Am I OK to book with love holidays.com?

[PrincessOfPreschool]

Found some nice places on there which I have not found elsewhere (or we would have to book separate flights and accommodation).

Has anyone used them? How much are transfers? Unfortunately this seems to only be available to book after you've booked the holiday. I can't be bothered to sort out transfers myself so would prefer to know roughly what they charge.

I have used them a couple of times, both for city breaks. Didn’t have any problems. Communication was reasonable (and they did inform us about motorway closures before our last flight).

I have arranged my own transportation (we used the bus both times), so can’t help you with transfers. You can also arrange “experiences” through them via the app (but again I have not done this).

I've used them multiple times. You can get transfer prices before booking, for example if you find a trip you like, select the flight/hotel options, then continue onto the next page and it will bring up transfer options.

I took DD away last year on my own and decided private transfers worked better for our situation (DD4 at the time and just me with all the luggage etc) and the option came up and it cost around £60 total for a private taxi.

Thanks so much. That's reassuring.

Nope. I wouldn't recommend them at all.

Ex travel agent here

We've booked with them twice and had no problems. I booked transfers separately.

You can use hoppa.com to get a rough idea of how much a transfer between your airport and accommodation will cost. Usually gives a price for a shared & private transfer.

They're not ABTA bonded so no, personally I wouldn't touch them.

If you've do book with them though make sure to read the T&C's carefully before confirming. I believe Loveholidays are one of the operators that lures people in with a low deposit but you're actually committing to a much larger amount should you need to cancel.

I had a nightmare with them. I'd booked way in advance for a sun holiday, around 3 weeks before they called to say "Airline has cancelled flights, either pay £800 more to fly from an airport 100 miles away or holiday is off". Not so much as a sorry.
If I want a fly and flop I book with a tour operator now, so much easier.

I've booked three holidays with them no issue. I guess the proof of the pudding is when things don't go to plan though. You should be able to see the different transfer options and pricings in the app before committing. I'm off to Turkey next month and have paid £25 each way for the shuttle transfer. I think the private transfers were £40 each way. I would definitely say research before you book as changes can be expensive. It cost me a lot nore than I wanted to pay to change my room to seaview when I erroneously booked a room I found out on tripadvisor had been universally slated for it's horrible covered courtyard and view of the kitchen. 😒

I've used them twice and didn't have any issues.

Wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole. Not ABTA bonded.

Not ABTA so a hard no from me. Doesn’t matter how cheap they are.

My travel agent won’t use them because of the lack of ABTA protection. I think it’s ok as long as something major doesn’t go wrong.

Thanks
I didn't even notice the lack of ABTA. They offer a wider range of holidays, including campsites but probably not really worth the flight risks when you consider cancellations/ delays/ rerouting etc are rife. Might just have to do it all directly,which is a hassle.

The ABTA thing is a real risk. We used them twice - first time no issues, second time airline (Monarch?) went bust and LH didn’t pay the hotel. We had to rebook at our own cost and got most of the money back but were a few hundred quid out of pocket. Never again and same goes for OnTheBeach who royally screwed us over twice during the pandemic. Worth paying more for a proper tour operator OR just booking flights yourself with refundable hotel from eg booking.com.

Look at holiday hypermarket

Or pop your dates and places you'd like to go in the holiday section and people will help you search

Thanks. I haven't tried that.

We’ve booked holidays with Love holidays and actually have another coming up. They are ATOL affiliated.
We have been advised that ABTA is only necessary for trips involving boat or train travel but that they offer no protection for package holidays including flights. ATOL protection is for package holidays with flights.
Maybe it depends what type of holiday you’re booking but if my understanding is correct, it’s ATOL protection you need if you’re taking a package holiday with flights.

loveholidays, like On The Beach, is a booking platform not a travel agent.

Its website makes it clear that your contract is with the travel service provider, so the airline and accommodation provider, not with Love Holidays.

"loveholidays acts as an agent in respect of all bookings made on our website or by telephone. For all bookings, your contract will be with the applicable Service Provider of your chosen Travel Service (who may be the principal or the agent of the principal) and loveholidays acts only as an agent on their behalf, except where we state to the contrary in the terms and conditions."
https://www.loveholidays.com/about-us/contact-us.html

Love Holidays are generally reliable but reviews are mixed. We usually use either https://www.jet2.com/en/ or https://www.teletextholidays.co.uk/ and never have had any issues.

My DD went on her first friends holiday through love holidays and they were awful. They'd booked way in advance and when someone dropped out (over 6 months before the holiday) they stil had to pay full price. Then the flights changed and they wanted them to pay more. Then the transfer back to the airport didn't show up so they had to get an expensive last minute taxi and battled to get the cost refunded.
as others have said, it's probably fine if nothing goes wrong or changes but I wouldn't ever use them based on that experience.

I used them for a recent holiday: flights, transfers & hotel and had no problems at all. I would definitely use them again as they made searching for different options very easy - all the information is in one place

I've used them a few times.

3 of those they had to cancel and rebook a different hotel because of overbooking. I got more expensive hotels out of it though.

This was before they lost ABTA.

I use jet2 for packages now. But tend to just get flights and a villa these days.