written by 224Baldwin on 07/06/2022
Amazing weekend in Liverpool, the accommodation was perfect for our group - big apartments with a butler serving our drinks when the hen arrived. We went to Level after this and they kindly threw in a bottle of bubbly for our hen. On the second day we did an old school sports day which was so much fun and then a meal at Slug and Lettuce where again we were given a free round of drinks for our hen It’s not easy organising a hen for 11 ladies, but Last Night of Freedom made it a success!
written by 167Holloway on 11/09/2021
This organisation were very quick to take our £1,000 and then THEY cancelled the event due to restrictions. They still are holding on to £800 of our money and are not answering messages through their own web site. The Stag is now married so the planned Stag Do will NOT be going ahead. Where's our money? Disgusting that they will not communicate!! Solicitors will need to be brought into this!!
written by Alldred on 19/07/2021
Had a hen do weekend away just gone and the provider of last night of freedom didn’t do what they should of done, we had so many errors over the weekend which caused stress and inconvenience for not just me for 7 other people who attended! I put in a complaint and the first response was ‘did I ring the emergency line’ for 1 I got told everything had to be done through the online portal and for 2 I shouldn’t need to ring them as everything should of been sorted. I’ve asked for compensation but will see they will do anything about it! I am not happy how they’ve treated me and the hen party.
written by EleanorLaxfield on 26/06/2017
They charged nearly triple what it would have cost us if we booked the restaurant ourselves and they didn't give us anything that we paid for. Terrible company. They literally robbed us
written by Pattersonkr75 on 09/08/2016
These guys ripped me off completely. It turns out they charged me almost DOUBLE the price for the accommodation that booking.com would have charged. Even the lady at checkin was horrified to hear how much they charged. LNoF work really hard to push the sell into you and to take your money, then they're almost impossible to get any support from following payment. If you use these guys you're going to et ripped off!
written by Milnezq222 on 01/09/2015
We used LNOF in August 15 for a hen party. on initial enquiries, we had a party of 12, this later became 9. despite confirming this with the company and asking if it affected the price they held the quote but decided to change all the packages and not tell us. This meant that for every activity we did we got less than half of what was on the description, no no decorations, food platters etc. When we complained we were made to feel like this was our fault when LNOF repeatedly told us they had informed us of the changes but could not prove anything via emails (did not even send emails on the dates they said. What they actually did was wait to get our money and then downgrade the packages. we paid £778 in total for 9 people and 3 activities and had we booked this all ourselves (wasn't hard) for what we actually received it would have been circa £500. very very disappointed.
written by CraigBr on 02/04/2015
I contacted Last Night of Freedom (LNOF) to plan a stag weekend for my brother. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go when I called, due to the dates being late March and I wasn't sure where would be busy, but had a few ideas that I shared with a member of the team. The person on the phone (I cannot remember the name as it was so long ago) suggested that we go to Benalmadena (which wasn't one of my ideas I shared) as it is busy all year round and a great, lively place to go for a stag weekend. We booked this up with some added activities and I was very happy with the service at this point. Upon arriving in Benalmadena I got an uneasy feeling that all was not as it had been described to me during my calls with LNOF. The hotel we were in was largely populated by elderly people (60 plus) so didn't feel at all like what you would expect from a hotel that a company would use for stag weekends. Benalmadena was almost deserted and like a ghost town. Most of the bars were closed both on the Marina and in the 24 hour square in the day time and there was just no one around at all. I decided to ignore this and get on with having some fun as it was our first day there and wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt. Our first night (Friday) was good as the 24 hour square began to liven up in the evening and we went to Molly Malones and had a good time. The next morning we had paintball booked. The actual paintballing was good fun and as advertised but the disappointing thing was that we missed out on at least 2 sessions of paintball due to, firstly the guy who drove our booked transfer not really knowing the way and getting a bit lost, and secondly the return transfer time booked too soon which didn't give us enough time to finish. Very disappointing given that we had booked this all as a package so I would have thought timings would have been better planned. The second night (Saturday) was a real eye opener as the place was deserted! We went to the marina to find that only a couple of bars were open and both were about a third full. There was just no one around. We headed to the nightclub we had an area booked for at just after midnight