As someone who normally chooses to go through sites such as Expedia and other travel related locations, I'm basing this review on four criteria. The vacation I went to was almost six months ago, and decided to wait before posting this to ensure my review was not full of vitriol or unnecessary frustration.
BACKGROUND: My girlfriend and I were discussing on going to Peru and was slowly discussing this in public (specifically mutual gym) where one of your travelstore representatives, Veronica, overheard our plans. She inquired my girlfriend to price out the quote for her as she was planning to do this herself. As a favor, she decided to provide information to Veronica and use the services provided by TravelStore's resources.
1. Pre-trip organization - My girlfriend provided locations (including pictures, photos, websites she used to research) as well as required dates of when she could go. She also included times where she could not visit (due to major family obligations.) We find out that the information my girlfriend provided was used to make a presentation to our mutual friends who were 'interested' in also going. Also we find out that the times she suggested directly CONFLICTED with the times we could not go. As a result, the travelstore resources we wanted to use were moot as our times conflicted with Veronica's time for her vacation group.
Most of the communication was initially between email, where communication, at times, was vague and or confusing. This led to a lot of follow up questions and redirection, most of which was very frustrating. This included incorrect names on reservations, passport submissions, and a lot of corrections; something that clients should not be concerned about when booking a trip. During this time, there was also a change of agents, which even made it more confusing as that person wasn't initially part of the preliminary booking. Furthermore, this included very curt and unprofessional responses (e.g. "It's in the email down conversation, don't your remember?") Because of this, we requested a teleconference to ensure every itinerary on the trip was explained on the same page (more on this.) In summary, most of the months leading to the trip was very stress inducing and not very helpful.
2. During trip organization - We had a number of confusing issues with the plane as our agent, either placed names in the wrong field for reservations (which made it difficult for us to check-in properly) or failed to mention if there were changes in flights (which also made it difficult to deal with airline issues.)
Another issue was the failure to disclose additional fees prior to the trip. One example, was finding out that entry tickets to one of the ruins (a total of four) required ADDITIONAL purchase of tickets prior to entry. Unbeknownst to us, we found that our purchase of a tour didn't include that purchase of tickets. As a result, had to email our agent what was the problem, which she promptly replied, "it's in the FINE PRINT," even though the communication with the itinerary from point number one wasn't emphasized during that time. As a result, I ended up arguing with our agent instead of enjoying the ruins.
Another example was failure to inform us of changes in hotels. We were in Aguas Calientes, walking to our hotel and the agent mentioned to us that there's no reservation for that hotel and it's been changed to another hotel someplace else. They mentioned that they "contacted our travel agent, but ended up being a busy signal."
3. Post trip followup and prices - Simply, there was none, for either aspect. Once the trip finished, there was no follow up on how the trip went, what could have been better, etc. This meant that the agents were only interested in collecting the service fee and not their clients. In regards to prices, they were THE SAME PRICES if we chose to do it ourselves. No added incentives. Furthermore, we were informed by mutual friends that Veronica dissuaded a number of people to travel with us and instead with her date (probably to take advantage of travelstore incentives and have their trip cheaper than ours.) In other words, if you choose travelstore, don't look for great service if you're not part of their travel date.
4. Overall - If you trying to find a stress free method in traveling without worrying about reservations, places to stay, additional fees that weren't discussed, as well as paying an agent fee on top of that, I would STRONGLY advise against travelstore, and go some where else. Anything would have been better than this, including doing it yourself.
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