Releasetravel reviews

Accomodation for illegal immigrants

For a company that is based in Bournmouth they should really sort out accomodation that is suitable for humans, not for wild dogs. Release travel arranged for us to stay at the Abbey Lodge hotel which is not really a hotel. It's a fictional place that you find in serious films with serious situations comprising of ethnic Albanians trafficking women from eastern europe. This hotel needs to be blown up with every brick burned. We came across a new strain of E-Coli in the stags room and some of the guests came down with foot and mouth disease from the tomato used in the English breakfast. RT need to give stag parties better accommodation for the money spent. We gave £150 per person to stay in this dog kennel. There's a Premier Inn next door charging £29 per night so what have you done with our money? This dog kennel is £20 per night and if tried, the managent would actually pay you to stay here. RT also gave us VIP loyalty cards that are supposed to get us into nightclubs and bars. What's genius is that nobody recognizes these cards and nobody cares that you have them. It was fascinating to see the look on each doormans face when presented with the cheap VIP card. You would think that a company based in Bournmouth would sort VIP cards properly by informing all particiaring bars and clubs that the cards really do exists and have value. What have you done with our money RT? £150 for loyalty cards that are not even recognized? Don't deal with release travel - they seriously made more then a 50% profit margin per person. No value for our money.

Tazeen Saeed and Simon Brown found this review useful

Fantastic Customer Service

I spend weeks looking for a company to use to plan my best mates stag. I spoke to a number of different companies but I decided to go with RT because I was very impressed with my account manager Carlee Walker. She seemed to have more care about giving us great value for money and the best possible experience compared to other places who were more interested in looking out for their own personal gain.

Carlee was excellent keeping me informed about my options and was very patient when I had a number of drop outs and inclusions to add to our booking. She was also very helpful when it came to taking payments and highlighted her excellent customer service skills when I had made an overpayment on my booking.

I have been very satisfied with the after care, as most companies will pass you over once they have their money, but Carlee has been very good in keeping me up to date with any concerns I have had. The stag takes place in 5 weeks and I am looking forward to enjoying the experience which Carlee has set up for us in Liverpool.....

Excellent Service - Highly Recommended!

Ria Inwards from Release travel was incredibly helpful and patient when planning a destination - I told her what kind of things I wanted and she suggested a number of excellent detinations. We decided that we were going to go for Riga and from the moment I first spoke to Ria up until the day we went she made sure that everything was as easy for me as possible.

When we got to Riga our Airport transfer was ready and waiting for us - As we were told it would be, the hotel was more than adequate and very clean. We had Extreme firearms planned for the Saturday which all of the group have been talking about ever since - It was awesome!

All of the night time activities that Ria had planned for us all went with a hitch, all the transfers were on time, club entries as promised and the guide for our bar crawl was very friendly and quickly became part of the group!

I wouldn't hesitate in recommending Release Travel and Ria to any of my friends - She is a real credit to the company and someone that was a pleasure to deal with.

All in all a great company and an amazing statg do.....

Dave

Great Weekend!

Release Travel and Kris Hall who helped with my booking were great from the start. As the Best Man's duty it was up to me to arrange the Stag Do for my mate and as always things were pretty much left to the last minute. Fortunately for me Kris took control and booked everything on my behalf saving me a huge headache. Once we'd arrived in Liverpool we found all the bookings to be correct and on time ensuring the weekend went smoothly. Kris even managed to upgrade us with VIP wristbands and to a 4* Hotel which was centrally located and would have been a short stroll to Concert Square where the nightlife is had the weather been on our side (only downside of the weekend).

On booking I asked for 11 VIP wristbands to be sent, but on delivery only 10 arrived. I contacted Release Travel and they assured me 1 more band would be waiting for us at the Hotel on arrival.. and sure enough and to my relief it was!

All in all it was a great Stag weekend and would definitely consider using Release Travel again as Kris was very helpful.

Great Weekend Away Without the Fuss!

I had been asked last minute to plan a stag weekend away to Newcastle for my mate. He was due to get married within 3 months so I contacted Release Travel for help.

I spoke with Kris who was very helpful with suggesting the top destinations to travel too as well as some activities for the daytime and evening.

Within a week I had booked the stag do and found Kris' suggestions of collecting deposits e.t.c incredibly useful.

