Tots To Travel Reviews 

A huge thanks to Tots to Travel for our second holiday with you. Once again your customer service was first class. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic you treated us brilliantly and supported us to find solutions during a really challenging time - even though our communication was a little stressed and frantic at times!!!!

We finally got to the Aphrodite Hills in Cyprus which was simply spectacular. Thanks again.

Such a responsive Service and from people who genuinely want to understand your needs, connect with you and actually help you. Fantastic, I cannot fault them.

We had an issue with our holiday, and couldn't go. We were given a full refund, and the customer service was excellent. I will 100% use this company again to book a holiday in the future, once holidays abroad are actually safe to book again!

Due to Coronavirus I have had to be in touch with a number of different companies to discuss changes to travel arrangements and Tots to Travel have by far been the best to deal with. They kept me updated on what I needed to do, it was easy to just shift the holiday dates to next year without any fuss and they were even flexible when I decided to completely change our plans. We have been on holiday with them before and this experience was great and for any family with kids I couldn't recommend Tots to Travel more highly.

We booked a holiday in May 2020 through Tots to Travel which they were unable to provide due to the pandemic. They have refused to provide a refund for the prepaid holiday, citing terms and conditions which we cannot recall ever having seen and which are likely to be unfair and unenforceable. The unregulated nature of Tots to Travel (they are not ABTA members) means that we need to sue them in the county court in order to get our money back. All in all, an enormous hassle, especially with small children at home. With this in mind, I'm entirely un-reassured by their supposed COVID assurances.

Excellent service all round when booking despite this busy time. Really excited about our break away now.

Like many other Tots customers we are very disappointed by how things have panned out since our decision to accept their offer to defer our holiday until 2021.

It’s been very difficult to contact the company and some of the communications we have received have been very misleading about what was possible eg we were totally unaware that we were dependent on the decisions of outside hosts/agents rather than Tots and that the properties available would be limited to the one agent who currently holds our deposit. (Whether they have fairly represented their agents/hosts I don’t know)

While we have chased up the transfer throughout recent months, this has been delayed due to a multitude of email problems and no possible direct line contact. Why our contact’s direct line has been “made unavailable” is a mystery?! Having to email the general enquiries address to request that she could call me is not something I’ve experienced before!!

Despite us requesting a swap in the same date and price brackets, meeting the Tots terms and conditions, we have finally been offered a house from a lower 2020 price bracket with a 42% (!!) price increase which is totally unacceptable and unjustified.

The terms and conditions for the transfer lay out an obligation to offer like for like or better, and the only way Tots can claim this property is like for like is by grossly inflating the price. We have been offered no other alternatives despite more suitable properties being available on their website for our chosen week (but which apparently “belong to different agents”).

It all feels very dishonest and like we’re being blackmailed. Even the advice to contact our insurer (if we don’t accept the inferior property at the inflated price) feels disingenuous as very few people will have cover for COVID, something they must know. As a consequence we won’t be proceeding any further with our booking and have now lost our deposit.

If ever you want to book a family friendly villa for a holiday I would strongly advise against ever using Tots To Travel. Having a holiday booked through them is one of the worst mistakes we as a family have ever made. The customer service is absolutely appalling. We wanted to postpone our holiday due to the change in advise from the FCO yesterday. We did not even want to get the money back and we were willing to even go out of season (when the FCO advise changed) but both Tots to Travel and the hosts of the villa, Hibou (located in Brittany, France) suddenly seemed to change their mind about allowing us to postpone. One would think in the current situation everyone finds themselves in, customer service and being accommodating would be right up there so that when the world returns to normality your business will thrive especially in the travel industry. Everything in the ‘About us’ section on the Tots to travel website is fabricated and does not stand true. I truly hope that anyone reading this post thinks twice about using Tots to travel and staying at the Hibou villa.

