Thinking about using The Wedding Holiday to book your destination wedding at the Karisma Resorts... STAY CLEAR!!!

[TheNewestSmith]

Lorraine has proven to be a huge mistake in the long list of decisions we have had to make while trying to plan a destination wedding.  I will briefly summarize some of the issues we’ve come across however am more than happy to elaborate if needed and provide texts and emails to prove her unethical and irresponsible behaviour if needed to prevent anyone else from ever using LORRAINE SIMPSON or THE WEDDING HOLIDAY for their destination wedding travel agent!!!!!

·         Lorraine was hired based on several ‘’perks’’ that she offered us such as a welcome cocktail party for our guests, a double room upgrade my fiancé and I however one of the major perks that helped us decide on the resort, sunwing and Lorraine was a deal that for every 15 people booked into the group the 16^th was ‘’free’’ minus taxes. Lorraine is now saying that it’s only 15 people from the exact same airport with the exact same room category therefore disqualifying us because a lot of our 52 guests have upgraded from the basic room category.  OH AND ALSO – ANY KARISMA RECOMMENED AGENTS ARE ABLE TO OFFER ALL THE SAME PERKS AT THE HOTEL!!!!!

Lorraine started advising people to book the basic room and get a “coupon†from her in order to upgrade once we’re in Mexico – however she’s trying to charge them for doing so in our contract (which she has yet to correct although my revisions were sent to her over 2 MONTHS ago) however not advising the guests of such a charge.

·         Lorraine has charged my MOH’S credit card without her knowledge or sending her an invoice, email, text or phone call (something!) to advise her of such a charge. The charge was only noticed because my MOH is diligent and checked her statement.  (SINCE THIS MY MOH AND HER FIANCE HAVE CANCELLED THEIR BOOKING WITH LORRAINE AND GONE WITH SOMEONE ELSE!)

·         Lorraine is not keeping us informed of who has booked their trips despite me asking her for updates on that situation in order to keep my paperwork, guest list and seating arrangements up to date.  Yes we have RSVP’s but those change frequently and people aren’t diligent with getting back to us on numbers. 

·         Lorraine has yet to charge a number of guests their deposits despite the paperwork being filed by them (the guests) over a month ago.

·         My in-laws have been trying to get a hold of Lorraine for over a month with no response.

·         Lorraine is unorganized and has lost information on guests and had to come to me in order to gather the information and resend it to her.

·         In March Lorraine told me that she would book a reception venue for us however she never contacted the coordinator and we lost the venue and time of our wedding having to resort for what was left over and not already booked by others.

·         Lorraine had us immediately fill out paperwork for the resort and booking the wedding date when we initially hired her however never passed the paperwork onto the coordinator therefore we lost our initial wedding date that was sent out on our invites.

·         Lorraine was unreachable for several weeks in May and my father in law told me she was in Europe dealing with her mother in law’s death as he had spoken to her when she got back. She didn’t inform us of her absence and her excuse to us was that her mother had passed away and she had been in Europe. We had very little issue with her not letting us know she would be away however it was irresponsible considering our booking deadline was June 11^th, 2013 and our guests had no idea why they weren’t hearing back from our agent and I didn’t know what to tell them.

·         After Lorraine’s family members death she was again unreachable for another 2 weeks after which she told my father in law that she was back in England helping her Dad out, however it’s all over TripAdvisor that she was indeed here in Ontario at her Bed and Breakfast like establishment thus delaying my guests booking and because we only had 30 seats reserved (that filled up very fast – with our 52 guests) we are now “waiting to see†if there’s room on the aircraft and at the resort for the others – Two of which are my bridesmaids. 

·         Lorraine lead us to believe that the more people who booked the more of price would go down however has since changed her tune and advised us the price remains the same.  Even with only 45 booked (5 over group rate minimum) if everyone were to get the most basic room and Sunwing insurance our total for the party would be $76, 815 which is $8535 more than the original for 40 people.  With 50 people the difference is $17,070.   Expecting a steeper group discount for a larger number I don’t feel is out of the question especially since that was verbally relayed to us while choosing Lorraine from the beginning of this process. 

·         Lorraine was extremely rude and intimidating to me after she received a well worded and direct email from one of my guests instead of speaking to the guest directly.

·         She makes up multiple excuses for her inadequacies without solving the issues. 

·         Tonight (July 5, 2013) Lorraine text me the following:
“ Hi

I believe you called my host agency to try to remove me from the file or cancel. If you would like to have a conversation about it please let me know when you would like to so this. I won’t be releasing the group to another agency in any circumstances so should you wish to cancel you will lose your deposit along with having to rebook at today’s rates.  

Please let me know what you would like to do.

Lorraine.â€

I feel this text is extremely unprofessional and intimidating. 

*Although TICO states that a travel agent has to get an invoice to the party who places a deposit down within 24 hours Lorraine has gone over a month, and even after being hassled several times by the guests and myself she then has sent the wrong invoice to the wrong person and her ‘’corrected’’ invoice has wrong numbers and dates!!!!!

 This process should be relatively pain free for us and our guests instead it’s been a nightmare.  We sincerely regret choosing Lorraine, and a destination wedding.  We have learned a lot from the experience but none of which is enjoyable.  We feel we are easy to please and get along with however Lorraine has tested the limits of my patience and I will not allow her unprofessionalism, and unethical behaviour to continue to cloud what should be a happy process any longer if I can help it. 

*Lorraine also OWNS HER OWN BUSINESS but is HOSTED under TravelOnly. So basically unless you plan to take her to small claims court, your screwed if your unhappy!!!!

 

BEWARE BRIDES. You’ll will be asking for nothing but headaches and tears if you book with Lorraine. She cares about one thing: money.