Club Med Reviews

After waiting 15 minutes for them to photocopy a ‘welcome pack’ (there wasn't one in my envelope) and being led to our room (by a GO who didn't speak a word of English and was quite rude even when I spoke French to her), we arrive a spot that I can only describe as a ‘pit’. We walked down 8 stairs below ground into a smelly, mouldy, dingy, dark, unventilated room. The beds weren't even full singles. The ceilings were low. There was mould in the toilet. The pillows were lumpy and damp. The TV had a loop of the activities for the week. Only it was for the previous week. And the only welcome was a single piece of paper with huge lettering on it ordering us not to reserve Pool Chairs and TOWELS WILL BE REMOVED. And then I started sneezing. I can only assume a horse rider stayed in our room. There was no way my son could spend hours every day in this dark pit of a room studying.

I went to the desk to speak to a manager. I waited half an hour and no one came. I was told to go back to my room and the manager would call. We waited, but no call. I called Club Med in London and they said the only thing to do was to talk to the front desk. If I wanted to check out I could get a declaration from the front desk. Still the manager hadn't bothered to call or talk to me. At this point, I realized nothing is going to happen. The only Wi-Fi was in the ‘lounge’ which again, was another dark room where smokers hung out on the other side of the campus (which was big). I tried to find another hotel in the area as clearly Club Med didn’t care. My son was hungry, so we went to the dining area for lunch. The food was mediocre (I'm being generous here).

I went back to the room and still no call from the manager. So I went back to the dark lounge (and these distances weren't close), found another hotel down the road and booked it. I then went to the front desk and told them I was leaving. Only then did someone slightly more senior come and speak to me. They said they could show me another room, but it was further away and I wouldn't like it. I told them I was leaving regardless. I couldn't stay in a room where I sneezed, that was a pit and uninhabitable and also I wasn't going to be able to play tennis.

I must admit, the Dutch woman at the desk at this point was pleasant. There was still no manager around, so I filled out a declaration and left it there. I would have to pick it up from their gate house later in the week so I could get my refund. I checked in down the road (to Sofitel – which was fab and cheaper and had tennis on site) and picked up my voucher later in the week. Just to be clear: My son and I had a buffet lunch, but I did not use the facilities or unpack. We did not even use the toilets.

When I returned to London, I called the office at 9am on Monday (April 14th, 2014) morning to send my declaration in and get my refund. They said I had to email it to a customer complaints. I did so and didn't hear anything back. Not even confirmation that they received my email. I emailed again. Nothing. And again. I called customer reservations. They said they had a month to respond. At this point, I just wanted to make sure they received my complaint, as I had no way of knowing. I called customer reservations again, kindly asking them to ask customer complaints just to please confirm they had received my complaint (there is no phone number for customer complaints obviously). By Thursday, I received an email saying, yes, they received my complaint and they had a month (by May 12th) to look into it and I would have an answer.

I emailed on Monday May 12th asking for my refund and I received a long email telling me I’m not to get anything. I hadn’t informed them of my allergies on the health form (WRONG: I never filled out a form because I booked last minute), that they showed me another room and I refused (WRONG: I was never shown another room), despite being that they were at 99% capacity (which is difficult to believe). As a gesture of goodwill, they offered me a £625 credit against a future Club Med holiday. I think it’s clear from this email that I will never step foot in another Club Med for the rest of my life (I’d been on 2 Club Med holidays before – one in Antigua and one in Mexico years ago. Both were fine).

So to sum up: in addition to my allergies which made it impossible for me to play tennis and stay in the room, all I can say is that this hotel was the grottiest one I've ever been to. (And that’s saying something given I travelled around Europe on $30 a day for months!) I did not stay in their hotel. I did not use their facilities and they are keeping £2000 of my money (our flights were max £300 each, plus the transfer, plus the lunch – I'm generously saying £900 for all that). I only received this news yesterday so am calling the credit card company, a lawyer and the travel ombudsman today, and of course, going on every consumer advisory site I can get my hands on.

Other littler problems: When we arrived, the transfer person was chatting with his mates, and barely acknowledged us. He pointed at a driver, who led us outside without a word, put our suitcases in the van and locked the van and walked away. Didn't say: wait here, or we’ll just be a minute. My son and I sat on a curb for 25 minutes wondering what the heck was going on (just for the record, I speak French, so the language barrier wasn't an issue). Our transfer was only about 25 minutes, so they could have easily dropped us at the hotel. I understand the hotel was built in the 60s. It obviously hasn't been touched since. The beds were disgusting. That’s the only way to describe it. And so were the rooms. The majority of the staff were rude. Not all, but most. If anyone has any suggestions on how to deal with this better or more effectively, I’d really appreciate it! I’m pulling my hair out here.

