Britishbreakaway 

Scam kept ringing me saying I’d won wanted money off me, and VAT payment etc -
They keep ringing & leaving voicemail

AVOID! THIS IS A SCAM!

I entered their Instagram competition and “won” a runner up prize of a UK break but I had to pay £81 for breakfasts, which I did. I gave details of where I’d like to go and when and was told someone would be in touch within 72 hours to confirm the break - that was 2 months ago. I get a call every other day roughly trying to upsell me, and when I raise that I haven’t been able to book the break they say they’ll call me back in the hour to confirm, which just never happens so I’m trapped in this endless cycle of doom. Trying to get my money back now but no success so far. I also tried commenting on the Instagram competition post and my comment got deleted which is just another red flag this is a scam. Save yourself the headache and AVOID!

Was called by this company claiming that I had came runner up in a competition that I do remember entering on Instagram as was only the day before. Trudy left a lovely message saying to call her back on an 0800 number - I have now done this 4 times and messaged on Instagram through their page but not heard back. I spoke to a male when I called the 0800 number oddly same male each day who advised that Trudy will give me a call back but has had a different start time for each day. I thought just check them out because 17 per day is quite excessive for a breakfast and could have happily go without. Found this site and can now see that this is happening to so many people. People are really struggling at the minute financially because of the impact of Covid and also the impact it has had on emotional wellbeing. So many people will be entering this as a hope for something better than what we have had yet you are just there exploiting people. Shame on you!

Good standard of hotel on the offer.

Nb Received so many calls from British breakaway both before and after my trip, which was rather annoying.

Such a lovely break, Lovely hotel and great service.

Staff was lovely, friendly and accommodating. Bed was comfortable and clean and the breakfast was really nice. It was my birthday so they also added balloons and a birthday card which was sweet. They went the extra mile

My experience was amazing at the Leonardo Hotel in edingburh, the spa facilities were amazing and its included in the prize. As its so central I wasn't far from a beach or the city centre which was good, the only regret was driving as its long from Manchester think a train would be more suitable

It was a great experience from the beginning to end! Everything was made a lot easier!

We stayed 2 nights at the Leonardo Murrayfield Hotel which was conveniently situated for buses into Edinburgh. Rooms were comfortable, clean and quiet. There was a notice in our room saying housekeeping wouldn’t be taking place on a daily basis due to Covid - the guests next to us had obviously had room service and their dirty plates and cutlery were left in the corridor for several hours, which seemed bizarre and unhygienic. Food in the restaurant was good! Interesting menu, huge portions and well presented. The buffet breakfast was comprehensive and we particularly enjoyed the black pudding. The staff kindly told us their supplier and we ordered some to be delivered to our home. Staff were friendly and attentive.

We stayed at Hotel Victoria in Newquay for the weekend. The hotel was lovely with a grand entrance and amazing views of the coast. The staff were all very friendly and welcoming. A great holiday and is the perfect location for a mixture of beaches, shops and nightlife. I would love to return in the future and highly recommend

These people are scammers who claim you’ve run a prize in an instragram competition.

You simply have to ‘pay for breakfast’.

If you tell them you don’t want breakfast from the hotel they get aggressive with their sales techniques.

If you actually call any of the hotels on their list, you will soon discover they don’t even work with their company!

SCAM SCAM SCAM!!!

Edit: notice how the reply from them doesn’t address my main concern about the hotels not even working with this ‘company’. Such obvious scammers.

I received a phone call to say I was a runner up in an Instagram competition and had won 2 nights in a hotel. I was (stupidly) conned in paying for the breakfast but the accommodation was free. £82.43 was charged to my credit card and I was issued with a voucher to book the break.

For weeks I have been trying to book it and have been given the following selection of excuses : I have called too far in advance. I have called too late. The person I need to speak to isn’t in. Someone will call me back (they haven’t). My account isn’t activated (it is). There is a fault on the website. I need to call back in 2 weeks. I need to send an email (which I have ).

Eventually I managed to speak to the customer service manager and asked for a refund. He then added another list of excuses including Covid, unprecedented demand, staff shortages and how difficult Covid had been for him. He admitted that they do not have any available breaks in any location on any date. He refused to refund me because “the voucher was valid for 12 months”.

The company are selling something which doesn’t exist. Only the other day I received a call trying to sell me a 7 day holiday. They are advertised as a “British Travel Agency” but when I queried this I was told that they are not travel agents (so not governed by ABTA).

It is clearly a scam and I have today submitted a complaint to Trading Standards.

IF BRITISH BREAKAWAY READ THIS - I would just like my money back. I am not interested in any more excuses !

