Sara Tecchia

Review of New Act Travel

Working with Antoinette Delio was the worst experi...

Working with Antoinette Delio was the worst experience of my traveling life. Due to her lack of professionalism she cost me 4300 Euros. I m writing this review as to avoid this happening to somebody else who hires her in good faith.
1) When I met Mrs. Delio she kept bragging about how connected she was and how she would make my life easier when looking to book my travels. Encouraged I asked her to book me a trip to Jumby Bay, Antigua. During our interactions what quickly came across was: a) She resented any form of communication. Initially I was reaching out to her daily through email for updates since I didn t know her. It was a long/expensive trip: we were talking about 2 weeks with possibility to extend. I had a lot of requests as I m an experienced traveler used to booking her own trip. Mrs. Delio gave me MAJOR attitude. I explained to her I didn t know how she worked and just wanted to be in the know but ok I would reach out less. I found this truly odd: I work with the public and some of my clients would call me several times a day and even in the evening. It goes with the game. If I had given them the attitude Mrs. Delio gave me I would have been out of a job in no time. I let a week go by and when I did email to ask for an update she was beyond confrontational with a how dare you contact me again? demeanor. Of course she hadn't made any progress on the trip because what was obvious was she wasn t connected at the resort as she claimed to be (fast forward to July I found another GREAT Virtuoso agent who, one week prior to leaving, booked me 2 weeks at the resort in 48 hrs at an incredible deal. I ended staying 4 weeks and getting more than the requests I had put in). The bottom line is: never had I been treated with the amount of lip and disrespect that Mrs Antoinette reserved for me for no good reason. Never would I speak to anybody (client or not) as she did to me, with an attitude of complete entitlement 2) It gets worse. She cost me 4300 Euros. Before ending our working relationship Mrs. Delio had booked me a trip at J.K Place Rome Hotel. She didn t suggest I take out travel insurance nor bother to warn me of their absolutely medieval cancelation policy. (Note: the first thing the new travel agent suggested and is in her email signature is ** Important: Please ensure that your passports are valid for at least 6 months beyond the planned date of departure. We also recommend purchasing insurance to protect your investment.**) I fell very ill with a sinus infection 6 days prior to leaving. My doctor provided a document in which he stated I shouldn t be traveling for at least 14 days. I submitted the document to the hotel immediately. I told them I would be rebooking by the end of the year, that it was just a change of dates. Completely inflexible. JK Place Rome charged me the whole 4300 Euros. After much to and fro while I was sick, the manager agreed to extend a 30% credit towards a future stay. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago: I contacted the manager, somebody who Antoinette considers a "great friend", to share my new dates and asking him to honor the original price/package. Well not only did he not answer me personally (but some random person from booking) but they increased the price 66 euros as to absorb the credit! Do not stay at JK Place Rome: they are not customer oriented, inflexible and as stated above cancelation policy is from another time to say the least. What to make of my story? Travel agents are supposed to be looking out for their clients, thinking about things the client won t consider (like travel insurance), they should be open to communication no matter how much communication the client requires (I wasn t phoning her every hour of the day, we were communicating solely through email), they should be courteous and respectful. Unfortunately this was not my experience with Mrs. Delio who not only was a major source of unnecessary stress during the brief time we worked together but also cost me a considerable money loss. It s unfortunate but I strongly advise against working with her.