Tropical Sky www.tropicalsky.co.uk

If you want to book your dream wedding stay clear ! The service was great until they had our money and from then until the wedding the service was beyond dreadful. We believed that this was a small business who would give personal exclusive care but we were very wrong. We were given misinformation, correspondence was appalling and the information about the resort and the availability of the wedding we wanted was incorrect. We wanted a luxurious, private and relaxing wedding which we did not get. The terrible service added stress and upset to what should have been a relaxing, dream wedding. The resort accepted responsibility for it's short comings yet Tropical Sky had no interest and were unwilling to accept any responsibility. Unfortunately for us our memories are tainted and out wedding substandard which is heart breaking after working so long and hard to pay for what we thought would be a once in a lifetime experience.

Our experience with Tropical Sky (TS) has been a living nightmare spanning 2.5yrs. With their reviews plummeting (3.1 on Trust Pilot), clearly we aren’t the only ones. We booked our honeymoon with TS 04/20. COVID hit, we requested a refund but were scaremongered into rebooking + told we would likely lose all costs (10k) if we didn’t. We shared concerns about COVID prolonging, they confirmed they would refund us if the rebooking was cancelled again. So, we rebooked to 04/21 thinking we had nothing to lose. As the time neared, we contacted TS about the booking being cancelled. As front line workers we realised COVID would prevail and didn’t want to rebook a second time. TS stated they were awaiting Foreign Travel Advice + repeated that we will be refunded if it’s cancelled. In 02/21 we received an invoice from TS who REBOOKED our holiday to 11/22. This neglected our clearly stated preferences + contradicted that “every effort has been made to either rebook or refund the client in accordance with their wishes.” During COVID (submitted by TS to Companies House). The booking changed the destination + reduced it from 2 weeks to 5 nights, meeting their criteria for a ‘significant change’ + subsequently breaching their T&C’s: “If circumstances are such that we are forced to make significant changes to your holiday, we will immediately contact you to discuss your preferences… In such circumstances, you will be given the option to accept the changes + any resulting change in price or opt for a cancellation + full refund.” Customer service were initially confused, responding, “did you not rebook this yourself?” After weeks of attempting to gain answers, we finally received a response: “We did this in your best interest to maintain ATOL protection”. We articulated ourselves in an assertive but calm manner + at no point did this warrant their unpleasant attitude, on 2 occasions we were hung up on mid conversation. We also noticed when we called from our mobiles the phone was picked up + hung up so only got through by hiding our caller ID. In 08/21 we formally complained + requested all data as per GDPR. They were only able to provide telephone recordings after 10/20 because their computer systems “changed”. A striking coincidence that this is the timeframe evidence of their misinformation occurred. Their response to our complaint was: you aren’t eligible for a refund because you made the decision to rebook the holiday. No acknowledgement given to the fact they had taken the liberty to rebook a second time. We were getting nowhere + in 02/22 attempted to rebook. TS acknowledged we wanted to reduce the budget and said of themselves “the facility of itinery changes without change fees is one of the most flexible in the industry". Unsurprisingly, they went back on this. After receiving disproportionate quotes, we researched the same holidays and dates ourselves + found prices to be quarter - half of the price cheaper. Their quotes also didn’t match their own website guide prices for the same months (about £500-1000 out). They finally admitted they had added a “change of holiday fee of £100pp”. We reminded that they promised to not add change fees. They then changed the reasoning of the additional costs to be a “downgrade fee”. When we pointed out that 100pp still didn’t account for the obscene overpricing, they said “we need to make money somehow”. We asked for an itemised quote to trace this, they refused. They have made finding a holiday within our generous budget and open criteria impossible intentionally, so they keep our full deposit. We will be using every platform available to share our experiences. We hope this will protect prospectus customers from believing, as we did, that TS are a “friendly team” who “answer calls within three rings” + your money is “safe”. So that TS can identify us our booking references are: TSR556967 + TSR617901. If TS wishes to resolve this we will only be too happy to move forwards + update our review. It is sadly more likely that we will have to take legal action.

To date have spent two months pursuing this company for a £3600 refund of holiday cancelled due to COVID-19.

Nothing but evasiveness, time-wasting and fobbing-off as they try to pass the buck.

In the event that they are still trading when travel resumes, AVOID them. See Trustpilot for other poor reviews.

