"If you work for a school do not use this company"

Along with around five other schools our daughter’s final year ski trip was cancelled by the company with 24 hours notice. There has been nothing but stock copy and paste replies about this. ‘Katie’ is obviously the only person who works for this company and spends so much time copying apologies that it’s no wonder the company is failing.

These trips were all cancelled because the company’s admin is so lax that they didn’t bother to check that coaches were booked. For a whole number of schools.

To be clear, the full refund and compensation being offered should obviously be a given. If compensation does not cover every penny invested on equipment etc for these trips then the company should expect some robust legal challenges. In an ideal world the combined legal cases of all the affected schools would take this company down so they could not disappoint any other children ever again. They don’t deserve to keep trading and an investigation needs to be launched by travel regulators.

You cannot adequately compensate for the loss of a once in a lifetime trip for a group of children when you take that away from them the day before. They will never have that chance again. Your staff have taken that away. You have personally ruined the final school experience of countless children and I hope your consciences suffer for it for a long time. But I doubt they will.

If you work in a school and are planning a school trip in the future, your best course is action is to not use this company and to make sure that all of the schools in your region know not to use them either.

"Halsbury travel….never let your child…"

Halsbury travel….never let your child go to Italy booked through these! Huge safeguarding issues with ski instructors! Turning a blind eye! Very disappointed and to think your all ex teachers ! Safeguarding should be your priority!

"I have taken some time to try and get…"

I have taken some time to try and get some prospective on how a company could make such a monumental mistake! To cancel my daughters ski trip less that 24 hrs before they’re due to leave?? No communication, no apology, a small jester of compensation that in no way goes in covering the emotional distress caused and call me skeptical I am not convinced I will see any of my money!!
This trip was booked in Oct 21, I think two plus years to organise a trip is sufficient!!! After all you advertise as “specialists” in planning school trips! Clearly your not!
How can it be the same reason for so many schools? How can you run a company like this? I would like the director of Halisbury to go to each school affected and have a meeting with the parents and students and apologise and explain how badly Halsbury have let the kids down!!! I would like to know when I will expect our refund and compensation? 1 star is very generous! Absolutely fuming!!

"Kids ski trip has been cancelled less…"

Kids ski trip has been cancelled less the 25hrs before they are set to leave kids in tears absolutely disgraceful to cancel because they haven't booked a coach. This was my son's first time abroad and skiing what should have been a fantastic time has turned into misery. This had been booked and payed for 18mths ago and there should be no excuse to not having the coach booked disappointed is an understatement. Not only has this cost us a lot of money we have had to buy all the clothing to go skiing and a passport as this was his first time away. All these kids are so upset it's heartbreaking to see. Shame on you Halsbury travel.

"Disgraceful"

Wish there was a way you could give no stars. This company do not deserve even one. Ski trip cancelled with less than 24hours notice. 65 children left confused and upset with no real explanation as to why. And to leave the teachers to explain to all the children the day before travel and the disgruntled parents. Utterly disgraceful. Children, parents and teachers deserve truthful answers. This is NOT good enough

"Shambolic and incompetent"

I wish I could leave zero stars for this shower… my son and his friends should be on their way to Italy for a much-anticipated ski trip right now. Instead, this useless lot cancelled the trip with less than 24 hours’ notice yesterday. Apparently the coaches weren’t booked. How does a travel company manage not to book a bus?? Incompetent doesn’t begin to cover it. And I’m heartily sick of reading the same excuses cut and pasted into replies to furious parents with children who have been totally let down. Schools thinking of using this company for a trip should save themselves a lot of bother and choose a different firm. This lot are a shambles.

"Halsbury Travel Ltd AVOID"

Halsbury Travel Ltd AVOID
Many parents and their children would have woken up this morning feeling disappointed, upset and very angry that Halsbury Travel have let down so many children because they failed to book a coach!!!

The explanation given by the company that it was an administrative error due to staff sickness may have a very small degree of plausibility when viewed in isolation. However after reading about other schools on Trustpilot, Google Reviews, Facebook (look at the comments under The Archer Academy post) the explanation begins to look less plausible.
Looking at the above forums, the schools affected are;
St Bernadette’s Catholic Secondary School, Bristol,
Chulmleigh School, Devon,
Hillview school, Tonbridge, Kent,
Chenderit School, Oxfordshire

There may be others, but those posting negative reviews have not all mentioned the school involved.

