Blue Chip Holidays Reviews 

I wrote a less than positive review of premises in Shanklin Isle of Wight in July this year on their requested review site called Reevoo. They claimed not to censor reviews, but mine only stayed live for less than a day. On further exploration I found so called BlueChip is part of a large US group that includes Hoseasons, English Country Cottages among many more. I have vowed never to book with them or their associated companies ever again. My concerns about the apartment were just brushed under the carpet.

Horizon Villa, Mortehoe near Woolacombe....

My Sister-In-Law booked this villa for my Father-In-Laws 70th birthday. We arrived to a large house which basically has been split into 4 holiday houses. Horizon Villa is a large 4 bed property with good sized bedrooms and a large open planned kitchen-diner with a lounge. There is also a TV room if the weather is that bad, you can’t get out!! The Villa was presented in a clean condition for our 4 night stay. The downsides unfortunately were that the pots and pans had seen their best days and the sofa was very grubby indeed!! The dining table and chairs were basically cheap rubbish with some of the chairs broken!! Carpets were fraying and badly torn!! The boiler downstairs was inoperative, so there was no hot water downstairs to wash up and clean!! The kettle sure took a hammering......Apparently the guests before us had complained about this, so to be honest at over a £1000 for 4 nights this is pretty poor show!!
The main upside though to this villa is it’s location and the views are simply absolutely stunning indeed....

Booking reference number 18088961
When I arrived at 3 little beaches, Woolacombe it was immediately obvious that bed linen had not been changed since the beds had been slept in and therefore the apartment not cleaned. The towels were all damp and had been used and there was a musty smell throughout. The previous occupants had left everything clean as they could which was lucky as the caretaker whom I phoned when I arrived about 5.30pm only had time and resources to make up the beds. We got 1 towel each and the T towel that was already there. The caretaker said Blue Chip had not informed him of the previous booking and so had assumed the accommodation was ready for us.
I would be interested to know your thoughts. Regards
Joy Richardson

Booked holiday Una Argentum 59 St Ives. On arrival lodge had not been cleaned. Hair, dust, dirt in every room including bathroom. Fridge filthy with stains in. Freezer had food frozen into it. Handprints on doors and handles. Under the bed had not been hoovered.

Not acceptable for a holiday.

Colingwood Holiday Cottage,Maidencombe, Torquay, This the the holiday cottage you want to tell all your friends about, but don't want to give them the address, you would like to keep it all to yourself.This cottage has views to die for, very clean, spacious and comfortable, the ideal getaway for two. The owners Mike and Jill are there if you want them, but will keep out of your way if you don't. Do not take any notice of any negative points from other reviews, they cannot have been staying in the same place. Cant wait to return.

In fairness to Blue Chip Holidays, which we have used many times, every time to our satisfaction, despite some delay they did respond and have offered some compensation. Our gripe is with the property owners, whose responses to each of the complaints was waffle at the very least! The door excuse, well leave that to you, we have photos of other complaints. We were never after compensation, just to hope for improvement (which will not happen as they do not accept feedback) and to let other potential users have some warning. Advice is, any problem, report it immediately!

Thank you for your patience in allowing me to investigate your feedback regarding your stay at Kingsley House.
The owners of the property were extremely sorry to hear about your complaint, and have responded accordingly.

In regards to the front door the owner has stated:

The front door had been locked by the cleaners and sometimes the door does like to get a little difficult to lock, the cleaners did make sure it was locked on the date of your arrival.

The paracetamol on the floor, the caretakers have said:

All floors in the property are hoovered and beds do get checked underneath also, The owner has said the beds were not pulled from the wall so there is a chance something was hidden and missed.

Dog Chew/hair in the property:

The property did have a guest with a dog in the week before. and the hoover they have is really effective in removing dog hair, he has said it is sometimes impossible to remove all traces. there was also no sign of a dog toy by the cleaners.

The pots and pans the cleaners have advised:

The cleaners have mentioned that a few baking trays could need replacing, All pots and pans were cleaned in the dishwasher and put away in the cupboards.

We do advise guests that if any problems were to arise at the property during your stay, to call your local contact, so they can call and address any issues raised.

