If I can give 0 star I would rather to put 0. Most awful experience I had never experienced in my life. I booked my holiday through lastminute.com. They cancelled it at last minute! No advance notice at all. Even though I tried actively to communicate with their online team through the app(no direct line you can reach them), their staff just response it would be taken as priority. I sent them message the night before my departure, they still saying the same, let me to wait for their reply. I keep saying I will departure tomorrow, you must confirm to me as early as possible so I could book my taxi and etcs. They said don't worry, you will be contacted by our colleague. The second day and the same day I departures they still not confirm to me. I have to send message via app again and again. They still saying the same thing. It is until the 3hours before my flight departure, they sand me a cancellation email. No communication no advance notice at all! But because I have packed all my luggage, re-arranged my son's piano lessons with his teacher, and rescheduled my work as I thought I would be in flight on the next day, so I must go "today" or we would stay in house with no holiday for the whole half term. My mom was excited about going to Maldives, so does my 5-yr old son. I don't want to put them upset. I have to book my flights and hotels separately through other travel agent. No matter I tried to negotiate with lastminute.com, they said they have no holiday product to offer to me. Then I booked the same flight and hotel as I booked on lastminute.com but due to I booked in such a short notice, same day, I end up spending additional £4k. And because my money was held by lastminute.com, they didn't refund me my money, I have no other cash. I have to withdraw some money from my saving account which caused me lose my interest as a early withdrawal. Then we keep going with our holiday. I wait for them to refund my money back. But until I finish my holiday from Maldives, which was 10days later, the refund still not reaching to me. I sent email to their finance department, who sent me credit notes. There was no reply. Then because I logged my complain to lastminute.com, a guy from the complaint department said they can't refund my money to my original bank card, and asked me to fill another online form to confirm my bank details. I said why they waited 10 days to notice they can't refund to my card, why don't they contact me straight away to get the matter solved. He just explain it was the bank taking 5-7 working days to issue the refund. And the guy also explained all they did is correctly followed their company policy. They didn't do anything wrong in regards my holiday cancellation. And he refused to compensate me with the lose of money caused by their lack of service and bad communication. They don't care about their customer feeling too. I have all my communicate history with their online team, it can show how bad their management system is. Can't believe they cancel the holiday at the last minute. I said if you can't offer the product, why you sell them on your website. And you said you have no responsibility for the inconvenience occurred due to the cancellation of the product to your customer. You have 72hours to make the confirmation. So why your website can sell those same day departure holiday. Your customer paid for the product, and you turned up say you don't have this product, and then the refund can take half month or more (in my case), what's the point you call your company lastminute.com. There are other holiday agency they don't sell their holiday package within 3 days of departure. That's a responsible business. So business like you, you are misleading your customer. And when there is complain, you just do apologize to your customer without any compensation. How a winning business! You guys don't take any lose. I wish other customer will not get the same experience as I had with this company. I just tell what happened to me in truth. And hope my fighting can make other customer don't lose their money and not ruin their holiday with their families.

Dear lastminute.com,

I am writing to express my disappointment with the service I received from your company during my recent trip. I booked a five-star, all-inclusive hotel through your website from May 3rd, 2023 to May 9th, 2023. Unfortunately, my experience with lastminute.com was far from satisfactory.

Yesterday, I received a call from MTS/OTS Local handling company helper, Mr. Fikret Ozdemir, who informed me that I needed to contact my original booking for more information. I was then instructed to leave the hotel immediately and contact my agency within two days. Despite attempting to contact the agency and send messages, I never received a response. As a result, I had no other option but to go to another hotel and pay an extra £400 for my stay for four nights.

I am extremely disappointed with the customer service I have received from lastminute.com. It is unacceptable that I was not able to get the support I needed while I was in a foreign country. I would appreciate it if you could look into this matter and provide me with a resolution as soon as possible.

