Myself and my Husband have booked four holidays with Holiday Hypermarket over the last five years.
Their shop in Edinburgh is huge, attractive and comfortable. There are plenty of seating areas, with vending machines, where you can pour over the squillions of brochures in unhassled comfort.
For any one destination you could have 5 plus brochures to choose from, as opposed to 1 or 2 in other travel shops.
I've always found the staff friendly and helpful to a point!
The significant down side only seemed apparent when we booked our last holiday.
I had spent hours surfing the net to choose our ideal destination. We had chosen a couple of resorts in Rhodes, both very quiet but within travelling distance of a major town. I had an idea of one tour operator who went there but was open to any company who could get us there.
With this knowledge, we popped along excitedly to the Holiday Hypermarket.
We explained our needs ie. one of two resorts, but definately somewhere quiet.
The young girl typed all the info into the computer and kept coming back with holidays in busier resorts. I was watching what she was doing on the screen and asked her several times if she had checked ALL the tour operators. She said she had.
It was then that I noticed that all the options she was giving us were for First Choice holidays (the Holiday Hypermarket's company). She even told us how much we would LOVE Faliraki (the particular holiday she was trying to sell us). She'd been there the year before and had a ball. Well, she would, and I would have done too when I was single and 21, like her!!!!
I was becoming frustrated that no matter how many times we told her, she could not grasp the kind of holiday we were after (or wouldn't because First Choice didn't have it).
Eventually I asked her if she had checked the computer for Libra Holidays (the brochure I knew had the holidays I wanted) . A very fake act of that one having completely slipped her mind ensued. Anyway, there were a few hotels in our chosen resorts to choose from and we booked!!!
Had I not been so clued up on the Island as a whole and knew exactly what I wanted I could have ended up with a nightmare (for us) of a holiday in resort we would have hated.
I don't remember it being like this when I booked previous holidays and I always thought of Holiday Hypermarket being more independent than other travel agencies.
I can understand them not wanting to trawl through every single tour operator when you may walk away at the end of it. However, it's only 2 weeks you get a year and you want to get it right.
Overall, there is a lot of choice, the Bureau De Change seems good and we always use it. Prices are good and they say they'll beat any preice you've been quoted for a holiday, and they did do that on one of our earlier holidays. However, I would advise that you have an idea of what you want before you go, rather than put yourself entirely in their hands!
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Advantages: friendly, knowledgeable,efficient,cheap,personalised service Disadvantages: you can only call the croydon branch once you have made a booking otherwise you end up ringing telesales -which i would avoid at all costs!if you visit on a weekend you need to be prepared to wait to be served as it seems to be so popular.
theothegreek 22.07.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Holiday Hypermarket
Advantages: friendly, knowledgeable,efficient,cheap,personalised service Disadvantages: you can only call the croydon branch once you have made a booking otherwise you end up ringing telesales -which i would avoid at all costs!if you visit on a weekend you need to be prepared to wait to be served as it seems to be so popular.
theothegreek 22.07.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Holiday Hypermarket
Advantages: Great choice for you and your family or friends. Disadvantages: Can be pricey and walks between are uncovered so bad weather can leave your dancin shoes a tad wet!
Oct 28th, 2004
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