DO NOT USE this company for a holiday, there customer service is terrible they don’t care about you at all as long as they have there money they couldn’t care less about you! I was informed 46 days before my holiday that the hotel I booked wasn’t ready for customers! I wanted a hotel on the beach which my initial hotel was, to get that I had to pay an additional fee. I don’t see why I should have to swallow the extra cost when it’s the companies fault not mine! With two months before the holiday my mind was on holiday clothes etc not money for a holiday I believed was all paid off! When I emailed the company basically they said it’s up to me as I chose to go for the different hotel! But the initial one wasn’t on the beach which is what we wanted. I feel like they should have let us know sooner the hotel wouldn’t be refurbed in time, they just don’t care about you at all. I will not use them again

I'd just like to make everyone aware that First Choice/TUI do not follow UK Law, Care about their customers or have a complaints department that can actually read and respond to a complaint in a correct manner. Late last year my partner and I went on a holiday to Costa Rica, Dreams Las Mareas with First Choice. This was a remake of our honeymoon as shortly after our initial honeymoon my wife was diagnosed with stage 2 cancer. First Choice were made aware of this and the way that it was partially funded by members of the family and friends. In short the problems we had with the holiday were as follows: 1. No food on the 12 hour outbound flight for myself even though we had paid for Premium Class (catering malfunction). 2. Described as a hotel with a private beach - which in fact was public and had people coming up trying to sell you things constantly. 3. The room was advertised as having a shower in bath within the room - which in fact was just a stand in shower. 4. The room was advertised as having a whirlpool bath on the balcony - which in fact was a normal bath 5. Private Taxi ensuring a quicker journey - which in fact was the same amount of time as it followed the coach and was utterly dangerous as the driver kept nodding off. 6. The all inclusive minibar was not restocked along with tea and coffee making facilities. 7. The restaurants staff could not understand what you wanted or didn't care. One evening for example I had a steak bought out for dinner just by itself. A steak by itself nothing to accompany it. 8. There were constant power cuts and the AC did not work. 9. There were sewerage smells where the sluice pumps were out of action. 10. On collecting my suitcase from the outbound flight (new suitcase) it was torn open with some of my clothes damaged and missing. On highlighting all of this to First Choice in short they have told me that it's a hotel matter and they can take responsibility of how the hotel is advertised on their site. They have offered £100 compensation for the lack of any food on the outbound flight even though we paid £800 extra for premium service. They still have yet to address anything regarding the food, sewerage or power cuts. Finally they've told me to sort my own baggage claim out with my insurance because First Choice are covered under some convention.

I booked a holiday then realised the following day I couldn’t make the date I had booked, tried to find somewhere on the website to cancel it, couldn’t find anywhere so went into my local shop who said they couldn’t cancel it as I booked it online? So they gave me a contact number which I rang and got someone from the other side of the world who didn’t speak the best English, but asked if I could move it a couple of days which the person said they had no availability, so I asked him to cancel it and he said it would cost me £200, which I said I wasn’t willing to pay but accepted I would loose my £75 deposit he then said okay and that was the end of the call, this was in December. Att the start of February I got an email stating the rest of my holiday money was due around the 23/2/18 which I thought they had sent by mistake so I ignored the first email. Then I got another email a couple of weeks later, so I contacted them again and they said i hadn’t cancelled it? To which I said I had, they said I just enquirer about cancelling it and I would need to wait until the full payment was due and the payment team would be in touch?? I then emailed them and gave all the information and they gave me another phone number which I rang and tried to sort it out again they said wait until the payment was due and the payment team would be in touch it is now February and i still haven’t been able to sort out after 4 phone calls and 3 emails. I wouldn’t recommend that anyone ever use first choice for there holidays as I won’t ever use them again.

