Starwood Pet TravelReviews of starwoodpet.com

Paid for premium bedding, got a near-empty crate. Avoid. I used Starwood to fly my dog Stormy from the US west coast to Australia in October 2026. I would not use them again. The crate. I paid extra for Starwood's premium bedding option. When the courier arrived, the crate had little to no bedding in it, and the courier's first response was that he had no knowledge of being asked to supply a crate at all. I ended up putting an old shirt of mine in with her so she had something to lie on for a trans-Pacific flight. Saying goodbye to my dog while scrambling to make her crate fit for purpose is not what I paid a premium relocation company for. The vet check. Starwood tried to have me do her final vet check in Los Angeles, four days before her flight. I live in the Bay Area. No explanation was offered as to why it could not be done locally or on a sensible timeline. The coordinator. My coordinator was on US east coast time. My dog was flying out of the west coast. By the time anything went wrong at my end, my coordinator was offline. No emergency line. Call the main office outside hours and the recorded message tells you to contact your coordinator. See above. I have emailed Starwood requesting a full refund of the premium bedding charge. [As of posting, no reply.] If you are paying this much to move a pet internationally, you are paying for the details to be handled and for someone to answer the phone when they are not. Starwood managed neither.

A week prior to moving our dog to Hawaii (for $4K), they failed to submit the paperwork to our mainland veterinarian (their only job) causing us to have to reschedule for the next day (after my wife already showed up). Then, we had another problem with our paperwork that caused us to have to pay a $50 expedited paperwork fee. We hired this company to avoid such fees. And then, on the day our dog arrived in Hawaii, their pet courier FORGOT TO PICK HIM UP and escort him through the process. When I picked him up, after being frustrated by the lack of communication, I had to take apart his giant crate alongside a busy road all by myself and bring him to my house. BTW, our courier wasn’t even on our island. Hawaiian customs didn’t even want to release my own dog to me. The “manager” named Ryan kept telling me that it was a mistake and this isn’t how they “do business.” She then low balled me on a refund. They also complained that I was bothering them so late at night on a Friday. If you have clients in Hawaii, you should be available late at night in case things go wrong. Book at your own peril. This company sucks. No accountability. I’m in the military and have a high threshold for suckiness, but I would strongly advise against Starwood. Edit after reply** Starwood has used the hurricane as "not an excuse" to explain their abandoning my pet. What they seem to be unaware of is the fact that the hurricane was also hitting Oahu (my location). When I emailed them, I got an AI generated response.

