Secret Escapes Reviews

I booked a holiday at Bel Jou, St. Lucia. I thought that I was getting it at the originally offered price, but I did not realize that they had increased the price by a considerable amount. Within hours, I found a better deal through TripAdvisor, but Secret Escapes has no cooling off period and do not allow cancellations even within hours of making a booking. The lesson for me is to double check that you are really getting a good deal.

Secret Escapes is a scam in my view. They will send you an email that they are holding a room for you, and you have a certain number of days to confirm the reservation at a lower rate than what is being offered by the hotel. But, they are NOT communicating with the hotel to actually hold or prepurchase a room. So, if the hotel loses availability, you will get an email before your hold was due to expire, that your hold, in fact, has expired. Meanwhile, prices have gone up.

If Secret Escapes is actually unable to obtain the room at a lower rate with the hotel when you try to confirm it, they will tell you that the room is no longer available at that rate. Meanwhile, prices have gone up. They explain this away by pointing out to you an obscure, easily overlooked link on their website that tells you that their "hold" is not really holding anything. Their supervisor actually told me over the phone this morning that he wished that language was more prominent on their website. So, they know its obscure, and they don't fix it.

It was my partner's birthday on the 10th of May so I thought what better surprise than to fly her to Rome for a few days.

We arrived in Rome just after 11 pm with just one hour until her 39th birthday. After waiting an hour for our transfer to the hotel, we arrived to find the doors locked and nobody on site. We phoned Secret Escapes only to be greeted by a voicemail explaining that the offices are closed and nobody will be available to take our call until 9 am, 10 am for us at the time in Italy. After trying the door continuously we began to attempt to phone all the numbers we could find for the hotel online. Only to get no answer. Eventually we gave up as we realised it was hopeless.

We ended up walking the streets of Rome with our luggage throughout the night and into the early hours of the morning looking for another hotel, only to find everywhere fully booked. Over the night we hailed several taxis and travelled to various hotels to find them all booked up. In total we spent over €200 on taxis and coffee and spent the night in the street.

A night experiencing homelessness in Italy’s capital, was not the desired birthday gift I intended to give her.

In the morning having found ourselves freezing cold, Angela’s feet with blisters, we got another taxi back to the hotel, and still no one there. We then phoned all the numbers for other hotels in the chain once again. Eventually, we got an answer. The lady said she would contact the owner and ring us back. We didn’t get a call, so I called her. She assured me the owner will ring me. He didn’t. So we went back to the hotel, and after buzzing the door several times we eventually got an answer. A gentleman buzzed us in, and after scaling the stairs with our luggage and explaining we have been out all night he said sorry it was his day off. He said he will call the owner. He called the owner who said the mix up was with Secret Escapes who canceled our booking. We were then told that they had no rooms available. At this point, we were stuck in Rome with no place to stay and return flights 36 hours away. On top of this we were supposed to be going on a Vatican and Sistine Chapel tour, also booked through Secret Escapes.

The owner and staff at the hotel were fantastic and managed to move things around to give us a room but it was three in the afternoon before it was available. Whilst waiting we met another couple who were in exactly the same situation. Again they had also booked through Secret Escapes.

Later we also discovered there was a third couple the day before. In their case the hotel managed to find them a room for one night and helped them find somewhere else to stay.

When Secret Escapes opened I eventually got through to their customer service team. At first they offered me £30 off my next booking with them. I tried as politely as possible to explain that having spent a night on the streets in Rome it was highly unlikely that I would book another holiday with them.

Eventually after speaking with her manager (who was too busy to speak to me directly), the lady offered me a refund for the one night hotel stay that we did not have. Eventually after some haggling they also offered to refund me for the excursion I paid for but was unable to attend.

Of course none of the above is compensation for ruining my girlfriends birthday. Neither does it compensate for spending a night in the streets of Rome with our luggage. However, Secret Escapes assured me they would be in contact to discuss further compensation. For now they assured me they will email to confirm everything discussed and action the agreed refunds immediately.

