My boyfriend and I traveled to LA to celebrate my 24th birthday. So, of course, I thought, “what better way to see the city than through a tour?” I was planning on taking a TMZ tour, but unfortunately, with Covid, they still were not up and running at the time of our trip, as California was just starting to reopen. Because of this, I went with my second choice, Access Hollywood, another reputable company, or so I thought.
First, I would like to point out the false advertisement posted on the Access Hollywood Tours website. The website shows that transportation for the two-hour tour will be provided by a blue van, which appears to seat six people, with open sides, their name “Access Hollywood Tours,” and their phone number printed on the side of the van.
Their confirmation email for the tickets provides a meeting address for the tour and states to be there 20 minutes before the departure time of noon. My boyfriend and I arrived 20 minutes early, as asked, and when we arrived, we were perplexed and not sure if we were in the right place. We showed up to a tiny storefront behind the meeting area, which was blasting vulgar rap music with a young child under 10 sitting inside.
There was no Access Hollywood Tour sign to confirm the meeting spot or a blue van with their name on it, so we figured that the van and the tour guide hadn’t arrived yet, so we waited off to the side. The tour guide, named David, must have seen the confused look on our faces as he rushed out of that storefront and asked if we were taking part in the Access Hollywood tour. We told him that we were, and he checked us in. During our check-in process, David pointed out the bus that we would be taking and pointed to an old bus that you can clearly see has been spray-painted black with the word “sneakers” graffitied on the side of it.
I noticed that David’s outfit was not appropriate for his position, being the tour guide, as none of his attire confirmed that he worked for Access Hollywood, and he did not have a badge. David told us to relax and that we would be heading out shortly. As he walked away, I looked at my boyfriend in disgust, as the experience already was not what I expected it to be or how it is portrayed on their website. I should have known just to leave right there and then, but it was my birthday, and I decided to give it a chance and hoped that I would be able to enjoy my day.
David allowed us to sit on the bus, which could have easily held 15 people. Time started to pass, and we were scorching hot, as LA was experiencing a heatwave and not the mention we were in a blacked-out bus, which ended up sitting there way past our start time.
Now it’s 12:05 pm, and I’m looking around wondering what is going on, and David notices and states, “we’re still waiting on seven people to show up.” Okay, fine. Now it’s 12:15 pm, and these seven people still have not shown up. At this point, I’m starting to get frustrated, mainly because we were told to be there 20 minutes early. If tickets are already purchased online, and the customers do not show up on time, leave them behind, and do not make everyone else wait. For example, if I showed up at the airport an hour late for my flight, they would not hold the flight for me; they would simply say better luck next time.
Now it’s 12:15 pm, and I’m beginning to wonder if those seven people walked up to the meeting spot, saw the bus, laughed, and chose to lose their money over getting on that bus. If so, I do not blame them; I wish I had done the same. At this point, David’s friend starts yelling at him from across the street that he found more people to get on the bus for the tour. Two more people get on the bus and mention that they are still waiting for their friend who is on his way. David decides that it’s okay to wait another 10 minutes and wait for this guy. Here we are past the tour’s start time, waiting for extra people when the tour should have already started.
David then decides to get everyone on the bus and drives in the opposite direction of the tour to pick up this extra person. Then, David went back to the pickup spot to see if the seven people showed up. By the time we left the pickup location and started the tour, it was 12:42 pm.
At this point, I’m incredibly frustrated because I had lunch reservations for 2:30 pm, considering our tour was supposed to end at 2 pm.
As David starts to drive the bus, he explains that he has another tour at 2 pm and that he has to be back in time, stating that we had to hustle and make up for the lost time. David is the one who willingly took 42 minutes of the tour away from us, so he could simply get more people on the bus to get a bigger tip, and then had the nerve to rush through everything and skip things when we paid for a full 2-hour tour. So, of course, to make up for all the missed time, David started to speed and barely slowed down or stopped at any locations for pictures.
Access Hollywood’s website states that there is a stop on the tour that allows everyone to get off the bus at a location where people can take pictures with the Hollywood sign in the background, which was the part of the tour I was looking forward to the most. David flew by that stop and stated that we couldn’t stop to take pictures because of Covid, which makes absolutely no sense. So we can all sit on a bus, where no one is wearing their masks, but we can’t stop at a parking lot overlooking the city of LA to take pictures? I would not have been so mad about missing this stop if it wasn’t a blatant lie. If that stop was taken off the tour due to covid, then a disclaimer should be posted on the website stating that specific stops may not be available due to Covid.
By the time the tour ended, it was 2:22 pm, and I was miserable as the tour was not even close to what is depicted on their website. Not only did we lose 20 minutes of the tour, but we also ended up missing my birthday lunch reservation. I was extremely upset for the rest of the day and felt like my day was ruined.