Secret Escapes Reviews

Name: Secret Escapes
Rating: 1.28

1.3 Rating 244 Reviews

7 %

of reviewers recommend Secret Escapes

Company Reviews

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Metrics

1.3

Based on 244 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Own Driver
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Over A Week
Customer Service	1.1 out of 5
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process	Difficult

Visit Website

Phone:

0845 078 2029

Email:

support@secretescapes.com

Location:

20-28a Hatton Wall, London United Kingdom
EC1N 8JH

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Secret Escapes 1 star review on 3rd October 2022

Steven Davies

Secret Escapes 1 star review on 24th August 2020

Sally

Secret Escapes 1 star review on 12th June 2020

Jessica Edwards

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Sort by: Most Recent Most Recent Highest Rated Filter: None None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“Absolute con ,Secret escapes won't refund and hotel says it's secret escapes who have the money .It clearly says in secret escapes policy that refunds will be made ? They are making millions of other people's suffering due to covid 19 ...I will fine their CO and he will know what it's like to be on the recieving end of my boot bloody robbers ..Never will we book with this company again ...No one seems to want to help and the customer services just lie about it's the hotel & not them who have the money ....hope you go down SE ...swines”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Dear all I am in the same position with Secret Escapes and I agree with all that has been written but what we need is action against them and the directors for fraudulent trading I am looking at Money claims on line, MCOL which may be a way of making Secret Escapes take notice if they are subjected to a number of County Court judgements!! If anyone else would like to pursue this route please post another message and perhaps collectively we can make Secret Escapes accountable for their illegal actions”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Dishonesty and a lack of integrity eventually catch up with you. At this point, we must say we have booked countless times via Secret Escapes and have always taken out RoomerFlex insurance and have always been very happy with the goods and services. Fortunately we have never had to cancel or use the insurance till now and what a surprise. Given that It wasn’t us who cancelled our hotel on Sunday, neither SE or RF want to know and give the same generic answers via email when trying to contact them so it looks like we will be claiming from our CC company as we have not received the goods and services we paid for. You may find my next comment extreme but we sincerely hope the both of you go bust. Please don’t reply with your patronising bile as it makes us sick to read it. You are nothing but a bunch of robbing cowboys and should you both make it through this crisis which we really hope you don’t, we won’t ever book with you again. Your Charlie big cigars CEO’s and fellow directors should be truly ashamed. The true mark of any business is when the going gets tough and how they react and we all know now the true colours of SE & RF, your reputations are in tatters.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Nothing but thieves, impossible to get any sense out of them and no chance of getting a refund. They cancelled my booking not me! All the directors should be prosecuted for theft. Never, ever book with this company. Good bye Secret Escapes.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“We have used them for years but I doubt we will EVER again. We paid them money. They show on our credit card statement. They are responsible for making a REFUND not a voucher as they cancelled our hotel. Tom Valentine and his management team have a lot to answer. He's on LinkdIn if you want to get hold of him or any of his colleagues: Alex Saint Alliott Cole Benjamin Holmes Laurent Laffy Thomas Hulme It appears they don't know how to (or think they don't have to) refund your money under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 from what I have read from the many reviews online. Read this in their T&Cs "2. Alterations by Suppliers Most changes are minor. Occasionally, we have to notify you of a "significant change" that a Supplier may make to a Product. A significant change is a change made before the commencement of your vacation which, taking account of the information given to us at the time of booking and which we can reasonably be expected to know, we can reasonably expect to have a material effect on your stay. In the unlikely event of the Supplier cancelling or amending your booking for a Product after the booking has been made, we will inform you as soon as reasonably possible (provided that the Supplier informs us). In respect to any significant change, if there is time to do so before departure, we will seek to secure from the Supplier the offer to you of the following options (depending on the nature of the Product you have booked): accepting the changed arrangements; or for hotel only reservations, a choice of accepting an offered alternative or cancelling your reservation with a full refund of monies paid. In the case of no