When I start to booking my hotel all included was everything ok after ther payment
I see
1-not transfer
2-not retern luggage
3- my hotel supos be 5star bat is 1 star quality
4- in airport I paid £4,50 for checking because in your system was not possible do it online
Really appreciated for your help please I Ned for 09.05.2023 luggage booking
Kind regards

 He check me out in your name

Dear [Mr Fikret Ozdemir],

I am writing to express my disappointment with the service I received during my recent stay at Valentina Hotel. I booked a room from 03.05.2023 to 09.05.2023, but unfortunately, my experience did not meet my expectations.

Upon arriving at the hotel, I was shown two rooms by the receptionist. One of the rooms was dirty, and the second one had a 2 single bed. The receptionist advised me to take the single bed room and speak with the management the next day to sort out my problem. The next morning, I spoke with the front desk manager, who promised to change my room or bed that night after 8uhrs. However, when I returned to the hotel that night, nothing had been done.

When I called the reception to ask for assistance, the staff member I spoke with was rude and unhelpful. He told me come downstairs to sort your problem out.I was disappointed with the level of service I received, especially since I had booked a room at a 5-star hotel.
Next day you tell me in the phone I was insulting people do you have to understand we are here in very serious matter. I have everything off video recorded because I said a lot of people have problem with your hotel. I am not the first one hotel staff stabbing don't understand English, don't understand another language. How can you explain what do you need?

I would appreciate it if you could investigate this matter and provide me with a satisfactory resolution. I look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Sincerely,

Always book direct with airline. Do not make the same mistake, as lastminute leaves you with no protection when things go wrong. Truly atrocious. PLEASE read this before considering booking.

1. Last minute offered us a flight which we accepted when our booked flight was cancelled - they then put us on a different flight that they had originally offered and we originally declined. I had to call, email and 'chat' countless times to first apply to get the flight changed to the correct one, and then to PROVE that this flight still existed as lastminute was claiming this flight no longer existed, despite the fact that I could see it live and Bookable on the airline website. Calling is impossible- waiting for ages only to be hung up on and told bluntly 'there is nothing we can do/this flight does not exist/you are wrong' when finally getting through to a human instead of a robot. Website chat with undeniable preprepared evidence to fight your case is the only way to get through to them.

Finally the flight I wanted was accepted (aka the flight they offered!) and the flight was corrected.

2. I had booked myself checked luggage - this showed up on lastminute website but lastminute failed to notify the airline, so my airline ticket showed I had no checked or cabin baggage - this was for there and back. Each time, I had to persuade the airline that I had the correct ticket by showing the lastminute booking and invoice, and explaining the situation to them - they could have easily refused and charged me for checked, thankfully they didn't.

3. The nail in this wonderful coffin - the airline changed the return flight destination from Heathrow to Stansted on 3rd December. Airline confirmed that they notified lastminute of this change well in advance of flight date (17dec). Lastminute failed to update our tickets to the new flight destination, so our tickets were INVALID. I tried checking in day before - wouldn't let me - so when I went to do it at the airport I was informed the tickets were wrong, but they couldn't tell me why.
It took me a while to work out the error, and again, I had to beg lastminute over website chat to update the tickets to the correct flight destination - meanwhile our window to check in was swiftly closing. It took countless chats and once again, irrefutable evidence of the change in destination, for them to bother doing anything. Multiple times I was told I was wrong and the flight destination had not changed. I was at the airport and could witness with my own eyes on the board that my flight was heading to Stansted! I had to get the airline to confirm directly that they had informed lastminute of this change. Finally they agreed to correct the tickets. It took over an hour (not including all the time it took trying to get through to them and explaining over and over again what the issue was). We managed to check in with about 20 minutes to spare - this is when we arrived at the airport 4 hours early. Had we arrived 3 hours early (the usual time), we would not have made it, and it would have been lastminutes fault. Lastminute continually attempted to gaslight me throughout this, telling me it was the airlines fault and responsibility, in the same way they tried to pretend the flight I accepted had been cancelled despite it being live on the airline website.

No apology was issued for any of this stress. Will book direct with airline always. Never, EVER again.

Booking IDs: *******903, *******424

The company website's payment is not working properly.

