Wajahat did his best to book hotels and transportation service for us.
Im disappointed that the vendor that they work with short handed my hotel room. I paid for kaaba view but didn't get that and when i arrived at the hotel the reception said rooms with kaaba view were available but i had to pay $500 USD extra. Which didn't make any sense.
Going through agencies is bit convenient but they'll short hand you easily.
Next time I'm booking everything myself not that hard to do but takes some time.
Also umrah Visa took very long to process.
Umrah International maybe a good agency but i learned that booking everything yourself is better and not that hard.
AS
Asher S.
Worst experience
Worst experience. Never use service of these travel agencies. Manage ur trip by urself. They take extra money from you and book you bad hotels. We are in medina now and this hotel nusk -al medina is a 2- star hotel and thy gave us as a 4- star hotel. This hotel is worst hotel nothing like 4- star. Travel agent charged me 250 dollars one night for this pathetic hotel. In real this hotel worh is 400 riyals per night. Worst hotel with no services at all.
AR
Ashifur R.
BOOK YOUR OWN UMRAH
Summary advice: Plan your Umrah yourself -especially if it's during Ramadan - don't use this agency.
We booked the last 10 days of Ramadan through Umrah International.
They held a zoom call a few days prior to our departure date. The zoom call was pure chaos and confusion. They did not mute all the guests so there was 70 people simultaneously talking over the host. Nothing the host said was clear in terms of instruction. Everyone was confused on how they would be picked up from the Jeddah airport. All we were told is "make sure you buy a SIM and have your phone on - the ground team will reach out to you". The instructions the host gave did not match with what our representative said on whatsapp. For example, I did not want to take the bus transport from Jeddah to Medina and Medina to Makkah with my wife, so I was looking into taking the bullet train. The zoom call host said it's not possible to take the train and that we must take the bus. The whatsapp rep (Fahad) said that it is fine if we take the train but just to inform him and the transport company that we would not be going on the bus.
They made a whatsapp group a day before the trip where the group leaders would communicate important messages. Communicating with these group leaders was difficult. They would take a long time to reply, or they would just ignore phone calls.
Their email communication is poor. I asked them many times to include both me and my wife on any email communications. They would only email one of us at a time.
The original person I was communicating with on whatsapp was Abdul Qadir. He disappeared for a few weeks and I reached out to Umrah International again and Fahad came back saying Abdul Qadir took the month off for Ramadan. I did not appreciate the silence and would have liked to know my agent is going on vacation and that someone else would be covering for him.
We ended up paying out of our own pocket and taking the bullet train and it was the best decision of our trip. We spoke with the group members at the end of the trip and they were saying how the bus ride was 10 hours from Medina to Mecca in Ramadan traffic and how the bus would not stop for Iftar, and that they missed most of the 27th night because they were on road.
One thing to note: THEY DO NOT BOOK HOTEL ROOMS UNDER YOUR NAME. They book it under their own names so you need to go to the group leader to get your key cards - not the front desk. This is not ideal if you decide to take bullet train.
The group leaders (Qari Aslam and Maharaj) were not that great. I arrived at Medina before Fajr and let Qari Aslam know well before that we would be arriving 40 minutes before Fajr. Upon arrival, he had me wait for 30 minutes as he wanted to drink tea and then spent another 10 minutes finding the keycards somewhere in his room.
They took us on one trip in Medina to see Quba, Qiblatain, and Uhud. The trip was a mess that took 4 hours. Would not recommend going on this at all and book the local tours instead for 10 riyals.
Maharaj was not very good at replying. I whatsapped him on several occasions but he would not reply, or he would reply late. He would not pick up calls either.
They take you to the airport 6 hours before your flight which is not necessary.
They took payment in two parts: one for the flight and one for the hotel/visa/miscellaneous expenses.
We provided them receipts of all the money transfers. One day before our trip, our representative messages me saying that their finance team says we owe them $20. I re-sent the receipts showing that I paid the full balance to which they had no rebuttle. I did not appreciate that this company came asking for more money when the accounts had already been settled.
Response from Umrah InternationalApr 24, 2024
Asalam Alikum Brother,
I hope you are doing great and family.
1. The reason we don't mute so everyone have any question they can ask in Zoom Session. In past we did that and people are not happy even we assign half and hour Q/A in end of the session. (if still you have confusion you can ask directly to the agent over the phone so many did that).
2. You Need Train and we are providing Bus in the package. Brother you need to understand this is economical package the other agencies who provide train from Medina to Makkah there package start from $6999/- in Ramadan, actually its all about understanding. and the reason on zoom call we denied because its hard to managed on the ground when you are in Saudi especially in peak season.
