BookVIP's reply to:

BookVIP is a scam and ripoff

Thank you for your valuable feedback and we take all customers issues very seriously. We are able to look up reservations by the last name of customer, their email address, or telephone number, however, we are unable to locate any reservation with the information given by you to this web site. You can contact me direct at James@BookVip.com. As an owner, I pride myself in BookVip offering the most discounted vacation packages and having an A+ rating Better Business Bureau for our customer service.

The reason we can offer packages 70% off the retail rates is because the resorts subsidize the cost of these discounted vacations in exchange for your time during the resort preview. The resort verifies each reservation before issuing a confirmation number as resort is paying the cost of discounted vacation. A majority of the issues occur when the resort finds the terms & conditions are being circumvented. We will send over 300,000 families on dreams vacations alone this year! We have more actual customer video reviews than any other travel site. http://bookvip.com/sitereviews

Thank you.
Kind regards,

BookVIP Management Team
Management@bookvip.com
1-(888)-849-8450
author's review
ID
#481314 Review #481314 is a subjective opinion of poster.
Service
Bookvip Vacation Package Booking
Reason of review
Problems with payment
Loss
$1200
New Reviewer

We planned a vacation with BookVIP.com and they cancelled our vacation that was confirmed by the Villa Del Parmar resort in Cancun, Mexico. We paid for a package and were also charged more for the package than agreed upon.

We then were told our reservation was cancelled by error and that they could not give us our original reservation. They then offered a terrible resort and to pay a minimal adjustment that wasn't what the resort was even being shown to be selling at. They harassed us repeatedly, would not let us speak with supervisors or their legal department as we requested.

We are now out a vacation and the $1,200.00 for airfare to Cancun because we have no intention, after this nightmare, to spend what we wanted to go there for which is a relaxing holiday.

They intentionally also called us several times a day and kept saying we cancelled our reservation. This actually caused us duress and it's criminal what they do. They are committing fraud by scamming people into a better resort and cancelling their reservations and trying to put people in a much less of a quality resort. The difference was night and day and we had not intention of traveling all the way there since they were so shady and dishonest.

Don't use these folks. We will be filing a legal claim and also requesting compensation for the damages caused due to the duress.

Helpful 163 Not helpful 31
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12 comments
#918383

booked and charged for one package, told it wasn't available unless I paid $640 more, told them I need to cancel reservation. They said management will call you back.

I 've called four times, never recieved a call back yet, never recieved any sort of cancellation notification or confirmation from any one.

It took one day to charge my card, now it's been 4 days and I can't even speak to any one about the cancellation and every time I call they say oh yes, I see your reservation here. Bait and switch or just thievery?

4 3
#918450
@PissedConsumer918383

Hello Mr. Hurth,

As I explained in my email and voice mail.

We sincerely apologize on any confusion, however, I assure it was definitely not intentional. The resort classifies your oldest child who is 18 as an adult and not a child. The 1 bedroom room occupancy allows for 2 adults and 3 children under the special promotion and we had to get an exception on this hotel rule which were able to get approved yesterday. As an owner I definitely stand behind our product and services as we are the largest travel promotions company and have an A rating with Better Business Bureau.

We definitely go extra lengths to get special approvals and I apologize if it was not expedited and communicated properly. That being said, I have made sure your refund is processed tonight.

Again, thank you for the valuable feedback and feel free to email James@***.net

Happy Holidays

Best,

James

4 7
#911367

Same happened to me - just now. Booked, accepted, then tried bait switch to... Holiday Inn.

7 0
#910366

Did you ever get anywhere with the legal end? I am looking at filing legally as well and try to get back some of which they have "screwed" me out of.

3 1
#894253

Scam artists.you have been warned

8 0
#894691
@PissedConsumer894253

Hello John,

We book over 50,000 vacation packages a year and have an "A-" rating with Better Business Bureau http://www.bbb.org/shreveport/business-reviews/travel-agencies/resort-vacations-international-in-natchitoches-la-90048356#bbbseal

Please contact me directly at James@rvitravel.net as we are always looking to improve. Thank you

2 9
#878486

This is no surprize your *** commercial went on and on.