When I arrived my room was so moldy and stinky that they were spraying deodorizer from a machine on the wall. The sheets and pillows smelled like hookers were inhabiting the place and it took them 4 hours to bring new linens. The Island has beautiful natural assets but the Club Med is a run down dirty dump. The people were from cold climates and were probably too drunk to realize what a dump it was. I told the travel agent from Club Med I had a lung problem and she did not tell me the place was 20 years old and they have NOT spent a dime in the place.

Even the furniture was filthy. No one cleans and all the mattresses are lumpy and moldy. Cost me money to fly home after 2 days. Meat was like shoe leather. Awful company. They do not care about guests because they do not to keep up property. Sand fleas bite you and they don't tell you in advance so you can buy bug spray at their gift shop. No singles at all. A single person’s nightmare. A true Dump. Should have 2 stars not 4.

Determined to enjoy our holiday, we took our kids to the main swimming pool for a swim only to find afterward that there are no changing rooms at all around the pool, only an open outdoor shower. We then had to walk back to our room across the other side of the very large compound all in dripping wet swimming costumes to get changed for dinner. At dinner, there was a hoard of people rushing for the buffet with mediocre food and long queues for absolutely everything. I was carrying my 2-yr-old son in one arm while waiting in line for the sushi buffet and just as I got to the front, a Club Med staff with a name tag jumped in the queue in front of us. When I inquired at the reception, I was told that the staff eats at the same time as everyone else and that's that. NOT SURE HOW WE ARE GOING TO GET THROUGH THE NEXT 6 NIGHTS! And just now it is 9 pm and we are trying to put our kids to bed and the housekeeping is coming around knocking on everyone's doors!

I requested a 3rd floor room with a view and I was assured I will have it. When we arrived, we were given a ground floor room with no view. The room was not set up with a king size bed as I requested but with 2 twin beds. I finally complained and we were moved to a second floor room. The area around the room (outside) was full of dead leaves and debris. The plants and grass looked like it had not been watered. The large trees all over the property were dead and bare, or neglected. The gutters near the bar area were black with mildew.

For 2 days in a row, the room was not made up until we returned around 16:00 and I called to complain. That was when we returned from the beach and needed to shower, but instead we had to sit and wait outside the room.

I am sorry to tell you that we will not return to Club Med since we had such a terrible experience. I will say the staff was friendly, the entertainment was good, and the food was good. It is too bad we had such an unpleasant start to what should have been an otherwise great weekend.

The following Tuesday, February 5, 2013, I saw the very same vacation advertised for over $1,400.00 less. Apparently, my vacation was booked with United as the airline and they were now offering a Delta flight with one extra stop that was $360.00 per ticket cheaper. I called and asked why I was not offered the Delta flight and was not given a satisfactory answer. I asked to have my flight changed to Delta and they refused, saying that my flight was nonrefundable. I sent 2 emails to the company and did not get any response. Although I am still looking forward to my vacation, the whole purchasing experience left a bitter taste in my mouth.

We initially booked with the sales office in Kuala Lumpur but we’re told to arrange our transport as we were departing from Johor Bahru, south of Kuala Lumpur. The sales person in KL said if we were departing from KL, they can arrange buses for us but not from JB. I could not believe their level of customer service as they advertise to cater for companies having events there. So we had to book through a travel agent, extra cost. In addition, Club Med had stricter rules when dealing with travel agents. We, the customers, had to now deal through the travel agent with Club Med instead of directly with Club Med.

When we were there in Club Med Cherating, I understood from our tour guide that the sales person from Kuala Lumpur and her family were there too on a free trip to Club Med Cherating on our company's expenses as she was handling our booking. I could not believe this. The sales office provided poor service and they rewarded their staff for the trip out of our company's expenses. I thought to myself since when was this lady our company's employee?

Their response:

ClubMedUK official, Manager at Club Med Cherating Beach, responded to this review

Dear Thean,

We have investigated your complaint but due to your company trip being in 2005, we do not have the most detailed information after 6 years. First of all, we would like to mention that for the last few years we have a full service dedicated Club Med Business team in the UK that organize all aspects of the business trip, so this would have never happen again. It does look like the Travel Agent was offered an incentive trip due to the booking your company placed but this was totally at the cost of Club Med and not at the cost of your company. Please rest assured it is not the current policy to offer Travel agents incentive trips as a direct result of a booking.

