We reached out to Viator for a reasonable refund as our tour was really terrible. Not only for my group, but other groups in this tour were also complaining and requesting for a refund. Viator gave a 10% refund but it’s not enough to even cover the downgrade of hotels that the tour gave us for 2 nights. I would really appreciate if they Viator had fight for us for a higher refund since the tour was really terrible.
Below is the list of events that happened to your tour.
1. When we first arrived at departure point, we were told we would have to take a mini bus but with luggages separated from us in a big bus. This resulted in a delay of around 45min-1h for collection of luggages when we reached our hotel for first night’s stay. We had to wait for 30min until our luggages arrived before we could have dinner, and we needed another 15-20 min to carry the luggages up to our rooms because there was no elevator in the hotel.
2. We note that our hotels were downgraded for two nights. One at Las Vegas (supposed to be 4-star The Linq hotel but we got 3-star Harrah’s hotel instead) and another was at Kanab (supposed to be 3-star La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Kanab but we got 2-star Days Inn)
3. We noted that breakfast was not continental and on a few mornings, we had to take cold packed food comprising just muffins, juice, fruits, yogurt.
4. Our guides, Zipi, Jacob and Alex were lacking.
- zipi got lost at Yosemite and had to ask around for directions. She also did not try to solve the problem for the luggages, and instead the driver Armi was running around solving the issue for us.
- Jacob did not communicate changes to itinerary and was often unclear on tour/stopover instructions. He was also unaware of registration process at antelope canyon, and it resulted in more than half of the tour group missing out on the antelope canyon tour. In addition, our whole itinerary was delayed and we arrived at the hotel only at 10pm. We also couldn’t eat dinner at Kanab restaurant because these were closed by the time we got back, and had to pack cold sandwiches from a grocery store.
- Jacob also did not give advance notice on required outfit for hiking day. Instructions on meeting point, activities, timings etc were often not communicated clearly to us.
5. The itinerary was not followed through and this was not communicated to us throughout the tour.
- for example, the Zion park museum was closed and the guide didn’t know beforehand. We had to spend one hour at the visitors centre aimlessly.
- we did not do the cruise on lake Powell nor visit Zion park for a walk along virgin river as planned. These were not communicated to us and no replacement activities were organised.
- the tour guide to bring us around antelope and Grand Canyon was also absent during our trip and Jacob was jus bringing us to places without any explanation or history of the place. It was not communicated to us that this tour guide was absent. We found out only at night.
6. The aircon in Hotel room at Page was stuffy and not cooling. The hotel staff told us that no more vacancy to swop when we saw there were many empty rooms at other levels.
Response from Host
Jul 2022
Hi Florina!
Thank you for your feedback.
After looking into this, we'd like to advise the following:
The tour operated as advertised to include all of the correct visits.
We do not advertise a Lake Powell cruise as the massive regional drought has made them inoperable.
The hotels were provided exactly as advertised to include Continental breakfast, which is exactly as you described.
Antelope Canyon has capacity limitations and depending on group size the entrances must be staggered, because of this the whole group does not enter together by design.
As you experienced, the tour of Antelope Canyon is done by a local Navajo guide in order to give better experience that shows the local culture while promoting the local indigenous population.
Thank you for traveling with us.
We would be happy to host you again in the future.
Stephanie
Empire Vacations