The weekend away consisted of a 2 night stay in a central located hotel only 5 minutes away from all the main bars along The Quay as well as a cracking full day of paintball along with VIP entry to all the top clubs in the area.

All in all a first class service and a very memorable stag do!

Flirty 30th Weekend in London

I booked my friends 30th Birthday weekend with Release Travel. Kris helped me organised, what turned out to be, a fantastic weekend.
The itinerary was one night stay, Burlesque lessons in the afternoon followed by evening activities -Dreamboys and Free and VIP entry into Tiger Tiger nightclub.
Accommodation: St Giles Hotel -Friendly staff, clean and close location to the activities. 5-10 minute walk from Leicester Square. Full English breakfast included which was nice!
However, if staying at this hotel, please note:
• Large party booking, advance booking required if rooms required together. We were mixed between 3 floors.
• Taxi's refuse to pick up from Leicester Square. (You can get a bike ride for £10 and they take 3 people)

If it is your kind of day, Burlesque was amazing with a fantastic, friendly dancer, Tiffany, who made everyone feel comfortable in all routines.

Dreamboys were simply gorgeous. Buffet food and free drink was nice

Tiger Tiger, we jumped the queue, free entry and enjoyed the rest of the evening dancing away.

Thank you Release Travel

A Fantastic Weekend

I booked my best friends Hen Weekend in London through Release Travel. We had the most amazing time our hotel was great it way exceeded our expectations and the entertainment was very good. I would recommend this company to anyone, we got fantastic value for our money and Release travel we very helpful every step of the way.

Amazing ! ! !

Everything was booked through Release Travel. I left it fairly late to book, but Naomi was excellent!!! Things kept going bad on my part with people dropping out all the time, but she was so patient & helpful in finding me a great deal. Then when Hanna took over for payments etc, she was just as nice to work with. Excellent Customer Service from both of them !!! Well better than expected. Thanks !!!
When I found out which hotel we were going to be staying in, I checked out some reviews for it. I wish I hadn't, all of them said it was pretty bad. Anyway, when we arrived on the day, the hotel was amazing. Nothing like the reviews made it out to be at all, so again, thanks!!!
The activities... well... that was another thing!! I wanted to do Clay shooting & Buggies or something like, at first Naomi said there was nothing available, but then I got an email a few days later saying that she had found a site that does both Clay Shooting & Quad bikes, so we wouldn't have to travel to the other side of the city to each event. Another example of the excellence in service!!! Both activities were amazing. Quad biking in snow was so much fun & the clay shooting, well, I hit a few lucky ones :) Thanks again for these!!!

I'll definately recommend Release Travel to friends in the future & if I ever need to book anything like this again, I will definately be asking for Naomu. She made everything so much easier than I thought they would have been. I can't say thank you enough.

5 stars out of 5!? I'd give them 10 out of 5 !!!!!!

Fab

I did not actually book with Release, but when I was struggling to get my best friend's hen do in London with another company, Naomi was dedicated, always at the other end of the phone and trying to get the best deals for us. Unfortunately, I could not get my deposit back from the other company and had to stick with them... Should I ever organise a hen do again, I would definitely go with Release and ask Naomi to look after our booking.

Excellent!

Hen Night in Newcastle - 07-08-10. When booking the hen night through Release Travel the customer service team were really good, they answered all our questions and made paying for the hen night as cheap & easy as could be. The hotel that Release Travel chose for us was a modern clean and very nice to stay in. The wristbands got us into clubs such as, TigerTiger, without paying or queing which was great! We had a fantastic weekend and would recommend using this company to anyone. It made life so much easier than having to book a spa, a hotel or paying to get in any of the pubs/clubs.

Done Everything We Needed

We went to Bristol room only plus the VIP wristbands.
Despite only having a week to arrange plus an uneven number in our group, everything was sorted, the hotel was fine, the wristbands were waiting for us and we were ready to get out. Big thanks to Lee Clarke for arranging everything and getting back to me on all the queries regarding our late booking (even after our balance was paid contrary to some reviews), much appreciated.

