantly following them around to make sure they are safe.

The children’s playground is unsafe with sharp edges tapped over with sellotape. There where holes in the fence so children could just walk out of the playground. The ground in the park was very uneven and not suitable for young children.

One night my 10 year old daughter went to the bar in the reception to get drinks for us all. She came back with a pint of beer for her dad. I took the pint off beer up to the bar and said to the person working that she had just served a minor a pint of beer she laughed at me and said it was for my daughters dad. I immediately went to the reception desk and asked for a manager. When he finally came he didn’t beleive me and said he would check cctv if he had time. I said this was not acceptable and that I wanted to make a formal complaint he then gave me a load of abuse and walked over to the reception desk where he got on the phone and called for security to remove me from his hotel. I of course in a panic ran back to my hotel room where my family where with the pint of beer in my hand and got straight on the phone to the 24 hour help line to report what had happened. They assured me we would not be kicked out of the hotel and that they would call the hotel and sort it out and call me back. They where true to there word and did call back after they spoke to a manager higher up. When our rep came in the next day at 12pm (this was her start time) we had a meeting with her and reported it to her and her manager who we had asked to come to the hotel to discus all the problems and concerns we had. This was pretty much useless but filled in the required paperwork. The hole time during the meeting the pint of beer was sitting on the table.

Myself, my partner and my 14 month old son where all Ill for 3 days with sickness, and stomach upset with server stomach cramps. The only thing this could be put down to would be the food. We informed our holiday rep and filled in sickness forms. We got speak my to other British families and they where the same as us.

We have reported all this to the after care team who said they would contact us with in 48 hours. This didn’t happen so we called them again to be told the complaints and been closed. We told them to reopen it as the matter has not been sorted and a suitable outcome had not been reached. They opened the case again only for us to get a email down playing all our problems. We said this wasn’t good enough so they sent it higher. Today we have received an email saying thanks for informing them of the problems and we hope it don’t put us off booking with them in the future.

WOULDN'T EVEN GIVE IT 1*. Absolute disgrace of a company with appaling customer service. They cancelled my flights and changed me to an airport 5 hours away! And not only that I ring to complain and see if I can change to a closer airport and be put on hold for 6 hours 46 minutes solid!!!! (Never even got through) cos I ended the call with frustration. Never mind the whole 2 weeks before that, calling every morning and evening before and after work with no answer still!!! Just a sky high phone bill!!! It's an absolute joke. All Money money money!!! Never mind the customers!!

First Choice without any consultation decided to change our Christmas holiday booking from 22-29 December to 25Dec-1Jan. Completely unacceptable as we have booked to spend New Year away as well. All this in spite of payment in full in April for a December holiday and then to see on line if we cancelled we are liable for a £400 cancellation fee.

The phone line is so blocked that after waiting 12 minutes I gave up. Really preferring to talk to someone, rather than on-line. 'Chat' was also unavailable as too busy!!!

When booking your next holiday think twice before using First Choice or Thomson. They've charged us £1258 in fees before we've stepped on the plane. Majority has been their error and they will NOT budge or refund. It has certainly been extremely upsetting and frustrating. I WILL NEVER book with them again. There is no place for companies like this in today's market. I can honestly say I have never experienced such appalling charges and customer service in my life. This was our wedding holiday and they showed no empathy or compassion. Just awful

I booked my holiday over a year ago and due to my own extenuating circumstances needed to change my booking. The cancellation/amendment fee was massive, but it wasn't down to First Choice, it was my problem. However, they have bent over backwards to help me and I could not be more happy with them. They have guaranteed me continuing to use them for many years.

We booked with first choice thinkingg that we were booking with a reputable company, and as such expected good service. Unfortunately this was far from accurate. Firstly one I had booked our holiday to the Atlantica Mare Village, which was undertaking a full refurbishment fir 2017 I eargely awaited photos of completed rooms. To get the most up to date info I added the Atlantica Mare Village on my Facebook page. I was shocked to find out that the hotel did not open on the due date of the 1st May, and that holiday makers were being transferred to different hotels on arrival, and many were having their holidays cancelled 24 hours before due to fly. I immediately contacted First Choice who assured me that everything was fine and if there were problems the change team would have been in contact with me. I checked on the hotels status constantly on fb and it was apparent that the problematic were still ongoin, I even contacted the hotel by email on 2 separate occasions and they confirmed to me that the hotel would open on the 16th May. This date and went as did the next anticipated opening day of the 26th. Again contracted First Choice and was again told no problems with the hotel. This scenario was repeated up until 4 dates before my holiday when I had an email stating that the hotel was not ready.

booked a 4 star holiday but have now found out the hotel is only 3star and have contacted first choice but they are not interested as we have paid in full. There reply is we rate the hotels and don't use the official ratings