3. Group leader take long time to reply because there are 200 people in the group and everyone is messaging them so it hard to reply instantly you have to be patient brother that is what Islam teaches us.
4. THEY DO NOT BOOK HOTEL ROOMS UNDER YOUR NAME.
Reason of this if we booked under person name only that person will get check in not other people who are sharing the room with other brother and sister. if you travel alone then the room will be booked under your name but if you are traveling with group the room will not booked under your name please understand this.
5.The group leaders (Qari Aslam and Maharaj) were not that great
Brother you should also understand what they are going through in that time its not easier to managed everything its easier to say these thing but when its comes to managed its difficult.
6. They took us on one trip in Medina to see Quba, Qiblatain, and Uhud. The trip was a mess that took 4 hours.
(not everyone have same preference like yours brother so many people go there to visit all these places)
7. hey take you to the airport 6 hours before your flight which is not necessary. ( the reason to take you out early because of traffic and road closures so no one will miss their Flight its good to be early on the airport at peak season rather then miss your flight due to any circumstances.
8. One day before our trip, our representative messages me saying that their finance team says we owe them $20. I re-sent the receipts showing that I paid the full balance to which they had no rebuttle. I did not appreciate that this company came asking for more money when the accounts had already been settled.
(Brother if Company asked you showed the slip that you already paid full amount did we asked after that no you have to pay that. no we don't. brother please learn patient no one is angel here we all are humans.
JAZAKALLAH khairun
LA
Lasker
My very honest and fair review
For the success & improvement of a business as well as to be fair with the customers, it is extremely important to be very honest, fair and unbiased when writing a review. I will do my best in that light.
This was my 6th trip to Saudi Arabia (and my wife's 4th one) that included a Hajj and 5 Umrah Alhamdulillah. We plan to do more by Allah’s willing (InnShahAllah). However, this was our 1st trip with Umrah International.
First, let me start with the positive notes on my experiences:
1. Umrah International price was reasonable.
2. While we reached at Medina, we met Br. Fahad Babar Malik who was mannered and accommodating to listen to my concerns and suffering (listed below) during the process.
3. To partially compensate our pain -he tried his best and offered the following gestures.
i. He was kind to provide us a ‘private car trip’ from Medina to Makkah. Much appreciated.
ii. They provided free lunch to all the passengers during Medina to Makkah trip.
iii. Br. Malik managed to give us a private room in Makkah (couple room, although we had originally booked for quad shared room). Very much appreciated.
I believe-Umrah International can do really well once they improve some of the very key areas of things:
1. Coordination with clients is very important and needs improvement: No clear idea on how, when, where to where we are going and what are the schedules etc.
2. We were supposed to be trained and clarified the journey (a-z) via an on line lecture prior to the trip, to make the Haji’s aware of the plan, Umrah education and overall trip, but it never happened.
3. Ground transportations from point A to point B were not at all clear and were not coordinated: We waited for over three (3) hours at the Jeddah airport and made many phone calls, emails and texts to contact the drivers to pick us up without luck. Need serious improvement, PLEASE give strong focus in this area.
4. Need improved communication: No prior communications were made on who would receive the guests at Jeddah airport and thereafter. My wife got sick at the airport on waiting after a loooong journey and was extremely upset. After over 3 hours of waiting we finally got hold of a driver with the help of an Arab person. It was a disaster for a holy journey.
5. Suggest that you inform your customers about the phone or SIM system in Jeddah airport and how to contact the company personnel for assistance.
6. Suggests that you keep the promise: We went to Medina and got a different hotel in Medina than what we were promised. It is understandable that sometimes things can change based on circumstances but that should be explained to the guests.
7. Suggest being prepared ahead of guest's arrival at the hotel: They were unable to decide which room to accommodate to which customers. After waiting for a long at the lobby, the tired and exhausted bodies finally received the rooms.
Alhamdulillah, after Median - the trip started to get better. By Allah’s willing- we performed our Umrah quite well and got a much better place in Makkah as mentioned earlier.
Final Note: Our Umrah was great, Alhamdulillah. "Umrah International" is a relatively newer company. I believe they have good intention and want to serve people. I also believe that they can shine and prosper should they take some more proactive role and implement better organization and communication skill as mentioned above. My suggestion for ‘Umrah International’ would be to follow the business model of ‘Dar-al Salam’ or ‘Adam Travel’ and employ some more staff. I wish and pray “Umrah International all the success in future.
