Testimonials

Hi Shannon,

"I was in the process of writing you a "real" letter, but will send an email, instead!

First of all, thank you so much for your generosity in donating a trip to the IWK. I always buy a ticket, never expecting to win, and was beyond excited when I did. I never could have (or probably ever will) afforded a holiday away, and you made it possible through your
generosity. Thank you.

Second, thank you for all your help. I realize that you don't get much out of helping someone who you are GIVING a trip to, and you were very patient with all our changes and discussion and fussing.
Thank you for putting up with it, and facilitating our trip on such short notice!

Finally, the trip was great. All of our connections and stuff worked smoothly, and Transat was very helpful and nice.
If you are looking at sending someone there, the location is wonderful - right on the end of all the resorts, so you can walk for endless kilometers on the beach, past houses and parks and nothing but wilderness. The resort is quite small (500 rooms?) and it was only
about half full - the paradise side that we were on was almost empty, so very nice and quiet! The resort was beautiful, especially the rooms. Service was friendly, if not very prompt because they are understaffed, and we were expected to tip everywhere, which I wasn't really expecting so didn't have any small bills. The food was reasonable as well, and the little village nearby was very normal, not touristy at all. I would go again, but not until it is finished. We had to wait quite awhile when we got there because the room was still under construction.
The pools are fabulous, and the spa on-site is AmAZING. We did a tour with AllTournative, and went rappeling, zip-lining, swimming in cenotes, kayaking, messing around in mayan ruins, etc. The guide was fun and very knowledgeable as were all the guides from that company. we learned a great deal about the Mayans and their culture, and the tour was eco-friendly and locally supported, A very slick and professional outfit that provided a real adventure without all the kitsch and touristy stuff. We went to Coba and I would go again in a
minute. We also went snorkeling on the coral reef - for 2 dollars they took us out in the boat, provided all the gear, and a guide to the reef. Best $2 spent EVER!

Thank you thank you thank you!! It was great!!!!!!!"
Eileen Burchill

"just wanted you to know that you guys are awesome. Seriously, within 24 hours of other agencies telling us it was an impossible task, you had everything arranged and fixed for us, every detail, even the smallest. We especially saw your commitment to us when we had a weather delay on our return flight and within minutes you had our flight rescheduled and a hotel booked when the City was sold out. We would not have been able to finish shooting without your expertise, Thanks a bunch for all your work."

Graeme Hopkins, Assistant Production Coordinator, Trailer Park Boys.

"I just wanted to take a minute and drop you a very well deserved note regarding the top notch job you, Fred and Shannon have been doing for me, my family, and our corporate employees.

Today when I called you at the usual last minute, to change tomorrow's Montreal trip with my Specialty Services Manager, and asked you to reschedule for April 4th, including hotels and car, you did not miss a beat and in fact within an hour you had Shannon call to confirm new times and details.

In looking back I see that you have arranged over 14 trips for Tammy and I (sometimes with our children)in the past two years alone, over 25 business trips for me personally, at least 12 package vacations for our employee incentive plans, and countless other business transactions for Hoyt's staff members from air through hotels. The common demominator in all of this is that not once have we had a connection problem, never have we had a problem at a hotel check-in, and even last minute flight changes have been caught and we were advised in advance.

When my son had a medical problem in Cuba, you personally took the call and arranged for our Medical Insurance to pay the Cuban Hospital. When I wanted to make a last minute change in Europe, one call and you had it under control. While standing in an airport line-up in St. John's due to an aircraft malfunction I called and you had my flight changed and a confimation number for me before I reached the counter. Subsequently I avoided what turned out to be a five hour delay for my former fellow passengers as you nabbed me one of only two empty seats on an earlier flight that was about to depart.

Through your connections we watched the Rolling Stones from three rows back from the front stage, and saw the Eagles in Toronto from the VIP section. The hotels you arranged in London, Paris, Barcelona, St. Tropez, and Florence on just some of the different trips you helped plan were all clean, comfortable, and places we would return to in the future. Your level of detail in arranging "all inclusives" and cruises has been impeccable, and we have yet to encounter any problems of any type from connections, counter staff, room quality, level of service or quality and selection of food and beverages.

Elayne, you and Fred should be proud of what you have built, as evidenced by the level of service you have consistantly produced for us every time we have called on Absolute Travel. The words "personal touch" (although used far to often by advertisers) truly describe what you have delivered for us on each and every occasion.

Sorry to ramble, but this THANK YOU is way past due!"

Best regards
~ Randy Hoyt

President
Hoyt's Moving and Storage Ltd.
902 876 8205
902 456 2799
rhoyt@hoytsunited.com

"OH MY GOD!!!! Where to begin.............seats were awesome, Elton John
was FABULOUS!!!!! We've been to a lot of concerts but this by far, was
the best. I could go on and on but I suspect you're going to here
exactly the same from everyone else. Thank you so much. Please keep us
in mind when you have other concert packages, but I doubt any will
measure up to this one. We're especially interested in an "Eagles"
package. Hope to talk to you soon"

Thanks again.
~ Patti Reynolds

"Good Morning Shannon. I smiled when I got your email because I was planning on getting in touch anyway.
We had a wonderful vacation. The Iberostar Varadero was lovely. The barstaff, food service staff, our maid Vivian and the entertainment staff were all great. Some of the girls in the entertainment staff remembered my name and always called me in for the activities, which I really liked. I'd go back to the Iberostar in a heartbeat, or another Iberostar. Great place for kids. Thank you Shannon for all of your very helpful assistance. Tom and I appreciate all of your efforts more than you know".
~Melody