to find that this was completely empty as well apart from a few older couples have a drink or two. Due to the lack of people we went back to the 24 hour square to find this area deserted as well. We had a few drinks in one of the bars and made the best of it but as our party was 16 people we made up over half of the population of the bar we were in. As Molly Malones seemed to be the busy place on the first night we headed there again to also find this deserted. We spoke to one of the barmaids who commented that the place had really nosedived since a couple of years ago and they never really see the crowds any more. We made the best of it and had a laugh but it's just not quite as fun when there is no one else around. The next day we had go karting planned but this had to be cancelled due to the weather. The company did well here in giving us a refund with no fuss for this as it could not go ahead. We went out the final night (Sunday) and this was the worst night of all for people being around. The marina again was either all closed or empty (literally resembled scenes from 28 Days Later!) we then headed to the 24 hour square to see if that was any better and it was...........if you were a 16 year old Portuguese student! Apparently Sundays are Portuguese night so the whole square was populated with 16 year old students. Not ideal when you're there for a stag weekend as a group mid to late 20's men! Again, we had a few drinks and made the best of it but far from what I expected. Finally, I get home to see a documentary on the Costa del Sol on BBC, a large part of which is based in Benalmadena. The whole documentary was about how the area was becoming deserted and no one goes to these places any more along with a few other things. The section on Benalmadena showed that in the 24 hour square there used to be 15 bars open all day. Now zero bars are open in the day (this is incorrect as we found one bar open) and only 5 are actually still in business. Lots of the areas bars and restaurants are either boarded up or hardly ever open and the whole town is almost closing down and emptying out. Overall, I am very disappointed the LNOF recommended this place to me as it was obviously well past its best and the comments that it is really busy year round were either false or LNOF do not know enough about their locations to make recommendations. For the BBC to make it one of the focuses of their documentary on the decline of the Costa Del Sol speaks volumes and I cannot fathom why LNOF continue to recommend this place. A stag weekend is an important responsibility for a best man and I have been left very annoyed and disappointed at my experiences with LNOF and Benalmadena. I would not use LNOF again as, from this experience I have had, they either just want the sale and give false promises of places being busy and things being open year round (perhaps Benalmadena pays them the highest commission) or truly have no clue where they are sending people.
written by on 21/05/2014
My first impressions of Last night of Freedom were great, The initial conversation and correspondence was very thorough and attentive. This all changed once I had paid my deposit!! I originally booked for 12 people, then when i came to pay the deposits I informed them that there was possibly only 11 of us now. I was reassured that this would not be a problem and to keep it at 12 people and that I had 2 weeks to finalise numbers. I was also told that there would a supplement to pay as we now had an odd number. I had no problem with the supplement charge, and again was reassured that the supplement price would not change. I asked on a number of occasions via email for them to confirm this in writing. This was never put in writing only verbally confirmed Four times over the phone. Infact the correspondence were very infrequent and only once did they reply to an email I sent. They claim they will reply within 48 working hours!!! The only email they replied to, it took them 8 days to respond and this was two days before final payment was due to tell me that the supplement was actually more than they first had quoted. I questioned this over the phone, to which they denied any change in price. I emailed customer services, again NO RESPONSE!!! I will defiantly not be recommending this company or using this company ever again. Terrible customer service.
written by on 27/08/2013
Booked a weekend to Newcastle for my sisters hen do in July. The guy I booked with was really helpful and organised everything for us - a hotel, spa, nightclubs and dinner. They send you a little itinerary before you go with all the info you need so that was good. We just showed it to the bouncers to get our q-jump entry at th club. We had an amazing weekend and my sister was chuffed with everything. Cheers last night of ffeedom. Would recommend it to anyone.
written by on 03/05/2012
I had my stage weekend in Puerto Banus and organised it through Last Night of Freedom/Solisol and they delivered on everything we booked to my high expectations. From the air ports transfers (which I worries might no be big enough) to the well chosen apartments (even if a little further out of town that I’d expected). The evening entertainments were well run by courteous and professional staff who joined the fun and kept things moving. All in all top stuff and well worth booking ahead rather than leaving things to chance.