Response to Tots to Travel (from Kerry):

Good morning:
Many thanks for your response I agree that this had been put to rest however after having read your response to Ryan Combrinck’s post above I am now completely outraged. Your facts are totally incorrect, members of our party had insurance, YOU explicitly told us to contact the hosts (I am totally shocked in your attempt to lay the blame on us by stating we went behind your back when in fact it was on your instruction - unbelievable!!!. Please read the email trails, it’s hard to miss this fact.) The announcement came on Thursday, we were leaving on Saturday and you said that you would get back to us on Monday (really!). We were an urgent priority- to say that we weren’t is offensive. Finally your response to Ryan’s review above is outrageous and based on incorrect facts. So to say that we didn’t give you the opportunity to work it out is incorrect as you did work it out within 24hours. You did not offer us a postponement in any way shape or form you actually said it was declined and this was confirmed in writing on the Friday. It is these reviews alone that prompted proper customer experience and support from yourselves. Your response to the review is the polar opposite of the conversations we have been having on the phone. I’m expecting a call from you today, please make sure it is the person who responded to this review who calls me.

Really really disappointed with Totstotravel and their customer experience. This is without a shadow of a doubt the worse way to assist customers in a time when we all need to pull together.

Our hosts were willing to postpone our holiday with them because we spoke to them directly about it (considering we were just about to leave) however following a conversation with the Totstotravel team the hosts swiftly changed their mind and no longer offered a postponement.

Awful to think a company could be malicious like that in a time like this.

Never again will we use or recommend Totstotravel based purely on principle and our idea of how a good, decent and honest company should behave.

Good morning:
Many thanks for your response I agree that this had been put to rest however after having read your response to Ryan Combrinck’s post above I am now completely outraged. Your facts are totally incorrect, members of our party had insurance, YOU explicitly told us to contact the hosts (I am totally shocked in your attempt to lay the blame on us by stating we went behind your back when in fact it was on your instruction - unbelievable!!!. Please read the email trails, it’s hard to miss this fact.) The announcement came on Thursday, we were leaving on Saturday and you said that you would get back to us on Monday (really!). We were an urgent priority- to say that we weren’t is offensive. Finally your response to Ryan’s review above is outrageous and based on incorrect facts. So to say that we didn’t give you the opportunity to work it out is incorrect as you did work it out within 24hours. You did not offer us a postponement in any way shape or form you actually said it was declined and this was confirmed in writing on the Friday. It is these reviews alone that prompted proper customer experience and support from yourselves. Your response to the review is the polar opposite of the conversations we have been having on the phone. I’m expecting a call from you today, please make sure it is the person who responded to this review who calls me.

Such a stressful week trying to sort out our holiday to Tenerife - however the Tots to Travel team have been so helpful throughout. Just wanted to say a huge thank you to Nikki and Victoria for helping sort things out. We are looking forward to travelling with you when hopefully things are a bit more back to normal next year.

After an emotional few weeks worrying about our holiday and money we have already spent on it with this company we are very pleased with the customer service we have received this morning. Niki woods customer service was amazing and has restored my faith in tots to travel as a business she has brought a brilliant touch to our experience.

Appalling company. Avoid!

Website promises much. But when THEY cancel YOUR holiday, you’ll waive goodbye to your money.

Be very careful before you book.

Have your lawyer check their terms - be sure they’re happy and have completely explained to you the risk you take
Only pay money you’d be happy to lose
Do NOT expect to get what you have paid for
Triple check your insurance cover.

Overall our family’s experience has been absolutely terrible. The fact that this business targets those of us with young children makes it doubly awful.

EDIT AFTER VENDORS REPLY:
Yes it was some months ago that you kept my money and yes I have been critical of you on online review sites, social media platforms and amongst my colleagus, friends and family.

Yes I did refer to you in a twitter conversation with another customer of yours as "a shabby organisation" and "money grabbing scoundrels" and yes I 'liked' comments from the dozens of other families whose money you have kept such as "thieving scumbags" etc

I appreciate it is inconvenient for you that I & others have not remained silent on this. If you want 5 star reviews and glowing testimonials GIVE PEOPLE BACK THEIR MONEY if you cannot or will not fulfl your holiday offer.

You will find that I and the dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of other families whose money you have appallingly kept will continue to be vocally critical. We are talking thousands of pounds!

The way you blame your customers and the property owners (whom you represent) as being at fault whilst at the same time painting yourselves (having earned a fat commission) as beyond reproach is disgusting.