We also have advisors on hand 7 days a week, 9am - 8pm - Mon - Sat and 10am - 6pm on Sunday who will be happy to offer assistance throughout your stay.

6 Kingsley Mews - Newquay Cornwall
I wish to advise anyone looking at booking through this company to stay well clear. I recently visited 6 Kingsley Mews in Newquay with my Husband and a small dog. THE PROPERTY OWNER IS TRYING TO OBTAIN £576 to replace a damaged door which they said we did. WE DID NOT DAMAGE ANY DOOR. -READ ON

The cost of the holiday was £643.00 from 4 - 11 May 2019. They charged £50.00 security damage cost which they took 1 week before we arrived.

When we arrived at the property there was no one to greet us and check the property prior to us staying and we let ourselves in by a key safe. We noticed some small damages to doors inside the property including a steel plate on a door in the Master Bedroom which was obviously covering damage to the door. But thought this was just wear and tear of a holiday rental.

When we arrived home we were emailed by the company Blue-chip Holidays say the property owner had said we had caused damage to the ensuite bathroom door in the Master. WE HAD NOT!! They have kept the £50 damage waiver cost which we want back as we have caused no damage to anything.

Today 25 May i received a further email from Bluechip Holidays with an attached invoice from the property owner for £576.00 inc VAT to replace the Door!!! The email also stated that we may be pursued through the small claims court. This has caused both my husband and i great stress and anxiety - two 57 year olds do not expect to be accused of damaging property.
ARE WE EXPECTED TO TAKE THOUSANDS OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE RENTAL PROPERTY TO AVOID BEING ACCUSED OF DAMAGES.

We have rented numerous propertys for holidays in the UK and never experienced anything like this before.

BLUECHIP HOLIDAYS HAVE OFFERED NO HELP WHATSOEVER IN THIS MATTER.

I am appalled by the experience that we have had recently with Blue Chip Holidays. We booked a three night stay at Paskins , two couples meeting up , both traveling long distances to meet up for a twice yearly get together. This was supposed to be a special relaxing break for us. We all work hard and were looking forward to some time out. At 06.45 on the Sunday morning water started pouring in from the upstairs apartment into one of the bedrooms, one of the bathrooms and the hall. The apartment was a mess with sodden bed, carpets and all the electrics has to be turned off. I spent the whole day on the phone trying to find accommodation for the night. The service, or lack of it from the BlueChip “customer service” team was appalling. The owner of the apartment agreed to refund the cost of the stay , which Blue Chip seemed to think we should be grateful for. In our opinion it was the least they could do under the circumstances. It will have come out of their insurance claim anyway. It was only after I insisted on three occasions that they contact the owner that they eventually did so. I eventually found an Airbnb which Bluechip asked me to book as they did not have a company credit card to do so (strange for such a large organisation). They agreed in writing to refund me the cost. I then tried booking it, but got panicked when I got the message that we would hear from them within 24 hours. By now the time was 4pm and we still had nowhere to stay that night. Eventually we were forced to stay in a really grotty pub that Blue Chip wanted us to stay in earlier in the day. (We had originally refused to stay there). I then found out that my PayPal account had been debited by Airbnb. Bluechip then went back on their word and refused to refund me the money for this booking. Even though we had an email confirming that they would. They would only refund the much cheaper option of the grotty pub. I feel that I should not have been put in the position of even booking the Airbnb, this should have been done by Bluechip. I feel that the company have been completely deceitful in their dealings with us. When we went back to the accommodation after our day out. All our food had been ruined as the electric had been turned off and the fridge door opened. We then had to go out for dinner, this incurring more expense. Basically one whole day of a two day stay was taken up trying to sort out a completely accommodation fiasco. The whole attitude of Blue Chip has been dismissive and unprofessional. The inconvenience and frustration caused was really very upsetting. Then to not be refunded the amount that Bluechip agreed in writing was the icing on the cake. The website and marketing are not representative at all of the appalling “service” that you get when something goes wrong. I work in the luxury travel sector and I think that you can really tell the quality of a company by how they handle themselves when there is a situation that needs fixing. We have used Blue Chip many times before and will never use them again. I also have a video of the water pouring through the ceiling that I would love to share! The lack of empathy and customer card that we received from Bluechip was appalling.

