OctopusTravel was initially started as an independently owned business. The website www.octopustravel.com was established in association with a travel company with more than 25 years in the business. This experience has enabled OctopusTravel to provide a web site with one of the widest selections of hotels sightseeing and other related services on the web. With thousands of bookings handled on a weekly basis, our massive purchasing power allows us to pass on significant savings to our customers.

In April 2005, OctopusTravel became part of the Cendant Corporation. With approximately 80,000 employees worldwide, Cendant is primarily a provider of travel and residential real estate services to both consumers and businesses in over 100 countries. More information about Cendant’s companies and brands can be found by visiting the company’s website at www.cendant.com

The web site

Unprecedented attention is given to the customer's selection and purchasing process on-line. The result is that all our customers experience a simple and quick booking process whilst receiving detailed information to allow informed choices to be made. Furthermore, the web site is able to confirm availability of the customer's selected hotel immediately.

To ensure 100% confidence in our hotel accommodation pricing we offer our customers a Price Promise: Once a customer has booked with us, if they subsequently find the same hotel available at a lower price on the internet, subject to a few reasonable conditions, we will happily refund the difference.

We cater for every budget, from 1 star to 5 star. Our web site offers popular international chains, small boutique hotels, French chateaux and English manor houses to name a few. We individually negotiate with each hotel we sell, to ensure octopustravel customers receive great rates and there are no hidden extras: all our rates include taxes and service charges and in most European hotels we even include breakfast!

To assist our customers' selection of the hotel best suited to their needs we provide a full list of amenities and an independent report for each hotel. These are written by travel professionals who have personally visited the hotels and they provide an honest and up-to-date appraisal of each property. For most properties we also provide hotel location maps plus interior and exterior photos to avoid any surprises.

We feature sightseeing tours in over 150 cities and 50 countries worldwide ranging from city sightseeing and dinner cruises in Europe to island hopping in Malaysia, safaris in Africa and helicopter trips in the Grand Canyon.

Security

Advanced security technology has been built into our web site to ensure optimum security for credit card transactions. The credit card information and personal details of every customer are protected throughout their dealings with us. Our Digital Certificate from Verisign is proof that our site has passed stringent security tests and that all our credit card transactions use Secure Socket Layers (SSL) encryption. Our customers can be assured that the information they send to octopustravel cannot be intercepted or decrypted by anyone else.

octopustravel is a full member of ABTA providing customers with that final and complete peace of mind and assurance that they are dealing with a truly reputable travel company.

Professional Customer Care

We pride ourselves on offering a service that surpasses our customers' expectations. Our Customer Care Centre supports our web site with staff on hand to answer questions by telephone and email, thus providing the human interface that even the most confident of web-shoppers appreciate. We have been in the business long enough to know that not all travel plans run smoothly, which is why our help is only a phone call away.

The Future

Travel is the largest and fastest growing business on the internet and octopustravel will continue to develop and build its brand and business on a global scale. We will continue to work closely with an increasing number of new partners whilst rapidly expanding the number of affiliates who link to our sites and opening new offices . assisiting the excellent reputation that we have established to be spread to new markets worldwide.