I booked my Melia Marina Varadero with Tripcentral. I considered using this agency because I was…read morereferred to it through a travel app. Unfortunately the experience was misadvertised and I am still waiting 4+ mos for Anna T. of Tripcentral to respond. Tripcentral tries their best to provide accuracy in their advertisement. Website will show regular price fluctuations. At the time of my booking, this upgrade would reflect a 400$ price increase based on my $1215 five day double occupancy. Having never travelled to Cuba, I opted not to upgrade. Resort condition On arrival it was very worn out, beat. Seats were stained and walls were damaged. There were constantly people walking around repairing areas. Holes in walls. The room had no carpet, a dehumidifier, air conditioning, ceiling fan, lock box, balcony. The bathroom had a shower, tub and toilet. Bathroom had a foul odor during the stay, maybe from the mildew in the shower tiles. The sink plug was faulty and broken. Despite air filters visible in the ventilation, we found the rooms very dusty. There was ample of room to sleep. Dirty room. Food I asked how was the food and the experience to the Angela Wolfe of Tripcentral prior to booking, she expressed it was very nice, offering the oriental a le carte was quite nice. But did not offer any info on tipping gestures. The foods for the general buffet were edible. Fresh fruit served for time of year. Freshly cooked food before you, but they expect tip, communicate if you want less oil and less salt. Occasionally hairs found on the food-low risk but something you would not find in a western 5 star. Tried the International A le carte. The meal was average Canadian meal in a fine dining style. In addition to the house wine, there is a wine list ranging in price. We found the meal dessert was not served with coffee that would have been nice with the overly sweet dessert. Warning, cooking with generally include canned mushroom, so if you're not a fan, avoid. We also found misadvertising on the Tripcentral website, where the Grill a le carte was not available to customers. Transactions at the resort The agent assured me credit card could be accepted but would be converted in CUC so expect a conversion fee, that was nice to her to advise me of that. But Tripcentral did not warn that a 20% fee may be applied on top of the transaction at the resort. The hotel had an eerie way not to supply receipts for cash transactions. There is a bank in the resort that does currency conversion. When we did Canadian currency we found the conversion at USD rate +5% conversion fee (a little steeper than the 2.5% most credit cards do). Value Overall, I felt that Tripcentral needed to update their understanding of the destination to really provide the customer the accurate experience to be expected. It felt more like a 3 star with edible food-occasionally there are hairs on the food and fruit flies in wine. Very similar to Florida accommodations at a 3 star hotel excluding the all inclusive meal. For value, I dont think the value was here. In the elevator I could see a standard room could go for 30$ cuc per night. I understand on sale a flight can be booked 600$ cad round trip. Additionally Tripcentral advised me that credit card would be accepted but currency would be in CUC, so conversion fee would be expected-that was not accurate. The resort encourages cash because credit card transaction will be charged 20% more. There is no signage, all expressed verbally. Beach access Resort beach had colour coding for safety, green yellow and red. But when trying to book the included boat access the staff member was only available in the morning and so in repeat attempts to boat the weather was unfavourable and were unable to experience the included non motorized boating. The resort beach was clean the first day, but last three days, beach was not safe due to sharp objects in the unclean algae. Shuttle arrangement to and from airport Shuttle was arranged by Tripcentral sub Transat, I noticed that they tend to try to fill their shuttles so on arrival we had to wait 1 hr, with the bus driver associate with yellow shirt constantly offering local beer, pop and water in local and Canadian currency. On departure, I watched the bus associate scratch his butt while he scrutinized over Asian guest, but not caucasian guests. Accuracy of experience by Tripcentral website and sale staff Tripcentral tries their best to provide accuracy in their ad. We found inaccuracies of their ad offering 3 a le carts but on arrival the resort only offered 2. In contacting Tripcentral via email, agent Angela Wolfe did not offer to help and simply pointed to the sub agency she booked Transat-but her response was too late and the disputed a le cart quantities was with Tripcentral advertisement. I felt Tripcentral misadvertised the overall experience to be expected and supported customers booking over the phone with misrepresented information.

Our booking process was fast and easy. Our agent was very knowledgeable about many of the resorts…read morethat we were looking at. Thank you for your wonderful service.

Everyone here was so helpful on helping us book our dream honeymoon!!! We stayed at the Sandals…read moreRoyal in Barbados!! It was a dream!!!!! Quality service here unlike their neighbours across from them flight centre! Thank you everyone at trip central!!

I don't typically write reviews but feel compelled to share my experience so others don't…read moreexperience the same. This week I made a booking for my family, leaving next week, last minute all inclusive. Everything was booked, paid for, and arrangements were made. Something happened with our booking and I was called 2.5 hours later to be told that they lost the booking somehow and we would have to pick something else. When I asked how this happened all I was told was "these things sometimes happen". No one took any accountability for it. The agent I was dealing with told me he would follow up with me the next day to discuss options. When I didn't hear from him by mid morning, I began calling the main line and asking for a supervisor. I kept getting the same script, these things happen sometimes and there's nothing we can do. The original agent finally called back around 3:30pm and left a message that everything was canceled. My messages to customer service remain unanswered and my email via Facebook says that it seems my issue was resolved and to let them know if I still needed to talk to someone. This is the poorest level of customer service I have ever experienced. Not only the error with the booking, but the complete lack of follow up and follow through and not one person taking accountability for this. We now have to rebook for different dates and pay significantly more money because someone dropped the ball, and they don't even have the decency to call me back personally. I would never recommend Tripcentral again.

