Trailfinders

For a company with such a great reputation and a host of very positive reviews, it pains me to be 'bucking the trend' and posting a negative review regarding my recent experience with Trailfinders (Norwich). Nevertheless, I can only speak as I find and on this occasion they were found sadly wanting. My complaint (as already made to them) concerns their failure to assist with re-booking a cancelled excursion during my trip to Australia. My partner and I were already halfway through our trip 'down under' when they e-mailed me to say a Great Barrier Reef day trip from Cairns had been cancelled (no explanation as to why) and they couldn't help with finding any alternative! It was very much a case of, "Sorry mate - sort it out yourself"! They merely 'washed their hands' of the problem - not what one expects when one has just spent over £40k with them! Despite me repeatedly asking them to help, the attitude of the Duty Manager was entirely negative, unhelpful and uncaring. I then had to spend hours searching online for an alternative, with limited Internet access at a time when I should've been relaxing in the sunshine. Of course things can go wrong that are outside the Tour Operator's control, but it is when this happens that the real professionals get things sorted rather than just walking away. Sorry Trailfinders, but you did not demonstrate that professionalism on this occasion and given what I ended up having to book myself was a poor substitute for the original, my partner and I felt very let down. It's back to Audley Travel for us in the future. There is a Tour Operator/Travel Agent who DOES know how to look after their clients!

Normally amazing.

And then yesterday something went wrong.

Then today crappy emails from duty mangers just made things SO much worse.

I arrived at my hotel and was told there was no booking for me. This was part of a long trip so I rang the emergency TF line.

I was told there was a booking and that calls would be made to sort it out. Lots of calls later and I was still waiting in reception.

Two hours later and I’m still no closer to getting me room.

Apparently ATI (the America company that books the hotels) had contacted the hotel. They called to check there was a booking (even though I booked weeks ago)

The hotel said there wasn’t a booking. So it would seem that ATI KNEW there wasn’t a booking a while before I arrived but didn’t do anything about it.

In the end, I’d had enough. I decided I’d pay for the room with my card and everyone could sort it out in the morning.

Foolishly I assumed that ATI or TrailFinders would get MY money back in MY bank the following day. This was my fault as, again foolishly, I assumed everyone would be super keen to restore my faith.

When I eventually got booked in the hotel receptionist, was great. Free breakfast, free parking, and a great price. He clearly felt bad that I’d been messed around.

The TF lady on the phone did her best but didn’t get anything done. Not her fault.

Today I’ve had emails from TF telling me I SHOULD get MY money back in 7-10 days but if not I should contact my bank!! Surely THEY should be sorting this out, not me???

They also tell me that the hotel being nice is clearly because the hotel is in the wrong. A definite admission of guilt. TF made no mistakes here.

Does anyone else feel that one company blames another it’s hardly professional?? I don’t care who is at fault, TF is the company I booked with and TF need to sort this.

I’ve also been told that there may have been an issue with my booking because “ some staff in the hotels are not used to the International methods of payment as most of their market is domestic”. I don’t care. I just want SOMEONE to sort this out. Maybe empathise. Maybe be a little bit sorry.

This small error has just gotten worse with every email I get from TF. She got off on the wrong foot when she got the name of my hotel completely wrong. Amazing. You REALLY arent helping my mood!

So now I have nearly two weeks off my trip left. Who knows how many more hotels will be blamed when things don’t go to plan.

ADDITIONAL.

The person who really annoyed me yesterday, telling me how everything was everyone’s elses fault, was the one Trail Finders chose to contact me. Incredible.

Luckily I missed her call but I was treated to another of her glorious emails

“honestly it was someone else’s fault”

I don’t care. My holiday was booked withTrail Finders. They took my money. I have a contract with THEM!! When stuff goes wrong, they should fix it.

They didn’t. I won’t be using them again.

ADDITIONAL

I had a call from someone today. Easily one the rudest people I’ve spoken to a TF and that’s saying something.

He said things like “these things happen” and “you shouldn’t have used that type of card” which REALLY didnt help my mood. He talked over me and interrupted. He pretty much did EVERYTHING apart from apologise. Seems this clown has been with the company twenty odd years. I dread to think how many customers he’s annoyed over the years!

ADDITIONAL

it’s now day 22 of the 7-10 days that I was told it would take to get money back. I’ve been told the money absolutely WASNT taken from my account. It was. I’ve been told it was just a hold. It wasn’t. Today I was told I’m just going to have to wait….nobody knows for how long!!

I even emailed the CEO. Still nothing got done.You’d think that somebody somewhere would just sort this. GIVE me the money out of embarrassment, as a gesture of good will. But no.

So the lesson is, TrailFinders are great…until things go wrong By then they have your money and couldn’t give a monkeys. Avoid at all costs!!!

Went into there Milton Keynes branch on the 10th of April, asked a rather large lady about a all inclusive holiday for this coming April, she was do rude and lazy as she said we don't do that sort of thing and I should try Tui or Virgin holidays, so in other words they are not a expert travel agent at all, I'm not sure who the are but there staff are usless to be honest.

We booked our trip of a lifetime to the Seychelles through Trailfinders because of their 4.9 rating on Trustpilot. What a mistake!

