Don’t book Dalani

Don’t book Dalani!! I booked with Dalani after seeing their trips on Instagram. We booked their Thailand and Dubai trip for December 2025. The issues started once the final payment was made in October. They sent a document indicating the timelines of what to expect leading up to the trip on the 12th of December and an itinerary of the trip including hotels and the airline we would use. As a first time international traveler, I booked Dalani so that I wouldn’t have to worry about the admin. Based on the timelines provided, I reached out to Dalani in early November to enquire about an update given that the trip was in a month. I sent emails and called and I was informed that they could not provide an update as yet as our host was traveling and she needed to approve the travel packs. They communicated information the following week when she was done traveling. We eventually got our UAE visa, flights and travel insurance on the 5th of December, a week before we were scheduled to leave. We also had a call with Dalani around this time. Dalani made changes to the trip that they did not communicate with us and we found out when the flights and final travel plan was communicated. These changes included changes to the itinerary where we went to Thailand first and then Dubai instead of what was initially communicated which was to go to Dubai and then Thailand. This was a minor inconvenience given that a friend I was travelling with had wanted to attend a concert in Dubai. The other change made was the hotel we were supposed to stay in, in Thailand. This was changed and not communicated.

A couple days before we were meant to leave, the host had a personal unforeseen circumstance happen which prevented her from coming on the trip. This is completely understandable and we did not expect her to come. We did expect Dalani to make an alternative plan i.e. book a flight for another individual from the agency to come on the second or third day to host. Bearing in mind the whole package was 9 days and we had paid for the experience with a host so that we can 1. Not need to deal with any admin related to the trip and 2. Have a seasoned traveler to assist with navigating the new country and making the most of it. Instead, Dalani told us that we’d have a virtual host. Again, we let it slide. We arrived in Thailand at 8:30am. During the call we had with Dalani, they had mentioned that they would organize early check-in given that we would have traveled for about 15 hours and we wanted to freshen up and rest before going out for dinner. We are w at the hotel and there was no early check-in. Furthermore, the hotel informs us that we can not check in until we make a deposit of BAHT1,500 for potential damages to property for our stay. This was already a negative start to the trip as this was the last thing we wanted to be dealing with. This is also the admin that we needed an in-person host for. One of the travelers settles the bill and Dalani refunds him. We are then forced to wait for 4 hours for the rooms to be ready for check-in. The hotel says they’ll try have one room ready by 11 or 12. I explicitly sent them a text asking that they check that we won’t have issues when we get to the Dubai hotel. They apologize and confirm that they’ll double check the Dubai booking.We eventually check in and start to host ourselves in a foreign country on a trip where we paid to have a host.

We then travel to Dubai. Based on the initial plan, we were supposed to travel using Emirates but we travelled using Ethiad. This change meant that we would land in Abu Dhabi and we would need to have a busy to Dubai which was 2 hours long. Our trip was in Dubai so it would have made a lot more sense to have travelled using Emirates as was initially communicated. We eventually get to the hotel in Dubai and there was another issue with the booking and a traveller had to settle the difference again and be refunded by Dalani. Dalani organized for a third party tour guide to take us through the itinerary for Dubai and it was an amazing experience. Further confirming the importance of a host and why it’s an additional service you pay for. However, again Dalani messed up the booking for the final day. Based on their itinerary, they had booked for us to go to the Dubai Miracle gardens which can take up to 2 to 3 hours. Check out was at 10 am. We needed to catch our bus back to Abu Dhabi at 22:00pm. So Dalani expected us to do the Miracle Gardens in the morning and sit at the bus station for the rest of the day. Bearing in mind that the bus station could be packed so seating was not guaranteed, the seats are also not cushioned so it’s not meant for long term sitting. Doing other activities was also not entirely made easy considering that we had our luggage. Leaving our luggage at the hotel would also complicate matters given that the hotel was in Dubai and we needed to head to Abu Dhabi which was 2 hours away so this created a logistical issue. Luckily, the third party host was a much better host and communicated really well so he asked the day prior about our last day. He made sure we had transport that we could put our bags in while we explored other areas in Dubai.

This was my first and last booking with Dalani. Their communication is terrible. The service provided was also terrible. I’d give them a one star only because I didn’t need to book my own visa. The other travelers had gone on their Bali/Singapore trip and had mentioned that, that was an excellent trip. But based on this trip, I won’t be using them again.