We are deeply sorry with the circumstances you experienced and we can assure you that we have put all the necessary processes in place to ensure this would never happen again at Club Med.

1) On our arrival to our room, everything looked in order except for the toilet. Visually the seat did not look correct but what was worse is that it was so loose that when you sat down, the seat would move to one side and then slip into the bowl. My wife, being 6 months pregnant, found this incredibly uncomfortable. I logged this with the front desk. Maintenance came through to the room to swap the seat out but as you can see from the pictures, it made no difference. We continued to chase the toilet seat around the bowl for the duration of our stay.

2) Although we requested a room with a bath (to bath our 2 year old) we only got a shower. We did not make a big deal about this but that night we discovered that our shower had a mind of its own. We were unable to keep the temperature at a constant. It would move from scalding to ice cold. It was almost impossible to shower ourselves, let alone our son. Again, a call was logged with the front desk. We were visited by 2 gentlemen in a space of about 4 hrs. Both could not understand a word of English. When I asked the 2nd gentlemen if the problem was rectified, he shrugged his shoulders and waved his palm, as if to say, who knows? The problem continued until the day we left.

3) The bathroom extra fan did not work, leaving the bathroom smelly and misted after showers. 4) TV was very snowy, I did not even bother to call the front desk again. 5) What was supposed to be a double bed, were 2 single beds of varying heights (about 5cm) pushed together. Unacceptable! Considering that we had to upgrade to a deluxe room to accommodate our 2yr old son, apart from being bigger, there was nothing deluxe about it. Overall the stay at Club Med was below satisfactory and has left a sour taste in my mouth considering the cost involved in getting to the resort all the way from South Africa.

It was extremely disappointing to have experienced the Club Med Columbus Isle as our first experience with you, we were very excited on having our second honeymoon in that place because of what Club Med represented as a name on its own. Other Club Med, as we were told, are renovated with a supposedly atmosphere full of fun, clean, neat and pleasant. Unfortunately, we found nothing like this in Columbus. We were lucky to be living close by and were able to get an airplane ticket to come back home and end the disappointing Club Med experience. During our forced 3 days stay (no early airplane departure available) we were hearing other people's unhappiness and shared disappointment, people who were also stuck because of no flights or just because they gave up and decided to swallow the bad choice. In fact, we returned back to the USA in the same plane with an Italian family (a mother and her two teenage daughters) who also complained to the Guest Relations Department. We found strange the comment of Ms O. who stated that no complaints were received from the Columbus Club Med.

We do request for a complete refund or at the bare minimum, a complementary voucher to other, decent, Club Med that can change this pathetic first experience, that can prove your high standards as a Club Med, according to your reputation. We demand you to seriously look at our case, that has not only made it the worse vacation experience (for the excessive price we paid!) but also because if forced us to incur in additional expenses (such as the return ticked we had to pay to go back home). We did paid for a package full of excitement, cleanness and class, we hope to get what we paid for or if you are not able to deliver it, for a full refund.

We did already informed of our case to the travel agency were we bought this package, waiting for an answer to our request. This will be further dealt as soon as we return to Mexico (where we live) assuming no prompt or positive answer comes before that time (which is next week). The additional purpose of this email is to let you know that, just because people continue to fall into these packages, and continue to go to these places, business should not go as if nothing happens...this club in particular requires maintenance (a lot!), cleanliness and neatness, more attention to details, but fundamentally Customer Service (Mr. Karim Dos S. seemed uneasy to approach us and talk to us, even though there were more than one occasion to engage in a conversation, at least just to sympathize or give us the believe hat the matter has been heard--nothing!)

Finally and to sustain our claim, find attacked some pictures that depict the lack of maintenance and cleanliness that suggest that this place has been abandoned long ago. They speak for themselves, but if you need additional explanation, I can provide it with full details. Unfortunately, I have no graphical evidence to show the lack of interest from hosts (who were plenty of them but seemed to mind their own businesses). Hope to hear from you really soon.

Well, the shuttle got lost. He had no idea where the ClubMed resort was. We went in circles (literally) for almost 50 minutes! It was very scary to be in a van with a stranger in a strange country speaking a foreign language and not know where we were. I think my three-year old is still traumatized from the event. The driver kept stopping to ask the construction workers on the road but no one seemed to know. Finally, he pulled into the entrance of another resort. I was extremely upset about this. We were glad to finally check in to our room.

