High-Flying Travel Startup Pollen Collapses, Leaving Trail of Complaints
Pollen planned star-studded vacations in posh locales and said Covid was responsible for cancellations; employees say executives bear blame too
Customer complaints about travel startup Pollen poured in so quickly that staffers couldn’t keep up. Over the last year, it was forced to cancel dozens of its luxury events, many featuring A-list musicians at posh beachfront locales, blaming the omicron variant of Covid-19. Pollen resorted to a slapdash triage system to handle refund requests: a spreadsheet that prioritized people who complained the loudest on social media.
There was a lot to gripe about. A January extravaganza in Cancun featuring reggaeton superstar J Balvin was called off just days before it was due to begin. That same month, the Departure music festival in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, featuring top electronic music artists, was abruptly postponed by a day, and then canceled—after many guests had arrived. Other events were scrapped. Promised refunds went unpaid for months, if at all.