Sayang Holidays

Worst travel agent I have ever dealt with. International travel and luggage costs extra?

Excellent excellent excellent service I received from Jigmey, for my trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. From the very first inquiry into vacation packages, I could see that Jigmey's customer service skills were top knotch. Jigmey was able to create a vacation package that was beyond our expectations while being within our vacation budget.

The hotels and tour packages that Jigmey booked us were all great. This turned out to be one of the best vacations my Wife and I have ever been on, thanks to Jigmey.

If you're looking into booking a vacation, look no further than Jigmey at Sayang Holidays. He will make the process effortless.

Jigmey has earned my business for life!

My husband and I contacted this company to find an eco-tour of sea turtle island for a specific date as we didn't have any flexibility in our schedule. The experience includes seeing a turtle laying eggs, watching a naturalist bury those eggs in a deep sand pit, and on that same evening, seeing baby turtles (hatched from eggs laid two months ago) scramble into the sea. It's one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences. The location is a nature reserve on an island off the Borneo coast, which you reach by speed boat: views are spectacular. Pannir, the owner and is Malaysian, promptly found a tour for the date we needed. The tour guide that we had was knowledgeable and friendly.
If you're a first-time traveler to Malaysia and want a local expert to organize your trip, contact Pannir.

Sayang Holidays is unethical, unresponsive, unprofessional. Especially Jigmey and Pannir. Do not use Sayang Holidays, save your money and save yourself from a headache.

We booked a tour through Sayang Holidays to Nepal. Paid over $4000 for flights, hotels and a tour. After 12 hours, an 7+ magnitude earthquake hit Kathmandu. Numerous aftershocks hit the fragile city, thereafter, leaving the city without electricity or running water. Food was scarce and there were people left without homes and injured people everywhere.

Our hotel was damage and our tour guides left the city to return to the family. Sayang took advantage of situation and would not refund the unused hotel or tour. The hotel and the guide in Nepal were very sweet, humble, ethical, they took care of us and reassured us said nothing would be charged, because they weren't able provided us with the services to the level of standard they advertised and are use to.

We contacted Sayang to book a ticket out of Nepal, as advised by the US embassy. Pannir said any unused portion would be refund because of the natural disaster and that they would book the tickets out of Nepal using the unexpended portion of the trip.

They ended up charging my credit card for the flight to Malaysia, ($200+) and when we returned to the US they would not refund, or credit our trip. They would not even respond to our emails to this day. If the fees were paid to the Nepalese citizens and their businesses, then I would be a different story and I would commend Sayang, but unfortunately they're just horrible crooks!

What a shame, that someone or business would operate in this manner and take advantage of a situation, as devastating as once in a century earthquake, in a such a humble city, with soooo many sweet individuals, for a profit. DESPICABLE, absolutely disgusting!!!

It's sad, that people/businesses like this exist. Do not endorse Sayang's Shady business model. Save yourself the time, money and misery, don't use Sayang for anything.

My friend Sisca told me to check out Singapore Airlines travel deals because she got an awesome deal like five years ago to go to Indonesia, and she said they hooked her up in a nice hotel in Bali, including airfare for 5 days for less than $2000.

I checked it out and the deal is from Sayang Holidays. It had expired.

But I called anyways, asked about it. And Pannir said "I'll still give you a good deal.. even if I can't give you that particular deal." He was totally laid back and easy to work with. He is very adorable in his way of describing things too, like for Jakarta he said "there are lots of clubs there, you can get down." It's cute because Pannir sounds like he's past the clubbing age (like imagine your dad saying "go to clubs and get down." hehehehe..)

Anyway, Pannir tried to get a feel of what I like to do. I said, well, I kinda wanna sight-see. Then he asked specific questions "like an adventure trip? you like watersports?" I was like yeah yeah.. He's like .. ok, let me put something together for you..

You do have to call and kindly remind.. hey still waiting. But I like to bug ppl anyway, and Pannir was always funny in getting back to me.. maybe he won't get back the next day, but if you call and nudge and say... "Hi Pannir, still here.. waiting" he'll totally get back to you.

