Vacation Express Avaliações 3.962

A group of seven friends and myself recently traveled to Barbados for seven days. In order to reduce complexity in booking several members of our group booked separately. I booked a 173 USD private transfer on the website for the 15 minute ride from the airport to our hotel. The website clearly stated "valid for up to eight passengers" and had no available entry point for my other travelers. I collected the monies from my group and assumed we were good to go.

When we arrived at the airport after 8hrs of travel the agent on site informed me that the private transfer was only valid for the person who booked it. She did her best to contact Nexsus and resolve the issue (She was very sweet), but wasn't able to get anywhere. After waiting for 30+ minutes in nearly 100 degree heat we were forced to make other arrangements. I was unable to leave the other members of my group because I was the active chaperone.

I contacted vacation express after we reached the hotel and fully expected a refund based on the situation. I was then transferred to the "destination team".

This is where things get interesting. Over and over again, using multiple attempts to use different contact methods I was transferred to the same person. (I think systematically) This person agreed to refund me for the return trip but vigorously refused to return the original transfer. We had another member of our group arrive the next day and they were also refused transfer service / a refund, this time because "she didn't confirm in time". Neither her nor anyone in my group physically saw a single Nexus bus at the airport. The person responding to my emails has spent more than the $86.50 cost typing out emails. This wouldn't make sense unless there was some widespread benefit to this strategy.

I'm pretty confident they are operating a scam and vacation express is unaware.

Update: Vacation Express promptly reached out to me about this complaint and agreed to refund the initial transfer.

I also suggested updating their site to make it more clear and training their staff to resolve this type of issue more efficiently. They have received my comments and will take them into consideration.

As far as I'm concerned this effectively resolves the issue. Thank you Vacation Express

We booked a trip to the Dominican Republic with 3 other couples and had a great time.
The only issue we had was, although we prepaid for the 1 checked bag that we took, it said 0 checked bags on our paperwork, after contacting our travel agent she said not to worry, that when the ticket agent at the airport scanned the paperwork it would show that we had prepaid.
When we checked in at the airport, after scanning the paperwork the ticket agent said that we didn't have a prepaid checked bag and we needed to pay $50, and that we would be reimbursed later if we did prepay.
When we returned from our trip our travel agent told us to send her a copy of our credit card statement, and she would turn it in to Vacation Express and we would be reimbursed. We sent her a copy of our statement, on April 9th, and waited for our reimbursement. On April 30th we contacted our travel agent again and told her that we had not received a refund. She stated that she would call Vacation Express again.
We still have not received a refund, so on May 9th I called Vacation Express directly, the agent was unable to assist me, but gave me 3 emails to explain my situation, I received a response from 1 email stating someone would contact me in 24 hrs, 1 email stating that they would contact me within 15 days, and 1 email stating that I would be contacted as soon as possible.
As of May 17th I have not been contacted, nor have I received a refund.
To sum everything up the vacation was great, the screwing me out of $50 is not so great.

Edit to update: Vacation Express refunded our money and gave us $50 as a gesture of goodwill. I also gave them an extra star for promptly responding to a negative review.

I didn't mention it to any of the Vacation Express booking agents I spoke with, but I am a 30 year airline customer service professional, but not a travel agent. I did do ticketing and gates and inflight. I know airport codes, airline codes, minimum connection times etc. I have traveled the world, as a Standby passenger no less, and in all those harrowing experiences of not knowing if I would get on flights, and sometimes surly agents and crew,
nothing prepared me for, Vacation Express reps. During innumerable attempts to book it myself on the site in the past 24 hrs, and getting timed out before I could pay, I started trying to call and get help last night. The agents speak too quickly. But they never repeated slowly, or kindly, they double down and let you know with their tone just how stupid you are for not having understood their rapid delivery. Hopefully the people that help customers that are already booked are more patient and caring. Maybe you slow it down or repeat it nicely? Just a thought... Not sit silent when irritated that the potential customer says"Pardon?". If for nothing at all, to let them know they are caring about getting details right. The speed though, and I could be wrong, but it feels intentional.
Mind you I was trying to spend over 6k booking myself , and family on a treat getaway, with real confirmed flights and hotels. Instead I have experienced the most atrocious, customer service from the booking reps on Vacation Express. I understand the need for expediency, but the curtness and contempt demonstrated is disrespectful. I know it can be a difficult job to work with the public and with details. It ain't for everyone, so VE might want to not hire people that won't do it with kindness, or don't let them speak to the Non travel agents that way. ( They shouldn't speak to anyone that way.) My guess is the hope is that they'll scare the non travel agents away. Ultimately though, when agent Anghela who took my final call, asked for my phone number, she asked for my number, "in case we got disconnected ". And right as we were about to finalize, there was a problem , she was stumped, as was I, the non travel agent. She didn't say hold please that I could hear, but mumbled something and then silence for a bit and then dialtone. Angela did not, in fact, call me back. I was so disgusted , I have told my family that I couldn't get us the deal. Because it's not worth the disrespectful treatment and the wasted hours of trying to get the deal booked myself, and the 3 or 4 sorry interactions, I decided to give up the deal. But, if you're a travel agent, do they talk to you like that?? Anyway, I would steer your clients away from these deals. And out of principle, TravelZoo should not be sending customers to Vacation Express. Not that they'll be able to book it themselves. If I couldn't, not many could.

