Hi there, and thank you for taking the time to bring this matter to our attention.

We completely understand the disappointment caused by the setbacks and delays with the opening of Almond Casuarina Beach hotel. Almond had planned to have the hotel open on time and ready for business, and we had no reason to doubt that the resort would be ready for customers when we put it on sale.

We’re sorry that building work delays have meant that the opening date has been pushed back several times. We contacted customers who have been affected as quickly as possible to offer an equivalent alternative property at no additional cost.

Although the hotel’s refurbishment has not yet been completed, we previously featured the Casuarina for many years prior to the takeover by Almond Resorts. With the projected improvement project by Almond we felt the facilities planned warranted inclusion as a Virgin Holidays Favourites property.

As a result of your feedback we have taken immediate action and have now amended future brochures to show that our customer feedback was not available at the time of brochure printing. In addition we have also updated the information to show that the Almond Casuarina Beach hotel is still under construction. This will be reflected in all future editions of our Caribbean brochure until the hotel is complete. We have also updated our website, and we have removed the property from sale in our call centre for any currently affected dates.

Once again, we’re really sorry for the upset caused. While we would have preferred to resolve any concerns before reaching this stage, we’ll be happy to discuss your holiday further on an individual basis. Please drop us an e-mail on reservation.service@virginholidays.com with your contact details and a convenient time and one of the team will be in touch.

Good luck to Sutori with the site – it’s a brilliant concept and thanks for letting us know how our customers feel, we welcome the opportunity to make things right.

I too cannot agree more with the way the Virgin and Almond have treated there customers. I'm actually getting married there on the 4th July this year. I've had no official correspondence from Virgin and when i call Almond resorts i too get given the newest opening date which chages with every new phonecall to a different member of staff. When i called Virgin yesterday they said that they can move is to Almond Beach Village as our party of 8 includes a child. The Casurina was booked with a free child place as she's under 16, but if we request a move to Turtle Beach next door, we'll have to pay for the child at adult cost as the critera changes to under 12 goes free.

The additional cost to go to the Turtle Beach next door which is a comparable hotel, is £2500 in total bringing the total wedding cost to nearly £14,000....

I think it's a disgrace that Virgin leave it so late, in some cases only advising travellers when they arrive that they are to be moved, to a different location on the island and from what i'm able to gather a hotel thats less than comparable. I'm now having to trawl through the Vigin brochure 12 weeks before im due to get married, to find an alternate destination or hotel! If i'd have known about the work ongoing when i'd booked with going places i'd have chosen a different hotel altogether, not only is it a holiday to the family also travelling, it's our wedding day. We have the reception all booked when we get back, all paid for etc. Now i have a letter from the travel agent asking for the £7,000 balance by the 5th April, for a holiday that doesn't really exsist.

Does anybody else feel as though they have been duped by these big companies? Vigin's website still shows the hotel as built and are still taking bookings for next week, even though the official date is now May 1st, or the 31st depending on who you speak to.

This property has missed more deadlines than Microsoft before it shipped Vista. That's bad enough.

What's worse is the apparent complicity of Almond and Virgin. They know for a fact it hasn't made the numerous opening dates and that it won't make May 1st. Yet they continue to advertise and accept bookings as if it's already open. Someone even wrote a phony hotel review (as if they had just stayed there) and had it published in an online UK magazine. That's fraud.

This hotel is being repeatably miss sold to hundreds of holiday makers.

They are giving advantage prices to pull customers here and then shipping them off to other hotels when they arrive. Most are only informed of the situation AFTER they have paid their final invoice.

I have been a loyal customer if Virgin Holidays for years , member of their Frequent program etc. Virgin have denied that the hotel is closed and will make no comment as to the positive hard selling claims under their "customer favourite " advertising.

The hotel location is excellent and that is why so many want to stay here, the other Almond hotels are much further out on the west coast, with a very small beach.

Our holiday is a family holiday which can be enjoyed in many places which gives us room to be compliant and patient, in some respects. This does not stop us from feeling angry and trapped. For many this holiday is a wedding venue , a honeymoon , an important anniversary. These customers have spent many hours and days planning a special holiday, booking venues and getting family groups together, only to find themselves to be part of a commercial , unethical plan to gain market share of tourists heading to Barbados. Virgin want to fill their planes up and don't really care where their customers end up.

I await to hear any official statement from Virgin. My travel date is 7th July 2008. I will seriously choose never to book Virgin again after this fiasco.