Hotel:- St George gardens in Cyprus, Papos. I have always booked my holidays through first choice and never been disappointed. However this time round I could not have been more disappointed the hotel pictures had been severely photo shopped and our holiday was described as a family friendly hotel with lots of day and night time activities, this description of the holiday could not have been more wrong the hotel was spread out over 5 floors lift one took you to floor 5 and 4 witch where accommodation level 3 was reception and also there was a bar that only opened in the evenings then down to floor 2 (more accommodations). You then had a 8 minuite walk though the hotel and an out side area to a second lift that took you from floor 2 to the ground floor (floor 1 was the restraint and on the ground floor was the small pool and pool bar). The 2 lift in question where very small and could only fit one pushchair and 3 people so my partner often used the stairs with the kids. We was very unhappy the day we arrived the room was not very clean and our view was of the car park and a building site. The room was not easy to get to with the lifts being the way they where. When we arrived we had to wait till dinner time (7pm) to get something to eat after leaving the house at 4am to get an early flight. We was only aloud 1 room key so if I went back to the room with my youngest he would often be woken up by the others having to knock on the door to get in to the room. but our rep was not in till 12pm the next day so had to wait till then. We called the 24 hour helpline and told them we was unhappy and that the hotel was not as advertised. They said they would inform our rep and she would get us moved to another hotel. When we went to meet our rep she said she couldn’t do any thing unless we payed a lot of money to change hotels. The pool was small and you could kneel in it and still have your head above the water. The pool tiles where coming up from the bottom of the pool and you often found floor tiles floating around in the pool. The chlorine levels in the pool where very strong and if you swam under water for any period of time your eyes would start to feel like they where burning. We have a 14 month old son and where the area around the pool was so dirty and slippery he could not walk around so was very much a prisoner in his pushchair for the whole 10 days. There where no life guards at all. We reported the pool several times to our rep and the hotel management only to be told they are aware and that there should be a Matt down. Our rep even went on to tell us that they had filled in several incident forms where people had been hurt over the year and yet first choice still continued to send people there putting them at risk. The 2 female pool bar staff where amazing but that is the only good thing about this hotel. The bar staff where told to reuse the plastic drink cups people drank from and you often saw them washing them up. The fizzy drink was very watered down and tasted flat so the only other things to drink was hot drinks, water, slushy or pure juices. The food in the restaurant was very much the same every day every thing tased very salty. Breakfast was the worst time of the day as the eggs where undercooked and the sausages where full of lumps of fat and got worse and worse as the 10 days went on. There was no children’s buffet at breakfast or lunch and every evening the children had a choice of fish fingers, chips and chicken nuggets. One night we even witnessed a cockroach on the floor when we pointed it out the waitress stamped on it and then walked off got a tissue and picked it up and put it in the bin she then continued her work (not once did she wash her hands). The entertainment consisted of 2 girls in the evening doing a 15 minute mini disco before they went on to the sister hotel next door. Followed by a different person each night singing to different songs (very much like karaoke). This was done in an outside area next to the swimming pool so if you have young children you are constantly following them around to make sure they are safe. The children’s playground is unsafe with sharp edges tapped over with sellotape. There where holes in the fence so children could just walk out of the playground. The ground in the park was very uneven and not suitable for young children. One night my 10 year old daughter went to the bar in the reception to get drinks for us all. She came back with a pint of beer for her dad. I took the pint off beer up to the bar and said to the person working that she had just served a minor a pint of beer she laughed at me and said it was for my daughters dad. I immediately went to the reception desk and asked for a manager. When he finally came he didn’t beleive me and said he would check cctv if he had time. I said this was not acceptable and that I wanted to make a formal complaint he then gave me a load of abuse and walked over to the reception desk where he got on the phone and called for security to remove me from his hotel. I of course in a panic ran back to my hotel room where my family where with the pint of beer in my hand and got straight on the phone to the 24 hour help line to report what had happened. They assured me we would not be kicked out of the hotel and that they would call the hotel and sort it out and call me back. They where true to there word and did call back after they spoke to a manager higher up. When our rep came in the next day at 12pm (this was her start time) we had a meeting with her and reported it to her and her manager who we had asked to come to the hotel to discus all the problems and concerns we had. This was pretty much useless but filled in the required paperwork. The hole time during the meeting the pint of beer was sitting on the table. Myself, my partner and my 14 month old son where all Ill for 3 days with sickness, and stomach upset with server stomach cramps. The only thing this could be put down to would be the food. We informed our holiday rep and filled in sickness forms. We got speak my to other British families and they where the same as us. We have reported all this to the after care team who said they would contact us with in 48 hours. This didn’t happen so we called them again to be told the complaints and been closed. We told them to reopen it as the matter has not been sorted and a suitable outcome had not been reached. They opened the case again only for us to get a email down playing all our problems. We said this wasn’t good enough so they sent it higher. Today we have received an email saying thanks for informing them of the problems and we hope it don’t put us off booking with them in the future.

WOULDN'T EVEN GIVE IT 1*. Absolute disgrace of a company with appaling customer service. They cancelled my flights and changed me to an airport 5 hours away! And not only that I ring to complain and see if I can change to a closer airport and be put on hold for 6 hours 46 minutes solid!!!! (Never even got through) cos I ended the call with frustration. Never mind the whole 2 weeks before that, calling every morning and evening before and after work with no answer still!!! Just a sky high phone bill!!! It's an absolute joke. All Money money money!!! Never mind the customers!!

First Choice without any consultation decided to change our Christmas holiday booking from 22-29 December to 25Dec-1Jan. Completely unacceptable as we have booked to spend New Year away as well. All this in spite of payment in full in April for a December holiday and then to see on line if we cancelled we are liable for a £400 cancellation fee. The phone line is so blocked that after waiting 12 minutes I gave up. Really preferring to talk to someone, rather than on-line. 'Chat' was also unavailable as too busy!!!