alternative being available from the supplier, the Supplier may instruct us to cancel and give a full refund; or obtaining an alternative package from the Supplier, of a similar standard to that originally booked, if available. You will be responsible for payment of the applicable price of any such package. This will mean you paying more if the alternative is more expensive or receiving a partial refund if the alternative is less expensive; or cancelling or accepting the cancellation, in which case you will receive a full refund of all monies you have paid to the relevant Supplier." Come on Secret Escapes, contact me and tell me when we will get our refund. You can find our request on your website under one of our two bookings made by my wife on 04/02/2020. Luckily I paid by credit card so they'll be on to you next if I dont hear very very promptly. My stay was to be this weekend and you have not offered us the refund option. Tom”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Please get back to us regarding our trip as this is coming up in months time! We need you to know that our wedding has been cancelled because of Covid-19. We are currently in financial difficulties because of cancelled wedding and because of the fact that you have not acknowledged our refund requests. This is is the 10th time we are asking for refund. This was a honeymoon trip and you cannot have a honeymoon prior to wedding therefore please give us a refund ASAP. Please respond! Why are you not responding?! 1)We will not be held responsible for a no show if the flights are to go ahead on 3rd June 2020. 2)We take no flights has been booked as no confirmation has not been sent. 3)You are not responding to us. 4)Because of Covid-19 and because of the fact we had to cancel our wedding the very very least you can do as a provider is to give us a refund!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Absolutely disgusted by their service since the pandemic. We booked a £3000+ package last year 2019, due to travel in April 2020 and of course it was cancelled. Some time after this we finally received some clarity around next steps and like everyone else we were 'offered' a voucher which has been credited to our secrete escapes account. Firstly - don't act like you are doing me a favour here!! it infuriated me to read the tone of the mail!! it is us, the customer doing YOU the favour Secondly - I have been contacting the customer service department everyday complaining I want my money back and I get no where, complaints team wont take calls, customer service wont give clear turnaround times so I am forced to call EVERYDAY and get more irate each time I do. Its my money, it should be in my account and accruing interest with me. Will never use them again”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Disgusting bunch of low life running this company! I to have just come off the phone for what seems like 100th time. Also sent e mails with no response. They have refused to refund the £2400 we paid for a holiday to Cyprus at beginning of April. Some people are already aware, we had issues with the booking right from the start, their customer services were very quick to quote various extracts from their terms and conditions forbidding any requests we made. As a holiday company they know the legal requirements relating cancellations/ refunds etc. They have chosen to completely flout the law, why is it they are allowed to get away with this? They have a plan and you can bet receivership is not far away! How can they possibly think any member of the public will ever book with them again. Hopefully my credit card company or Atol will comply and honour their obligations. Oh and before anyone else considers calling them regarding a refund, please don’t waste your time.there is avery nicely spoken woman at the other end who knows nothing, you go round in circles without achieving anything!! Absolute scumbags!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“From reading all these reviews, I now have little faith of seeing my money again :( Had a hotel booked for large family celebration for my mum's 70th birthday. Hotel happy to not charge cancellation fee but said my money is with S.E. I have spent 5 weeks emailing and had two automated responses about them being busy. I am so angry for every person who is in the same boat :( SOMEBODY HELP US”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“No Stars!!! like everyone else chasing a refund due to Covid 19. Secret escapes are just refusing our rights I don't ever want to travel with them again . Stay clear ..”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Blatant liars, have tried on many occasions to get these people to do the right thing and return our monies because of the coronavirus pandemic, I have contacted them by phone and email the response is always the same, no refunds, highwaymen is what they are, stealing a living and preying on the innocent, they should be investigated by the serious fraud squad and jailed I would have given no stars if I could”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I booked a hotel with secret escapes for May 2nd hotel is closed due to Covid 19 they will not refund my money My contract is with Secret Escapes not the Hotel I don't want to re book I want the money back now I have to raise the dispute with the credit card company”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“same as everyone else. Hotel paid in advance but not possible to travel owing to lockdown in both UK and Turkey. Hotel now not responding toi our emeils so I expect they have not been paid anyway. I see today that SE needs £40m of emergency funding to stay afloat. To anyone thinking of investing then I would adviose that many of the their customers will no longer be there. Its a failed business.