Our most recent experience with Travel Associates (TA) was a disaster and we won't do business with them again. The disaster was a trip to Placencia, Belize for a family retreat with six adults and five children. The supposed "first class" waterfront resort they booked for us was anything but first class. The resort had changed owners several years ago and was in a state of significant disrepair. The resort was not in any way appropriate or desirable for a family retreat. Prior to this trip, we had years of excellent service with Pat Kreuger at TA - our total spending was well into six figures. We understand that mistakes can be made but when your travel agency refuses to accept financial responsibility for its mistakes it's unacceptable and offensive.
Pat made little effort to reconcile our dispute so we escalated our complaint to Ombler Warwick, USA General Manager at Travel Associates. Omber offered us a $500 credtt towards future travel with TA - a credit worth less than 1 % of what we spent on the trip !
In full disclosure, a secondary travel agency that TA engaged for the lodging arrangements did refund us $1,000 directly, independent of TA's non- resolution of our dispute. Also, In fairness to the staff at the resort, once they realized how disappointed we were, they went out of their way to try to accommodate us. read more