Please don't use this company

I booked my hen weekend months in advance and paid all the money exactly when it was due. Release Travel however did not follow their own terms and conditions and despite me contacting them daily and sending in a written letter of complaint, I only received the details of my group's accomodation in Madrid 3 hours before I was due to travel. I wasn't able therefore to organise airport transfers and had to pay a ridiculos price once in Spain.
My accomodation was not what I had asked for and I had girls sharing double sofa beds in apartment living rooms. I was promised breakfast as part of our accomodation package - that didn't happen. The venue for our meal on the Saturday night was totally inappropriate and the staff in the restaurant were hostile and rude towards us.
The whole experience was a total nightmare and all I will remember from my hen weekend is feeling so stressed and anxious. If you are thinking about booking with Release Travel - please find someone else as I would hate for someone else to go through what I did.

Louise, Tazeen Saeed and Simon Brown found this review useful

Terrible Experience. DO NOT USE

I foolishly decided to book my hen weekend with Release Travel as they lured me in with their extensive range of activities and good prices.

However, the service i received was totally 100 percent unacceptable and i would 100 percent recommend that no one uses this cowboy company.

I booked a weekend of girlie adventures in London starting with cocktail making, followed by a medievil banquet and night club, with afternoon tea at the ritz the following day and a comedy club.

3 weeks before the event, I had a call from release telling me the Ritz were unable to honour my booking. As it turns out, the Ritz have never done bookings for more than 6 people (unless you hire a private room for an extra 500 pounds). SO WHY ON EARTH DID RELEASE TRAVEL SELL ME THIS?

2 weeks before the event, I had another call from Release. This time, the comedy club couldn´t honour our reservation. After calling them up i found that the Comdedy Store do not accept Hen Party reservations. AGAIN, WHY ARE RELEASE SELLING ME THIS WHEN THEY KNOW IT IS NOT POSSIBLE.

The cocktail making was fun and the medievil banquet good, but i had to call up myself to check the reservations were made. Initially the Medievil banquet had never heard of us but they called Release to ensure everything was arranged. The club (Onanon) had not received our booking and we each had to pay 10 pounds to get in (having already paid Release for this in advance). I have since been tryingto get a refund for the 100pounds my hens had to pay - NO SIGN. I WILL PROBABLY NEVER SEE THIS MONEY.

Niki at Release has constantly fobbed me off and on occasion has been quite rude to me.

DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COWBOY COMPANY UNLESS YOU WANT A TERRIBLE WEEKEND!!!!!

Louise, Amanda Boswell, Lydia Pevsner, Hayley, Tazeen Saeed and Simon Brown found this review useful

Fantastic

We had a wonderful time mainly because it was so well organised, we had nothing to worry about other than to enjoy ourselves. Thank you very much Release Travel your staff are great.

Elizabeth Sanders

Poor Service All Round

From start to finish my experience with release travel was awful. I was passed from pillar to post during my 11 months of contact with them booking and organising my best friends Hen party.
When a guest called them to query "IF we wanted to change our destination would we be able to?", Release Travel cancelled our booking without confirming with me: I then had to re book the whole thing and a new hotel, My calls and my guests were never returned, messages never answered, on the day of departure we still had not received vouchers for hotel booking or evening show.
This was sent to the hotel therefore I never saw the booking to see that it was wrong until we got there: I had booked bed and breakfast we did NOT receive breakfast, I booked show and half a bottle of champagne each: We did NOT receive the champagne.
By the time we had arrived in Paris Release Travel had already shut for the weekend! with no response to my calls or emails. Totally ruining my and ALL my guests weekend.

Louise, Amanda Boswell, Hayley, Tazeen Saeed and Simon Brown found this review useful