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I had the same experience as apparently everyone else using this company. I canceled my reservation due to the coronavirus for a hotel night and the hotel agreed and charged me no cancellation fee. They said Secret Escapes had my money and to get the refund from them. They refused saying it was non cancelable. Every other travel company I've dealt with that had non cancelable policies have returned my full payment without any hassle, knowing that nothing is open at the moment in terms of eating out, touring, etc. I would highly recommend not ever dealing with this company.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“been told not to come to the hotel for my stay which was emailed to me on the 1st of april, my stay was on the 9th i was told they would tell secret escapes to issue me a refund, i’ve heard nothing since so i emailed secret escapes and they are not going to give me my money back. a complete joke of a company and i will 100% not be using them again. lost so much money”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Despite about 5 requests for the money spent on a cancelled holiday to be refunded to my credit card, Secret Escapes have notified me that my account with them has been credited. Before anyone considers making a further booking with this company I would invite them to consider their track record i.e. blatently ignoring their own terms and conditions and wilfully disobeying the law of the land.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“3200 EUR for trip to Indonesia, same like for everyone the company sends standard answers but you will not get a cent. In this case not even hotels were booked yet, so they dont pretend to still wait for replies from the hotel...they just tell it will take a bit longer. This goes on for 5 weeks/ since March 20. They are fully aware that EU law requires the refund, but they dont care whatsoever about their clients.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“This company are a bunch of cowboys. Despite a number of request for legal refund they keep fobbing customers off with rest email .. shocking and as far as I’m concerned the CEO should be charged .”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I booked a package holiday with Secret Escapes. Per point 38.5 of their terms and conditions (which deal with a scenario where they cancel a package holiday) 'if we cannot offer you an alternative, or even if you just prefer, we will provide you with a full refund of any payments made for the Package Holiday'. I have requested my full refund. They have REFUSED this, saying 'our terms and conditions do not state how the full refund is processed - this is at the company's discretion'. Instead they would like me to extend a line of credit to them for a further year by offering me a 'refund credit note' (which is NOT what is referred to in their Ts and Cs) which allegedly guarantees a cash refund after a year, if unused. But I would like my money back now, not in a year's time. Their behaviour towards customers is really slippery and shoddy and I can only hope that people that do choose to accept this 'refund credit note' will choose not to spend it on another dodgy SE experience but will spend it with a much more reputable company. It seems that once they have your money, they no longer have any interest in the customer at all. They are happy to keep your money for well over a year and provide you with absolutely nothing during that time. Dreadful customer 'service'. Travel agents that are refusing to refund customers for cancelled holidays are breaking the law, according to a Which? investigation.The Package Travel Regulations mean those who have booked package trips including accommodation and travel are entitled to a full refund within two weeks of a cancellation by their agent or tour operator. NEWSFLASH, SECRET ESCAPES - IT IS NOT YOUR MONEY. IT BELONGS TO YOUR CUSTOMERS. YOU HAVE PROVIDED NOTHING FOR IT. STOP BREAKING THE LAW AND THE CONTRACTS YOU HAVE WITH YOUR PACKAGE DEAL CUSTOMERS AND PROVIDE A FULL REFUND. We appreciate life may be difficult for your company but it is difficult for your customers too - the current situation is not our fault either”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Have had a total lack of customer care from Secret Escapes after having to abandon my travel plans because of COVID-19. I let the hotel know in good time and they were very gracious but said that Secret Escapes had taken my money and they could not refund me. Secret Escapes are pressing the hotel to give me vouchers for a future stay but I just want to be reimbursed for a trip that I couldn't take. Secret Escapes are not to be trusted.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Secret Escapes is rated 1.3 based on 244 reviews