"AWESOME!!!! I don't know how u managed it but we had the best room in the resort...and there were 2200 people there that weekend! Oceanview, right on the beach. It was Room 1928. Any room in the 1900 block on the second or third floor would be absolutely fine but we were right in the middle and couldn't have been more perfect!!!! Very quiet. The food could have been better but who cares!!! The resort itself is clean, the shows were great, many pools, many bars, and much much fun!!! Our plane was early...and thank GOD we were on CanJet. We had these Digi Players and we watched two movies on the way down, we had hot towels, had a snack...and I got bulkhead going down. Perfect!!! No problems whatsoever with my legs either way!!!! The 6 am Sky Service flight that was supposed to leave at 6 am was delayed and we ended getting there before they did. Our room was ready upon arrival and we were at the pool bar by 11:30 a.m. What a trip!!!! Nothing went wrong!!! Amazing. Fat Cat Catamaran was awesome and u can recommend to others going down. Snorkeling and speed boating. Bob caught a 22lb Barracuda off the back of the boat. Ask me if he was excited!!!
We met and hung out with 5 different couples from across Canada and the US and we all had the same
experience. Wonderful!!!! Everybody remarked on the resort. It is nothing short of spectacular!
Well, well worth the money. Thanks for recommending it!"

~ Fredricka MacLean

"Hi Elayne,
Just a quick note to let you know our trip was excellent. Hotel was
awesome (perfect location - walked everywhere!), flights were great,
and INXS concert was out of this world! They were absolutely amazing!
Thanks for everything."
~Gerri

"The Madonna concert was fantastic! We are very glad that you had a concert
package for her concert. The Hotel was great. It was a great trip!"

Thank You!

"We were SO PLEASED that you and the Absolute team made quick arrangements to rebook us on Air Canada when CanJet closed operations.
THANK YOU SO MUCH"

"Hotel in Florence was FABULOUS! I would recommend it to anyone. We had a room with upstairs/downstairs, 2 bathrooms each with shower, and 2 TVS, kingsize bed. We really liked the hotel and their service. Only downside - parking (in a private parkade immediately behind the hotel) was 81E for 3 nights! One thing for sure...parking is at a premium everywhere in Europe.

Venice hotel was also FABULOUS! The staff were great and we really enjoyed our stay. Again, parkade as one arrives in Venice and then it's walking or water taxis/buses from there. Parking was 20E a night there. The hotel was quite close to the parkade so we simply walked.

We stayed at an airport hotel in Nice on the return (Camponile) and it was fine. 74E a night. Underground parking available if one needed it at 6.5E. Our return to Paris was uneventful. We had purchased all our train tickets in Paris before we left to avoid the mess at CDG when we got back so could just hop on the train and go. (Good thinking, huh?!) The Inter Hotel Francais in Paris was great! For a 2-star hotel, I considered it a good deal. The room was VERY small but extremely efficiently organized - something like a travel trailor! The hotel was diagonally located across the street from the Gare de L'Est so it was really easy to get on the metro and train system from there.

Flight back was ok, but long. The terminal 3 is not connected to the train system so we had to manoeuvre our way to shuttle to get there. A bit of a hassle but we had fortunately allowed lots of time to prevent unnecessary stress. We had a scheduled layover of 7 hours in Montreal that ended up being 9 hours because of weather issues on the eastern seaboard on Friday. We finally made it back by 1 a.m. and were glad to see our bed!

Hope these comments are helpful as you serve other clients. Again, we were really happy that you had moved quickly to rebook our Montreal-Halifax return flight since we would not have even been aware of the CanJet situation. Little Canadian news in Europe and we were not spending our time reading things on the internet.

Cheers! Have a great day."
~ Mary

"Thanks so much for meeting with Nadia and I yesterday - you were totally awsome!....as always.
Nadia felt such relief after meeting with you re details of her gift to Jenny vis a vis Florida and New York.
Your fast, efficient, compassionate help was just what both of us needed.
Thanks to you on a personal note I did book 2 Europe Rail passes with the NA site - the 3 days rail pass was the way to go - can get tickets to me in time and they did recommend reservations on the morning TGVs going south .$500 Cdn for two Paris to so of France - not too bad.
On another note - I also called CAA re International Drivers License - they stated today that Intl. Permits are now mandatory! New to me - you might want to know that. Good think you also tweaked me to call them.
Soo, many thanks for many things.
I will leave you and Nadia to work out plans and details"
Regards
~Linda Brown

"The Elton John concert was amazing!!
Our seats we unbelievable.
The weekend was great. Il Germaine is a fabulous hotel.
Thanks!!!"

~Phyllis

"We loved Venice! We were in the most beautiful location! It was called Sant'Elena. The beautiful hotel we were in use to be a convent. One side of the hotel was the area of Sant'Elena, the other was the waterside lined with a beautiful walkway and park. Right next to our hotel was a little family type Italian restaurant. One huge thing we noticed anywhere in Italy was that the service was amazingly efficient! The servers are all fast and do there job very well, it was interesting just watching them. I guess they have lots of practice from years and years of tourists! Our last location was the Amalfi Coast. Yikes! Look up that place too! Cinque Terre times 10 higher! We travelled up the mountain, (cliffs!!) winding, very narrow road, for 1 hour from Salerno to our hotel "Grand Hotel Excelsior". (about 1000 feet from sea level) I wouldn't want to be the one building those places!

A special thank you to Elayne at Absolute Travel Specialists. who met with us always at our convenience and always had the time and patience for us! In case anyone ever needs a "great" travel agent here is her email: epink@absolutetravelspecialists.com"

~Maria Moro-Blackburn

"Hi there, the Elton John concert package we purchased through you was
amazing. Worth every cent. Wouldn't hesitate to book a concert
package through you again"

Thank You so much,
~Heather Silver