2 days after my bookings, from my account, the bookings disappeared, but the payment was successfully charged the same day when made a reservation: from my mother's credit card with her approval.

Then started stressful weeks with the direct calls to last-minute customer scare service and clarifications what the reason, after what they are asked the proof from the bank that the transaction was made successfully because as they said, they tried to charge and the bank froze the amount.

Provided proof and waiting till now meaningful solution from customer care which just 2 days ago provides an update that proper department already working on our case, need to wait few days (we already in the second week).

I was able after 7 pm CEST time to pay personally from their WEB SITE booking, NOT VIA PHONE what they are suggesting most of the time(NOT BOOK IN THAT WAY AND NOT BOOK HERE AT ALL), which is another risk as I see now, they provide booking references for flight, hotel confirmations, etc.

As a result we have

Unresponsive company
Untrusted CEO, he also not answering
Bioracrcy which suffer us and thy as well moral and financial
Time Wasting
Moral damage
Financial damage

So think before using their services.
Today is the next day after the last day of the trip (July 9 -16 was trip booking, today 17th July), and we still do not have any understanding of what they were made, just by my initiates Days ago I spoke with the specialist and explain that not have any update but see that bookings are inactive but the tickets still in the confirmed state which not checked, they even not take care of their money and wasting their time your time and your patience.

The website lastminute.com is 3 - 5 times was expensive than the resources lastminute.es,. De, that was the reason that I have booked from lastminute.es.

We requested banks for calling our money back. I have made an additional call to them to no surprise and at the last minute say all is fine before the flight and not give time to prepare for our trip, but they are saying ticket highly escalated still on the dispute with bank and so on.

The trip was July 9th - 16 2022 and their last updates was 7th, 11th July 2022.

Hi Hayk,

Thank you for contacting us.

We kindly inform you that, we have received your bank dispute documents. We will forward this to our relevant department. We will inform you once we managed your request.

Attached are my bookings, and past bookings to see that nothing is there, and the inbox was visible that confirmation is there.

I am waiting already 2 weeks for something what not happened I meant dispute with bank and they are not answering me already 6 days.

Please think before visiting and buying something from there they forget who their values and WHO paying them a salary

Desired outcome: Remind the customer care department to not ignore but take care of the customer
Remind them that CUSTOMER for them is the value
TODAY IS 17.07.2022 and I am waiting 2 weeks already the package as from 9 -16 JULY they not solve nothing not refund nothing

REFUND Wasting TIME
REFUND Moral damage
REFUND ALL Financial damage NOT ONLY FOR WHAT I HAVE PAID BUT ALL PHONE CALLS TO UK

17.08.2022
After my disturbing, all management CEOs(Fabio Cannavale, Laura Amoretti, and All board directors(Laurent Foata, Roberto Italiano - MCIPS®) and writing emails during the month the case was escalated and just today we have received the full refund for both bookings without any tricks. I have spent a lot of time and money calling them and fighting for truth during all these 1.5 months. Requested via email to take care more of their customers and respect them instead of ignoring them.

Please think, research more feedback about this company, when you are going to travel with this or related companies in your plans.

02.09.2022
After my disturbing, all management CEOs(Fabio Cannavale, Laura Amoretti, and All board directors(Laurent Foata, Roberto Italia) and writing emails during the month the case was escalated and just today we have received the full refund for both bookings without any tricks. I have spent a lot of time and money calling them and fighting for truth during all these 1.5 months. Requested via email to take care more of their customers and respect them instead of ignoring them.

After two months of waiting, I have finally received also my phone, visa expenses, and an excuse gift from the company 500 GIFT (received 488 Euro).

Please think twice and search more if you are planning to travel with this company or do all your insurance that all work no any payment issues to not suffering.

I have got also an update from the Customer Care specialists that they will improve the existing issues and they are doing that continuously. Hope in one Day they will take care of customers MORE and MORE.

Good Luck

Booking id *******370 I have never experienced such horrible customer experience in my life. Their customer care agents are rude and on top of it they lie to the customers.