They should be named and shamed. If Almond Hotels choose to plan such a ploy, it is Virgin that should protect us from this sort of misrepresentation. Why else should we pay their high profit making premiums, if if is not to guarantee ourselves protection from this exact type of sham.

Virgin holidays seem to have a policy of gross misrepresentation and have no regard for their customers. Once they have taken the money for a holiday they offer no customer service whatsoever. Talking to their customer service department is worse than useless and also expensive as they use a premium number line.

They used to have a good imagine but this is now tarnished by their unethical and cynical treatment of customers.

This is unexeptable, how can they sell something that they haven't got. Yet another business, misinterpretting what they have, to get more money. Shame on them!

There are now well over a hundred posts on the TA Barbados forum from upset and angry people who have booked ACB. Virgin seems to be the main culprit but other operators have also been selling the holidays without checking if the hotel is open. Some are even showing pictures of the hotel on their websites that are taken from the old Casuarina website. How can they be allowed to do that and advertise it as an Almond hotel?

I have been to Barbados many times and, personally, you wouldn't have found me dead in an Almond hotel, even before this fiasco.

This must be a case for ABTA . BBC Watch Dog or Holidays From Hell. If it was my holiday I would be contacting the media staight away.

Many of us have contacted Watchdog and also ABTA. and consumer direct. As many people have previously said the Virgin Customer Service is appalling. They give people information over the phone, but nothing in writing. The calls are also very expensive and you are kept waiting whilst they claim to look into the matter. E-mailing is also not effective as they do not reply. The fact that this situation has been going on for such a long time is appalling. According to the ABTA website if the Travel company is aware of building work and refurbishment being carried that could seriously impair the enjoyment of the holiday then that travel company should tell you about them before you book the holiday and provide you with accurate information. Virgin and Almond do no such thing once they have your money they are not interested in providing customer service.

I booked Virgin thinking it had a good reputation but given its unethical treatment of customers this will be the last time I ever travel with them.

Hi all, we also have booked to go to the ACB for our wedding, we can't get a straight reply from anyone, yes we can move but at a cost to us, the same to everyone by the looks of it. Don't know what to do, we are also taking the children with us. it is so heart breaking. Just have and wait and see .... I have used Virgin on many ocassion but NEVER again after this....

As i'm sure some of you have read my dealings on our wedding (second reply down)...After a couple of weeks moaning to watchdog, ABTA and The Gurdian Newspaper. Virgin have agreed to move us to the Turtle Beach Resort at now extra cost. Firstly they wanted £4500 for the like for like. Then £2500 if the adult paying the single occupancy fee of £1500 shares with her parents, then £750 like for like then finally £650 like for like after Anna Tims got involved, which i pretty much accepted the extra £83 each as it would just get us away on our wedding in the south where we all wanted to be knowing that it was job done. I then received another email from Anna Tims at the Guardian (consumer editor) saying that she'd been in touch with Virgin Customer Services, explaining that as this is such a special trip, Virgin would honour the difference in price and we'd pay the original amount that we should've paid for the Almond Casurina.

My questions are....Would Virgin have given us the same treatment if Anna Tims didn't get intouch with them? Secondly why shouldn't they give us the discount in the first place, without us having to make numerous phone calls to customer services if they can do anyway. I know they have to make money, and i'm pretty sure some holiday makers would've paid the extra without a qualm, but come on, are they not making enough money on a £12,000 group booking?

I'd like to say thank you, Anna Tims at the Guardian Newspaper, for helping us sort out or Wedding Nightmare, and i'll say thanks to the ladies at Virgin Holidays (essex) for trying to help as much as they could, even though their powers were limited...

If you'd like anymore information regarding our issues with Virgin Holidays and Almond Resorts email me on ck_002@hotmail.com

Hi I have also been reading and following people's comments. It is our 25th Wedding anniversary, and we booked Oct time last year. Again we were not advised that hotel was undergoing refurbisment After reading all this I have been in touch with our travel agent, who have been in touch with Virgin and have today received an email from Virgin advising and I quote " Further to my conversation with your travel agent today I can confirm that the Almond Casurina resort will be open fully during your travel dates. (17-27th August 08) Virgin holidays customers booked into above hotel from 1st July 08 will receive a full service from the hotel with all facilities being open and able to use. I confirm that a Health and Safety Audit is being carried out as we speak. Then goes onto say hopes it will put our mind at ease. We are due to pay 24/5/08 unsure what to do. Can anyone recommend any other hotels.