I found this to be a pleasant experience. I entered via Instagram, as did most others, and won the runners up prize. I did not have to pay for accommodation, but I had to pay for breakfast. At the time, it was the cheapest option in that city, so I didn't mind. Win-win. Hampton by Hilton, very good experience, the breakfast was delicious and the room was great. There wasn't anything we could complain about, perhaps because we have worked in hospitality before and are not complacent people.

Since BritishBreakawaysUK offered a good deal, I might use it again for another trip abroad in the future. At first, I was skeptical, but it worked out better than I expected.

BritishBreakaway contacted me to tell me I was a runner up in a competition and had won a 2 night stay in a hotel of my choice. Valid for 12 months. The only requirement was that I paid for breakfasts for the stay.
Initially my partner and I thought it was a scam. Having read the other reviews and there not being much on their website to support them being a legit company, I advised them that I didn't feel reassured that this was for real.
The advisor I was speaking to told me that they are under the Horizon Travel umbrella. I reached out to Horizon who did indeed confirm this and put my mind at ease.
So I paid and we booked our holiday away at the Babbacombe Palms hotel in Torquay.
The B&B was lovely, they were very dog friendly, had an honesty bar, and amazing breakfast and great location.
We cannot recommend this place enough to anyone who asks about our trip.
For anyone who's been contacted by BritishBreakaway and has any doubts, take the leap of faith, contact Horizon if you want to hear it for yourselves, and have yourselves a nice time away.

Please do not book with this company.
I booked a hotel hours away, after they said I won a “competition’ provided I pay for breakfast for the duration of my stay. So I stupidly agreed. They pressurised me to book ASAP because it was selling out supposedly, and I believed them, all a sales tactic of course. The hotel wasn’t nice and the food was awful. Although they said it was a “free” hotel. I paid a lot of money for breakfast, parking and travel so it didn’t feel “free” even if it was in their eyes. I wouldn’t normally spend this sort of money.
After the stay was over they rang me to find out how It was, after this they offered a ‘discount’ on a future trip provided I pay a deposit there and then. They said they base their business off repeat customers. I’m shy and crippled with anxiety. The man on the phone pressurised me, was so aggressive and rude, so much to the point where I had tears in my eyes but I didn’t stand up for myself and didn’t want to be rude back, because I was so worried they would make my life hell.
He continued to berate me when I said I had no money to spend on future trips due to personal circumstances and financial difficulties. He said something along the lines of, “why can’t you put a deposit down now? You said in your questionnaire you like adventure holidays so makes no sense. I’ve set aside 60 minutes for this call so you have to stay on the call whilst I give you some offers”
It did make me think, so I’m not allowed to like adventures/holidays just because I have no disposable income? He also said, we had to book a package with them again right now.
During the call, he continued to be extremely rude and pushy, that he set my anxiety off to the point where I cried after he hung up. I am so worried they may steal money off me. I didn’t say much back as I am very scared. He then said “I’m terminating the call now” and was so nasty.
All I would say is if you get a call saying you’ve won a competition, it’s probably too good to be true.
Well done British Breakaway for making me feel like the worst person in the world. I’m sure you will reply and say I’m lying or making things up, and that’s fine by me. You genuinely can’t make me feel any worse than you did today. Vile people.

This is the same scam as Minibreakaway.co.uk. I was also told I was a runner up etc. Decided to take up the offer albeit rather reluctantly. Very luckily my bank sent me a text saying that they’d noticed an out of the ordinary transaction and they would text me again to see if I wanted to approve it? Alarm bells immediately went off in my head and after some Googling discovered this scam. Told my bank not to let the payment go through and when they contacted me, I just said I’d changed my mind and ended the call. Very impressed with my bank’s caution.

What a joke 🤣🤣🤣 I’m not stupid I don’t fall for scams, this so called company has called me around 7 times and left me endless voicemails saying I had some good news I had won a holiday and all this rubbish, and I had to pay for breakfast 🤣 what a con you won’t get any money out of me so stop trying now please.
First of all stating I had won this so called competition doing a phone survey the biggest joke on this planet I don’t even answer the phone so I wouldn’t win doing a phone survey. And judging by all the other reviews I wasn’t going to phone them back to claim this so called holiday. Move on and liquidate your business making money out of harassing people and scamming people, NOT GOOD

Received a phone call to say I'd been selected as a runner-up in an Instagram competition and that I'd won a 2 night UK break, the only catch being that I'd have to pay for breakfast (at £17pp per night +vat, a total of just under £82). Given that this price was still well below what you'd expect to pay for most decent UK hotels, I was sceptical but decided to go ahead.

Trying to actually get this booked in was slightly tedious and the only negative experience we had with this company. We'd already selected Manchester as our location, however the two hotels offered to us for our chosen dates weren't near the city centre, even though the only two Manchester hotels advertised on the British Breakaway website were both central to the city, and so weren't practical. After some emails to and from trying to resolve this, a sister company (I think?) under the name of Horizon Travel were involved. I received a call from Darren Pilkington, who managed to find and offer us an alternative which was in the city centre, so we proceeded to confirm this.