written by rhysnrach on 30/06/2011
Budapest is a beautiful place but our dealings with Lastnightoffreedom.com & their counterpart in Budapest were less than impressive. I went to Budapest from in May 2011 for my hen weekend & was not happy with the service that I received on my initial arrival both at the airport & at the hotel. We arrived in Budapest expecting suitable transport for our transfer to the hotel. A 19 seater minibus greeted us with no luggage space. As it was, 1 of our party had to drop out last minute, so there were only 15 of us. One of my group had to travel with a suitcase on her lap because there wasn't enough room, so it was just as well there were only 15 of us. The itinery said there would be a champagne reception. The guide told me she hadn't got us champagne & offered us cans of beer. I said we didn't want beer, so she said, with a degree of attitude, that we could stop at a garage on the way to the hotel & get some, but it would be warm. Neither did she have glasses so not sure if she was expecting us to swig out of bottles? I said we wanted cold champagne & she shrugged her shoulders & said she didn't know. I then suggested that she might be able to get cold champagne at the hotel & she said she didn't have enough money. We arrived at the hotel to be told by the man on reception that we have triple & quad rooms. I said we had booked double & quad rooms & he didn't seem to know. I asked my ladies to check their rooms & the quads were totally unacceptable - they had 2 single beds & they'd squeezed 2 camp beds in as well. Eveything was crammed, how did they expect people to get in & out of bed without climbing over 1 another or where to put their luggage? Eventually I asked the guide if I could speak to a member from Impact Leisure who I'd been liasing with by email to see if I could get these things sorted. I have to say he is one of the rudest people I have spoken to. I explained about the minibus not being big enough & he said it was a 19 seater minibus for 16 people & that we had too much luggage. I didn't read anywhere in the terms & conditions that we had a limit on how much luggage we could bring. I reminded him that the airline set a 20kg per person allowance & he should have catered for that. He said he wouldn't charge us for the hotel transfer. He arranged for the hotel to supply us with cold champagne, but we had to wait until the evening for this. I explained about the mix up with the rooms & how small the quads were & he spoke to the hotel receptionist & they put us all in double rooms & they would remove the camp beds the next morning, but we ended up dismantling the camp beds ourselves as not enough space. The guide was speaking to us about the fact that we'd have to arrange transport for our pub crawl that evening, so I suggested that instead of not charging for the hotel transfer, they supply the transport for the evening. She suggested I speak to him about this. At this point he told me to not keep going on about everything & now he was going to put us back in our original rooms & charge us for the hotel transfer. I was totally gob smacked at the way he spoke to me & said that he can't offer things then retract what he'd offered. I have to say I was nearly reduced to tears at this point & I asked him if he was purposely trying to ruin my weekend. At this point I handed the phone back to the guide as I couldn't bear to speak to him any longer. The receptionist did say if another customer needed a room we would have to move out, but we refused to move back to our original rooms & that's how it stayed. When we asked the guide what time the hotel bar opened she said 23:00. Both evenings when we got back from our nights out the bar wasn't open & they wouldn't serve us. Paul did agree to knock £150 off the total price, but the start of my hen weekend was tainted by total lack of organisation & rudeness. That evening we paid 40000 huf for the minibus to take us on our pub crawl. We did 2 stops & then some of us wanted to go back to the hotel earlier than agreed, but 2 of the party stayed out. We agreed with the guide that the minibus would go back for the 2 who stayed out to pick them up at 01:30 at a designated pick up point. My ladies arrived at 01:20 & waited until 01:45 when they realised it wasn't coming back so they got a taxi. On speaking to the guide the next day, she said the minibus driver said he was there, but that was completely untrue, so we paid a lot of money for the minibus, but didn't receive the service. Out on the pub crawl the 1st bar we were taken to was totally inappropriate for a hen party, as we were asked to be quiet. Then when we asked the guide if we could move on, she told us to wait - she had a friend with her & we were obviously disturbing their drinking time. I thought the guide was supposed to be there to cater for us, but seems she was using it as her own social evening. Believe it or not I do have some positive feedback - the hotel was clean & rooms (one sorted) were fine, the Saturday evening wine cellar meal & stripper were fantastic. The restaurant food was lovely. The minibus back to the airport came with a trailer for the luggage. As you can see, I've been really disappointed with how things were handled on my 1st day & considering we were only there for the weekend, half of it was ruined. The idea of having everything organised for you is fantastic, but when you have to do half the organising yourself, you wonder what you're paying for & £150 off doesn't feel like adequate compensation for the hassle & distress I was caused.
Written on: 15/07/2011
With regard to these allegations, LNOF would like to respond, as some of what has been written here is perfectly valid, whilst the rest either doesn’t tell the full story or is just plainly incorrect:
The quality of service we provide to our clients is of paramount importance, and we work extremely diligently to achieve this at all times. We are proud of our excellent industry-wide reputation for superb customer service, and we take any complaint extremely seriously.
The first thing to say is that we are deeply disappointed that this lady did not have a perfect weekend, and we accept totally that our guide forgot to take champagne for the ladies to the airport.
This has not happened before with any of our previous (1,000+) Budapest groups. We did, however, do everything we could to rectify the situation at the time, and we did manage to supply the champagne before the bar crawl.
With regards to the transfers issue, we have never previously had any problem with luggage space with any our airport transfers in any of our locations (over 15,000 groups booked to date). The coach that was sent was a 19-seater, and this had been more than adequate for all of our previous groups of the same size as this client’s. The volume of luggage that this group brought caught us by surprise though, and the group did, as a result, have a cramped journey on their transfer coach with all of their suitcases and hold luggage on the vehicle too. We had no way of knowing that a 19-seater coach would not be enough for a group of 15 people, as it had always been an ample size for groups of that number previously. Often, in fact, groups have a stripper on board their transfer coach, and have plenty of room for their luggage too.
Though this start to the weekend was not as we would have wanted for our client, we did what we could to rectify the situation then and there - including refunding the transfers for the group in full.
We immediately booked a trailer for the return transfer to take the excess luggage so that there wouldn't be a repeat problem.
