Rose Travel Group -

Mikelyn Martin

A thoroughly disappointing experience with Rose Travel Group, on practically every front.
- Communication was difficult and usually slow
- They have no real accounting system to track invoices and payments

We were forced to use this agency by The Cooking Mom for a group tour we were doing. Imagine our surprise when this "travel agent" did nothing to help us facilitate our international air travel! Their participation was to share with us the leader's flight itinerary so we could try to match it.

There were some optional add-ons (trip extensions, optional excursions), some of which we opted to do. There was some discrepancy with the payments and when we asked for an accounting of invoices and payments, we were sent a bunch of screen shots, none of which explained what any of the invoices were for, so that was practically no help whatsoever.

We changed credit cards after making our initial payments for this trip and we were suddenly getting hounded about catching up on payments because we were behind ... we'd gotten an email indicating something along the lines of, "Your next installment is coming up" but received nothing further - no invoice to pay, no follow up prompt, nothing. Then we start getting these urgent calls about how we're behind three installments and asserting they'd emailed us "many times" but could never manage to provide proof of the many, many email attempts.

We made our final payment via a link they sent (I know this because it said, "FINAL PAYMENT" right on the top ...) and emailed them the next day to tell them the final payment had been made. The assistant replies, "Oh, you still owe $900." I replied that their invoice clearly said "FINAL PAYMENT" and she explained that *that* payment was for the balance of the tour, but that there's a separate series of invoicing for the excursion and that is still unpaid. Like I said, no accounting system, no descriptions on invoices, no fun to try to figure out where we are on what's been billed or paid.

The final nail in this coffin was my attempt to find out what time check-in was at the hotel for our first few days. We're traveling overseas, it's a *very* long day of flights (14 hours of actual travel time, 21 hours if you add in the time difference), and having traveled this way previously, another hotel had suggested that I also book the night before my arrival so that I would have the room available for check-in when I arrived at 7AM, instead of having to wait until the normal check-in time of 4pm. I emailed the assistant a week ahead of our departure to ask if this would be necessary. Many emails later she indicated the additional room night had been added and they'd send an invoice. We never received it. Upon check-in at the hotel at approximately 11am, the hotel said they try to have rooms for large groups ready by 10 am (!), so happily we all checked in together. However, on our flight over, I received the invoice for the additional night from Sara. I replied that we'd never heard back and had made other arrangements. She said we still owed it. I told her they shouldn't have waited until the day of our arrival to send it (literally, it arrived a week later, while we were on the plane to Paris). I also asked why the hotel would tell me openly how they work to accommodate large groups but that neither the tour leader Amy, the travel agent Sara, or her assistant Cassie were aware of this procedure?

I will also mention that several other people commented on the lack of assistance, and lack of communication, they received from Rose Travel Group so it would seem that our experience was not unique, unfortunately.

Debra Butch

Sara and Rose Travel Group planned the Cooking Mom tour to Tuscany, Italy. The trip was amazing! Sara was helpful and very responsive. I will look to Sara for advise on future travel.

Linda Johnson

Sara can figure out anything efficiently and cost effectively, down to the most minor detail! Everything is taken care of for every trip you can imagine!