All the booking confirmations, etc, came via Horizon Travel, so it seems they deal with this side of things.

The actual stay was great. Stayed in a Hampton by Hilton in the NQ in Manchester - nice hotel in a good location.

Just had a follow up call from British Breakaway with a lovely Geordie chap (didn't get his name) who asked some questions about our stay and then gave some info on other promotions. He was very polite and pleasant.

Overall, although I was nervous at first, I actually had a very good experience with British Breakaway / Horizon Travel. Everyone that I spoke to throughout the process was helpful and pleasant. It was well worth taking a gamble on.

According to the venue we booked with, BB just use Expedia anyways, so save yourself the trouble and go to Expedia yourself. DO NOT pay British Breakaway (BB).

We got a call saying we were runners up for an instagram competition. We'd get the stay for free but would have to pay for breakfast each day. About £17pp/night plus VAT.  Look up almost any venue they suggest to you and breakfast is included if you book direct (at least that was the case for us). 

I told them I needed to think about it and speak to my partner. They tried to pressure me to pay then and there and then said they only had 15 runner up spots which are filling up fast. A manipulative tactic to get your money before you've thought this through or had time to research the company and read its bad reviews.

You pay in advance with no guarantee that you can get the dates and locations you want. We didn't understand this when we paid. They told us we could get a certain date (Feb 11) and location (Aviemore) when we paid and then by the time our payment had processed, that date/location was no longer available. We were told that the person we spoke to never should have promised that as he wasn't part of the booking team. 

Instead they had us select 3 new dates and areas we were interested in (we only selected two areas as that's all the ones we could reach for a weekend stay). Then they emailed us hotels/b&bs available for the dates/area we selected. We responded to their new offers within the hour and already our choice had sold out. After a push that we wanted a refund, a room miraculously appeared at the place we wanted.

In this booking process, we were passed back and forth between BB and Horizon Travel (HT). It's still unclear to me what role each one of them plays in this, so it's a bit of a mess trying to get any questions answered.

"I dont have time for this. I have my own job to do '' is a direct quote from HT when we called them to ask questions - the service was equally as appalling from BB.

You get passed between the two, each saying they're not authorised for certain questions so you just ended up in endless calls trying to figure out what's happening with money you've already paid.

We've called BB about 20 times during this process because they had our money under the guise that we'd be in Aviemore on 11 Feb, and then ended up booked for going to the lake district Feb 5th.

We did go on holiday and it was fine, so strictly speaking this isn't a scam, but the holiday would have been better without all the stress leading up to it working with BB. I actually didn't want to go anymore by the time we got close because this whole experience had been so unprofessional and negative.

After the stay you have to do a call with them or you'll end up paying the full amount for your holiday. My call only lasted about 15 minutes because after the initial woman told us about the various packages/offers I said we weren't interested at this time. I was then transferred to someone else who was wildly pushy and manipulative.

I said we weren't interested due to personal reasons that I wasn't comfortable divulging and he kept pushing to know what they were. He tried to guilt us saying we took this trip under the premise that we'd be repeat customers but the T&Cs specifically say you're not obligated to accept the promotions just that you have to take the call.

I said I'd be happy to stay on for the hour and listen but that ultimately we wouldn't make any further purchases with them. He became increasingly aggressive with us.

When I finally said that we weren't interested due to bad experiences with BB and HT he hung up on us pretty much immediately. Rude, pushy, manipulative - everything we had come to expect from BB at this point

Every stage has been a mess and has been a hassle. Do not use this service.

I'd specifically like to call out Darren for consistently bad customer service. Every time we called it sounded like it was a chore for him to help us. He never wanted to lift a finger, enjoyed saying no, and was always unpleasant to talk to. My partner and I remarked on how off putting we found his behaviour after each call.

It culminated in me actually just yelling at him and asking why he took a job in customer service because I'd had enough of company which I had paid making me feel like a burden for trying to book a holiday. I won't say I'm proud of that behaviour but I had entirely reached my limit.

Booking a holiday should be an exciting and happy experience. Booking with BB, however, brought nothing but frustration and unhappiness.

I actually cried at one point.

I'm at my character limit, but there's a lot more I could say about this experience - none of it is positive.

Don't use this service, it's not worth it. They aren't worth the hassle and I wish I had never done this. I would give zero stars if I could.

I took a 2 night offer with breakfast, I called and asked for my hotel when I was ready to book my dates, my first choice was booked on the same day, the hotel was lovely and the staff were more than helpful. I couldn't really find a fault in my experience so I'm giving you 5 stars.