The reason I am making this public post is simple. Despite their promise, Secret Escapes failed to email me confirmation of the refunds they promised. They have also failed to make any refund into my account.

On a positive note, my partner did eventually have a good birthday despite Secret Escapes.

We managed to extend our flights directly with the airline and found another hotel to extend our stay. We then booked our own replacement excursions, however all in all the city break literally cost me twice as much. Not to mention the calls on my mobile to Secret Escapes 084 number. Having spent almost two hours holding and discussing this, I’m not looking forward to receiving my mobile bill.

I am so disappointed that not only have Secret Escapes failed to keep their word, they didn’t even have the decency to wish my partner a happy birthday and offer any gesture of goodwill.

As a small business owner myself, I find it inconceivable that an organisation the size of Secret Escapes can behave so unprofessionally.

Not only have they offered no compensation and no gesture of goodwill, they have also failed to provide a refund for a night in a hotel we did not receive and an excursion we were unable to attend through no fault of our own.

At this point in time, I would strongly advise anybody not to book a holiday through this organisation. I just thank god that this was a romantic break for two, and that we did not have the children with us.

Please be aware when booking holidays that you check transfers. They might not be included, which happened to me.

They gave misleading information, and it has cost me another £500 on top to get from the airport to the resort. Please check before booking and how far away the hotel is! The arrival of the flight is very late, and the hotel is 3 hours away, and it's a mountainous trip, and very dark and dangerous for strangers to the area.

Secret Escapes did not do anything to help and completely ruined our experience with them. I would AVOID using them!

I originally asked them for a refund, which they said no to, which after investigating I found out that I could, but it was too late when I retried. One team member was very kind but kept saying that the above people keep telling her she can't do anything. I have yet to speak to any manager because you can't get a hold of them!

Absolutely unhelpful. They have just gotten greedy and good service has gone.

I've booked with Secret Escapes twice.

First occasion: I received a phone call directly from the hotel a few days later to cancel my booking and advise Secret Escapes were aware they had no rooms and they did not understand why they were still advertising availability.

Apparently, I was not the first customer to be affected. I heard nothing directly from Secret Escapes and had to call them myself to arrange a refund and suggest they update their website. Not a straight forward process and I had to wait for several call backs and many days before actually getting my money back.

Second occasion: I booked a deal which included flights and a hotel stay. Concerned not to have received any further info about flight times, etc.occurence, I called to chase a couple of days later and was told my booking was part of a backlog waiting to be processed. They had taken my money fine, just not got around to booking any of the services I had paid for.

Later I received an email which looked suspiciously like a template (indicating this was a far occurrence) which advised me “due to an error with availability” they could not provide my holiday. I emailed back to assure them the hotel could accommodate the booking and that there were plenty of flights (I checked). They then admitted that yes there was availability but not for the price they had advertised and charged me.

They arranged to refund me which would take up to 5 working days. The credit of £50.00 they gave me was an interesting choice of compensation as I made it clear I would not be using them again.

The most infuriating part of my poor customer experience with Secret Escapes is the overall lack of care or concern they demonstrated. When things go wrong, they are less luxury and dodgier second-hand car dealership! No responsibility, no effort to put things right.

As I pointed out to them, they could have easily fulfilled my booking. Doing so would not have left them out of pocket, they just would have had to wait to see some profit from the repeat business they would have secured from me.

Nov 2015 - Booked a Haimark cruise for April 2016 via Secret Escapes.

Feb 2016 - Cruise company (Haimark Ltd) writes to say they are overbooked and is cancelling the cruise. So far we're out USD 4000 and Secret Escapes claims to be helping to get the money back, but they have no status updates to provide.

We're out hundreds of dollars in expenses getting to the cruise port and back. That aside, all we want is our cruise ticket refunds.

It also doesn't seem like Secret Escapes has any real leverage with the advertisers using their platform. In the end, it could be a platform for desperate businesses and wouldn't be surprised to see this happen again and again. Secret Escapes could end up being a dumping site for deals that the provider has no intention of honoring.