I booked a safari to Tanzania through Travel Centre for December 2025 / January 2026. While the booking process initially seemed smooth, the level of service completely deteriorated once payment was made.
One thing that immediately raised concerns was that they pushed us to leave a review before we had even travelled. In my opinion this likely explains why they have so many positive reviews. Customers are encouraged to review before experiencing the actual trip. I would strongly recommend waiting until after travel before leaving a review, as the service after payment was extremely poor.
Once our balance was paid, communication became slow, inconsistent and often inaccurate. Replies would take days and many responses showed a lack of knowledge about the trip they had sold us.
One of the first issues involved luggage allowances. Our international flights allowed two checked bags, but the internal flight in Tanzania only allowed one. When we asked about adding extra luggage, we were repeatedly told to “do it online”, despite explaining several times that this was not possible on the airline’s website. We were then told to sort it at the airport, which is extremely irresponsible advice.
Only after repeatedly pushing them to contact the airline directly did we discover that extra luggage could not be added at the airport either. If I had not previously worked as a travel agent, we could easily have turned up with two suitcases and been denied on the internal flight due to their incorrect guidance.
Communication problems continued throughout the lead-up to the trip. I constantly had to chase for transfer details, which were incomplete or missing important information such as pickup times. In the end I had to contact the safari and transfer companies directly myself, who were far more helpful and provided clearer information than the operator we had paid.
Considering we paid over £7,000 for this holiday, the lack of organisation was unacceptable.
The most serious issue occurred when we were leaving our hotel to begin the safari. The hotel informed us that our booking had been cancelled because the agent’s card had declined. This meant not only our return stay after the safari, but also the nights we had already stayed before leaving had not actually been paid for.
We were forced to pay the hotel ourselves for the nights we had already stayed and again to secure the room for when we returned from safari, despite having already paid the agent in full.
When we informed the agent, instead of resolving the issue they accused us of booking the hotel ourselves through Booking.com and claimed the cancellation was due to a duplicate booking, which was completely untrue. The hotel had already confirmed the real reason was that their card had declined.
For four days of our safari we were constantly chasing updates about refunds and accommodation instead of enjoying the trip. Even at the end of the holiday we still had no confirmed airport transfer time and again had to contact the local supplier ourselves.
There was no apology, no accountability and no compensation for the stress caused during a very expensive holiday.
In short, they are helpful when securing the booking, but once they have your money the service drops dramatically. After spending thousands we were left chasing basic information, paying hotel costs ourselves and dealing with incorrect accusations.
I would not use Travel Centre again and would strongly advise others to think carefully before booking with them.
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