Before I travel, I always look for a good deal. Whether it's airline tickets, hotel rooms or event bookings, I always try to find a good deal. find all the cheapest options before paying full price.
I'm sure I'm not the only one either.
If you're a spontaneous traveller and you like to go to where the offers are bestthen lastminute.com could be a good option.
After all, saving on airfare could give you more budget to eat local dishes and enjoy more travel experiences.
With Lastminute, you can find deals on flights, hotels, all-inclusive holidays and even travel experiences. Do travel deals seem too good to be true?
Read on to find out if you should use lastminute.com for your next travel adventures and to find out if lastminute is reliable.
What is Lastminute?
As the name suggests, lastminute.com allows you to find some last minute discounted deals. Since accommodation is a key aspect of any trip, finding a deal on your hotel is always a winner.
With lastminute.com, you can find excellent HOTEL OFFERS on last minute bookings. If you find your hotel cheaper on any UK website within 24 hours, lastminute.com will refund the difference.
You can also use its search engine for offers to see current offers and where you can find the best fares This tab also covers trips that include flights and hotels and other experiences such as theatre or car hire.
Lastminute.com's best features
All-inclusive holidays
Sometimes you just want to relax and not have to worry about anything once you arrive at your destination. All-inclusive holidays are the perfect way to travel like this.
At lastminute.com, they have all-inclusive offers for holidays all over the world. The only caveat to these truly last minute deals is that they have fixed departure dates, so you have to be ready to travel by the time the offer is up and running.
However, we have come across many previous travellers who have written that lastminute.com charged them on the final invoice without indicating that the online price would not be the actual price charged. Make sure you are aware of this if you book with Lastminute!
Last minute bookings with Lastminute
The fact that their offers tend to be for last minute holidays.does not mean that you are limited in your choice of destination.
You can use their Holiday site map page to explore various places to travel with lastminute.com, whether you're looking for a beach getaway or a city adventure.
Not sure where to go? Your GetAway Magazine offers travel content and an inspirational guide to new destinations you can explore.
Flash sales
Although lastminute.com has some wonderful travel deals, they also have flash sales available for a limited time.
These offers include deals of the week, summer 2022, UK holidays and last chance discounts you won't want to miss out on.
If you're someone with a lot of flexibility in terms of where and when you travel, this would be a great first stop when looking at where to find the best prices.
Experiences
A fun feature lastminute.com has is the possibility to book experiences and even nights in the theatre. As lastminute.com is a UK company, these experiences and theatrical evenings are limited to the UK, and some mainly to London.
If you're planning a trip to the UK soon and want to try something special or unique, be sure to check out the experiences on offer!
Payment plans
In addition to lastminute.com offering flight and hotel deals, one of its selling features is that it offers payment plans for the cost of your travel.
You will first pay a deposit, which will be charged in two payments, two weeks apart. The remaining amount will be divided into equal payments, and will be debited automatically, so you don't have to set any reminders!
It is important to note that payment plan options are currently only available for package holidays and flight/train and hotel combinations.
There is no monthly payment plan option for single product bookings, such as just a hotel or just a flight.
Contact information
When you make any kind of booking, it's good to know what customer service is available to you. Lastminute.com is not very honest with their contact information.
If you don't have a booking ID, there is no way to contact anyone directly.
They have a Frequently asked questions page and, of course, you can try to contact them through their social networks, but there are no direct contact details on the website.
The lack of a good customer service system is frequently mentioned in negative comments on lastminute.com.
LastMinute Refunds and Cancellations
Sometimes circumstances beyond your control force you to cancel your trip. How does lastminute.com deal with refunds?
Not very well, unfortunately. In 2020, they ranked 49th out of 53 companies in terms of repayments.
This problem worsened during the Covid pandemic, as lastminute.com was threatened with legal action for failing to meet refund deadlines due to pandemic cancellations.
On their website, refunds are only available due to flight cancellations. You will have to contact them directly to request a refund if you book a low-cost flight.
Many reviews on Trustpilot speak of a poor refund service and that bookings are not confirmed after payment has been made.
Is Lastminute.com worth it? Lastminute Reviews
We are undecided on this issue. While Lastminute's services are intrinsically excellent at finding good deals on all aspects of your trip, their customer reviews are worrying.
In general, we think you should use Lastminute to find good deals. However, try to see if you can match these offers on other travel booking sites with a more reliable refund/cancellation policy.
Although some lastminute.com offers look attractive, their recent reviews and travellers' experiences mean that we do not recommend them as a No. 1 choice. If you are looking for last minute deals, then they are a good option.