Now left with no alternative but to pursue them in court.

We booked a wedding through tropical sky for 2019 and played a lot of money towards it in advance, however due to unforseen circumstances we have had to think about cancelling it. I phoned the company and explained the circumstances and asked for all but 350 pounds of the amount played to be returned to us but have been told we are not entitled to any of our money back, so after much thought we asked if we could reduce our package to reduce costs they said they would get back to us the next day with a solution, after numerous phone calls to tropical sky over the last few weeks we are still awaiting a solution and keep being told that we are not entitled to any of our money back as it has been all held againstdeposdits abroad our wedding is not for another year and a half!! and we never get to speak to the agent we booked with. Please do not use this company they do not deliver what they advertise and their customer service is appalling.

We had a holiday booked with Elegant Travel and Tours, flying Heathrow to Hanoi, then on to Phu Quoc then finally to Ho Chi Minh City for April 2017. We were then advised by ABTA that the company had failed and we could apply for our deposit back. We were then approached by Tropical Sky who asked if they could look to fulfil our holiday as previously arranged and at the same cost. They then told us they could provide the same holiday at the same cost and so we agreed to travel with them. Our initial flight was 4/4/17 from Heathrow at 3pm, but we were then advised that the flight was being brought forward to 11am. I asked Tropical Sky if the hotel had been informed of the change and their exact words were 'all of our ground operatives have been made aware and the transfer has been amended accordingly'. We arrived at our hotel in Hanoi at 6am and were then told that check in is 2pm and we were pointed to the sofa in reception and invited to spend the next 8 hours camped out in reception. Now being 2 pensioners having been on a 13 hour flight and to then be expected to spend 8 hours camped out on a sofa is unacceptable. Luckily the hotel really put themselves out (well done Thien Thai in Hanoi) and we actually got in to our room at 10:00am. I lay the blame for this fully at Tropical Sky's door and think they should have instigated a conversation with us regarding access to our room on arrival even if that involved an additional charge for an extra night at the hotel, but they did not, hence the 3 star review. All other aspects of our holiday were fine, but I believe they have an important point to learn and whilst I appreciate it may have been difficult to raise an additional cost for an extra night at the hotel, it should have been done, and discussed fully.

Tropical Sky will beat any quote. However once they have your money you're on your own. We got married in December, the wedding co-ordinator was rubbish, the sales guy dropped us as soon as we had paid a hefty deposit. We upgraded to Premium economy and had to pay the full flight cost up front to reserve our seats. Seats were only reserved on our outgoing flight and we sat apart on the flight home. We could not book in on-line either way.

every time we complained, they just said 'sorry about that'.

After sales service was that bad we thought they were going into administration. Do not recommend!

Travelling to Antigua with friends and getting married in December there, absolute nightmare to deal once we had booked/paid deposit- in the end gave up and dealt with the resort direct, avoid like the plague they are not interested,customer service a disgrace tried contacting CEO but you cannot get past customer services. Selling you a holiday great following up with service useless!

fabulous company to deal with

we travelled on our holiday to Dubai 2 weeks ago. the holiday was absolutely fantastic and the service from Tropical Sky both in Dublin and Tralee was outstanding. we had major issues with our flights with Emirates on the return date, but the gang done everything in their power to make sure I was on the flight the next day. the service and after service has been outstanding. I will definitely travel with you again and highly recommend you to anyone I know. thank you for everything.

Organised with care and the holiday exceeded our expectations. All flights and transfers smooth and well planned. Hotel in Canada, HAL cruise and hotel in Denali excellent. Accommodation in Anchorage a little tired. Overall would definitely use Tropical sky again. Every member of the booking team were efficient and friendly and willing to offer good advice.

Also the best quote from a travel agency.

The one agent I would avoid like the plague. Consistently failed to provide necessary and critical information in time, did not act in our best interests of our party of 3 and in the end a wedding that took a year to plan has had to be cancelled along with a 2 centre holiday to Cuba, you would have though that with a total spend of £9,300 it would have been in their interest to ensure customer service was key, in fact I've had better service at KFC.

Staff seem to be constantly in disarray and lack ownership of delivering a service that they are getting paid for. Probably exclusive and high end holidays are not their forte, probably excel at package holidays to Ibiza.

Save yourself the monumental experience of disappointment, stress and poor management of your booking and use anyone else but this shoddy outfit.