The follow up service to help recuperate some funds from some things that went wrong on the destination side of our vacation was absolutely fantastic. It’s rare to get focused support anywhere nowadays but Vacation Express’ human touch made it very clear that they are dedicated towards customer care and satisfaction. I would like to book with them in the future. Thank you for your support!

Save the headache & do not book with them. You will be in the dark about the details of your trip. Very useless! And the Customer service team is rude and could not care less! Seriously, skip out on using them!

New update: Although we would still not put our self through this pain again, my wife and I did get compensated for all excursions missed. Thank you Vacation express for honoring that. My recommendation in the future is to be there and available in case things happen with flights and not leave people stranded with no ride. That created so much unnecessary stress.

I appreciate getting some of my money back but i paid for 4 excursions I didn't get to go to and got half the money back. I am grateful for getting what i did but im not recommending you to anyone.

The resort was great. The airline was great.
Only thing that kept me giving you guys 5 stars is that I booked a king size deluxe room. I got to my resort and they told me that was all booked up which isn’t acceptable when I booked my vacation way in advanced. Nevertheless I was accommodated very well . The excursion agent at the resort was not the best. Someone need to make sure that person has all information for excursions . Pretty unprofessional and kept insisting on me paying out of pocket for excursions I already paid for or was recommending me to other things. Also the dates I booked my excursions one of the days fell on a holiday which prevented me from participating as well. I believe that vacation express should have been more aware and on point and letting me know that one of these days fell on a holiday and I may want to move it to another day or not do an excursion on that date…

We had a great flight there and back. The best was staying at the Punta Cana Princess. This was our eighth time at the resort. The employees are incredible and make your trip so enjoyable. We will continue to use Vacationexpress as always.

** 3/19/2024 Update: Still have yet to receive this supposed voucher or even a response from Carlos about the voucher. The company is the worst! Please don’t be me and look for other options

***Edit 1/11/24 They replied only because of this response. I require months and months of therapy and still am unable to travel even sent documentation from
My Doctor. I’m being punished because their travel agent failed to contact them. I provided proof of the correspondence between me and her also. Carlos acknowledged I couldn’t have called them personally in the email. Which is crazy because they had no problem taking my money*** RUN FAR IF YOU PLAN ON BOOKING WITH THEM! Expedia provided a refund with no issues months ago for my flights. Only giving 1 star just to post a review. TRUST THESE REVIEWS AS THEY ARE TELLING EVERY BIT OF THE TRUTH!! I booked through an agent going to Montego Bay Jamaica at the Seagarden beach in July. We were to be there August 11-14. I ended up in the hospital paralyzed and requested the room be canceled with their agent who booked my trip. As I couldn’t travel due to not being able to sit up or even walk. They kept my 511.00 even though I had the insurance. If you are looking to book a vacation I recommend a more reputable company. They are VERY CROOKED AND MONEY DRIVEN. Then there is no way to contact them I had to go through the agent. STAY FAR FAR FAR AWAY!! Especially since the same hotels are on hotel.com cheaper and the excursions are cheaper. Won’t EVER book with anybody who uses them!!

Prices are very competitive, service is great and overall experience was wonderful. Best trip ever, my friends were very pleased with everything.

The property displayed is falsely advertising. There was smell of mold and you could see the mold and water damage on the ceiling and in the bathroom. The smell of mold hits you immediately upon entering the property to check-in.

Vacation Express has surpassed my expectations which is why I have been a client for the last few years. Everything from the travel accommodations & resorts to the excursions is top tier! My family and I will continue traveling through VE for years to come. Keep up the great work & excellent job at making family vacations so memorable & exciting! I refer so many people to VE as a one stop shop for all of your travel needs & unforgettable beautiful experiences.

I had an issue with my cancelled reservation, which now has been resolved. I received assistance from a human resource representative that was able to assist in resolving my issue in a timely, professional manner. I am satisfied with the assistance received from him. I do recommended further training for the workers who answer the phones, as they provided inconsistent & incorrect information which can impact a persons experience with booking/canceling their reservations. I do plan to re book & will update my review from my trip experience.