Moving on to the issue regarding the hotel rooms.. When the initial booking was made, the client booked her entire group into the 3* quad room tier of accommodation, which is our entry level groups. We offered both the twin room and the quad room option to her and there is very little difference in money between the two. The client chose the cheaper option of quad rooms. A few months after making the booking, the client amended her group’s room configuration so that some of the group were still in the quad rooms, and others upgraded to the twin rooms. She intimated to us that this was because some of the group wanted more space, implying that she realised the quad rooms would by definition have less space than a twin room.
When the group arrived at the hotel, it became apparent that our hotel had not actioned the room configuration change that we had passed on to them on behalf of the client. Following our investigation, the hotel accepted liability for this, however, more importantly, we moved quickly to resurrect the situation. We upgraded the entire group to twin rooms as an attempt placate the situation, and we did this immediately and without any extra charge. It is worth pointing out that the quad rooms deemed “totally unacceptable” by this person are our most popular tier of accommodation in Budapest, and we have never previously received any negative feedback on them from any of the groups who travelled with us. Our client profile is predominantly working professionals used to a degree of comfort (whilst also wanting value for money) so we are certainly not in the habit of providing any sub-standard accommodation. That continues to be the case.
It is relevant at this point to say that, rather than our Budapest co-ordinator being “rude” at any stage (he is the most laid-back pleasant individual you could wish to meet by the way and it is downright bizarre to hear him portrayed as anything other than that), it was this lady who talked over him and refused to listen to what was being said when we called her to confirm the free room upgrade for the whole group.
We have spoken to the minibus driver with regards to the pick up for the two ladies on the Saturday night, and he has confirmed that he arrived at the pre-arranged area at 1.30am and stayed there until 1.40am. The area that was decided on was a very congested place, and also an area where buses can't stop, so after no sign of the ladies for 10 minutes the driver had to leave. While we do everything we can to offer the best service possible to all of our groups, it is important that the groups help us help them and stick to the agreed times.
Regarding the issues with the bar crawl.. after speaking with the designated guide, she told us that the group expressed their enjoyment of the first place they went to. It seems that the person writing this review didn’t like some of the venues... but the rest of her group definitely did! Some of our groups are asked to be quiet in between venues, as many of the bars in Budapest are in residential areas, and neighbours will complain if they feel it is too noisy outside; however, we would never send our groups to bars where they would need to be quiet inside. When the guide asked the group to wait before they left that first bar, it was because she was calling the minibus we arranged to pick the group up. We don't prevent our guides from speaking to other people when they are out and about with our groups, but they never use them as a “social evening”.
We are proud of our calibre of guides in Budapest. They form the backbone of our operation there and this is the first person to complain in any way about this guide. We suggest that the earlier issues mentioned had already formed a negative impression of our operation in the mind of the person writing this review, and this seems to have extended to her impression of our guide.
Collectively, the UK based team from Last Night of Freedom, our ground agent in Budapest and the group’s guide did everything we could to make sure everything was as she had hoped from the moment the client made their initial enquiry through our website, and it is disappointing to hear that this person wasn’t satisfied with the weekend as a whole. We have taken on board the mistakes we made here and are deeply sorry for our errors - which are essentially the lack of champagne on arrival and the hotel’s failure to have the twin rooms ready. Both were rectified immediately and the group received a free upgrade on the rooms. We dispute the fact that the lack of space on the transfer coach was our fault, but we didn’t want to argue the point and wrote off the cost of the transfers immediately too when we realised that the group felt they had suffered a tight squeeze on their inbound transfer.
Finally, contrary to the comment made in this review, the client received considerably more than £150 in compensation. We didn’t charge the group for the transfers, we refunded the organiser £150 and we upgraded the ladies who were still booked into quad rooms into twin rooms, meaning the compensation figure was actually closer to £650. We feel we have been attentive and responsive to all of the issues raised whilst the group were in Budapest (and since they returned), so it is all the more disappointing that this person still has a largely negative view of Last Night of Freedom. We feel that there is nothing more that we can do to resolve the dispute, however we are happy to know that this person also passed on positive remarks regarding our operation there – namely that the hotel was clean and the wine cellar meal with stripper were “fantastic”.
A hen or stag trip is a once in a lifetime experience, and when things don’t go perfectly for one of our groups we do feel that we go above and beyond the normal levels of customer service to rectify the situation – whether the fault is ours or not. We hope that the good things this lady enjoyed on her weekend, coupled with the refunds and upgrades we offered her on the spot, stay with her more than the perceived shortcomings of the guide or transfer coach.
Sincere regards, LNOF
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Lnof's Comment
Written on: 14/07/2014
Hi there,
We would like the opportunity to respond to your feedback and find out what went wrong.
If you would like to get in touch with us with your details for the trip then we can begin an investigation in to what happened with your booking.
All the best,
Last Night of Freedom