Purchase:

I bought a Flexticket for a flight with Ryanair, because I wanted to surprise my wife. If she wouldn't like the destination, I wanted the possibility to change the destination or the dates. I payed 192€ for these Tickets.

What happened:

My wife didn't like the destination, so we decided to change it. I called the customer care and they explained us, that we can do that because its a Flexticket. We just need to look for an alternative with the same airline - Ryanair.

So we did.

1. We asked for an offer for the combination Frankfurt - Kreta, Greece. We received an offer over 700€ for the change. We denied the offer.

2. (7. June) We asked for an offer for the combination Düsseldorf Weeze - Pescara, Italy.

Problem starts:

1. (7. June) We received an email, which said, that a change is not possible.

2. (7. June) We talked to the customer care and they told us, that it was a mistake, we will get an offer shortly.

3. (7. June) We received an offer for 70€ for the change.

4. (7. June) We agreed immediately. Then we called to ask how we are supposed to pay for the 70€. Customer "Care" told us, that everything is fine, we should wait because they will send us an email with the instructions. We booked hotel, parking etc for our holiday in Pescara.

5. (8. June) We didn't received that email for the payment instructions or the new tickets. Instead we received an email, that the change is not possible.

6. (8. June) We called. They told us, that everything is fine, there was a mistake and they will send us the tickets.

7. (9. June) We received a new offer. They changed the destination and the timings, which we didn't asked for. It was for Düsseldorf International - Pescara, Italy. The timings were not suitable for our son, who is 2 years old. This time the offer was for 242€. This was bad, because we instructed them nicely on the phone. We told them exactly the flight that we wanted. Because of all these mistakes and the passing time, the price went up.

8. (9. June) We called. We didnt wan't this new offer with different timings.

9. (9. June) We asked for a change of date then, another option was cheaper. Again Düsseldorf Weeze - Pescara, Italy. Just 1 day later. Online the ticket was available for 130€. Again, they would send the request to the other department to check the tickets and to send us the offer.

10. (9. June) We also wrote a complaint to [protected]@lastminute.de because of all the time which we were wasting just for waiting for the offer.

11. (10. June) We received an email, that the change is not possible.

12. (10. June) We wrote again a complaint to [protected]@lastminute.de

13. (11. June) We booked those tickets which we wanted from another website and canceled what was possible. The hotel days could not be adjusted so we had to pay on top for this mistake of LastMinute. Ticketprice was 141,99€.

14. (13. June) We wrote again a complaint to [protected]@lastminute.de

15. (14. June) We called again. They wanted to do a new request.

The problem is, that they also lied.

- They told us, that they tried to call us. Not true.

- They told us, that Ryanair doesn't fly from Düsseldorf Weeze, which is a joke. Of course they fly, we booked the ticket and they send us 2 offers themselves for this airport.

- They told us, that Ryanair denied the request, there were no tickets. That's not true either, we could and still can purchase tickets online. And if that was the case, why offering us new tickets? Or not offering us alternatives?

- The customer care does not help at all. They only give you the first name and refer you to that email, from which nobody replies.

-> So why buying a flexticket if it is not flexible?

-> Why having such a service, which is no help at all?

-> What should we do if there is no helpline who can help us?

-> We had to pay on top for the change. They dont care for this.

Desired outcome: Refund for 192€ and the money, which we lost for the hotel changes, since the offer which we accepted, was not fulfilled.

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A RELAXING AND HASSLE FREE HOLIDAY, DON'T BOOK WITH LASTMINUTE! This will be a long review but please read it, you should be aware of what happened to us and could happen to you.

My husband and I booked a holiday package in Hurghada for 11 nights in a "5 star" hotel. The check in was on the 2nd June and check out on the 13th June 2022.
The problem wasn't that the hotel wasn't really a 5-star hotel according to European standards - I'll leave this matter for a different review. The major issue was with the check out date.

After only 2 nights at the hotel, we found a letter at the hotel's room thanking us for our stay at the hotel and wishing us a safe flight for the following day, 5th June. What?! We booked and paid (almost £2,000) to stay until the 13th June, so why did they want us to check out on the 5th? We immediately went to the hotel's reception to see what was going on. We also called Lastminute 5 times that day.