4 0
#849639

Mr. Colligan,

I tried to contact you.

We never tried to change the reservation and were called several times by parties asking for more money. Our reservation date was confirmed and then your agency cancelled it after we booked our airfare. We lost $500.00 in airfare when we had to change our tickets to use them to travel elsewhere.

We never tried to travel in a group, which both your staff and the resort told us, but we were only traveling alone....two of us, for a much needed vacation.

This is a scam and it cost us much.

We are looking to file complaints and sue for our lost travel and the emotional distress that your staff caused repeatedly harassing us over the phone and lying that we cancelled our reservation. We didn't and your staff it seems never did what they were required to do.

Additionally we asked for a stay at a comparable resort which was possible and they tried to put us in hotels that were a fraction of the cost and rated with two stars on many sites.

Your agency was a nightmare to work with and we've posted this because we travel often, know the ins and outs of such promotional deals and were interested in the property. Your unprofessionalism needs to be known to others.

We also tried to e-mail you and no response. Thank you

22 1
#822867

Hello Gammica,

I am one of the owners of Bookvip.com and you can contact me directly james@rvitravel.net. We are the largest travel promotions company and handle over a ten of thousands special promotion packages per year without any issue.

Like any company, we are not perfect and we are always looking to improve. The most difficult part in selling the discounted promotional packages are the terms and conditions that the resort sets as they are ones subsidizing the cost of the rooms for qualified customers to listen to their vacation ownership /timeshare presentation. Again, the rooms are discounted many times over $1000 in exchange of the customer's time and meeting the resort's qualifications. Where most issues occur is where the customer tries to circumvent the resort's qualifications and the resort denies the reservation or where rooms become unavailable due to sold out dates in which we always refund the customer.

One of the most difficult items we deal with is group travel as the resorts don't permit it with the promotion.

All of these terms & conditions are disclosed on the site as well. Each customer signs electronically the terms & conditions before we ever charge a customer.

Again, I appreciate your feed back and look forward to hearing from you

Sincerely,

James Colligan

Owner BookVip.com

7 22
#849570
@Violet

That's the same answer you used on another web site. You didn't address the problem!!!!!!!

20 0
#910362
@Violet

I booked this vacation in June of 2014 and now in December, after trying to change the date, am I having the exact same issues. I have been accused and told that I would be charge $750 per night to stay at the hotel if I showed up on these dates because someone else changed the dates to the same time that I am and they happen to live in the same state.

Now I am being told that I can't get my money back from BookVIP but the hotel will only give me my upgrade amount back, and that is after BookVIP cancels my reservations. BookVIP won't cancel my reservation or give me anything other than an opened ended (18 month) vacation, but after reading the comments above is a total rip off. So lesson learned that this company is truly trying to get every penny they can.

So disappointed that I will let everyone I know through all media efforts that I have, NOT to every book with BookVIP!!!!

8 0
#818756

We had a very similiar experience with Apple Vacations a few years ago. Actually even worse.

8 0
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BookVIP's reply to:

BookVIP is a rip off and fraud. Don't book with them

Thank you for your valuable feedback. As an owner, I pride myself in BookVip offering the most discounted vacation packages and having an A+ rating Better Business Bureau for our customer service. The reason we can offer packages 70% off the retail rates is because the resorts subsidize the cost of these discounted vacations in exchange for your time during the resort preview. The resort verifies each reservation before issuing a confirmation number as resort is paying the cost of discounted vacation. A majority of the issues occur when the resort finds the terms & conditions are being circumvented. We will send over 300,000 families on dreams vacations alone this year! We have more actual customer video reviews than any other travel site. http://bookvip.com/sitereviews

