Belize Travel Agent Review: Belmopan, Placencia, One-Week Tour

Review by traveler

Neel C.

1.5.2022

General Info

Traveler Review

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

Belize

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

Our Belize travel company was helpful and highly communicative. I did feel they were a bit pushy and aggressive on closing a deal. In part, that may have been due to a perceived limitation of rooms available in Placencia. When I visited, there seemed to be more occupancy than I was led to believe but that may have been because of Omicron. The summary of travel and ideas were quite good, but it would have been good to manage expectations on cost a little bit more. For example, "all inclusive" in Belize doesn't really mean that. Also, they could have done a bit of a better job in understanding our physical limitations/ability and the availability of Wi-Fi (a big deal for me) at one of the resorts.

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

The Silk Caye trip.

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

I may stay somewhere other than the lodge in Belmopan. It was a great place, just not really a fit for us.

Travel Company Comments:

Dear Neel,

I wanted to thank you for taking the time to review the trip to Belize that we helped you plan and to follow up on some of your comments. We take all feedback and critique to heart as our aim is to provide all our travelers with the best possible experience, tailored exactly to their specific wants and desires. In your case, it seems we fell a bit short, and I apologize sincerely for this.

I see that you felt rushed in needing to decide about your trip at the time of booking, and that you also felt that one of the properties we chose for you had not been the best fit. I vert sorry this was your experience and I wanted to bring a bit more clarity to your specific situation at the time that we helped you to book your trip. The three weeks surrounding Christmas are the busiest time of the year for travel in Belize and all the best properties sell out months (or even over a year) in advance. As such, when we began looking at options for you at the beginning of November, there were virtually none left available to accommodate a family of four for your December 26th arrival date. However, as another of our guests had just cancelled a trip for your exact dates, I was able to offer you space at the highly rated properties that this family’s cancellation had made available and was clear that I couldn’t offer you any other options. I do regret that we were not able to present you with more choices for a jungle location that would have been more suited to your interests, but it simply was not possible given the last-minute nature of your booking and the dates of your trip. Likewise, I apologize for any urgency you felt in needing to confirm your trip, but again the reality of the situation was that we were offering you the last room available at each of the properties included in your trip, and they needed to be secured quickly. (You are correct that by the time you arrived, there were some other rooms available at the properties your visited due to cancellations relating to Corona-virus concerns, but this was not the case when you booked your trip in early November.)

Regarding the confusion at the lodge in Belmopan over in what was included in their all-inclusive package – I have addressed these concerns directly with the resort to ask that they provide more clarity up-front when guests check-in about what is included and what is not included in their meal and drink packages. Very few properties in Belize encourage the booking of “all-inclusive” meal and drink packages, and our company in particular rarely includes “all-inclusive” meal and drink plans as a part of the trip itineraries we create as we feel that guests prefer choices and sometimes get a better value when ordering meal and drink items a la carte. That lodge is an exception as their packages are quite reasonable and actually offer good value versus ordering a la carte – but I know now that we will need to provide more details about what exactly is and is not included with their All-Inclusive Packages. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Belize is a highly diverse country despite its small size, and we have excellent resorts of all kinds that offer unique and authentic experiences that can be matched to nearly everyone’s specific interests. I would love to welcome you back in the future when we would have more time to plan your trip and create an itinerary that is exactly what you and your family have in mind. Please reach out to me when you are ready to return, and I guarantee that you will not be disappointed with the trip we create for you!