THE MOST APPAULING CUSTOMER SERVICE I'VE EVER RECIEVED

Where do I start! Release Travel seemed friendly, helpful and enthusiastic......until we paid our money. Then the problems started one after another after another. Very very long story but the whole experience from start until present day has been awful. Booked my hen weekend to London which I will remember for all the wrong reasons. Only provided us with 16 theatre tickets when we asked for 18 leading to us purchasing 2 more on our own. Wasn't that their job?? Days before we were due to leave we found out the group of 18 was then split into 2 separate hotels miles apart and on completely different tube lines despite MD promising us that we could "wave to each other out the window!!" This then put me in the awful position of splitting my hen group in two, not a nice experience as had to choose who stayed with me and who didn't. MD did not see my problem and couldn't understand why i was upset. Was told one lie after another. Denied access to the spa facilities, lost tickets at the theatre, split again into 3 separate groups at the theatre, meal booked at wrong time, the list goes on and on. Customer service was appaling and MD was patronising and completely unconcerned at our dissatisfaction. Found loads of other terrible reviews on this websites and others which have now magically disappeared.......which i know FOR A FACT is because they have been paid off. Sent an official letter of complaint to Release Travel that was never responded to to which we then sent solicitor letter that was also never responded to. I just don't want any other poor person to go through the stress and unpleasantness of dealing with these people. You should only get one hen/stag weekend and mine was ruined. Good job I have fantastic friends!!!

Hayley, Tazeen Saeed and Simon Brown found this review useful

Fantastic & Cheap Stag to Buddpest

Well, what can I say – all praise goes to Naomi from Release travel that helped me organise a stag for my Bro.
I had a few people travelling from different countries and finding a place which everyone could get to was a struggle Naomi got there in the end.
I was given loads of suggestions and ideas which was fantastic considering I’ve never done anything like this before it was made effortless with this team.

I would highly recommend using release travel for a budget/non stressful holiday.
If you can get Naomi to help you out. She’s awesome! Can’t thank her enough!

Peace

Amazing HenDo Experience

We spent a great weekend in Barcelona...Sex In The City Style hen -do. Release Travel were great in setting up Cocktail Making Evening, Spa Day and Bus Tour!

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!

Initially Release travel seemed like the perfect place to book my best friends hen weekend but as soon as we'd paid the balance in full this all changed. There were endless problems with our weekend, here are a few of the main ones :
We were a group of 18 who were only provided with 16 theatre tickets, we were told that the 16 that could be provided for us were in two row's of 8 but found out on the night we were sat in two's dotted all over the theatre, also we were assured by Release Travel that our tickets would be at the box office to collect on the night but the box office had no idea about this & said we should of been sent the tickets PRIOR to our show, a whole hour was spent trying to find our seats resulting in us almost missing the show.
We were split into two different hotels in different parts of London. (miles apart & on totally different tube routes)
We were booked into our evening meal at a different time to what we had been told,
We were denied use of our onsite spa facilities due to Release Travel not paying for them, the list goes on & on!!
This joke of a company was unconcerned that they had ruined what was supposed to be one of the best weekends of my friends life, unfortunately we remember it for all the wrong reasons.
Do not book with this company!!!

Jenny, Louise, Hayley, natasha gadilhe, debbie, Amanda Boswell, Lydia Pevsner, Tazeen Saeed and Simon Brown found this review useful

The best hen weekend

I was really nervous oraganising my best friends hen weekend as i wanted it to be perfect release travel were great and so helpful i told them what i wanted and they gave me a weekend that was fantastic even the price was in everyones budget.We had everything evening meal,pampering morning, party bus, jumping queues all night in the best pubs and clubs plus bed and breakfast for 2nights it was a dream to have all that i can not praise them enough i will defo use them again and i would pass on there details to anyone that is looking for a weekend to remember because i will not and im certain my friend wont either Thanks Release Travel.

Superb weekend with no hassle

Had a really fantastic w/e in Bristol. Hotel was good, I hit a few clays & while we did not get to all the bars had a great time in the ones we did. Most of all Release made it simple for me to organise. I was nervous that it might go pear shaped but it was great.

Weekend in bournemouth

There was 12 of us that went on our stag do and everything went really well. Being in charge it was alot easier to let another company worry about paying for everything and all the guys just had to pay them direct, if we had done it ourseleves and paid for everything up front we wouldnt of been able to do half the stuff. The hotel was good for us, we asked for budget to keep the costs down but it was still quad rooms not dorms and there was an on site bar which we didnt expect to.

The half day paintball and mud buggy driving were wicked and everyone had a laugh, plus we got extra paintballs than we were originaly told which was a bonus.