Appalling behaviour. This isn't the same firm it used to be since it's been bought by Hoseasons. Couldn't give a crap about its customers. Took our money on a property which isn't available and instead of a lovely location near the sea offered me a bungalow in suburban exeter. Robot on the phone just kept repeating herself. They're still selling the holidays on their website even though they don't have them available. It's all lies, no customer service, no care or attention.
They've ruined our first wedding anniversary, and haven't given the money back yet.

Do not use this company.

We have recently used blue chip to book a holiday away for our wedding anniversary, and we had a terrible experience, the property we booked was listed as 5 star but it would have been best as a 2 star and only then because it had a hot tub. When we arrived the place was dirty, dirt in the kitchen cupboards dirt all over the bin both toilets were dirty and had hairs all around them and one of the toilet brushes still had toilet paper all over it. So we called the property manager and explained, who at first didn’t believe us, however he arranged for the cleaners to come back and they sorted it out, not what you want when you are on holiday however it got sorted. Now on to the other bathroom (which looked lovely in the pics) but which was covered in black mould all over the ceiling, my wife suffers with Asma so there was no way we were going to use that room so we closed the door to it and never used it all week. There was also burn marks all over the coffee table and broken mugs and chipped glasses. So that was the state of the property now on to blue chip themselves. So we originally booked a Monday to Friday then we decided to extend our holiday over the weekend aswell so we called and asked for a price it seemed reasonable so we booked it and was also told that we would have to pay a deposit (£100) so we paid the deposit and paid for the extra nights. However halfway through the week we were looking through the bank to see how much money we could spend and noticed we were £100 worse off, so we looked closer and it turns out blue chip had taken another £100 out of our account with out our permission, so we then called blue chip and had a right game with them going back and forth all day with them saying that it was the deposit that they told us about and not listening to us when we told them we had already paid that, we told them to listen to the conversation over the phone that they recorded on the day we paid the deposit. The lady called us back and told us she had listened and that we were wrong and there was nothing they would do, as it turns out she hadn’t listened to the phone call at all and was just telling us lies, in the end it was only when we told her that unless a supervisor called us back we would take it further through our bank that within 5 mins the lady who we spoke to when we paid the deposit in the first place called us back that then suddenly it was all sorted and she would refund the £100 that they took without permission and she was saying it like it was some grand gestures on there part. So to sum up unless you like staying in dirty mouldy overpriced places and enjoy having your money taken without your permission then avoid at all costs. Needless to say we will never us again.

Be very careful about using this company, they are not what they seem.

Blue Chip holidays are actually ‘Vacation Rentals’ just using a posh sounding name to trade under.

There is nothing ‘blue chip’ about the way that they operate, importantly you are not actually guaranteed to go on any holiday that you book with them.

This is why.

When you book, you enter a contract with the property owner and not Blue Chip (Vacation Rentals). At any point after, the property owners can simply decide not to rent out their property anymore, or to sell it, or to use it themselves regardless of any bookings. Blue Chip (Vacation Rentals) do not give the owners a notice period to do any of this, the owners could decide to do it four months before your holiday starts or the day before you arrive. It is all explained in the small print T&Cs which very few people ever read, these say that property owners can do whatever they like, and that Blue Chip (Vacation Rentals) ‘have to further liability’ if owners do decide to make the property unavailable.

It just happened to us (an owner decided to make a property that we have booked and paid for unavailable), and Blue Chip were fairly blasé about it. I am sure that they will reply to this review and say how apologetic they were, but they actually weren’t that apologetic when I spoke to them. I am sure that they will say how they searched for alternative holidays, but the truth is that they sent over holidays with completely different spec and location. They were just going through the motions.

There are plenty of good agency companies that can be used for booking holidays, Blue Chip (Vacation Rentals) is not one of them.

Take whatever response they attach to this review, with a pinch of salt.