It's a hell of a business model you have there - seductive advertising, take thousands of pounds of families money, don't provide the product, hope consumer stays silent.

I sincerely hope it fails and families find other reputable and trustworthy holiday providers in the future.

Really disappointed with tots to travel. Had a booking to Tenerife in May that obviously couldn’t go ahead. As per other reviews, we’re give the advice to rebook or claim on travel insurance as no refund would be available.
The CMA advice is that refunds should be offered even with non refundable bookings during the pandemic. As a result travel insurance providers are also rejecting claims. after 3 months of going backwards and forwards between Tots and my insurance we are left with No choice but to rebook and pay any uplift on cost if the week chosen is more expensive.
This was not a cheap holiday and this has completely soured my experience and view of the company. I will not be booking with them again.

In response to the reply from tots to travel:
I have only rebooked because it seemed like our only option other than losing all of the money we have paid. Also, in terms of this rebooking. This has not been confirmed by yourselves as apparently the accommodation provider is still confirming their pricing. This confuses me as you are quoting prices on your website. Again disappointed with the whole process.

We had a booking with tots to travel to Portugal in April of this year which was cancelled due to COVID. We were initially told to claim this on our travel insurance and then told we were not eligible for any refund - a rebooking option was not offered either. CMA advice seems to suggest a refund should be provided. This is truly disheartening behavior when airlines are providing refunds in the face of a global pandemic. Really disappointing.

Miss out the middle man and look for your booking directly on the web/Facebook. Really disappointed with Tots to Travel. Given their self imposed deadline that put us under pressure to decide if we wanted to book next year or keep the booking while govt. advice changing on a weekly basis. Then lack of communication and understanding within the organisation meant emails ignored (I had no idea what was happening with my booking as the web booking page on the website was not reflecting my understanding of their automated emails) meant I had to look the gite host up directly on Facebook to say we still wanted to visit. Meanwhile the villa directly advertising online at a 25% discount for all bookings in July not even a token EURO50 off in recognition we were now paying £700 MORE for booking we made in January and staying loyal to our booking rather than losing deposit of £572 and renegotiating directly for this year as advertised on Facebook. Left a sour taste in our mouths. Will not be using again. Cut out Tots to Travel and book directly!

Simple service and answered questions very quickly.

I have previously had a really positive experience with Tots however, they have refused to provide customers with refunds they are legally entitled to and which the Competition and Markets Authority have specifically stated should happen for those unable to travel during COVID. Furthermore, Tots now ignore any correspondence which is sent asking for more information about why they won't refund. Customers have been made to either rebook or go through travel insurance meaning they have to pay an excess if applicable. To me this has shown the little respect they have for their customers and the lack of ability to do the right thing by those people choosing to spend money with them.

In response to Tots reply- I have sent four emails early July which you have not responded to. Your review of my file is also incorrect in terms of the rebooking.

Having booked previous holidays with tots to travel we felt confident to book our holiday for August 2020 with them. However the way in which they have conducted themselves during the covid pandemic is & continues to be disappointing. Having been told first of all the only way we could cancel was to claim on our insurance we decided to sit tight, tots to travel were adamant no refund would be issued. We left this until the government guidelines changed stating customers MUST be offered a refund, we contacted tots to travel regarding this, they blissfully ignored it. We were then offered to change our dates for next year which we agreed too as they seemed to only acknowledge emails or information they chose to. We were told they would confirm this with us once the host has confirmed the dates. This was weeks ago, we have heard nothing in relation to confirm this and allow us to feel any form of confidence. We still continue to receive generic emails asking us to opt into dates changes.

It is infuriating they are able to up date constantly & happy for customers looking to book new holidays & even open their phone lines for new business. They should be putting all efforts into finalising existing bookings before they worry about taking more money from people.

Tots to travel have over £3000 of my families money, they have broken government guidelines by not refunding when we have requested it & they still continue to ignore emails & won’t take phone calls. Please can someone from tots to travel contact us ASAP, as this platform is one of very few ways of getting a reply.

What a shame this really is, we have experienced such wonderful memories on previously booked tots to travel holidays.

Booking name: Chenery

Just booked a trip to italy for 2021 - Nikki was fab, so helpful and was ready to answer any questions I had.