Anyway, after he gave me the price, I paid partial, he sent me a package in a batik pouch with a zipper that hangs onto your neck. This WAS SO USEFUL, because everything was in there: itinerary, hotel reservations, and I put my passport in there. So at the airport, it's easy to find, easy to access.

Now the price, crazy good value. I'm not kidding. I was gone for 14 days in Indonesia: 3 days in Jakarta to visit the family, 2 days in Yogyakarta to see temples considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world, a week in Bali at Ayodya- which is the most beautiful luxurious hotel by the beach and I did compare to other hotels nearby, and a day in Singapore for less than $2500 a person. This includes tour, with some lunches, a driver and by lucky accident (off season) a private tour guide. Oh and a day in Singapore.

I was really happy with Sayang Holidays in particular. Because everything exceeded my expectations.. And I had such a good time in Southeast Asia.. Mostly because the human connections made there.. Such sweet people.

So my next trip.. if it's anywhere to the East side of the world, I'm calling Pannir.

Thank you thank you, Pannir!

update to Pannir's reply:

How is a client to check a itinerary when you never sent one to us via email? I'd like to see you proove that. You never got back to us so we had to GO IN PERSON to review our itinerary, where you STILL got it wrong.

You said it was your fault, you would fix it, at NO CHARGE TO US. Then 2 weeks later when you realized you had to pay, (which is what I told you already previously) you tried to MAKE US PAY FOR YOUR MISTAKE. Get real. Admit your own mistakes and stop blaming the client. You are unbelieveably completely and utterly out of touch with reality, how can you even run a business? Yeah I got every penny back because that is what you promised. Like i said at the end of the day you either paid the airline and change our date like you said, or you had to pay to cancel our ticket. Instead of doing whats right you paid the airline to cancel- and you lost a client and got tons of negative reviews. Good luck.

I can not say enough good things about Sayang Holidays. I've used them four times - all for crazy adventures in Bali, Indonesia. They're the travel company for those who want to get to where they're going, but not be forced to engage in the big group tour thing. Exactly what I want in a travel operator. For a flat price you get airfare, transfers, a driver to take you from this place to that, small one on one tours with a guide, and the best hotels the island (or wherever you're visiting) has to offer.

Easy to use and friendly staff. I'll use them again and again and highly recommend for your next SE Asia adventure.

Highly recommend
I used Sayang holidays to arrange for travel to Asia twice and was very happy with their service.
We used Sayang for trips to Hong Kong and Japan, Singapore, Bali and Thailand
and they got us great flights at excellent prices. Their are partners with Singapore Airlines which is an added bonus considering that SIA is one of the better airlines to flight with in terms of service. With have worked with Yoke and Pannir at Sayang - do
look for them if you contact them.

A fabulous tour operator for South-East Asia. We chose them (via the website of Singapore Airlines) and were very pleased with the entire process and journey. They have a lot of pre-made tour packages to countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, etc.

The office staff was courteous and professional and we were able to book a rather complex tour package without any problem. The prices are very competitive. We went to Taiwan, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia in the space of a month with their booking.

The local tour operators arranged by Sayang Holidays in Malaysia and Indonesia were very professional and helpful. I would definitely use them again for any travel to this part of the world.

Sayang means affection/love in Malay. Well guess what? I have no love for Sayang Holidays.

Before this review gets misrepresented, I just want to say that I did not have a chance to get a quotation let alone fly with this travel agent.

As usual I always try to shop around for good quotes and I thought why not give Sayang a try.

When I called Sayang, I spoke to a really nice representative, Raj. He was friendly and courteous. He told me he will submit my travel request to his agent and I should get a call back. He took down my email and we spent a good time ensuring that he got my email address correctly.

I decided to call back the next morning to follow up. I asked for Raj and he transferred me to the agent who was supposed to handle my request. That agent sounded a little annoyed that I called her too soon to check up on her. (mind you I was courteous!). She said she will call me back with the quotes. Of course days pass, months pass and I never heard back from her.

I don't understand why many travel agents do that! They say they will call back but never do!!! Even if you can't find a good quote it is common courtesy to call back!!! Anyway, I already got my tickets with Borneo International. This is my second time using Borneo and they are superb!