Sydney Harbour Escapes Pty Ltd — Hotel in Sydney

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!! We booked the boat ''Circa Spirit' through this company 3 months ago using the 'Charter and Super yacht Specialist' Emma Leung. After paying the amount in full (over $5k), as well as having in-depth conversations regarding logistics, pick up and departure times and countless discussions on requirements for the event, Emma left it until 4 days before the actual event (this Saturday November 19th) to inform us that the boat was having some mechanical issues and may potentially be unable to launch on Saturday. An email was sent by Emma informing us of this, no direct phone call, no real apology for the situation or short notice, and the only solution being to offer a more expensive boat, that of course would be at a cost to us. We rang first thing this morning after receiving the email at 7pm last night, and requested to speak to Emma's manager who advised the boat ''Circa Spirit'' has actually been out of action for months and that she was only advised of the reservation herself a few days ago. Absolutely unacceptable behaviour and service for a boat charter company who was due to host 45 people this coming Saturday. The customer service experienced from Emma throughout this entire process, has been below minimum and quite frankly embarrassing at times. We've been advised to expect a full refund by the end of the day (lets see!) and have fortunately managed to book an alternative boat with a different company, who have already exceeded the service provided by Sydney Harbour Escapes, within the first phone call. I would highly advise against making any reservations using this company, especially if dealing...

Two stars - one for organising the food for our cruise which was delicious and one for organising the John Oxley for my mother's 90th birthday celebration. November 2022 we booked to celebrate mum's 90th on Saturday 4th March 2023 with a harbour cruise. After many emails back and forth from asking if we got one of the alcohol packages what beer and wine would be serviced they couldn't tell us. Hence we did byo which was fine except we were charged per head for the 31 of us on board even though we had two babies and two toddlers under three. They were all charged..... We requested could we please bring prams on board - no that was not possible. Then on the Tuesday afternoon 28th February before we were to cruise on the Saturday 4th March we receive an email saying they were terribly sorry but the boat that they had booked for our harbour cruise was broken down and they could offer us another boat but we would have to get ourselves to Rose Bay wharf which was not convenient at all for us as we had booked to stay in Double Bay so we could walk to the wharf or we could change the date not at all convenient as we had family from all across Australia coming. I would book directly and not both about going through an agent. We cruised with Harbour Life Charters and they were fantastic. And oh to top it off Shani could not even respond to the person who had written the emails...

Warning: Caution with Circa Spirit

I want to share a troubling experience we had with Circa Spirit. We trusted them to provide a seamless service, but they acted as, merely collecting extra money without fulfilling their promises. Ordinary customer service

Despite providing an $800 deposit, they charged additional funds to our credit card without authorization. Their written confirmations proved worthless, as they failed to uphold their commitments. The music system was non-functional the entire time, which was incredibly disappointing. The board was also late by 15 minutes and returned on time, raising serious concerns about their honesty.

Additionally, they gave our caterers only 10 minutes to pack up, which was unreasonable. Our team scrambled to clean, and when the captain arrived, he insisted we hire experts—an absurd demand.

We had intended to book them for our Christmas celebration, but after this experience, we learned a valuable lesson: we will never engage their services again. Their aggressive tactics included relentless text messages to our staff over the weekend, which is simply unacceptable.

Please proceed with caution if considering Circa Spirit. Protect your business and avoid the headaches we encountered. More details will follow as we navigate this issue. Please be careful giving these guys...