We were told that Lastminute uses a local agent and this local agent liaises directly with the hotel. And it seemed like either Lastminute didn't make the full payment to the local agent or the local agent didn't make the full payment to the hotel. Everyone passed the ball to each other and no one really bothered to help.

Eventually, the issue got partially resolved and the check out date was amended from the 5th to the 8th June, but still our check out date was on the 13th. So we received the same letter on the 7th wishing us a safe flight for the following day...

So again we had to waste our time calling Lastminute and going to the hotel's reception to see what was going on. Again, neither Lastminute or the receptionist helped and they kept passing the ball to each other.

We still don't know who's fault was all that mess, but it was definitely not our fault and we shouldn't have paid the consequences of other people's mistakes. We didn't go on holiday to stress out and waste our time arguing with Lastminute and the hotel's receptionists... Completely unacceptable!

Once again, the issue was only partially resolved - this time the check out date was amended from the 8th to the 11th June, still 2 days earlier than our check out date. At this point, you (the reader) know what happened next... Again, we went to the hotel's reception, explained the problem for the 100th time and asked to speak to a manager. Again, same explanation; the hotel didn't receive the full payment from that local agent.

To make things worse, we found ourselves locked outside the hotel's room on the 11th June as that was the check out date on their system and they changed the code. Seriously!? So again we went to our second home, the hotel's reception...

WHAT-THE-*?! We made the payment in full and at once, so why Lastminute or the local agent couldn't do the same? Where was our money (as a reminder, almost £2,000) being held?! There was definitely something very dodgy there...

Once more, the check out was changed in the hotel's system from the 11th to the 12th June, still a day earlier... At this point, we had already given up and just told the receptionist to make a note to not move our stuff from the room. OUR CHECK OUT DATE WAS ON THE 13TH JUNE as we had been saying and proving since day one.

On the 13th June, we were actually happy and relieved to leave the hotel and not have to deal with them or Lastminute anymore. We will never again book a holiday with Lastminute, and we won't return to that hotel again.

WORST TRAVEL AGENT we ever had to deal with. Whoever's fault was this, Lastminute was the company we booked our holiday with and they were responsible to respond to our queries and resolve issues. However, THEY DID NOTHING, not even apologised until I sent an email after the third time that the same story happened.

I wish I read a review like this before booking our holiday with Lastminute. But it was literally a last minute booking as our holiday package was cancelled the day before with easyJet, literally when we were boarding the plane - I'll also leave this for a different review. So after that experience, this nightmare with the check out date was the last thing we needed.

Lastminute - don't even bother to respond to this review to pretend that you care about your customers. You don't give a S* about customer service!

Dear Lastminute.com

I entered into an agreement with your company and booked 27th May 2021. At the time of purchase I was advised by your representative that the service/goods would include:-

RETURN FLIGHTS FOR MYSELF AND 2 CHILDREN
MRS
TICKET REF IBZERF
TRAV INTENDED ON 14. 7. 21 TO JF – RETURNING 17. 8. 21.

The above constitutes an essential part of the contract and to date this has not been fulfilled. As your company was unable to execute this contract I would like to be made whole immediately, without further delay.

Through Lastminute I booked these tickets and they were cancelled by yourselves on 15. 6. 21. I immediately requested my monies were returned and telephone/emailed numerous times requesting this action. The only member of staff that responded was incredibly discourteous, rude, raucous, nasty, abrupt and cut the call off when he realised that your company was guilty of serious wrongdoing. I had explained to him that I was never offered vouchers as he stated and then I underlined that I would never, never have asked for them, as I only ever wanted a monetary refund. Nine months later, struggling with money, I am totally ignored and you refuse to refund my monies.

The Civil Aviation authority have clarified that I am indeed permitted to a full monetary refund immediately, nothing less as the flight did not happen and you are legally bound to return these monies.

Please note unless I received payment in full in fourteen days from the date of this letter I will have no option but to sue you for breach of conditions.

