Destinationweddings.com Planners

[deannamarie85]

So far, i have been happy with my TA that was selected. She was very helpful when we were unsure of which resort to choose. She definitely tried to sway us towards the larger resorts where I am sure she gets a bigger profit, but we ended up choosing a small intimate resort instead.

[Afaybik]

My daughter picked Destinationweddings.com as her travel agent planner and then had the Save The Dates printed up with the travel consultant's email and phone number.  Then DestinationWeddings.com said they could not secure any of the rooms for us at Azul Beach and just said to my daughter "Sorry, you will have to pick a different wedding date!".  My daughter was sooo  upset.  She contacted a GI (Gourmet Inclusive) travel agent through Karisma's website who was able to secure 25 rooms for her wedding and her date.  To make a long story short, we had the Save The Dates reprinted with the new travel agent and got all the rooms that DestinationWeddings said were "not available" and my daughter's wedding will be in May as planned.  Thank g-d we did away with DestinationWeddings.com!  Best wedding decision we have made to date!  Good luck with your plans!

[Jacki7896]

You all probably know this, but there is also a "Review" thread on dw.com

 

I am using them, and had a terrible experience with my first TA.  Complaints to managers went nowhere.... but after my FI finally got pushy with them, they switched us over to another agent, Camille, who has been great.  But with so many bad reviews about dw.com, it appears it is not worth the risk of "hoping" you get assigned a good TA because it seems the bad TAs far outnumber the good.  The problem with the whole thing is that the managers don't really care about your complaints, and customer service is not a priority. 

 

In any regards, good luck to those of you stuck with dw.com..... like me, I hope you have at least been transferred to a good agent.  Like I said, I have been very pleased with Camille, our new TA.  But the first TA....  Ugh.  Read my review on the "review" thread if you want details. 

[deesanders33]

I really want to screem at my Destination Wedding Travel Agent right now! So far I have done ALL of my research by myself and she just says yes or no... really??? I pay them to help my find a place for my dream wedding and of course they couldn't give a crap about it!!! I called the Director of Sales TUESDAY and left a message because of course she didn't answer, which didn't surprise me. I left a message and she still hasn't called me back. This is ridiculous!!!

 

Sorry I had to vent a little bit!

[johnnmakenzie11]

I'm so sorry that so many of you have had such bad experieces with DW. I have been using them for about a year now and I have really come to love my specialist, Lisa. I started working with her before I found this site and I had no idea what I was doing. She gave me a list of 8 different resorts ( all different chains) that were in my price range and I ended up picking one that I probably wouldn't have found on my own. I didnt do a group rate because I had no idea how many people would come and I didnt want to be responsible so the only deposit I had to pay was 25% of the actual wedding cost. Lisa has helped allof my guests get rates and has been there to listen to me rant. She did go on vacation for two weeks but she emailed me information for someone else who can help me if I needed anything.

 

  I think its a decent option. I would just recomend that you request a specific specialist. Lisa Johnson has been great to work with.

[deesanders33]

Well after I contacted the director and they finally called me back after 3 days. I requested Christine Kennedy, and so far she has been AMAZING!! She has helped me through things that the other lady never did. I am so happy with destinationweddings.com. I def agree you need to request a SPECIFIC person if you want to get the job done correctly and enjoy it instead of stressing!

[Jacki7896]

Dee, so glad you were able to switch to a new specialist.  For those brides on here still stuck with a bad one, I highly recommend Camille Hutchison.  She has been a rockstar so far and I am so happy with her. 

[deesanders33]

Thanks, It def has made the process a lot better

[Praye]

I wish I have found this forum before I picked DW.com!  It started out great, the TA was very helpful but then guests were telling me that she wouldn't get back to them. I told them that be patient, maybe she was caught up in something... I would tell her this and then they would all get an email from her and then a few weeks later, same thing again!  No one hears back from her and then I would have to contact her and then the cycle repeats itself.  So then finally we started to get rates in since it was getting closer to a year away from our wedding and I found great rates for my future brother in law and she was not helpful at all. Told him that TI pricing was 11000 bucks and that in order to pricematch that $ 5500 package price( for a family of four) we found on orbitz, he had to put down a deposit of 66XX bucks and they will see if the vendor will match, if they do, he will get refunded the difference, if they don't , he can cancel and will lose 400 bucks (airline insurance).  Does that make sense??? then when i questioned why the deposit is so high, she then said that she booked business class and maybe thats why the package deal is high and then later on when i questioned it again to see if she corrected the mistake, she told me it wasnt a mistake that the business class seat were showing to be cheaper than coach class seats.  Does that make sense???  we lost the great deal while going back and forth and waiting for her reply which she asked us to give her a few hours and it wasnt til 8hours later when she got back to us. Her excuse was she had a prior commitment and had to run out for the evening... wtf? 

then I email the manager, Amber, asking for a new TA and she called me and gave me hell for it.  States that my problem wouldn't be solve by getting a new TA and that it was basically my guests fault for not coming up and depositing the 66XXbucks.  They couldn't do anything about the amount required for a deposit for TI and that she did everything right. Then proceeded to say she understand that my guests have limited in funds and questioned how is he going to book it on orbitz, if he couldn't fork out 66XX bucks. I'm like given a choice of booking between 5500 OR 66XX, and not sure if TI will match the price,  i'll take my chance of maxing out the credit card and paying the 5500.  I told her I NEED a new person who will get back to guests in a timely matter and is better at communicating as to what's happening on their end.  Told her to stop attacking me and smooth the situation out by giving me someone else.  She did but told me warn me that it doesn't solve all my problems and that all the TAs are dealing with brides of the hurricanes.   I can't imagine what these brides are going through but writing a quick email or sending a simple invoice for pricematching shouldn't be too much to ask for!

 

i'm so frustrated! 

[Kimberli1211]

I'm with you Praye!! They gave my mom quite the run-around lately. Basically they could have saved her $500 (she took out on her retirement to go to the wedding), and she could have paid $1400 instead of $1900 for just herself, for the same amount of time by booking another related guest into her room. They told the other guest it wasn't possible to book in with her, and proceeded to book the guest into a room with two other people. It would have been exactly the same to put them in with my mom, and saved her money. Worst. Decision. Ever. Wish I could rethink this one!!