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As one of Britain’s largest online travel agents, Loveholidays promotes itself as a one-stop ‘package holiday’ shop, however we have been hearing from Watchdog customers who have felt disappointed by their package holiday experiences.
Watchdog spoken to Liz from Bedfordshire who spent almost £1,700 on a half term trip for her family of 4 to Bulgaria with Loveholidays.
She told us:

“It was eerie. The two pools been had been drained. The food was awful, there was no entertainment at night, there was nothing to do.”

She told us about how Loveholidays dealt with her complaints:

“one of the responses was ‘you booked in October, and it's obviously cheaper for you as a family that comes with certain consequences’.” She said.

Disappointed, the family returned home early from their holiday at their own expense. They have subsequently been compensated £372 from Loveholidays, just a third of the cost of the original holiday.

Watchdog also spoke to Miriam and her partner Michael, who booked a romantic ‘5 star’, all-inclusive package trip to Mexico with Loveholidays costing them £4,500. Their flights to Mexico involved catching a connecting flight in the US, but their inbound flight was delayed, leaving them stranded at Dallas airport.
The couple told us about their impression of Loveholidays attitude when they called for help. Michael said Loveholidays implied:

“we're just a third party. So this doesn't really have anything to do with us.” He told us.

However upon arrival at the hotel in Mexico the couple were further disappointed as although they had paid for a deluxe suite the room’s jacuzzi was pumping out yellow water. They complained to the hotel, but not Loveholidays telling us they felt given their experience at the airport that Loveholidays wouldn’t be prepared to help.

Along with their booking confirmation, Loveholidays had issued an ATOL certificate to both Liz and Miriam & Michael, which gives customers greater consumer protection. ATOL is a Civil Aviation Authority scheme, and although it wouldn’t comment directly about Love Holidays, the CAA did tell Watchdog that “it will consider action against any company that falls short of its code of conduct.”
Watchdog also spoke to independent travel expert Simon Calder.

He said “It's outrageous that any company that is selling a package holiday should ever say to a customer, nothing to do with us. We're just an agent go sorted out with the airline or the hotel yourself. The ATOL certificate has significance in saying that you've booked a package holiday and therefore you are covered by the package travel regulations. If afterwards they simply don't deliver then you need to be able to say well I need some compensation”.

A Loveholidays spokesperson said: “We know how important holidays are, which is why ensuring every Loveholidays customer has the holiday they deserve is our top priority.
“As an independent online travel agent, we package over 35,000 hotels with flights from all major airlines. Unlike a traditional tour operator, we do not own or operate the services we sell, which is why we are able to offer an unparalleled choice of holidays at great prices, making travel accessible to more people.
“On the rare occasion our customers experience issues with their holidays, we will always do our very best to resolve their concerns quickly and fully. We have rigorous quality assurance processes in place to ensure the highest standards for our customers, and we thoroughly investigate any issues that do arise with the relevant supplier.”
“We helped over three million people to get away on holiday in the last year alone, and receive overwhelmingly positive feedback from our customers, with over 140,000 reviews on Trustpilot and a trust score of 4.2 out of 5.”

In response to Liz’s complaints, a Loveholidays said:

“Relocations only happen on a small number of occasions and, in line with the Package Travel and Linked Travel Regulations (PTRs), we always provide a ‘like-for-like or better’ alternative to the customer which is close to their original choice. In Ms Smith’s case, after her original hotel informed us it would be closing due to it being low season, we offered her a new hotel that met our relocation criteria and the PTRs, which she accepted.
“While we understand Ms Smith’s frustration that some hotel facilities were unavailable during her stay, we make it clear in both the hotel listing and our terms and conditions that seasonality and the local climatic conditions can impact the services on offer.
“Unfortunately we were not made immediately aware of Ms Smith’s concerns about the food in the hotel’s all inclusive offering. Our On Holiday Support team initiated an investigation with the hotel supplier as soon as they were made aware of this, however they did not receive a response before Ms Smith departed the hotel. To make up for this, we have since offered Ms Smith compensation of 50% of her hotel costs, which has been processed.”

In response to Miriam and Michael’s complaints, it said:

“We are sorry to hear of the issues Mr Laing and Ms Zaatri experienced with their airline. As an agent, flight delays and misplaced luggage are entirely out of our control, and it is the responsibility of the airline to offer compensation for any expenses incurred as a result. We have provided Mr Laing and Ms Zaatri with advice on how to claim the compensation they are owed from the airline and will continue to offer them support until they receive this.

“It is really important any hotel complaints are made to our On Holiday Support team while customers are on holiday, so we can investigate and rectify any problems as quickly as possible. Unfortunately Mr Laing and Ms Zaatri did not make us aware of the issues they faced at their hotel while they were on holiday, so we were unable to provide them with support at the time.

“We have since received a post travel complaint from Mr Laing and Ms Zaatri, and are continuing to investigate the concerns they have raised with the hotel. We are in touch with Mr Laing and Ms Zaatri and will keep them updated on the outcome.”