Over the course of the next few days, we were locked out of our room multiple times. Upon placing multiple calls to the front desk, they indicated they were very busy and that they will send someone out as soon as possible. Meanwhile, an hour later and two kids wet from the beach and late for their nap, we finally had access. A few more times, we had this problem. Someone finally came to fix the lock on the last day. Though the food was okay, the whole family got sick from the dinner we ate the evening before. I was for sick for days after we came home. I had to take a sick day from work as well. Not to mention, the blenders I used for my infant were never cleaned properly. All in all, I'm very disappointed with the ClubMed experience.

I personally pride myself with a very robust stomach and it happens very rarely that I experience any bowel related discomfort. However, this time, I too succumbed to the impact caused by the food at the resort: I caught a severe diarrhea and was forced to spend two full days at my room. After taking medications, the diarrhea gradually subsided and gave way to very painful stomach cramps. Needless to say, I was deprived of my long awaited ski experience during these days.

We are generally very healthy people and neither my wife nor I ever experienced food related discomfort of such magnitude. To prove it all, we obtained solid proof that our experience was clearly a result of food poisoning at your resort: When we entered the dining room from the Friday evening Gala Dinner, approaching a plate of grapevine leafs, we were stunned to find them thoroughly covered with mold and mildew. It was disgusting and anybody who wishes, I'd be happy to send you the images we took of that poor sight. We immediately requested the attention of the Chef de village, Mr. Philippe ** and he too was utterly shocked. His apologies were too little and far too late. Our written complaint to the Club Med headquarters in Paris only got us a letter saying that nobody else had complained, and that they therefore reject our complaint.

Suffice it to say, that we are furious and very disappointed in how we were let down by Club Med. Not only did we spend almost $5,000 for this very doubtful pleasure, but our entire, long awaited vacation was utterly ruined. No more Club Med. That's for sure.

Club Med offered to refund the deposit and after much discussion pay up to $200 per person ($800.00) for the airline change fees. To change the tickets would cost the D.'s an additional $874.00. The D.'s aggred to the refund with theunderstanding that the deposit plus $800 would be refunded to their credit card. It is now August 19, 2008 - The deposit refund has been credited back to the credit card. However, Club Med is only refunding $400 ($100 per person) for the tickets. This only covers the penalty to change the tickets - not the total cost to change the tickets. This amount has not been received yet. Instead of refunding to their credit card as they stated, Club Med said they are now sending a check for $400.00.

We were told the reason for cancelling was an economical decision. This group would be spending a lot of money and therefore cancelling my clients made sense. This cancellation cost Club Med nothing The deposit was due back because Club Med cancelled. The cost incurred by the Drakes $874.00 is an extra cost to them at no fault of theirs.

i paid 3.800 EURO to club med.because i left the same day due to renovation i spent 4000 EURO more to stay in other places - so the money i paid to club med %80 is lost -damage for my family

The girl working the front desk ran my card once and handed me a receipt to sign. Then she requested my card again saying that there was a problem and she ran it again. She handed me another receipt & I signed that one. After I handed the signed receipt, she informed me that she accidentally double charged me & that a refund will show up on my credit card approx 30 days. I was never given a voided sales receipt. Both receipts were processed within a minute of each other.

Two charges on my credit card statement were applied on 9/7/06 for $439.47 & for $439.14. I am guessing that the girl at the front desk entered the incorrect amount the first time & never voided it out before she ran my card the second time with a cost difference of $0.33. I contacted my credit card company regarding this double charge & they contacted Club Med who stated that b/c I signed both receipts & dont have a voided sales receipt that the charges are valid.

I have provided my credit card company with my orginal resort voucher, length of stay and cost at the resort, my airline tickets proving that when we booked the vacation package online, we accidentally booked our resort stay a day short of our departure. We were booked at the resort until 9/6/06 and our flight was on 9/7/06. I paid an extra night to stay at the resort til 9/7/06. We checked out of the resort on 9/7/06 and had the resort transport us back to the airport on 9/7/06. I have copies of internet resort vouchers, internet room and vacation package confirmation, airline tickets, two receipts for an extra night's stay, and my credit card statment listing both charges.

Twice I faxed Thierry Orsoni, Club Med's Managing Director in Paris France with no response. I want my refund of $439.47 credited back to my credit card.