Elena was fantastic in planning and booking our trip to Russia for the Olympics. She found us a…read moregreat hotel which would have been very difficult to do on our own since we don't speak the language. Elena was proactive and kept us up to date on the progress of our hotel and flight bookings. She also really helped in getting our documentation for our Visa. Elena has great knowledge and contacts in Russia. If you are planning a trip, I highly recommend Elena's Travel

Best travel agency I ever work with. Best prices for tickets! Thanks for allread more

I booked a vacation to Italy with Marina from Altitude and she was fantastic. She helped with…read morecorrespondence with Air Canada Vacations and third parties to ensure the trip was thoughtfully planned out. When Air Canada underwent strike discussions, Marina kept her travelers informed during and after the issue was resolved. She was always prepared and responsive during communications before and during the trip. I also had a great vacation which was the cherry on top of the entire experience. I am glad I booked with Altitude and I look forward to planning a second trip with them!

I booked a family vacation through Altitude travel and had the worse experience of my life at a…read moresandals. The agent knew very little about the resort and everything she told us was inaccurate. If you use this company make sure you follow up the resort to ensure what you are being told is true. I will never use or recommend this travel company.

Travel Agent I had Lindsay Arnott as a travel agent and she…read morewas great! Couldn't have had a better travel agent. I am the tech savy person who likes to look myself on all of the travel sites but the major thing we all know is how much time it takes up. Defiantly book with Lindsay she will make your life SO much easier.

Tripcentral.ca lacks accountability and takes zero responsibility for any issues that may arise…read moreafter booking through them. They like to side-step the issues and play the blame game. Once they have your money, they feel no obligation to ensure customer satisfaction. This is true even in cases when something occurs that is not the fault of the traveler whatsoever. My friend and I were overbooked and tripcentral did nothing to fight for us against the tour operator to get us options that were fair and reasonable. Instead, they hid behind the general message of, "we are just the middleman", and proceeded to actually yell at us, speak condescendingly towards us, and even place us on hold mid-sentence when all we were trying to do was resolve an issue that was caused as a result of the incompetence of both tripcentral and the tour operator. The options they presented to us after overbooking us and not notifying us until weeks later were: 1) relocate to a resort of their choosing (and receive a complimentary stay at the original resort in the future minus flight costs) *** but the resort of their choosing was nonnegotiable, which made no sense since the free accommodation was offered to us by the original resort we had booked as compensation for inconveniencing us. So we should have been able to book another resort of OUR choosing (and pay the difference in costs) AND get the 7 nights stay, but trip central and the tour operator refused to budge and insisted that if we want the 7 nights stay offered by the resort, we had to go to the other resort they had chosen for us. Complete BS! We researched the other resort and realized it was isolated, newly opened (meaning lots of operational issues are to be expected), the beach has TONS of seaweed, and it is filled with seniors. Not our scene at all! 2) rebook another trip at today's rates (not rates backdated to original booking date - which resulted in costs of more than $150 per person for resorts we wanted) 3) full refund They screwed up and we had to pay the price. Neither tripcentral nor the tour operator lost a single thing. We lost our money for a few weeks, we lost ample time which resulted in other resorts getting booked up, and we lost more time trying to get them to amend option 1 to be fair and reasonable. But to no avail. Thieves. Con artists. I'm not sure why they even exist since everyone can book directly through tour operators and pay the same, if not less. Tripcentral appears to be nothing more than an added step through which they gain a commission and offer you - the patron - absolutely nothing. Never again. No accountability, no respect, no follow-up, and no fight to protect their customer's loyalty. I asked 3 different individuals to call me by today, and no one has. What a surprise! This post is just the beginning, tripcentral. The media world is going to be hearing about this nonsense until someone publishes the story and gives you the attention you truly deserve. Do yourselves a favor: do not book with tripcentral. Terrible, terrible service.

I called the store with no understanding or knowledge of a cruise. I was given all the information…read morei needed to navigate and book the prefect family vacation for 10 nights. I am so thankful for the agent's help . I highly recommend to anyone who want to try a cruise for the first time and don't know the ins and outs to contact this location . Thank you and i look forward to working with your office in the future . T. W

I'm a first time customer and give this travel agency full marks.I had my meeting set and trip to…read moreAustralia planned and booked within hours.Bonus customer service by helping with answering questions on getting an entrance visa.I will go again to see Karen.

Family members enjoyed the 2016 Run For Fun Cruise so much that we all booked the 2017 RFFC trip…read moretogether. The main contacts are Kim & Craig and you won't find two nicer & capable people on the planet. Our trip was booked perfectly and no detail was overlooked. The races were all amazing and well planned. I really don't know how they could improve anything - it was a perfect running vacation or "Runcation"...