In addition to this, if payment is not received in full within the allotted time, court costs and compensation will be pursued as an extra to the amount owing, for all time, for those concerned
And losses incurred to include compensation.

I look forward to your response within the 14 day deadline in order to resolve this matter amicably.
Your sincerely

And so I wait. Please save yourselves some money. It could well be purloined by these unscrupulous people that never answer emails... deliberately blocking them... and then should you be lucky enough to get through on the phone they cut you off. Before booking try asking them their refund policy and record their reply or at least have a witness. This is a very, very, very bad company who seemingly are in business purely and utterly to steal. Remember it's not cheap if they steal your money!

LM DO NOT EVEN DESERVE 1 STAR! They are absolute liars, don't ever ever ever eveeeerrr book with LM trust me! I booked a holiday to Sweden for my parents, auntie&uncle and I paid for the flights & hotel & car reservation. When I was booking the hotel, I refinded my search to 4 adults and 2 rooms, when I received the holiday booking confirmation the booking stated that the hotel is for 4 adults and 1 room, wth? I called LM straight away and I spoke to them about this and asked them if they can change the rooms to 4 adults 2 rooms as thats what I booked and they said no you need to pay a fee to change it. I said no and told them that I want to cancel my hotel reservation as it's all incorrect and I asked them if its free to cancel they said yes it is. I also had to cancel the car reservation because after I booked it the email confirmation stated that the car has no insurance, they are really misleading and the website should have stated that there is no insurance. Anyways I asked the person who I was speaking to at LM (I don't remember his name but he said he was Albanian) to cancel my hotel and car reservation because it was all wrong and he said fine we will give you a full refund minus the flight. The cost of the hotel & car for 4 people + the flight is £1156. 12. We received an email from LM saying that they will only refund us £849.18. BEAR IN MIND when I booked the holiday the website clearly stated that hotel & car bookings can be cancelled without no charge - even the person who I spoke to said this and he was the one who cancelled it for me! What I want to know is where the F is the rest of my money?! The whole holiday included flights cost me £1156. 12 and the flights only cost me £130 for 4 people. £1156. 12 - £130(flight) = £1026. 12 which is what LM own me, I don't know where £849.18 came from. I am absolutely fuming! I have sent an email to LM and I also stated that I will be taking further action if I do not receive my refund back as I was promised by the person I spoke to at LM & by the website. LM is actually the worse company ever, I book holidays every year with other companies and I have never in my life ever experienced this EVER. Honestly please do not make the same mistake as I did and waste your money on booking a holiday at LM. This is absolutely terrible I cannot believe an agency like last minute has the audacity to steal their customers money, this is totally unacceptable!

First and foremost, I do not usually live comments on companies. I understand that problems occur to any service, but the way the problem is handled is how quality service is defined. Buying an air ticket and travelling without any issue does not reflect on the quality of service, any company can sell tickets. However, when a flight is cancelled, a re-routing is needed, or other events occur, the way the company handles the problem is how quality, or lack of, can be established.

This company IS NOT WORTH YOUR BUSINESS, make sure your money is well spent, and look somewhere else. Such businesses should be boycotted until they prove they can service their customers well, NOT when everything goes by the plan, BUT WHEN IT DOES NOT GO BY THE PLAN. If cannot provide quality service, the company should NOT be in business.

RECAP
I purchased a ticket with lastminute to Asia, went on the trip, then CoronaVirus epidemic started. The country I was in cancelled all flight between China, Hong-Kong, and Macao (To and From). I was expected to fly to Hong Kong to catch to connecting flight back to Europe.

CASE HANDLING
I reached out to Lastminute 17 days prior to the flight. They replied that I would get an answer within 7 days. On the 7th day I called Lastminute and got scolded because there was another 12h to the end of the 7-day window. Mind you, if nothing occurred in 6.5 days, the likelihood of any status change in 12h is fairly slim. But OK...

Called back on 8th and 9th days. The people I talked to were not even aware of the travel bans, despite my emails. I was, then, told that the teams were working on the issue and that I would receive an update "promised" by end of business daynothing came.

