Travel Dog Crates reviews

Today we had a couple of pet travel crates show up at our offices that we hadn't seen before. They are the N2N Pet Retreat Kennels with "Calm Quil."
These crates are definitely stylish and offer plenty of room on the inside. They come with an "ultra-soft microfleece spa blanket" for the bottom of the crate, as well as two heavy-duty velcro tabs that you can attach to the two halves of the crate to secure them.
We liked a couple of features quite a bit. Pet airlines will not allow dogs or cats to travel internationally unless the crate is ventilated on all four sides, which this one is. It also has the Calm Quil feature, which is a small pheremone cartridge that uses natural aromatherapy to help pets relax when traveling. The cartridge goes in a small slot at the top of the crate (above the pet's head). You can purchase replacement cartridges online or at pet stores like Petsmart. We do wonder what international customs officials might think of this cartridge if they look inside the crate upon arrival.
Some of the things we didn't like were the supposed "safety" latches on the side of the crate. They are supposed to lock tightly around the button but it was very easy for us to push the buttons in and slide the latches over. While it was good to add the velcro tabs to keep the middle part of the crate latched, we also added zip ties on all sides to prevent the crate from splitting in half. The plastic was also a little thinner than the plastic on the Varikennel SkyKennels we typically use.
Have you used the Pet Retreat? Let us know how your pet liked it!