Goldtrail Holidays Featured On BBC Watchdog

Beach in TurkeyLast week the BBC Watchdog programme included details of complaints against the tour operator Goldtrail Holidays. The show included interviews with Goldtrail customers who had experienced a poor holiday. Goldtrail specialise in holidays to Turkey and they have also recently started selling holidays to the  Greek islands. There is no doubt the holidays that they sell are cheap but they do get a larger amount of complaints than they should. Most of the complaints they get are about the poor standard of the hotel accommodation.

The question is though, should you expect poor accommodation if you don’t pay much for your holiday in the first place ? Our opinion is that even if you don’t pay much you should expect a basic level of comfort. All hotels regardless of the price paid should comply with health and safety standards and be clean. Nobody should expect to sleep on  a stained filthy mattress or swim in an uncleaned unhealthy swimming pool. If the hotel serves food they should comply with food hygiene standards. The problem is, of course, that whilst here in the UK we have very high standards and strict rules, hotels abroad may not have the same high standards and have rules that are not enforced.

Our view is that if you book with a UK tour operator then they should make sure that the hotel accommodation they use is upto standard. If they value their long term future then any holiday company must make sure that their customers will have a happy holiday. Ensuring that customers are happy is the key to getting repeat customers, and we all want those !

We all want cheap holidays but at the same time we all expect reasonable standards. As more people look for cheap holidays in the recession there is a danger that standards could drop as tour operators look to cut corners. If that happens then the travel industry will shoot itself in the foot and the long term effect will be a loss in consumer confidence in the package holiday.


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11 responses to “Goldtrail Holidays Featured On BBC Watchdog”

  1. Mrs S Rowlands avatar
    Mrs S Rowlands

    I completely agree with the BBC everyone should be entitled to decent levels of accomodation, clean pools,. decent food.I have been on holiday with Goldtrail and all i can say is never, ever,again it was a complete waste of my time and money

  2. grace-downey@hotmail.com avatar

    we have traveld with goldtrail for a number of years.to alanta turkey. we have had no trouble at all the only problem we have is that they stopped flying from newcastle.now we go by thomas cook and we have had to change our hotel. before we always stayed at the mola we have lots of friends in alanya and at the mola is like our family. grace.bring back flying from newcastle you are loosing a lot of customers.

  3. grace-downey@hotmail.com avatar

    why have goldtrail stopped flights from newcastle airport.its not the same. i would never travel down to manchester again. it took us a total of 22hours from leaving newcastle to getting into antalya airport. that was enough for us thr xtra money i spent. i could have had another holiday. grace.

    1. admin avatar
      admin

      We don’t know why Goldtrail Holidays have stopped flights from Newcastle, but it is possible that it is because of poor demand. Thomas Cook and First Choice still have flights from Newcastle to Antalya. If you want prices please call us on 0870 1999038.

  4. grace-downey@hotmail.com avatar

    thank you for this information. i will be in touch with the above. i off to alanya turkey on the 14 of june. flying from newcastle with thomas cook.cant wait have not seen my friends for months. we keep in touch by e-mail. but its not the same never mind. i will phone that number thank you.if you find out anymore information about the above please tell me grace.

  5. Christopher Eden avatar

    I have just returned from a holiday with Goldtrail. After reading other similar complaints I can’t believe how much bad press they get, but at the same time i’m in no doubt that it’s justified! Surely someone in the company has some sense to address some of the issues to protect their reputation, they must lose millions in profit from bad reviews alone.My group and I have suffered from many of the same issues as lots of other people, let me tell you though ours was not cheap. £700 for a week all inclusive each for 3 of us, all sharing a room.The biggest issue of the holiday was that we were all taken down with food poisoning from their poor hygiene standards, but there’s a whole heap of others too!Has anyone successfully received any apology or reimbursement from Goldtrail themselves? How should I go about pursuing this?

    1. admin avatar
      admin

      HiGoldtrail do get a high number of complaints. Here at Global Holidays we haven’t used them this year. If you have a complaint about Goldtrail or any other holiday company you need to write either to the travel agent who sold you the holiday or write direct to Goldtrail.

  6. me avatar
    me

    I just returned from Paleokastritsa (Corfu). It was for the first time I’ve used Goldtrail holidays and it will be the last time as well. I was downgraded from my 3 star accomodation with swiming pool, internet, TV, air-con to a 1 star accomodation above a supermarket. The room was small and smelly and did not have any of the above mentioned. We were about 6 couples in the same situation. Next day we all had a meeting with the holiday rep and after compaints some of the people received acomodation in a different resort but they had to pay for the taxi. The holiday rep was useless and the way Goldentrail managed the situation was very poor. This holiday was a trip to hell and I will never use this tour operator again. By the way…they will change their name (ahgain). Probably this is due to poor reviews received, therefore, beware, you may use thev same company but under a different name. I will never use this company again, and I hope other people who received poor treatment will do the same.

  7. Steve avatar
    Steve

    @me Hi i was the family with the seven year old girl that Goldtrail put in a room at the back of the supermarket at the bottom, the room was smelly, damp with lots of damp behind the cupboards even the pots and pans had gone rusty. We with another family and a young couple did get moved to other accomodation on a different part of Corfu but we all had to pay 15 euros each for the minibus arranged through Goldtrail and had to sign a disclaimer before they would move us. We booked a two bedroom self catering room, we got even when moved one bedroom and a campbed for my child. If you have booked with this company please think twice before you go, especially if you have children because the accomodation you may get could be far from the rooms that you booked.We will never use this company again.We expected basic as we booked two days prior to departure and a 2* basis but where we were placed was below any star I have ever seen.

  8. lex avatar
    lex

    Steve :@me Hi i was the family with the seven year old girl that Goldtrail put in a room at the back of the supermarket at the bottom, the room was smelly, damp with lots of damp behind the cupboards even the pots and pans had gone rusty. We with another family and a young couple did get moved to other accomodation on a different part of Corfu but we all had to pay 15 euros each for the minibus arranged through Goldtrail and had to sign a disclaimer before they would move us. We booked a two bedroom self catering room, we got even when moved one bedroom and a campbed for my child. If you have booked with this company please think twice before you go, especially if you have children because the accomodation you may get could be far from the rooms that you booked.We will never use this company again.We expected basic as we booked two days prior to departure and a 2* basis but where we were placed was below any star I have ever seen.

    @Steve

  9. sandra avatar
    sandra

    i have just come back from a holiday on corfu with goldtrail holidays and had a lovely time. the accomodation was lovely in sidari and was caled alexia pool . george and mary were lovely and looke after us really well. the rep alexa was so helpful as she lives on the island and gave us so much info . unfortunatley she had a few problams due to room changes and got some real jip for it from other guests when she had done all she could to help them .

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