Nightclubs, casino and strip club were all the goodl, que jump and dint have to pay entry on the night which was good as kept our whip entierly for the beer fund. Have got another one with release in the summer which we booked with the voucher they gave us for using them again so hopefully that goes just as well.

the best stag do ever at an affordable price too

Stag booked thru Release Travel over Xmas 2009. The package was ideal with some lads daytime activities, 2 evenings out and dinner at a well nice restaurant. hotel was clean and decent.. everything went to plan.. highly recommended +++

Fantastic Weekend!!!

Excellent weekend to Bath booked by Release Travel. Cheaper than all other agencies I was quoted by. Lovely hotel even had extra rooms booked for us. Amazing spanish meal with enough food to feed our hens twice. Considering the restaurant was heaving the service was fab.
Whole weekend great fun and was thourougly enjoyed by all!!

Fantastic Stag Do - Great company!

Booked last autumn for a stag do that we went on last weekend to Manchester. Sales staff at Release were friendly and always got back to my wants (or possibly described as demands!). Great online itinerary which kept me informed of who has paid and when and where we had to be for our quad biking (which was immense BTW!). Hotel in great location, although as we were so lazy, got taxi's everywhere! The stag can't remember much about the whole thing though....

All in all, a great stag and looking forward to going on the next one, Release - we'll be coming back to ya. Cheers Gary B.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY FOR YOUR HEN OR STAG PARTY!!!

At first they were extremely helpful - they could not do enough for us and contacted us regularly with further ideas and suggestions, however, once we had booked with the this all changed rapidly! After telling us we could pay in three monthly installments as we were booking so ealy in advance, they then asked us to pay the second installment less than a week after the first one - saying if we did not all pay within 5 days they would charge each person an extra £10. We were not kept updated on what was happening and what had been arranged during the process and when trying to contact the company and Naomi that dealt with us, she was very rude and abrupt. Once all the payments had been made we were told that each of the events had been booked and confirmed, then less than 1 week before the hen doo Release travel rang to say the restaurant was fully booked and we would have to choose somewhere else!! When at the restaurant the prices were half what we had paid release Travel - I know these companies make a profit, but that was just radiculous!! I would DEFINATLEY NOT RECCOMMEND this company as they were rude, useless and caused us lots of worry and distress just months before my wedding day!!!

Mark and Tazeen Saeed found this review useful

11 January 2010

Reply from Release Travel

Release Travel displays the payment terms for customers in the Terms and Conditions under section 4 on their website, the link is http://www.releasetravel.co.uk/stag-weekends/pages/terms-of-booking.php. Final Balance payments are the only customer payments that are subject to late payment charges, again as stated in the Terms and Conditions on the website. All aspects of a booking are placed with the relevant suppliers and are pending confirmations. The majority of restaurants run a diary for bookings and generally only confirm bookings within 14 days of the booking. Within section 7 of the Terms and Conditions, it is stated that 'If, due to reasons beyond our control, an event is unable to take place due to (but without limitation); closure of premises, the ceases of trading, a change in supplier management, we will provide you and your group with an alternative event and if this is does not prove possible, a refund to you of the cost to us of the event. '. I hope this helps in answering the points raised here, and Release Travel request that this anonymous customer contacts Release Travel to ensure this is resolved.

Good Price, Great Hotel!

Got back yesterday from a weekend my best man had booked to Bournemouth. I kept ringing them in the weeks leading up checking that everything ok, they were always patient and helped with every question. Everyone knew what they were doing and were always there to help. On arriving at the hotel, we found it was only a 5 minute walk to the main 2 nightclubs and we even had an indoor pool to use Sunday morning to help the hangover! Our wristbands got us in everywhere like they said and the Inidan restaurant was Fantastic.. all in all, a wicked weekend...

DO NOT USE RELEASE TRAVEL - thiefs and cowboys also trade as release corporate

They stole our money. We turned up for our Hen do Cocktail Making sessions at Sway bar and were told release travel hadn't paid for the session or dinner and that it would cost 500 pounds. We paid release months before. Of course there was no one answering release travel "we'll be there should have any problems " emergancy phone line. The Hen was distraught. Have since looked up their credit history they have four CCJs out againest them, and even then they haven't paid up. They lied to the hen all the previous week saying everything was all good and ready. Getting the money back is like getting blood out of a stone. We got ours back by going down and visiting them in person, when they said the cheque would be ready. Which they had said about 20 times before.

Helen Smith, Mark and Tazeen Saeed found this review useful