I got swindled by Holiday Factory, and I’m here to...
I got swindled by Holiday Factory, and I’m here to make sure it doesn’t happen to you. This company runs a slick scam, and they need to be called out.
It began with an irresistible offer: an all-inclusive trip to Finland for AED 7,200. But as the saying goes, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. A day after booking, Aseel from Holiday Factory informed me that the rate was for two people. He offered to cancel the booking for a AED 250 fee. Determined to go, I convinced a friend to join me instead.
We asked Holiday Factory for all necessary travel documents for our visa applications. They sent a few documents, assuring us they were sufficient. My friend attended his visa appointment first, only to receive a call from the embassy days later: the flight tickets were missing. We urgently demanded the tickets from Holiday Factory, but they stalled until I threatened to file a complaint. By the time they sent the tickets, it was too late—my friend’s visa was rejected.
Then it was my turn. Despite having the flight ticket and other documents, my visa was also rejected. The reason? The travel documents were fake. Holiday Factory had deliberately provided bogus tickets to ensure our visas would be denied.
Reapplying for the visa would cost AED 1,000, and canceling meant losing 30% of our payment, as per their fine print. Every possible outcome seemed designed to protect Holiday Factory and rob us blind. The deeper you get, the more you lose—50%, then 70%.
We realized we were trapped in a meticulously crafted scam and decided to cut our losses. Canceling the trip cost us approximately AED 5,000. But the nightmare didn’t end there. Retrieving our money was a relentless battle. After six months of nonstop calls and emails, I finally bombarded every Holiday Factory email address I could find online. One finally responded, asking for my bank details, which proved they were never processing any refunds unless hounded.
Eventually, after half a year of constant pressure, I got our money back. Researching online, I discovered numerous similar horror stories on Reddit and Quora—at least 10 other people had been scammed in the same way.
Holiday Factory is a well-oiled scam machine. Save your money, your time, and your sanity. Stay far away from this fraudulent company and warn others to do the same.