I was booked to stay in the Casuarina for 27th July to 24th August. After searching the web, I noted before booking (dec 07) that the hotel was not complete and was due to open 'spring 2008'.

I took the view that surely a hotel that had fallen so far behind its opening schedule must be finally reaching a conclusion! How wrong of me! It has, of course, missed 2 (at least) subsequent opening deadlines and having read recent reviews on other web blogs, decided to move hotel on my booking. After a protracted negotiation with the 'beyond useless' customer service department they have agreed to move my party (2 + infant) to the Mango Bay hotel with all original costs honoured.

I'm not willing to risk this hotel not being open - and even if it is, with the rush job no doubt to get this hotel 'finished' for the peak season in place, the quality of service will probably be awful anyway.

No thanks Virgin - be honest with people at the time of booking and don't place for sale accommodation that you cannot guarantee will be both open and open to the standard advertised in brochure descriptions.

Having said that, really looking forward now to staying at the Mango Bay - got it a lot cheaper that I would have done - but pity incompetence on Virgin's part has led to this outcome!

We too are booked into the Casurina for the period 3rd-17th August.

Almond Resorts(by direct e mail) ensure that all works will be completed by July 08.

Virgin blank my requests for a change of hotel, as I work in the UK Construction Industry, the last thing I want is spend a holiday in one!

I was advised today that "major" building works were complete.... yet in the next line "A number of accomodation blocks are not yet open".

I too booked last October and the Virgin Brochure made no mention of the complex not being completed

Only benefit is the balance has not yet been paid!

Can RK4utd above please post how he managed to get a move to another hotel

Failing that anyone have Richard Bransons e mail address??.

Goodness what a tale of woe!

                      My girlfriend recently bought a travel insurance policy for a year for £100 off Virgin Holidays Limited.  However, as she was not going to be at home before going to the airport (she bought her policy on the 22nd and flew to Barbados on the 26th April) she asked if they could get it to her any other way.

They replied by giving her a policy number and told her that at the airport she could go to the Virgin Atlantic desk and receive a printed copy of her documentation. When she arrived at the Virgin Atlantic desk at Gatwick however, the Virgin Atlantic staff denied knowledge of the policy, they suggested that it existed but that the number given for the policy was wrong and would not confirm or deny the existence of the policy. They even told her to buy secondary insurance from Boots which she tried but was not able to obtain in time as she has pre-existing medical conditions. I got the impression that it may just be an administrative error but no one has taken any steps to pursue the query or correct the mistake if that's all that it turns out to be.

Neither my girlfriend's sister (phoning Virgin Holidays Ltd from the UK) or myself (visiting the Virgin Holidays Ltd office in Rockley, Barbados) were able to obtain any firm assurance that my girlfriend has been insured by Virgin Holidays Ltd despite persistently asking for either a policy number or a written assurance of the existence of a policy document. However, I did manage to obtain a written letter on Virgin Holidays notepaper by a Ms Gardy Joseph (Barbados Office) to say that we had been to their office to enquire and Virgin Holidays have definitely debited my girlfriend's account to the tune of £100 on the 22nd of April 2008. Ms Joseph did manage to find me a standard copy of the general policy terms (without specific names or numbers when she stopped being rude and passive aggressive for five seconds) and claimed to have emailed the Virgin Holidays office that deals with their Insurance enquiries but she would make no clear commitment either verbally or in writing even when pressed as to whether there:

a) was a policy as a result of the transaction b) was a policy number

The best she could do is to say that there was "almost certainly" a policy - which made me less certain than ever particularly when she added "I'm not spending any more time on this".

You can annoy Sir Richard in person or by mail at

Sir Richard Branson's Office, Virgin Management Ltd, 120, Campden Hill Road, London, W8 7AR.

You can also complain about their use of Premium Numbers to PhonepayPlus (google it) who may decide to take the following action:

stop the companies from running certain types of services impose a fine - up to a maximum of £250 000 order reasonable and valid refunds to be paid to the complaints.

You can also complain if they dont provide you with a financial service to the Financial Ombudsman.

And remember there's still the small claims court! Let's kick Amanda Willis and Branson's butts!

Complained via ABTA and finally got a reply from Virgin Holidays after a mere 62 days and a full refund after only 70 days. I hear they've won bronze in the Procrastination Olympics.