Lastminute.com Review

Overall Rating

They do sometimes offer some really good deals and we've booked theatre tickets and trips before when things have been running smoothly.

Terrible customer service - no phone number, slow responses, unwilling to go the extra mile (or even inch) to resolve issues.

Be very wary of Last Minute .com's "Top Secret Hotels" deal. Described as fabulous, 5* luxury but so secret their partners don't even want to put their name to them.

Wondering why? We booked 4 nights at a 5* hotel in Mayfair. It turned out to be a beautiful hotel in a quality chain, but currently undergoing major refurbishment. We checked out the recent reviews on the web and here's an example:-

"We were then sent to our '5 star room' to find the following;
.A hard hat next to the bed
.A filthy dirty hard hat behind the television
.Plaster dust walked in all over the floor
.Plaster 'pebbles' on the carpet
.Damp smelly bedding (we touched it to see and could smell it from the 'comfortable' chairs)
.The lighting was so poor that we could not read at all without an electric light on and even then the electric lights made it look like a hermits cell in India (except worse)
.One of the bulbs had blown
.Dust everywhere including covering all the surfaces
.Staff wandering across scaffolding next to our windows
.One of the telephones did not function
.Black dirt in the bath
.Freezing cold to the extent that we had to open a window to let some heat in except for the fact that a cleaner walked past (on the scaffolding of all things) and told us that we shouldn't have a window open because it was dusty and things had been stolen using open windows."
(This is only a quarter of the review!!) What a nightmare.

As it was for my father's honeymoon we tried to cancel but were told we would have to pay for 1 night's accomodation plus a £20 admin fee (that's nearly £200!).

They said we were given a warning that refurbishment was taking place when we booked but in fact, the warning actually reads: ""the hotel will endeavour at all times, to minimise any disruption and ensure they continue to deliver upon their service promise". Clearly from the above review (which is one of many), disruption has not been minimised and the service delivered could not be the 5* promise - not even 1*.

We tried to argue the point but got no sympathy or service and you'll note they don't publish a phone number!

In the end we contacted the hotel who were absolutely brilliant, they offered to transfer us to any other hotel in the chain or issue a full refund without charge. They even looked into an upgrade but were told by the house manager that the best rooms were closest to the construction works.

The hotel are absolutely faultless in this and I will without doubt book with them again in future when the works are complete (early 2006), their response time and customer service was excellent.

Last Minute .com however seem only interested in taking people's money and don't know the meaning of customer service. Their top secret hotels deal is a rip-off.

Members' Comments onJengaJenga's Review

• kitten28 on 28th May 2008

  
  The secret hotel deal is poor we ended up at a grotty hotel in Kensington with peeling wall paper and was not worth the money, would rather have stayed in the travelodge!