Thank you.
Kind regards,

BookVIP Management Team
Management@bookvip.com
1-(888)-849-8450
author's review
ID
#481313 Review #481313 is a subjective opinion of poster.
Reason of review
Problems with payment
Loss
$1200

We recently book a vacation with BookVIP and it was for a timeshare in Cancun called the Villa Del Parmar. It was originally priced at $399.00 and by the time we paid it totaled over $600.00. We had a confirmed reservation and made our flight plans and then they cancelled our reservation without cause. They tried to put us in a much less desirable hotel, one with a room the third of the size and non-comparable. They told us they'd pay the fees, about a hundred dollars and a refund of $150.00 but that still did not make up for the dump they tried to put us in.

Additionally they kept harassing us and telling us we cancelled the reservation and that if we didn't accept the other reservation they'd cancel the contract. Well they violated their contract when they cancelled our reservation and we are now out money for our airfare.

Also our credit card was compromised by using them between the resort and them because those are the only two places we used our card.

Do not use this company. They are a scam and we not will have to take legal action and have no vacation.

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11 comments
#934164

A true nightmare after their website wrongly booked a non requested vacation on wrong days, I personally called fiesta Americana cabos to cancel my self as they owe me a favor, fiesta cancelled and these other people had no choice to reimburse me. Attention they are affiliated to Expedia, so their deals can't beat Expedia 's YES they are scammers

2 0
#930710

I am so glad I read the reviews before I went ahead and booked at this site. I am getting married and would have been devastated. Thank You for the heads up!

3 0
#918390

I booked and was charged with book vip for this same cancun package and then was told that the package wasn't availble unless I paid another $640.00. I said that I couldn't afford it and needed to cancel, so they said that management would call me back later that day.

No call. I have called several time and always got the same run around. Management will call you today. No call.

I have not recieved any confirmation of cancellaton or anything.

Classic bait and switch? Or just thievery?

1 0
#900565

Love how "James" gives the same generic response on the complaints. thanks for the heads up, you saved me a and many others a huge headache.

3 0
#897029

Thanks for the insights!

I will not buy from these scammers!

3 2
#894689

I am very sorry to hear about your booking experience has the definitely close to our high standards as we are the largest provider of discounted resort promotional packages. We book over 50,000 vacation packages a year and have an "A-" rating with Better Business Bureau http://www.bbb.org/shreveport/business-reviews/travel-agencies/resort-vacations-international-in-natchitoches-la-90048356#bbbseal

Please contact me directly at James@rvitravel.net as we are always looking to improve. Thank you

1 5
#916044
@Violet

Just stop with the "high standards" you aren't fooling anyone and it's insulting to act as if you're so innocent and can't understand that HUNDREDS of people have been scammed by you. I can't wait to see a class-action suit come out on you ***-bags.

1 0
#889213

thank you i was going to book , but i can understand that it could be a scam because they want to sell time share there in for the money for sure.

2 0
#866400

Thanks, I will look elsewhere for our vacation.

2 0
#822868

Hello Anonymous,

I am one of the owners of Bookvip.com and you can contact me directly james@rvitravel.net. We are the largest travel promotions company and handle over a ten of thousands special promotion packages per year without any issue.

Like any company, we are not perfect and we are always looking to improve. The most difficult part in selling the discounted promotional packages are the terms and conditions that the resort sets as they are ones subsidizing the cost of the rooms for qualified customers to listen to their vacation ownership /timeshare presentation. Again, the rooms are discounted many times over $1500 in exchange of the customer's time and meeting the resort's qualifications. Where most issues occur is where the customer tries to circumvent the resort's qualifications and the resort denies the reservation or where rooms become unavailable due to sold out dates in which we always refund the customer.

One of the most difficult items we deal with is group travel as the resorts don't permit it with the promotion.

All of these terms & conditions are disclosed on the site as well. Each customer signs electronically the terms & conditions before we ever charge a customer.

Again, I appreciate your feed back and look forward to hearing from you

Sincerely,

James Colligan

Owner BookVip.com

0 4
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