Lastminute.com Review

Overall Rating

Port El Kantoui is a lovely place, and if you were in The Vinci Hotel 5* I am sure we would have had a holiday of a lifetime, unfortunately we believed lastmiute.com and their description of their hotels, and the customer service from check-in until departing was awful.

Everything, except Port El Kantoui.

I booked with last minute.com to Tunisia. We paid over £1200 for 7 nights All Inclusive at The Liberty Hotel in Skanes. 2 days later, after confirming online, they called us to say The Liberty was unavailable, and they asked "would we stay in The Thapsus in Madhia?" They told us that it would cost us a further £100. After confirming with the consultant that it had the relevant amenities for the children, such as a mini-club and mini-disco etc., we decided to go there. At check in with 3 children and only 2 adults, we were told the only way we could take our luggage was if we had 5 cases, as 2 cases weighing 56kg was not allowed! Bearing in mind we had 3 children under 5, 5 cases and 2 prams. We had to buy a further 3 cases at Gatwick to ensure we boarded the flight with minutes to spare!

In-flight meals should have been included, as we booked a package, but they weren't.

On arrival in Tunisia we were greeted by a tatty mini bus, harassed by the driver for a tip as he loaded our cases onto the bus, which was falling to pieces. We then had to sit individually with 3 under 5's in a bus that drove at 80mph while we hung onto our children! We arrived at the hotel to find that everything was shut as it was winter. Although at no time was this stated by the consultant, nor in the description of the hotel online. We then went on to book an excursion for an Arabian night out, and paid 175 Tunisian Dinar (£85), where we were transported to Port El Kantoui (which was a lovely place) and told to meet at 7.15pm at the place it had dropped us. We unfortunately got lost and arrived at 7.18pm (3 minutes late), to find that the coach had departed without us! As 2 single females with 3 under 5's we found this disgusting and totally unacceptable! When we eventually got to the venue an hour later, after roaming the streets of Port El Kantoui, we then had the rep scream at us for being late, and the driver of the coach screamed at me throughout the night, telling me that we had not returned to the coach!

The Thapsus hotel food was dreadful. We had the same pasta for 4 nights out of our stay, and lamb stew for lunch and dinner on one of the days. Snacks in between 10.30am-11.30am and 4pm-5.30pm were if anything was left over from breakfast or lunch, otherwise there were no snacks!

The hotel supposedly had 4 bars and 2 restaurants, but only 1 bar was open in this huge hotel, so wherever you were, you had to go back to the 1 bar that was open!

Rooms were clean, but the bath stopper didn't work, and when we asked for them to fix it, they removed the stopper, so we had no bath from the 2nd day we were there. We also paid for 2 rooms that slept 6 as we were charged under-occupancy, but we received a family room with lots of beds squeezed in, and then the hotel tried to charge us for a sea view.

On the return journey, we were told our transfer to the airport would collect us at 5.40pm, so at 5pm we took the children into the restaurant to give them something to eat before departing. There was noting available, as there were no leftovers from lunch, and we got a hostile approach when we asked where were the snacks? Once they had brought out some bread and cheese, we were called from reception at 5.20pm to advise us our coach was here, and that we would have to depart now, as other passengers were waiting! So the children went without eating while we hurried them into the transfer bus!

All in all, we spent a lot of money for a stressful holiday. We believed the hotel description, and were treated badly by the holiday rep for leaving us 2 and a half hours away from our resort with 3 frightened children. We were quite relieved to actually get home!