Carlos went above and beyond to help my clients 🙌🏻

We recently stayed at the Royalton Bavaro in Punta Cana. While we had a wonderful time at the resort, Vacation Express advertised that the trip included a $300 resort credit. Don't believe them. Turns out the "credit" was a coupon/discount pamphlet given to us by the Royalton Bavaro upon checkin. An example of the coupons contained in the pamphlet was getting $25 off a $350 couples massage at the spa. This is not a credit, it is a discount. When asked about this Vacation Express stated in part, "promotions that are issued by the Hotel and (sic) have no cost on your reservation". The Royalton Bavaro thought this was ok too. In my opinion this seems to be fraudulent advertizing.

In response to Vacation Express's reply to this review, I would say it is Vacation Express, not Royalton Bavaro, who is advertising the "credits" which are only discount's/coupons, thus you bear partial responsibility regardless of your small print "terms". Therefore, maybe Vacation Express should stop helping to advertise seemingly fraudulent advertising, especially since YOUR customer has alerted you to what is going on.

The things vacation express got right is booking my stay, picking us up from the airport and refunding me for my tour. The communication from nexus tours is horrible. We got assigned a rep that we never heard from which caused a lot of confusion and miscommunication when it came to our tour. When it was time to go back to the airport, everyone ride was scheduled at different times. The first person that came was schedule for my friend who was the last to leave the island and mine was not schedule at all despite me being the first person to leave the island. After a while things got frustrating but I will say they worked to solve our issues so for that I appreciate it.

Worst vacation people to book through rob me for 1600 bucks with no way to speak with anyone.

We had to cut our vacation short after just 2 days because a tornado damaged our house back home. Vacation Express was very gracious to refund us a big portion of our trip. We are very grateful for how they looked after us. We will definitely be going through Vacation Express next yeat

The subject property is the Melia Beach 'Level' in Punta Cana, DR. The advertisements and reality were most far apart. BUYER BEWARE!!! I think that the DR must not have public health regulations, as I got a bacterial parasite on the second day - only ate there on site. I was recommended to an 'emergency room' site, but the trip was $30 each way. It was a dilapidated metal building and we were met out front with armed gentlemen. They did give me two IV's, but had no gastrointestinal meds on site to offer and told me to go to a pharmacy at 1:30am... like there was one open. My IV site was not properly cleaned and I never saw a nurse or physician wash. That little ordeal only cost us a little over $1,000.00 out of pocket that night.

Bums just wander upon the beach selling most anything or begging for money. We were offered sale of illicit drugs three times by staff withing the first two days. Trust me, we don't look like that kind of people...LOL! We watched the kitchen staff wash the pans and utensils out behind the kitchen of the upscale restaurant using a water hose and a rag, then laying them down back onto the ground to dry. We got to enjoy this view from our balcony in building 15 in the 'Level' upscale section while the aroma from the nearby sewage treatment facility wafted across our balcony constantly. They sales pitch for the 'extras' is pushy and rude - as they pushed my wife (while I was in the room expelling massive amounts of bodily fluids, into buying a boat trip while I was up in the room enjoying my painful days there. I took some across the counter meds and tried to go on the boat trip, but they just carried us out of walking distance and parked the rickety pontoon boat on a dirty beach and told us to get out, and there we sat till time to putter back. I have boats and know a bit about boats, and this one was not seaworthy. The fact that nobody working on the boat understood English was also difficult - their trips are a SCAM.

The accommodations were dirty, old, and run down with sometimes working marginal air conditioning. The air conditioning might have worked better had the doors fit into the doorways properly, as one could see light around all four door sides. On the way home from medical treatment in the wee hours of the morning, we got to watch the cleaning crew dump the mop water into the filthy fountains inside the non-air conditioned check in hut... (can anyone say Legionnaires Disease?) My wife or I never saw anyone checking the chlorine or Ph levels in the pools, which were basically just sewage lagoons with lounge chairs. Even employing a travel agent, the travel data is most difficult to come by and is most inconsistent when received. This fiasco cost us much money, and even more valuable, time that cannot be recovered. This facility is personally unsafe and definitely a public safety nightmare. Our concierge, Edwin, was a great guy and most helpful but lacked the authority and tools to fix the issues - he was not a magician. My dealings with this company were most disreputable, so please offer them a wide birth of avoidance as your only likely purchase will be mass regret. My only guess is that this travel industry is totally unregulated where one can advertise anything they want, then offer whatever they want - irrespective of reality. Shameful! I wish that I would have been offered the opportunity to offer a negative number for rating this company. Before booking with them, take a look at their rating on teh Better Business Bureau site... this will give a bit of hit of what is to come, I think.