Club Med

I’m expected to pay for a hotel in both NYC and BOS an additional $500-$700 which we don’t have. The Club Med agents gave me poor information. The option I was offered in January to take another airline for an additional $300 is no longer available. Now I’m stuck having to pay for 2 hotel nights. Club Med has messed up my vacation and caused us a lot of stress months before we go.

Unfortunately once you read the "fine print" the cancellation is ONLY for the stay. You can't even de-couple your flight from the stay so basically if you cancel you lose a good portion of your down payment (the flights and the membership fee). I really feel this is an extremely underhanded way of doing business. Who in their right mind has the option to lose their air fair. Now I have really no option but to go and I have a sour taste in my mouth for Club Med. I called and wanted to speak to a Supervisor, there is no extensions for supervisors or emails and you are basically told "this is our policy". Not sure if this will go anywhere but I wanted to post my frustration.

We would have left early but my sister broke her kneecap while at the resort and was unable to travel. The resort gave her a broken wheelchair which hadn’t been inspected since 2019 which she fell out of twice. All of this and Club Med believes a 50% refund and a $469 future credit is an acceptable resolution. I have no words for how upset I feel by their lack of care for not only the money spent(which for us was a lot) or for what we as a family anticipated and needed but missed out on. Shame on you clubmed for your lack of responsibility or compassion.

1. When you book your flight through Club Med they book a NON-REFUNDABLE ticket without your knowledge or consent. If you are in a situation where you have to request a refund they rely "on the airline policy" for the flight portion. They tell you to speak with the airline directly to obtain a refund but the airline will not speak with you since you have booked your ticket through a third party. Club Med knows this - it is their way of disposing of you. They also say the airline won't refund the tickets but the airline has not taken the money yet - the money is with Club Med until you get on your flight. You know this as well because they can offer you a voucher (with strict restrictions that it be for the same Club Med location). If you can offer a voucher you can offer a refund. Stop lying to your customers. Club Med should offer an option where you can have refundable airline tickets booked through them and they do not.

2. The airline can also change your flight details (including moving you to their discount service) AFTER you have completed payment. This decreases the value of your airline ticket and they provide you with no refund for the difference. This is sneaky and a repudiation of the contract.

I have travelled with high end brands like the Four Season, etc. and I've never dealt with a team who is so disorganized and careless when it comes to customer service. The first agent I spoke with over the phone said the Director of Transportation for Club Med (Jonathan **) would call me within 48 hours. He did not. When I called back to inquire they said Jonathan had left an internal note simply saying "Air Canada will not refund the ticket".

For myself and my husband who work hard for our money, vacations are important. We are willing to pay a premium for a great experience. This has been anything but and the lack of care Club Med has shown is misrepresentative of what is supposed to be a premium and trusted brand. Do not take your business to a brand that will allow for decreases in value after you pay and book non-refundable tickets with airlines without your consent. You deserve better.

Club Med never informs me that I no longer have a flight to Cancun. We scramble and pay more than double for tix to resort. Day before our return home (less than 24 hrs), we get a note slipped under our door informing us our flight home has been canceled, as if Club Med was just notified of this!! When I got home I email Club Med. They told me they had no way of knowing my flight was canceled. If you knew my return flight was canceled, then you knew my arriving flight was canceled and you should have informed me ahead of time. They took zero responsibility in the situation. They took my money to purchase tickets but took no responsibility in informing me that flight was cancelled in a timely manner so I could either opt out of the trip or purchase new tickets.

I am sure Frontier Airlines alerted all tickets purchasers that all flights leaving Newark airport were canceled. The purchaser of my tickets was Club Med, not me. They were the ones informed of the cancellation and chose to do nothing about it. They did not consider it their responsibility to inform us of the canceled flight and chose instead to leave us stranded at the airport to have us figure out and scramble to get ourselves to the resort, regardless of the stress and cost. Their behavior and business practices are reprehensible!!

Food is good but everything is buffet and self serve. Self serve your coffee etc. at breakfast and you can even self serve lunch beers. Absolutely no service and often guests are not even acknowledged - purely transactional. Live music at Sharkies is fabulous but otherwise shows are juvenile. Bartenders care nothing of the long lines. You should not need to wait in line 30 minutes for a drink at an all inclusive and well drinks shouldn’t be of such low quality that you’re upgrading to palatable wines and liquor. Not the warm hospitality the Caribbean is so well known for.

Rooms are old and tired like 80s dorm rooms with comfy beds but purely functional and most without a balcony. 2in1 shampoo/conditioner bolted to the wall in a moldy shower with temperamental water temperatures. Cinder block and old. No minibar and weird stuff like a single coffee mug and a shortage of pillows. The safe is also from the 80s and I Lysol wiped the filthy brown handprints down the edge of the door. Toilet paper is prison grade and top sheet has a little burn mark. Remember the clothes hangers that hook into the hoop permanently attached on the rod? Some are missing.

Beach is not groomed. Beach/pool chairs while plentiful are mildew stained. There are boats on the beach but absolutely no staff on hand to run any boating activity. Grounds are in very rough shape and this place is crawling with French pickleballers. Avoid rooms at the far end of 2000 block because they’re out there at the crack of dawn pickleballing away. Unless you like awakening to what sounds like furious ping pong. The whole place feels like a swingers club. Would never recommend. Go anywhere else. Date of stay: April 2022.

While “window shopping” online last week I looked up the price for a spring break trip at Cancun and what the price would be if I applied the credit. My online account only showed partial credit and I have been in contact with customer service about how to apply both pieces. I have multiple emails with somebody from customer service confirming the back-and-forth and my emails asking for clarification on the amount. I never gave a credit card or confirmed I would book I said I was “interested“ but FIRST would need to know the total amount after the credit was applied. I also confirmed the trip was for 4 guests and even wrote down the reference number (I had also been looking at a 5 guest option).

Despite this back-and-forth the next email I receive is a booking confirmation for five guests with an invoice saying nonrefundable And with no full credit applied. I have since reached out multiple times with no reply. This feels like a scam where they were trying to twist my words into saying I confirmed but the email clearly says what I’m asking for. I never do I say I am ready to buy this. I am hoping this is just some silly customer service error as I have always loved command in the past but something doesn’t feel right about this experience at all. If customer service is reviewing this I am still waiting for your response on email to clear it up and will be happy to update this review once I do.

Update Jan 30th 2022. Indeed a scam from customer service. Looking to lock in guests with no refund even if resort closes for covid. From customer service. Essentially.. “The club med covid cancelation regulations don’t apply because you booked a non refundable trip“. I am waiting for a more follow up