CALLING ALL PALACE RESORT BRIDES!!!! I NEED YOUR HELP PLEASE!

[FutureMrsSingh]

Hello Ladies,

I am freaking out because my travel agent has come back with some seriously overpriced room quotes. For those of you who have gone directly through the Moon Palace wedding reservation department, can you please tell me what your experience has been like? Would you recommend it? I had really hoped that my travel agent could take care of this for us, but I might just have to go directly through the resort. 

Thoughts???

Thanks in advance!

[TammyWright]

You might want to try one of the BDW Travel Agents.  We Specialize in Destination weddings at Palace Resorts and are an ONYX level agency with them.

 

You can contact us:  Contact a Destination Wedding Specialist HERE and I we can get some rates to you.

 

You can read some of our reviews here: Wright Travel Agency ~ Destination Wedding Specialist Reviews HERE

[lizzieqball]

Hi had the same issue and decided on having my guests book through Expedia instead.  Booking through travel agents or directly through the resort will allow you to get special wedding perks like earning a free cocktail hour, etc... but I found that the prices were WAY higher than what I found on Expedia.  Since Expedia allows you to book flight and hotel at once, they're able to offer a great rate.  I found that on average the cost per person was at least $400 more per person!  We're expecting 30 people.  $400 X 30 is $12,000 more for the resort.  That's ridiculous!  I feel more comfortable springing for the cocktail hour instead of asking our guests to pay more.  It also eliminates the stress of meeting your minimum requirements for room nights.

[TammyWright]

Originally Posted by lizzieqball 

 

Hi had the same issue and decided on having my guests book through Expedia instead.  Booking through travel agents or directly through the resort will allow you to get special wedding perks like earning a free cocktail hour, etc... but I found that the prices were WAY higher than what I found on Expedia.  Since Expedia allows you to book flight and hotel at once, they're able to offer a great rate.  I found that on average the cost per person was at least $400 more per person!  We're expecting 30 people.  $400 X 30 is $12,000 more for the resort.  That's ridiculous!  I feel more comfortable springing for the cocktail hour instead of asking our guests to pay more.  It also eliminates the stress of meeting your minimum requirements for room nights.

The downsides of using an internet booking engine like Expedia are:

 

1. Expedia bookings are usually the first to get "bumped" if the resorts sell out.

2. you are not holding any rooms for your guests so if the resort sells out, they are out of luck.  You will read pleas from other brides that decided not to do a group block looking for rooms for their family that did not book in time.

3. Room blocks are locked in at a lower rate.  As the resort books up, the rate gets higher for internet booked.

4. They need to pay for the entire package at one time.  Travel agents can help with payment plans for your guests.

5. If a problem occurs (ie. someone gets sick, storms/weather problems, couple rooming together break up, flight is delayed, wrong resort booked, etc.) do you think you will be able to get much assistance from the internet companies?

6. You are missing out on group perks and Palace has many of them like: free rooms, upgrades, unlimited private events.

7. If YOU are having problems with the resort and wedding department, do you think Expedia will intervene and assist you?  We are an ONYX level agency with Palace and have had the COO of Palace Resorts assist our clients when a problem has occurred.

 

Lastly, did you know a TA can usually match or beat internet rates?  You could have worked with a TA that could have given you the rates online and also worked to qualify that booking towards some perks.

[lizzieqball]

Hi Tammy,

 

Thanks for the info.  I weighed all of those options and it really came down to the type of couple we are.  We really want things to be stress free for us.  I'm a super optimistic person who travels all over the world.  I've never really had any major problems and don't want to think of worse case scenarios.  We're all coming from Southern California and have stops in Phoenix.  I don't think we'll have any problems with weather in January.  Since we're staying at Moon Palace in January, I'm confident we wont have to worry about rooms selling out.. Our rooms are booked, we've reminded our guests to book soon and that's as stressful as I want to make it.  I'm a big believer in investing in travel insurance, so I'm hoping that will cover any problems we may have. I apologize if my post offended you... I just prefer to make things as easy as possible for our guests and ourselves.  Letting them shop around for a great deal is on them.  We have some booking through Expedia, some through Costco and a few that have used their own travel agent.   

[bride6]

I have never used a TA and I have travelled more than most. However, I will use a TA for my wedding because 1) most offer payment plan options and most important ( at least for me) 2)my guests have someone else to handle their travel arrangement. If you can trust your TA it takes so much frustration off your plate. 

[FutureMrsSingh]

Hello ladies. Thanks for the responses. I thought I would update this thread and inform you that I did end up going with my travel agent in the end. I am extremely pleased with that decision as she has been a very valuable asset throughout this entire process. She's basically become my makeshift wedding planner! I agree with all the previously mentioned points about why a travel agent is a good idea, and am so happy that we made the choice to move forward with one. It turns out that the issue was with the tour operator that she originally tried to go through, and once that got sorted out, things were totally smooth sailing!

[bridemoonpalace]

We used a TA and still had many issues with her. Please make sure you go over your contract very carefully! Our TA Sent us invoices with wrong dollar amounts and wrong names on our contacts. I'm not sure if it would be better to have used the hotel, but I definitely would not use the same TA Ever again! She just fought with so many of our guests about stupid things. I hope your TA is better than ours!