Used this company on the 18/01/2019 to book a three day break for myself and my wife,
It was to stay in a lodge called riverside lodge Ripon,
When we arrived we were told our lodge wasn’t ready because the owner told the lady we were booked into a different lodge.
We were also told that the central heating wasn’t working, and we would be given electric heaters, which we were given, I asked when the heating would be fixed I was told by the lady she wasn’t sure,as the owner was away skiing.the lady came around about an hour later and we were told that the real reason our lodge wasn’t ready was because this company Blue Chip holidays hadn’t informed them about us.
The lodge after an hour or so did warm up and wasn’t to bad,
The next morning when someone turned up and asked again about the heating and was told the owner was due back today and would pop in and sort it out, I told the lady we didn’t have any hot water either,she came to the lodge did something in the cubboard and said it would be ok now, that was the last time we saw anyone as the owner didn’t come and fix the heating and the water didn’t get hot.
On the Sunday we went out and came back I guess about 2 to 2:30 pm about An hour later we noticed the heating was working and the water finally got hot.we left in the morning as we were then due to leave.we never saw anyone from the site so had to post the keys in a letter box.
The next day I reported to Blue Chip holidays what had happened,they said they would look into it.
They contacted me and gave an unsatisfactory answer about the site was suffering difficulties with the heating, and said it was there fault that they hadn’t inform the site we were coming,
And they offered me a £50 voucher to put to my next booking with them,I refused this as I didn’t think anything less than a refund was good enough, I also told them I wouldn’t be using either them or Riverside lodges of Ripon again.
My advice to anyone thinking about using either of these companies is don’t

Do not use Blue Chip Holidays. Booked a very unique place that had everything I wanted for dates I wanted. For 3 weeks later for Blue Chip to phone me saying it's double booked and I can't have it so now I'm struggling to find anywhere else I like and places are dearer due to the 3 weeks it took them to inform of there mistake. Yes I'm awaiting a refund but all they could do is say sorry not offer anything else. Will never use again.

DO NOT BOOK WITH BLUE CHIP HOLIDAYS! WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED. We have used blue chip holidays for a couple of years with no problem. Then stayed in a property where we had dirty bedding, mice, loads of dead flies, broken t.v., broken whirlpool bath the list goes on. Firstly we asked for the bedding to be changed which did not happen till the next day as it was a Sunday so had to sleep in used bedding. Then in the night saw a mouse so enough was enough and asked to change properties. They were extremely unhelpful never apologised. We were moved to a cramped house miles away with no facilities and told we were not allowed to go back and use the pool etc where we were meant to be staying. It certainly was not a 4 or 5 star house. It was the worst holiday I have ever been on. I will never use this company again. They were rude unhelpful uncaring uncompassionate and completely lacking in customer service. Once they have your money they do not care about you and your holiday experience. Please do not book with this company.

Booked with BlueChip for a cottage in hustyns Cornwall. A day before our holiday they changed the cottage. The cottage we were given was dirty. It hadn't been cleaned properly. We couldn't get in the property for an hr waiting outside in the cold because BlueChip and property manager didn't know the code to get in the property. When we made the complaint to the property manager she said all complaints are to be dealt with BlueChip and when we did inform BlueChip following morning and had pictures of the dirty rooms with dead flies on the window and tub. We couldn't use the tub as it was firty , BlueChip states nothing can be done ' we should've informed property manager but we did. Neither of them want to take responsibility. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND BLUECHIP to anyone. As for the property manager I suggest she ensures the cleaners are doing a good job instead of letting people in a dirty property . Not pleased at all.

I strongly do not recommend booking with this company, because they are not client-oriented and if any problems occur all they can help you with is a refund.

We booked the cottage with barbecue and hot tub which was part of the huge complex with facilities. Full upfront payment was required. 2 weeks before our booked dates we were informed that MOST of the complex facilities will be closed at those dates. We didn’t expect the outdoor pool to work in November but were surprised to find out there was no restaurant, no bar which was a huge problem because the cottage is in a middle of a green zone and nothing is around. No information about seasonal closing times of facilities was available on the website.

Then we spent more than a week trying to understand if our booked property had a barbecue (booking page clearly stated it did) with sharp support replies. When we finally figured out that the property didn’t have a barbecue (it was vital for us to have it), it was less than a week to the booked dates.

When we raised that point, support offered us literally nothing but to get a refund. It was not what we wanted because it is not so easy to find another property fast taking into account we needed to wait for money back. We asked support if we can get a discount on the booked property and they wasted a whole day of our precious time to say no in the end.

