Grand Travel & Cruise

to shrink it to fit within character guidelines Planned a trip to the Dominican Republic for a group of 6 with Pepper. We Knew the risk of booking during hurricane season. Hurricane Ian cancelled one flight from Seattle to Miami. OK, not within the travel agency's control. Pepper rebooked us new flights, arriving one day later than originally planned. We arrive in Punta Cana after a 30 hour travel day (more issues with flights, no help from Pepper), our airport to hotel transfer as well as the hotel tell us they were not alerted that we were arriving one day later, they both marked us as no shows. Luckily we were able to get to the hotel and get rooms anyway, thanks to the hotel. We reach out to Pepper to extend our trip a day since we lost one on the way there. He confirms with us hotel and new flights are set. Our original check out day we wanted to spend at the pool, my butler comes to me to tell me that we do not have reservations for that night. Can't reach Pepper to resolve, he's on a boat in Mexico. He finally reaches out to give me Beth's number. Call Beth - it takes her several hours to resolve and rebook us all rooms. Now it's time to check in for our new flights. Oh wait, they are cancelled because Pepper did not cancel our original flights out - and when we didn't show up for those flights, the airline cancelled our new flights since they were booked under the same reservation numbers. Call Beth. Several more hours to rebook new flights. Beth confirms she messaged the airport transfer company and they'll be there no later than 9am for our 12pm flight. 845am the next morning, no transfer. Call Beth. She calls transfer company. I don't hear back from her quickly and we have to get to the airport. I call back, she's still on hold and tells me if we are more comfortable taking a cab vs. waiting for her to resolve we can do that. We call a cab and get to the airport on time - no thanks to this travel agency. Overall – literally nothing that this agency booked and arranged for us was set up properly, corrected properly or followed through on properly. Yes – we went during hurricane season, and they cannot control the weather – but they can control every other aspect of a planned trip – which was not done. There was ZERO follow through with anything they planned – we had to stress and scramble and take care of a lot of things ourselves. Had it been a trip I planned myself– I would’ve made sure to alert hotels and transfer companies of our late arrivals, made sure our flights were secure and old flights cancelled, and the hotel had reservations for our extensions. I didn’t think to double check that these things were in place because that is what we ultimately had a travel agency for.They have not yet made any attempt to make this right for any of us – and it is the absolute worst experience I have every had with a travel agency (and I have booked trips through several). The most unfortunate part is that they are refusing to take responsibility for any of these issues. In one email, Pepper told me that he “didn’t know what happened behind the scenes, but he thought everything was taken care of.” I reminded him that HE IS BEHIND THE SCENES and it is his job to ensure everything is done properly–which didn’t happen at any point of this trip.