So, the explanation given to its customers is;

“When doing our final confirmation checks, we discovered that the coach we had booked for your trip had not been confirmed by the supplier. We take full responsibility for this. It was due to a combination of personnel changes internally and suppliers changing their bookings without notifying us”.

Plausible excuse for one school, but 4 schools?
Parents should be contacting Contact Halsbury Travel | Halsbury Travel Ltd | School Trips to explain the following; -
• why did the company not use its own coaches? According to Companies House it has its own subsidiary coach company = HALSBURY TRAVEL (COACHES) LIMITED. Presumably they must have been fully booked due the Easter holidays, so had to subcontract?
• However, I am just applying logic here, if it was my coach company that Halsbury Travel had provisionally booked coaches for 4 different schools at separate locations around the country, would you not be chasing Halsbury Travel up to win the contract? I am not implying the coach company is at fault, I am just posing the question whether a coach company would simply ignore such a business opportunity? Doesn’t seem plausible!
• Of course, the contract may not have been awarded to a single national coach company, perhaps Halsbury Travel, tried sub-contracting the coaches regionally? But wait, the explanation given was
“booking not been confirmed by the supplier & suppliers changing their bookings without notifying us”.
Again, perhaps plausible for one company, but are we to believe that 4 different coach companies all changed their booking at the same time. Tad unlucky!!!

Compensation, who pays?
I am no insurance expert, but I do know that if I miss a flight because I overslept, it is very unlikely my travel insurance covers my own failings. Similarly, whoever Halsbury Travel is insured by, is not going to pay out when Halsbury Travel has admitted publicly on severally forums that the holidays were cancelled due to their own incompetence! So, would the money have to be found from their own profit margins?

Let’s not forget that it will not be just parents seeking compensation. Presumably the hotels and ski instructors will also be seeking recompense!

If you know the name of the hotel, it might be worth contacting them just to see if the accommodation was booked and paid for! If Halsbury Travel forgot to book a coach, could they have also forgotten to book the hotel? Clearly gross incompetence if they also failed to book accommodation as well as the coach, but good news also, because it means they have customers coach and accommodation money sat in the bank ready to be returned!!!

Hopefully Halsbury travel has a healthy bank balance, because 60 pupils x 4 schools x £900 each is £216,000 and that is without factoring in any compensation.

Halsbury Travel ownership changed in summer of 2022, and is now owned by HURON BIDCO LIMITED. But fear not, because all 3 companies including HALSBURY TRAVEL LIMITED, HALSBURY TRAVEL (COACHES) LIMITED are all owned by the same 2 directors, Carolyn Halpin-Rose Chief Financial Officer, and Alexander Patrick Williamson. Ultimately the buck stops with these two. And it is these two that customers should be contacting to get a definitive answer.

"If I could do 0 stars I would"

If I could do 0 stars I would. The whole process from start to finish was a shambles. We had to chase them constantly and were regularly left in the dark. On the morning of our trip, rather early than a coach turning up as promised, we received two airport transfer vehicles that did not fit our group. After 3.5 hours of trying to organise our own coach to get us there we had to cancel the trip as nothing could be done so last minute. 23 very cold and angry people who will never use Halsbury again.

"Shame on you!"

Shame on you letting down 60 kids 24 hrs before travel to Italy. You had 1 job to do. Why? Someone didn’t confirm coaches?
Complete ineptitude, heads should roll. These kids missed out on so much over Covid; this just adds insult to injury.
Seems this isn’t an isolated case. 100’s of children over the country very disappointed today not to mention parents that are out of pocket due to change of their plans for the week.

"Total Shambles!"

Total Shambles!
Cancelling a school trip 24 hours prior to leaving! This happening to several schools at the same time.
The story about mis-booking of coaches and changes in personnel doesn't add up. Either something is being hidden or it's total incompetence.
Very Sceptical!
Is there a cash flow issue and has the Company just taken the money?
Interested to see how the Company proposes to refund all these 100's of people. Hope I have to eat my words!
Still doesn't make up for the disappointment for the kids.