I discovered that the arirline we were booked with had stopped flying to the Seychelles. After waiting a week for Trailfinders to contact me, I phoned them, only to be told I was wrong! When I challenged this I was cut-off. At the third attempt, they finally confirmed I was correct and said they would have contacted me "in due course....". No sense of urgency at all, despite flight costs rising daily. I had paid in full, up front for these flights in order that we could choose seats early. When I tried to do the same for the replacement flights they said "No - not our policy". When I pointed out they had allowed it on the previous flights they claimed they had since changed their policy. When I pointed out that they could not apply this retrospectively to an existing booking, they argued that they could because I had changed my flights??? However, as "a gesture of goodwill" they would allow this if I paid the balance of the holiday cost IN FULL now!!! Only when I threatened to cancel did they agree to honour their original contract. In retrospect I wish I had cancelled.

There followed a trail of errors, misleading information, calls not returned, wrong pick-up times etc. I could go on but you get the picture.

Book at your peril!

Date of experience: June 11, 2023

We spent 4 weeks last year refining our itinerary with the Winchester office. The person we were dealing with left the company and the person who took over changed half of the flights to a different airline. We were assured that the new airline was a One World alliance so we proceeded with our booking. We subsequently discovered that Singapore Airlines are not part of the One World alliance and we later found out that instead of booking a multi-stop ticket TF had booked three separate tickets so we had three separate baggage allowances, one of which was just 20Kg.

We've been collected BA loyalty points for over 20 years and missed out on 80,000 Avios points and 500 tier points by flying with Singapore Airlines instead of BA. Furthermore, the restricted baggage allowance prevented us purchasing any souvenirs or momentums during our 9-week holiday.

TF have refused to compensate us, except to offer a £150 voucher.

We're not impressed and we will never ever use Trailfinders again.

This review refers to the Trailfinders travel agency, not the Safari itself or the company who run it.

Awful experience. We spent almost 6 days out of a 14 day vacation stuck in airports and crappy airport hotels. A waste of time and money (because they did not cover our extra expenses, of course) that could have been avoided had they booked the flights we asked in first place (we even offered to pay for them ourselves on top of the vacation package) A travel agency who won't even book a flight? What is the point? And, by the way, the seven day safari in Kenya is actually only five days. Day one is spent stuck in one of the worse hotels we've ever been to, without even an outdoor area! and Day 7 is spent driving back to the airport. I've never dealt with such an incompetent, dismissive, disrespectful and deceiving company. Do not recommend.

My wife and I have recently returned from a 2 centre Thailand holiday arranged for us by Trailfinders from the Winchester office. All holiday details - flights, connections , pickups etc were perfect, with very professional services provided by local personnel.

Unfortunately, the second hotel was not to our liking as there were many steps and no bannisters etc, and we thought it to be slightly unsafe for elderly guests. Therefore we decided to move hotel.

After finding a suitable alternate hotel close by, we informed Trailfinders 24/7 hotline of our intentions, and reasons why. They were excellent in their dealing of the situation, contacting both the hotel we were leaving and the new hotel we were moving to. Trailfinders explained to the new hotel they would organise payment and not to charge us anything until all matters had been completed, it really eased our minds. Although half way round the world, we were kept updated daily, and between Trailfinders, the hotel and ourselves, organised a final small payment, and continued our holiday very happily.

I couldn't recommend Trailfinders enough - from their initial organisation to their customer Services whilst abroad - everything was excellent. I will definitely use Trailfinders in the future.

Previously booked many Worldwide trips with TF. Not for a few years though due to the pandemic. Having just done so again I am regretting it. This once great travel specialist is now a very average High Street travel agent at best but without the service.

Over 1 hour to get through to someone (usually in a completely different part of the country to where they are stated to be.....why?) or have to use the "portal". They respond by phone (eventually but I have had experience of over 1 week) and leave a message so that you have to spend another 1 hour plus on hold to call them back. Their lateness and lack of information has now cost me £300. They don't care.

After over 30 years I will be taking my details off their database. There is much better out there. An expensive mistake.

Since Brexit, the EU no longer accepts UK passport expiry dates. They take 10 years from issue date. So despite having 10 months left on my passport, I'm unable to travel with my wife and young children on a £6k trip of a lifetime.

This is buried deep in the documents from Trailfinders but it's badly worded and at no point did the consultants think to bring this up, even on the pre-departure courtesy call. Specifically, the guidance says "you must have a minimum of 6 months validity on your passport which cannot be older than ten years".

My passport (at the date of this trip) is not ten years old and it has >6 months validity until the printed expiry date.

I feel pretty stupid, but this is a fairly subtle thing which I would expect a traditional travel agent like Trailfinders to draw attention to. I will book future holidays online - there's no point in having the human element. My cousin got the same package through TUI for half the amount as well. So save your money - go elsewhere.

I was also asked to withdraw my similar review comment on trust pilot, as it will help them resolve this situation for me. Somewhat sinister and far from true customer service.

I did the PCR Fit to Fly test at 9.30am based on the fact that the results will come out by 10pm the following day. The next day I waited and waited it was almost 10pm and I didn't receive my result. I started getting worried as I had a flight to catch so I tried calling them and was surprised that they had no customer service number. The only option was to submit a form so I submitted one and they never EVER got back to me. My results came out at 1am and my flight had already gone. Will never do a PCR there again and would NEVER recommend this service to anyone as these guys are unpredictable and cannot be trusted with timings!!! I literally wasted £80, just thrown like that in the garbage!