Help! Is anyone else having this problem??

[chevy14]

Hi ladies,

 

We booked with TripCentral on June 6. Our wedding is April 24-May 1 2010. We were given a deadline of June 26 for our guests to book in order to take advantage of the group rate. Is this the norm, a 20-day deadline Our agent also told us that our group rate is only good for the first 50 guests (anyone booking beyond that is paying almost $400 more!) Is this the norm??

 

My main issue is that our travel agent informed us 3 days before the deadline that she was going away for 4 weeks...so now we are at 50 guests booked, and, while our agent SAID someone would be taking care of our group in her absence, the poor girl she told me to contact has no idea what is going on, she has no access to our agent's files so she can't even tell me what our actual # is and is now telling guests who call that we are full!!!! It is so frustrating and I have guests calling us asking what is going on, is it too late to come etc.

I just do not think our agent should have taken our wedding group on knowing she would be gone for 4 weeks just 20 days after we booked...

 

Any advice??

[Jen_S]

Who are you using? We were not told a limit for our group rate. To get the group rate for our trip the entire trip need to be paid in full 2 1/2 months prior to traveling so our deadline was Dec 10th. Good Luck can her manager get into her files?

[sunset78]

TA's I spoke with before only gave a 5-7 day to book to get the rate they offered otherwise a new quote would be needed. But I have not heard of a limit before though.

[chloe55]

The group rate thing was really tough for us too. We didn't know that once we got it, everyone had to put a deposit in right away. We ended up negoitiating a certain amount of deposits to hold an additional 10 rooms for us under our group rate, which needed to be booked by September 30th. Our TA did tell me that if we had more people interested than that, she would try to get extra rooms under that rate. It sounds weird to me that they would cut you off at 50.

 

I would definately call her manager about the issues with her leaving and not explaining things to the person filling in for her. Hopefully the manager would be able to access her files and take care of your guests.

[honey740]

I booked directly through the hotel through my TA to avoid this sort of thing. It was not enough notice for my guests and I simply would not do this. My TA isn't making as much money doing it this way, but frankly I don't care. I thought it was wrong to give people less than a month to decided what they wanted to do and get the $ together. Booking with the hotel, we got a block of rooms that were released 45 days prior to the wedding, but people could book at that price at the last minute if needed.

 

Get rid of the 3rd party, it's only hurting you and helping the TA, it's your wedding. Furthermore, I would drop this company all together. They sound terrible.

[~Keira~]

With our TA we were given 1 year at the quoted price and for up to 20 guests. After the year 10 spots were still heald and the other 10 dropped if not filled.

 

I agree with honey that perhaps you should consider using a different travel agent if possible. Try and find someone that specializes in weddings that can go to bat for you when negotiating price and availble spots etc.

[DanielleNDerek]

My guests had to put down their deposit by a certain date to guarantee their rate. I did have guests book after that date and the resort rate was different but luckily for them the airfare went down so it kind of evened out. Your guests should still be able to book but might not get the group rate. I think that's pretty common. Even for work when i go to conferences i have to book by a certain date to guarantee i get the group rate and there's only a limited amount of rooms availabe. Once they reach that number i'm out of luck and have to pay regular price.

 

I would maybe try to talk to someone higher up that can get into your Ta's files so you can find out how many have booked and what not.

[DanielleNDerek]

Quote:

Originally Posted by honey740 Get rid of the 3rd party, it's only hurting you and helping the TA, it's your wedding. Furthermore, I would drop this company all together. They sound terrible.

I personally wouldnt book a group of guests without a TA. We had issues with airfare and had to switch departure and arrival date and my TA worked all these issues out for me. If it wasnt for her my guests would of been out some serious dough. My TA handled a lot of things for me and i was really glad to have her on my side.

[honey740]

I didn't say book without a TA- I used a TA, but she wanted to use a third party company to go through to the hotel. Like I said, it adds one more layer to the mix, is un-needed and causes lots of issues. By eliminating that company I was able to go by the hotels rules for booking my group. I used the moon palace and it was super easy, I could have done it by myself if I wanted to but using the TA was nice for keeping everything in order.

[honey740]

Maureen, sorry you didn't like my view, but I want to situation to work for me not for the TA, it's business you know?