When booking your next holiday think twice before using First Choice or Thomson. They've charged us £1258 in fees before we've stepped on the plane. Majority has been their error and they will NOT budge or refund. It has certainly been extremely upsetting and frustrating. I WILL NEVER book with them again. There is no place for companies like this in today's market. I can honestly say I have never experienced such appalling charges and customer service in my life. This was our wedding holiday and they showed no empathy or compassion. Just awful

We booked with first choice thinkingg that we were booking with a reputable company, and as such expected good service. Unfortunately this was far from accurate. Firstly one I had booked our holiday to the Atlantica Mare Village, which was undertaking a full refurbishment fir 2017 I eargely awaited photos of completed rooms. To get the most up to date info I added the Atlantica Mare Village on my Facebook page. I was shocked to find out that the hotel did not open on the due date of the 1st May, and that holiday makers were being transferred to different hotels on arrival, and many were having their holidays cancelled 24 hours before due to fly. I immediately contacted First Choice who assured me that everything was fine and if there were problems the change team would have been in contact with me. I checked on the hotels status constantly on fb and it was apparent that the problematic were still ongoin, I even contacted the hotel by email on 2 separate occasions and they confirmed to me that the hotel would open on the 16th May. This date and went as did the next anticipated opening day of the 26th. Again contracted First Choice and was again told no problems with the hotel. This scenario was repeated up until 4 dates before my holiday when I had an email stating that the hotel was not ready.

booked a 4 star holiday but have now found out the hotel is only 3star and have contacted first choice but they are not interested as we have paid in full. There reply is we rate the hotels and don't use the official ratings

Booked our dream holiday to Mexico through First Choice a couple of months ago which we had saved up hard for. I found out on Monday that I am pregnant and can no longer travel to Mexico with the Zika virus being present. I called First Choice that evening to say we would have to cancel the holiday, explained the situation to them and offered to send them proof of the pregnancy. I was told that because I had called 69 days before the departure date, we would lose £1177, had I called the day before, we would have lost £250. Told we could choose a different destination, but none of the short haul holidays on their website came anywhere the price we had paid for Mexico so we would still lose around £1000 as they do not offer refunds if the new holiday is of a lesser cost. I completely understand that they have a terms and conditions policy to go by but I think it's very unfair of them to keep that much of a customers money over one day when I could not of possibly told them any sooner. This was my First time booking with First Choice and I would never use them again, the call staff did not care one bit and could not of been less interested in helping me. I think they could look at certain situations and use common sense to determine if the rules could be altered.

Booked my summer holiday last year and not had 1 single payment reminder (regardless of what your 'system' says) until receiving a 'FINAL' reminder text alert giving me 24 hours to pay the full £3.5k balance or my holiday would be cancelled! To make matters worse, whenever I have tried to sign in to the 'Manage My Booking' interface, it doesn't work! Asked for a slight extension so it would no interfere with other bills in light of this failing in comms and was told 'I can't do that' and the 'system' says that payment reminders have been sent. Very funny to learn that there is apparently no way of checking if the reminders DID actually go out - because if there was, you would see your 'system' has a glitch! Will never holiday with you again after this!

Absolutely disgusting treatment from First choice/TUI. went to Tenerife in December to be live cost los gigantes/holiday village tenerife. The pools were closed for 10 out of 11 days because of problems with filtration system. looked into it and the hotel had a serious cryptosporidium outbreak earlier in the year so problems still not resolved. Returned home with 2 of the party suffering food poisoning like illness which ruined Christmas. The hotel and first choice/Thompsons handling of the problems were and have been inept. little info at the site despite repeatedly asking and complaining. Was assured by the reps that TUI would handle the issue when we got back and provided with compensation. unknown to us until the end of the holiday others were offered transfers to other hotels or shuttle buses to other locations during the day, neither first choice or the hotel bothered to inform us about such possibilities. They took our reference no. and did the same for many others. Nothing from TUI about it, so I contacted them to complain - their response is to wash their hands of it so will be taking it further. To add to the problems, my son had an accident playing football a the kids club and the response was inept. they were incapable of administering first aid, and the first aid kit was empty apart from a half used toilet role a day an open bottle of alcohol. luckily we are trained in first aid and stumbled upon the situation about 5 minutes later. it took half an hour to source appropriate first aid materials, my son is left with significant scaring to his elbow and knees. again TUI are washing their hands of it.

