Travbond has to be used very cautiously. We had booked them for a trip to Singapore. We contracted with them for hotel, visa, sight seeing, cruise, daily dinner vouchers and travel insurance (Air ticket we had booked on our own). Overall experience was very bad. There are many victims and we have resolved to bring them to law. Here are their Pros and Cons.
Their Pros (positives) are:-
they will reply to phone and email even upto midnight
they will agree to whatever competitive prices you negotiate
they gave us a decent hotel (Ibis) with good breakfast.
Their Cons (negatives):-
even after Travbond getting advance payment, our passports and all documents needed for visa several weeks in advance they did not get us the visa.
on pursuing hard for visa they asked for irrelvant addons like letter from employer (though we are not in Government service nor going on duty travel). Visa was finally done through some individual who sent us our passports and visa by ordinary courier instead of hand delivery as was conveyed.
until 2 days before our flight departure from Mumbai they gave us no travel vouchers or Cruise ticket which was paid for.
from other victims experiences like above they seem to want you to cancel the booking. Those who did so lost their advance paid.
if you persist and do not cancel they will without hold/ not give some of the sightseeing vouchers. Upon reaching Singapore, we did not get Universal Studio tickets, we did not get any dinner coupons, did not get China town visit. Additionally, at some sight seeing places we got 2 half and 2 full tickets instead of 4 adult tickets (they new all our details like date of birth etc as Travbond themselves had done our visa). We had to pay for all these on our own and lost around Rs 38, 000/-. All these sight seeing places were mentioned on day 2, day 4, day 6 etc in their final quote file named as "final quote", but cleverly in a fine print clause titled as "Inclusions" they did not show Universal Studio which costs maximum for ticket and taxi.
our cruise ticket came after scores of hectic phones and messages to them. It came less than 48 hours before departure. On doubt, we called Dream Cruise company in Singapore and checked our booking only to be told the PNR was booked on other passenger’s names. After double checking we then went to Andheri Police station and briefed the police inspector whom we requested to call Travbond. After much pressure from both ends we got revised cruise ticket just a few hours before catching our flight.
on the cruise we found instead of 2 rooms we were cramped into one room and our two children (adult age) had to sleep on a mattress on cabin floor.
we had also paid for travel insurance which was also mentioned in their quotation but not given to us. After hectic chase we got it from them for a minimal value of sum assured, just about 24 hours before departure. The insurance policies of 2 of us had our names spelt wrongly. On pursuing we did not get much help and had to then take up with HDFC Insurance myself to get it ammended.
Travbond staff function under multiple pseudo names like Hitesh, Jhanvi, Gagan, Varun, Shashang. Often it is one person giving himself various names and they pass on the phone wrongly stating person requested to be spoken is not in office.
they worked in Malad, Mumbai from a Single desk space in a shared office which rents out 4x4 cubicles. Now they have moved out from there to another location.
Travbond issues invoices and reciepts without any GST tax registeration.
Travbond did not have landline phone nos. Only now their website shows one landline nos which seems to have been put up recently.
we had been told we would get refund for dinner but barely offered us Singapore $ Five per person per night.our total loss was around Rs 38, 000/-, excluding spoiliage if Cruise experience, of which Travbond agreed yo refund only Rs 5, 000/ which we declined and have joined the group of similarly harrassed victims of Travbond who are taking legal recourse. Zarksis Munshi/ 9821860390