Summer vacation | Heikki Tolvanen’s family went on an all-inclusive vacation to a four-star hotel – Such chaos awaited them there

from Joensuu Heikki Tolvanen the family’s all-inclusive holiday in Greece turned into a row with the tour operator after the advertised four-star hotel turned out to be something completely different from what was promised in the introductory text.

Tolvanen’s group of ten flew to Parga, Greece, for a beach vacation a week ago on Monday.

In addition to Tolvanen’s family, the party included his elderly parents and a family of friends with their children.

The full-service package trip was ordered from Apollo, which is often better known in Finland as Apollomatkat. Apollo is part of the German REWE Group, which is one of Europe’s largest tourism companies.

The group was already at the destination in the morning. On the same flight, a number of other people who bought the Apollo package tour also came.

Tolvanen says that the group was first informed that they should wait at the field, as the luggage has been delayed.

When the luggage arrived, the group was told that they wouldn’t be able to check in at the hotel until 3 p.m. The Tolvases had expected to get there right away.

“Something was given as an explanation, that due to international hotel regulations it was not possible before,” says Tolvanen.

The explanation sounded strange to Tolvane.

Guides told that as compensation for the delay, Apollo wanted to offer the group lunch in a charming little village.

However, the bus left the group so far in the village that the group had to walk a long way to the restaurant.

“In that heat, we cooled down with children and old people with bad feet,” describes Tolvanen.

At this point, Tolvasten’s party was already starting to get annoyed.

They had set off early and were tired and sweaty. Everyone would have preferred to take a dip in the pool and enjoy glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice, which was supposed to be unlimited in the all inclusive.

At the restaurant, however, the group was told by the guides that they still had to wait, because the yard was being cleaned after the rain. In addition, the hotel had had some “problems”, and the hotel’s restaurants were not yet ready. Therefore, travelers should be prepared for the fact that full board cannot be arranged.

However, there was “maybe” water in the swimming pool, reports Tolvanen.

“At this point, it would already cross our minds that we have been cheated and the whole hotel doesn’t even exist.”

Lunch lasted According to Tolvanen, four hours in the end.

When the group finally made it to Nino’s Grand Beach Hotel, they were met with a shock. The introductory text had promised that a newly renovated hotel with two restaurants, a tennis court, a playground, a fitness center and a swimming school for children would await them.

“It wasn’t a hotel, it was a construction site,” describes Tolvanen.

According to Tolvanen, the hotel was still under full renovation. Only the lobby was finished. Instead, the rooms were completely unfinished, and all the doors didn’t even have locks yet.

“The toilet bowls were not installed, electrical wires were hanging from the walls of the wet rooms. The joints in the bathroom looked like they were done an hour ago.”

Everywhere smelled of fresh paint, and some of the surfaces hadn’t even dried after painting.

According to Tolvanen, the hotel looked like they were trying to get as much done as possible in four hours in a panic.

“You couldn’t stay there with the children.”

When travelers demanded to go to another hotel, a peculiar drama ensued. The hotel staff acted as if they didn’t understand what was bothering the tourists.

“The hotel manager or someone similar asked us to write on a post-it note why we want to leave.”

Even the guides threw up their hands: there were no other options in the area, now we just had to stay here.

“I myself had to show them on booking.com that there are quite a few hotels nearby with room. It wasn’t even high season yet,” says Tolvanen.

Swedish and Norwegian tourists were also coming to the hotel. Some of them didn’t stay to listen, but disappeared right away.

However, Tolvanen’s group did not give up.

“Finally, one of the staff admitted to us that the previous week’s trips had been canceled because the renovation was not yet complete. However, we had been flown in to find out for ourselves.”

Finally late in the evening, a new hotel was arranged for the group. According to Tolvanen, it was otherwise quite good, but it was not all inclusive.

“The next question was who pays for the food and drinks.”

Other travelers also came to the same hotel who had not prepared in their holiday budget for the fact that they would have to pay for food and drinks themselves.

Once again, the tour guides spread their hands.

At this point, Tolvanen would have liked to cancel the whole deal and go home right away, because the trip did not correspond at all to what they had paid for.

However, the guides could not help in the matter.

Tolvanen also tried to contact Apollo’s customer service himself – unsuccessfully.

“Still no one has answered me.”

Finally, on Wednesday evening, they were told that the tour operator offers 30 euros per day for an adult and 15 euros for a child as compensation for the loss of full board.

“But you didn’t really get full treatment with that. With it, we got one lemonade and lunch for a child a day in our hotel.”

HS asked A comment from Apollo about what happened.

Responsible for Apollo’s marketing and communications in Finland Satu Kontulainen responded by email that they are “extremely sorry” for what happened.

“We apologize to our customers,” Kontulainen writes.

According to Kontulainen, Apollo has opened several renovated hotels over the years. The company also expected Nino’s Grand Beach to be completed on time.

“The flow of information has been incomplete, and we simply did not know how to anticipate the situation that awaited our customers who arrived at the hotel,” Kontulainen writes in his message.

Kontulainen says in the email that he completely understands the customers’ frustration. According to him, Apollo did everything possible to find replacement hotels in the area for customers.

“Unfortunately, there are limited all-inclusive hotels in the Parga area in Greece, so some customers were moved to hotels with more limited meal options.”

According to Kontulainen, customers who were transferred to another hotel were already reimbursed part of the price of the trip during the trip.

“The refund took into account, among other things, missing services, lost vacation time, and compensated missing meals depending on which hotel they stayed in and what meals were offered there,” Kontulainen writes.

Now Tolvanen the party has already returned from the trip. The holiday left a bitter aftertaste, even though the holiday spirit was finally found at the end of the week.

“It takes the juices out of a person when half of a week’s vacation is spent arguing with the tour operator. This was supposed to be an ‘easy’ all inclusive vacation.”

Tolvanen is not going to leave it at that. For him, the compensation offered by Apollo was by no means sufficient.

Next, Tolvanen plans to calculate what the loss of full board really cost them and complain to the tour operator.

Tolvanen has even considered filing a criminal complaint.

“I think this meets the hallmarks of fraud.”

What angers Tolva the most is how badly Apollo handled the situation on the spot.

The guides seemed as out of place as the tourists, and it was impossible to get in touch with the tour operator.

“However, I don’t want to blame the guides for the situation, they also clearly had difficulties getting answers.”

Also the Norwegian magazine Verdens Gang said Norwegian Kristoffersen about a family whose dream trip to the south turned into a summer vacation of horrors, when the same Nino’s Grand Beach hotel wasn’t ready yet.

After the trip, Tolvanen received an invitation to the opening of the hotel on July 10 in his e-mail.

“There’s no way the renovation will be finished by then,” wonders Tolvanen.

According to Satu Kontulainen, the opening will be celebrated as agreed.