Conclusively, we found out that there was wrong information on the website or absence of an essential one, and we brought that to the matter of the company helping them to provide better services for future clients. No one expressed any gratitude, our problem and solutions we (not them) offered were simply ignored. We were left 3 days before the holidays start without a booked cottage, waiting for a refund and with a strong dissatisfying feeling client cared about the company more than the company cared about them.

I would rate 0 out of 5, but as 1 is minimum, let’s assume that’s because the refund was rather fast (2 working days).

I stayed at 5 Curlew, The Cove, Brixham. 9th Nov for a week. Foul weather on arrival, then the nightmare began. Dark howling wind and rain, 150mtrs from the door in the allocated parking space. We were drenched and cold...opened the door and the place was filthy, no linen, no towels totally honking. I called Blue Chip. They said it was the property manager at fault refused a refund to go to another hotel. A Soaking cleaner turned up and tried her best to make the place habitable. Blue chip called me and offered £30 to go away and find a cafe for tea and a meal, huh!!! like we were going to go out again. Blue chip continued to shift blame and accepted no responsibility, still blaming the PM. To top it all the Wi-Fi wasn't working and the TV was not tuned in. In the morning we discovered cling film covering the smoke detectors. Blue Chip shifted blame on the owners and property manager again and have to date refused to pass me their details, even though they say my contract is with them not Blue Chip. Yet Blue Chip took my money sharpish. I reported my concerns to the Devon and Somerset Fire Service who have now begun an investigation as a Crime has been committed. Blue Chip have denied any responsibility again and again. The whole block of apartments could have caught fire with no alarm working. Blue Chip have offered me £100 off a future booking(don't think so) the owner via Blue Chip is not interested apart from sending me a message about the detectors being sensitive that is why they were covered, and said the detectors are not checked on a regular basis. (another criminal act). I hope to have my day in court with these cowboys. My advice is KEEP CLEAR, DANGER and a WASTE of MONEY. Blue Chip customer care are a complete waste also, not bothered is the attitude. I for one will never use them again, my FB friends etc are all well aware of what happened.

AVOID AT ALL COST!

ME and my partner went to 7 salt apartments for our anniversary and her birthday, it was a lovely place apart from the toilet being broke...
Tried to call our property manager endless times no answer and no call back, Thank god it wasn’t our only toilet in the place...
then when we leave the property we are accused of causing a stain on the rug...
and not only that but accused us of trying to hide it with a puffy...
luckily I took a video of the whole apartment when we arrived to show friends and you could see the stain on the rug then..
so I explained that they have it completely wrong sent them across the video date and time and they said they would look into it but this still may not be enough to prove my innocents..at this point I became angry they had offended me and insulted me the owners accepted my proof of evidence and released my deposit but in all fairness they had ruined my holiday completely! paying £550 for 4 nights wasnt worth the stress and hassle I have asked for this to be taken further they have said they just act as mediators I asked to raise complaint over and over again and they don’t bother too they offer me 5% off my next holiday as a “valued customer” haha yet they offer everyone 5% off online now.... and now they have stopped replying to my emails they won’t post my review on the website and this is a joke because the only review they do show are the good ones..

Booked a holiday with blue chip and they were extremely helpful over the phone and gave me all information needed. Have been emailing Donna back and fourth about the holidays bd she’s been really helpful!

No problems at all!

Terrible experience - Avoid

We rented Birdcage Cottage through Blue Chip Holidays. We arrived at the cottage and it had not been cleaned from the last guests and was a mess. We contacted the property manager and they said that Blue Chip had not been in contact with them to tell them we had booked, despite us booking 2 months previously. The previous guests had also left a note saying there were maintenance problems with the property; the bannister hanging off the wall, glass missing in the wood burner making it unuseable (and the house was freezing) and lightbulbs missing in the room. We were travelling with our 3 month old son and did not feel we could stay there as it was filthy and dangerous. We told the property manager and he agreed he would refund us. We then had to drive back to Plymouth and get a hotel last minute which was very expensive (after driving down from London). They then proceeded not to give me my refund and I had to call them repeatedly over the next 3 days to get it. They also offered no compensation for me having to get a hotel last minute. The point of using a company is so that properties are vetted and you are given a good standard of customer service. They failed on both these counts and I would not recommend using them. A terrible experience and a completely ruined holiday.