Called again on 10th day and got a similar answer but I was a little irritated and asked to talk to a manager. The person I talked to was in India, thus a call center, with no authority to make any changes or commitment. Again, I was told that the case was escalated and that I would get an answer by the end of business day for sure (since it was a supervisor). LastMinute is even putting people in call centers in position of lying, as they know they have no committing authority.

Finally, on the 11th day, I called the company which was banned to fly to China who told me which airline held my reservation and authority on the ticket. I proceeded to contact this airline, and hold and behold, my itinerary was rerouted in less than 30min.

The question is: what has LastMinute been doing for 11days? Well perhaps if you fail to fly you will buy a new ticket or if you have insurance, you will also buy a new tickethmmm

But I digress! I got an email confirming my new itinerary less than 2min after hanging up the call (yes at this point I was timing everything I was told).

Guess what 11hours later I got a nice email from LastMinute informing of how successful they were at changing my itinerary. I THOUGHT IT WAS A JOKE, SO I LAUGHED.

LastMinute DID NOT DO ANYTHING for me and DID NOT communicate. So yes, tickets may be cheaper, but if you have a problem you are on your own. You cannot rely on this company to have your interest and work for you.

Businesses like these are numerous online but they do not deserve to survive. Customers MUST demand more accountability and quality service. Just look at LastMinute's advertising, if you apply everything I said above, it all becomes false advertising.

Perhaps we should start a #NOTWORTHMYBUSINESS or #NOTWORTHMYMONEY and start fighting these businesses and show that consumers have power!

I had a very bad experience with LastMinute and have all email evidence on this. I want to let you all know so you avoid LastMinute as well as if someone can connect me to leading newspaper/travel magazine to get my experience published.

My saga with Lastminute is briefed below and I have email trail and bank statement to verify its correctness:

Here is what happened:

I had booked Hyatt Regency Creek (Dubai) in Sep 2019 for my stay from Xmas to New Year. I had paid full amount to Lastminute.com in September itself.

On Dec 25, when I reached hotel and tried to checked in, they could not find my booking.

Contacting Lastminute from abroad (Dubai to UK) was itself challenge as Hotel wouldn't allow me to make international call and my SIM balance quickly got finished. Eventually, hotel realized my plight and allowed me to call.

Lastminute then checked and found that hotel had rejected my booking but lastminute could not update booking status to CANCELLED nor they could communicate me.

LastMinute told me that the hotel wants me to stay one more night and pay for Gala Dinner which I declined as my flights were already booked so there was no point in extending my hotel booking. And since LastMinute accepted my booking n payment so they should had, if Hotel had any additional conditions which was not conveyed at time of booking/paying.

Finally, in the evening Lastminute got me another hotel Marriott but for some reason the new hotel did not receive payment from LastMinute (after 6 weeks of holiday, I realize that this was intentional from LastMinute as due to late notice booking, the hotel was going to cost them 2672 GBP - almost 2.5 times I paid to them).

On Dec 25 (on the night of checkin), last minute rep told me that their provider has confirmed payment has been sorted out.

But on Dec 31, when I checked out, hotel staff told me that they did not receive any payment (Some mistake was also from Marriott Hotel as they should had conveyed me in 1-2 days that my payment has not been made).

Lastminute was conveyed about this at 845am Dec 31 (GMT zero time) and was reminded through out the day. In the evening at 530pm Dec 31 (GMT 0), when I went to hotel to collect my luggage and catch my flight, LastMinute had not resolved the payment issue and I ended up paying 2672 GBP to Mariott Hotel.

When I contacted LastMinute, to pay compensation for stress caused by them and the payment of 2672 GBP I did tor Marriott Hotel, they took one month and told me that they can offer me 500 GBP.

In short, I paid 1100 for my hotel booking several months and then had to pay 2672 GBP to Marriott as LastMinute moved me to Marriott and they just want to pay me 500 GBP and settle this. I was shocked n surprised and was wondering what kind of company is this and how they can justify this.

After putting reviews on few sites, they have contacted me back but its been 2 week since my first review and I am still awaiting