However, they would be an excellent resource for travel inspiration and certainly, if you are travelling to the UK, for booking experiences.
Is Lastminute reliable?
Yes, without any doubt lastminute is reliable and secure. Their payment system is encrypted and your data will be safe.
Our opinion: 3.8/5
Pros
- Flash sales and offers
- Provides travel content.
- All-inclusive holiday offers
cons
- There is no customer service until you have made a reservation.
- Poor refund/cancellation policy.
- Bad reviews from previous users.
- Many experiences are limited to the UK.
If you want to try other options for booking hotels at the best price, we recommend that you look at Expedia Review or if you want to try Hostelworld offers amazing prices for hostels.
Skyscanner has also taken a step forward to catch up on the cheap hotel search.
Greetings traveler @!
After paying for the hotel and having it confirmed, when we arrived at the hotel we were told that it had not been paid for. After wasting 3 hours between calls, chat, calling back, waiting for a solution ..... I decided to pay for the hotel again so as not to sleep under a bridge. They gave me NO solution. A week later I am still waiting for a refund or a solution.
The flight we booked did not exist (it still says that we enjoyed it) and the alternative flight was never confirmed, so we were left stranded in Rome without being able to fly.
To get to our house, we had to buy other tickets, and so far no response.
We went to Paris with my wife and our two minor daughters, and when we arrived at the accommodation they didn't have our reservation. We tried to contact Last Minute to get a solution, but there is no travel assistance phone number and the web chat is not available after 20:00h. Regrettable. We had to look for an alternative solution and bear the cost. At no time did they offer us a solution to the problem. Now they want to compensate us with an amount that does not even cover the additional costs that we had to assume. They are in breach of their own contract conditions and leave you stranded at the destination. Watch out!
¡Vaya, vaya! ¿Quién ha probado Lastminute y quiere compartir su experiencia? ¿Merece la pena o es mejor buscar otras opciones? 💭🏖️
¡Yo siempre reservo en Lastminute y me ha ido genial! ¡Súper confiable y siempre encuentro ofertas increíbles!
¡Qué suerte tienes! A mí Lastminute me ha decepcionado más de una vez. Prefiero buscar en otras páginas que me han dado mejores resultados. ¡Pero me alegra que te haya ido bien! Cada uno tiene sus preferencias. ¡Saludos!
«¡Vaya, vaya! ¿Lastminute es confiable? Yo diría que depende del día de la semana y de la posición de los astros. 😅»
be careful LASTMINUTE WARNING they are scammers I do not recommend anyone to contract with this company after canceling the vacation package that involves a flight of €1549 they have returned €845 between lastminute commissions and supposedly from the flights, which I also told them well if I You charge the flights, give them to me, and they told me that they couldn't and who tells me that they cancel it and keep the money, only two days have passed since we made the important reservation: you have to let three locutions on the phone go by without touching options to Let them put you through an operator, but when you talk to him, don't get your hopes up, give up, I'll tell you in advance that you're going to lose money, it's expensive, it's an experience you won't forget
Hello Oscar, we are very sorry about your bad experience with LastMinute. We take note. Thanks for sharing.
Buenas,
Solo comentar después de haber trabajado en la agencia Rumbo, que cuando entráis a la web lastminute.com es exactamente la misma web que Rumbo con fachada distinta para disimular que es otra marca, igual que Bravofly, Volagratis y otro par más de otros países que no recuerdo (aunque si las comparáis lado a lado veréis que mucho mucho no se disimula)
Toda la gestión que realizais en lastminute en realidad es con la empresa Rumbo, los mismos operadores si llamáis por teléfono, mismo motor web que estafa subiendo precios… si lo buscáis veréis que lastminute la adquirió hace años.
Al final lo de que lastminute tenga mejor percepción puede ser porque en España sea menos popular que Rumbo y por tanto el volumen de malas experiencias suba.
Nunca usaría ninguna de estas agencias después de haber trabajado dentro, en todo el tiempo que estuve jamás escuché interesarse en ningún momento por el usuario final, ellos trabajan para el robot de Google para salir los primeros en las búsquedas de vuelos y hotel.
Muchas gracias Foxarya por esta aportación tan valiosa.
¡Yo he usado Lastminute y ha sido genial! ¡Increíblemente confiable y siempre encuentro las mejores ofertas!
Pues a mí Lastminute me ha decepcionado totalmente. Las ofertas eran engañosas y el servicio al cliente dejaba mucho que desear. No lo recomendaría para nada.