Travel Agents in Toronto? HELP

[RachelSchrank]

These two can help--they're awesome, super sweet, very experienced, and located in Toronto.....http://www.lescape.com/

[eberry]

We're using LUXE Destination Weddings. The company specializes in travel and planning for destination weddings. We've had a few ups and downs along the way, but I think that's more because of personal expectations. If you buy a planning package from them, they guarantee to save you at least that much towards vendor costs (photographer, Reception costs, etc.). So far they've helped us pick our resort, negotiated our rates for the trip and are the contacts for all of our guests questions. Feel free to pm me if you'd like to know more.

[eberry]

As a side note to my previous post, I'd caution you to be careful of the number of rooms you anticipate filling. With luxe, you're required to put down deposits for the number of people you think will come (in our case, this was $250/person). This deposit is non-refundable for the spots you don't use, and there are restrictions to the group such as what airport everyone flies from and what dates everyone travels.

[futuremrswarner]

My travel agent is Shelley Elkas, and I found her from destinationweddings.com. She's helped me book the resort and confirm the dates and time of our ceremony, and she's also helping with all my initial paperwork with the resort as well. She help me negotiate rates, and she's handles all the travel bookings for my guests. She's been great and her services were FREE!

[Jenn963]

I started off with ABSOLUTE WEDSITE at first....put a small deposit down and thank GOD it was only $100 because I would have lost more.  It could be a better experience for someone else, but in MY opinion, they are SUPER unreliable and slow, and a disorganized mess! I DO NOT recommend them for ANYONE. The stories I have I tell ya.....from the owner down to the agent. smh.  (Ok venting done).  

I cancelled with them, and went with a Marlin Travel agent who has been AMAZING.  I will surely book with him from now on when I plan to travel. He got me an amazing quote/deal for my guests and what I love most is his professionalism and he's super quick to get back to me.  

[m8chow]

We're going with the travel agency Thomas Cook/Bellair Travel with agent Louise Wheeler in Toronto (Yonge/Eglinton area).

 

First impression, she's amazing.  We had originally got a quote from a DW Coordinator and the rates for the guests were very high.  When we contacted Louise, she had all the contacts with the airlines and hotels.  She conferenced them in right away while we were on the phone.  Her quotes came back over $150 cheaper per person and she confirmed our wedding date/venue right away with the resort.

 

1.5 hours later, we got a better group rate, venue, and wedding date all booked and confirmed. 

 

I think I'll go back to her when we decide to plan a honeymoon as well.
 

[Ktomash]

I would like to suggest using Lavish Travel. The owner is Pam and she is great to work with!!! She is very reliable and quick to respond to any questions you might have. I organized our destination wedding to Mexico with her where we had 65 friends and family go with us. She was super organized and arranged everyone's (coast-to-coast in Canada and even friends in Europe) travel itinerary. I only heard compliments and not one complaint!!! I highly recommend that you go with Pam at Lavish Travel . Www.lavishtravel.ca

[Ktomash]

I would like to suggest using Lavish Travel. The owner is Pam and she is great to work with!!! She is very reliable and quick to respond to any questions you might have. I organized our destination wedding to Mexico with her where we had 65 friends and family go with us. She was super organized and arranged everyone's (coast-to-coast in Canada and even friends in Europe) travel itinerary. I only heard compliments and not one complaint!!! I highly recommend that you go with Pam at Lavish Travel . Www.lavishtravel.ca

[fruttti]

Absolute Wedsite are lying scammers and you should avoid them at all cost.

 

 

I went to these guys to coordinate a wedding to Mexico for a group of 50.

At first i was promised two complimentary rooms for party over 24.   They however found a way to cheat us out of these complimentary room, basically worth $3600.

 

Basically, my group required more rooms but the resort is full due a convention during the same time frame.  The resort offered to upgrade my group to the nicer section for free, but Absolute Wedsite decided to pass on the message that the hotel is only willing to upgrade us if we give up the 2 complimentary.  I decide to take up the offer, only to later realize that the complimentary comes from the travel agent and not the hotel, so i checked  the Absolute Wedsite along with the hotel wedding agent... 

 

the response from Absolute Wedsite - we can't disclose our internal communications.  

 

With attempts to find management from Absolute Wedsite to see if they have a better response, but only got bounced around and no response.. 

 

Conclusion, its not my shady agent whos behind the scam, the entire organization is shady.

 

Hope this helps others!

[Jenn963]

Originally Posted by fruttti 

 

Absolute Wedsite are lying scammers and you should avoid them at all cost.

 

 

I went to these guys to coordinate a wedding to Mexico for a group of 50.

At first i was promised two complimentary rooms for party over 24.   They however found a way to cheat us out of these complimentary room, basically worth $3600.

 

Basically, my group required more rooms but the resort is full due a convention during the same time frame.  The resort offered to upgrade my group to the nicer section for free, but Absolute Wedsite decided to pass on the message that the hotel is only willing to upgrade us if we give up the 2 complimentary.  I decide to take up the offer, only to later realize that the complimentary comes from the travel agent and not the hotel, so i checked  the Absolute Wedsite along with the hotel wedding agent... 

 

the response from Absolute Wedsite - we can't disclose our internal communications.  

 

With attempts to find management from Absolute Wedsite to see if they have a better response, but only got bounced around and no response.. 

 

Conclusion, its not my shady agent whos behind the scam, the entire organization is shady.

 

Hope this helps others!

I'm so sorry for what happened! and I hope that future brides will avoid them at all costs!!!

I began to do my wedding planning with them but quickly backed out before I went ahead and fully booked with them.....they are so disorganized and I couldn't help but feel like a number.  It would take them WEEKS to find out things that I ended up asking myself directly to the coordinator.  Even the owner of the company, she seemed like she didn't want to be there or like it was a bother to be calling her when I went a week without any replies back from my TA.  They ended up firing the TA that was assigned to me and when the owner told me, she bad-mouthed her so bad.  I thought that was completely unethical and that's when I told her I didn't want any more business with Absolute Wedsite! 

 

I don't know how they run their business. :S