If you want pain and confusion choose Starwood. If you want stressed animals choose Starwood. Before I paid I was repeatedly told that a direct JFK → Lisbon flight was possible and would be explored. That mattered in my decision making, because why would I choose a layover option that would create more physical and mental stress for my cats? Why would I choose more cargo handling, more confinement, a 5 hr layover for no reason, and more cabin-pressure changes? Especially since there are multiple direct flights a day from NYC to Lisbon (6 hrs total)-where the 2 cats and I were moving. Only AFTER payment did it become clear that a Lufthansa flight-an unnecessarily prolonged journey—two extra hours of flying, a five-hour layover in Frankfurt, and then an additional three-hour flight back to Portugal. Was always the intended plan. Was the only plan. The owner said it was for “safety” and only when I contacted customer service was I shown it would be breach of contract if I don’t go through Germany. That I was powerless in this “premium” pet relocation service to provide the kindest trip for my cats. This was only the beginning. I spoke to the owner and customer care because I could not get ahold of my coordinator Gemma by phone after her initial promises. My emails seemed to not be read or responded to. * my name was repeatedly misspelled, * incorrect links were sent, * documents had to be resent multiple times, * important information was buried in fragmented emails and fine print, * the portal had glitches * and getting clear answers was nearly impossible. And this disturbed me: I later learned that my coordinator Gemma was away for approximately two months while OTHER staff members continued to communicate with me using HER name and email signature. Excuse me? That’s not professional or premium and possibly not ethical. But this is not the worst of it. What happened next was so painful that I think any pet owner would be horrified. I arrived alone in Portugal after an exhausting international move believing my cats were arriving on the expected schedule. I had been told (after much fighting my premium cat service for it-which is really how you want to spend your time when you are moving internationally) that the cats were on my flight. I arrived, opened my GPS tracker and saw they had been LEFT BEHIND n New York City. I should have been concerned when Jeary came to pick them up and didn’t understand why they were going to a holding center instead of the airport. I should have been concerned when I got no photos and couldn’t get on the portal. But an extra day in an undisclosed location? And I thought a layover would be stressful for them. Where was this place they were? Why were they not with me? And NO ONE was answering the phone. The US office was closed for the holiday, but I had been told that the UK office would absolutely answer the phone if anything happened. THEY DID NOT. I left emails. I waited forever by the carrossel for good WIFI being so worried and waiting for Starwood to call me back. Nothing. The explanation was another offhand comment from Gemma the coordinator three days before the flight about a POSSIBLE airline strike. Not that they were changing the cats flight, but if there was a strike THEN the cats flights would change. Of course, I said. If there’s no plane - they can’t get on it. But I knew there was no strike. Why? Because I called the airline. Did Starwood call the airline, no, they could not be bothered. Did they clarify with me that I understood that the cats would not be flying and arriving with me, that they would be kept somewhere I was not told about, for a whole extra day? No (I could’ve let a friend take care of them as opposed to being stressed somewhere they don’t know in a crate.) Did anyone communicate:
“Your cats are not arriving with you.”
“Your cats will be held.” or even better “this is where your cats will be held, this is how they will be taken care of in this facility”
“Your cats may arrive days later.”. Did I sign anything that I understood and approved they were being held somewhere in a crate for an extra day and what flight they were on? No 100% no. But again Starwood gets you with the flyaway comments and the fine print while it’s the 2 days before you are moving your life internationally. No kindness. No consideration. No follow up. No photos of the cats. Nothing that was promised. Their carrier boxes smelled like piss and poop when they arrived. For what? There was no strike. I knew this days before the flight. But Starwood didn’t care. From beginning to end. The only person who treated me kindly was Ryan Bole throughout this whole process. I hope she finds a better paying job with better people. If you love your animals stay away from this company. Dear god for the sake of your own peace of mind stay away from Starwood.

It's been nothing short of a disaster. I paid close to 8k for the premium service and have been left with one issue after another. Little communication on their part with me led to miscommunication regarding my dogs transport. I told them a specific hard date and they dropped the ball and did not schedule a plane to take my dogs until I reached out because I had no news on an itinerary. Luck I did because they did not schedule one and that led to my dogs leaving AFTER my hard date. This would have led to $50/day/dog boarding for an additional $300. I had to complain due to their mistake to get them to pay. Then I was told that my one dog would not be coming home and needed to be in quarantine for an extra 3 days on arrival. Then the AirTags and back pack full of dog toys were stolen by their associate. I say stolen because I had to confront them via text to ask where my stuff was as they didn't tell me before hand and only after I questioned where my stuff was it was stated that their associate Jodi has it! Not even done... When my other dog was delivered I was told Starwood would cover the $300 delivery for him and I would just pay the $50, no big deal, except that never happened and the delivery driver wasn't going to wait for his money so I paid another $325... Horrible and Unacceptable!!! Stolen Property and Robbed of more money- won't be using them ever again and I suggest anyone who does- go somewhere else!

I was promised things they then couldn't provide (after they had my deposit, of course). I paid $4000 for my cat's 2 day trip to become a 5 day trip, and had to travel 6 hours to Scotland to get them through customs myself, a service I paid for. My cats were sent without their paperwork. Instead of dealing with it, they said they sent the paper and what KLM did is out of their control. I sorted out paperwork and got my cats home, but they have not acknowledged the expenses I incurred after already paying for services not delivered. They lied to me numerous times, and my cats were in their hands for 4 days and I got one update. DO NOT TRUST. THEY LIE ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIPS ABROAD AND WILL LEAVE YOU IN THE LURCH IN A SECOND. THEY OWE ME AN APOLOGY, AND THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS.