Fantastic service and amazing choice (Kuoni Travel)

Member Name: flodombey

Product:	Kuoni Travel
Date:	11/02/09 (164 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quality, extras, ease of booking, choice of destinations

Disadvantages: Deposit needed for booking, prices can change

We have used Kuoni a number of times and personally I consider them to be the best company you can use to tailor make your holiday, the level of service you get from them is excellent but also they will go out of their way to give you a price you cannot beat and (in our experience) they always throw in freebies too.

Their services work as follows:

Brochures: You can pick up their brochures in most high street travel agents or you can order one from the website, their brochures tend to be highly detailed and each area of the world will have its own, if you have a rough idea of where you want to go these are an ideal starting point. They offer both straightforward package holidays to one area, tailor made 'multi centre' holidays (if you want to spend a few days in a number of destinations - ie this year we are doing Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Krabi) and organised tours ('Wonders of Thailand' for 5 days for example) which you can work into your holiday or book as an extra.

Website: The website is excellent as it lets you build the holiday you want in 'blocks' - adding destinations until you have the overall holiday you want, letting you change the hotel or flight for example, add in a tour or remove things, it gives you a total and a quote reference so that even if you are not ready to book you can come back to a trip you have previously entered.

Phone: Their call centre operatives are great and this is where you can haggle a little for extras, for instance, in the time between when we looked at a quote and came to book the price had gone up overall by £150, we got straight on the phone instead of booking through the website and explained what had happened, she did some kind of jiggary pokery and got it back down to the price we wanted, we asked if she could offer us any extras and she gave us a room upgrade in Bangkok to a deluxe room, a free dinner for 2 in Chiang Mai and an upgrade to a seaview room in Krabi - if you dont ask you dont get!

A couple of years ago we did a multi centre in America (San Francisco, Las Vegas and New York) and they threw in a helicopter flight in Vegas and NY.

In Sri Lanka in 2005 we had a guide and went on a 5 day tour, all the hotels and some of the meals were included and we were very impressed by the way we had so little to worry about, the whole thing was organised for us, nothing was too much hassle and the guide became a firm friend, the tour group was literally us and a woman travelling on her own, very intimate and special - not like a coach trip!

The other great thiing about Kuoni is that generally to make a booking you only have to pay a £150 per person deposit, the balance has to be paid 12 weeks prior to departure and you can make part payments via the internet any time you like, very convenient.

If you are planning on booking a long haul holiday I would highly recommend them.

Summary: Great company, magical holidays!