Just checked my paperwork to find i've been given the wrong accomodation AGAIN, apparently someone their end has changed it but they don't know why, i have to wait 5 days for an answer, meant to be going in two weeks. This happened a few years ago as well, you'd think i would have learned, last time paid £5000 for the best part of the hotel, got the noisy part which should have been £2000 cheaper, assured me when i got to hotel i would be put in right part, didn't happen, just wasted 2 days of my holiday trying to sort it out, they admitted they were in the wrong but had none of those rooms left, no compensation or anything. This time i have the confirmation email stating what i booked and paid for, they say all those rooms have now gone yet they're still available if i fly from a different airport £1000 cheaper but no they can't change it. Going to see if i'm covered to cancel as i paid by credit card. AVOID at all costs!!!!

An error was made on our surname which I discovered a month and a half before our flight, we contacted First choice and they said yes they can change it straight away this involved taking one letter out of our surname, the man on the other end of the line said yes madam this is all done for you I just need to take the payment of £25.00 from you, WHAT for a 5 minute job you want to charge me £25.00 for taking one letter out of my surname, yes madam it's for the admin, Admin you have not even printed my tickets yet, we do not get a meal on the plane any more and the weight for your luggage has gone from 20kg to 15Kg, we were going to book excursions with fist choice but not now and I will never ever book another holiday with them again, This is just another example of rip off Britain FIRST CHOICE seem every good at this. A very unhappy long standing customer

I booked a week AI at Tabaiba Princess hotel in Gran Canaria based on the reviews on Tripadvisor through First Choice. Two months prior to going on holiday the reviews were terrible describing the hotel as not even a 3* instead of the First Choice description of a 5* I had already fully paid for the holiday and contacted First Choice, twice by telephone and after being kept on hold for 30mins each time followed this by e mails explaining that the reviews were terrible. They explained that they only went by their own customer reviews, SO WHY DO THEY HAVE A LINK TO TRIPADVISOR ON THEIR WEB SITE. I wanted moved to a hotel that was of similar price, but was told that it would cost £50 per person to change my booking. I was objecting to this as i did not feel i should be charged for a sub standard hotel. They refused my request and i was forced to pay the additional cost to change to a different Hotel. The reviews are still terrible and First Choice should listen to their customers. First Choice are terrible to deal with

Holiday booking from 4/9/2014 to 19/9/2014 ref no 1377662 I have contacted the help line 3 times and still no answer so forced into this route to warn others In April 2014 we booked a holiday to Cape Verdi following a wonderful holiday there last year and paid the £1884.96. My wife was rushed into hospital with a terrible bloating to the stomach and was admitted the same day 2/9/2014 and was advised to cancel our holiday as the condition was very likely to get worse and could end up in hospital in Cape Verdi. Rather than risk the above I rang the call centre explaining the problem with the hope of postponing the dates to a couple of weeks time. I was told very abruptly that as first choice were not informed within 14 days I would have to cancel and lose my money? all I wanted to do was change the dates due to my wife's bad luck? I find this attitude absolutely disgusting because I spend at least £5000 a year with your company on at least 2 holidays a year for the last 15 years and this is the way you treat your customers? do other people with bad luck like heart attack victims get the same shoddy treatment through no fault of there own? I have learned a hard lesson that we are all just numbers and customer care does not exist once first choice have your money. Mick Clatworthy I have spoken to my credit card company and am keeping my fingers crossed on this route to try and get my money back.

First choice is knowingly sending a family to the Club Mac Resort, Majorca on Monday which has a current outbreak of diarrhoea and vomiting. We have been told that we cannot transfer to another resort and if we cancel we will lose all our money. We have to either take our children to Club Mac Resort and gamble to see if we get ill, or we don’t go and lose all our money. The Branch, Head Office and Customer Welfare team are not interested, we just keep getting told that they are monitoring the situation. They won’t provide us with any other information such as what specific action is being taken, if any. We understand there is always a risk of illness whilst you are abroad but knowing that there is a higher risk than usual in the resort you are staying in leaves us apprehensive to say the least. We are not looking forward to going away and have to consider not going at all, losing all our money. First Choice initially tried to fob us off by saying they had no knowledge of the outbreak. First Choice then said that the reviews were more than likely people that weren’t drinking enough water and that they were probably just dehydrated and that was why they were feeling ill. It took several telephone calls and an email to get First Choice to acknowledge there was a health problem at this resort. When First Choice say they are the “home of all inclusive”, I didn’t know that ALL inclusive would include sickness and diarrhoea. This is the FIRST time I have dreaded going on holiday This is the FIRST time I have had to get legal advice before going on holiday This is the last time I will choose FIRST Choice. How many First Choice employees would take their children to a resort fully aware of a current outbreak of diarrhoea and vomiting, that according to the reviews have been serious enough to put children in hospital? First Choice have given us the impression that they couldn’t care less about our holiday now they have our money.