URGENT! TOUR MATES NEEDED!!! RAJASTHAN EXPLORER AND BUDDHA TO BOLLYWOOD

Re: URGENT! TOUR MATES NEEDED!!! RAJASTHAN EXPLORER AND BUDDHA T

I am quite disappointed to learn that I am the only person booked on this trip.

Before booking I checked the company's website and it stated that at least 6 people would be on any trip they ran out of Nepal. Furthermore, their website indicates that this is an "orange" trip with 5 or less spaces available -WHAT GIVES??

When I tried to book I was told that spaces where "limited" which implied that the trip was nearly fully booked. Then I was told I was "lucky" and you were able to confirm a space for me.

I'm out a considerable sum of money IN ADDITION to what I have paid you (visas, travel insurance, and airline cancellation fees).

Frankly, I have no desire to travel by myself which is why I booked with you in the first place. I realize travel in Nepal is dicey and wanted the safety in numbers travelling with a group provides

I guess their "Obsessed with quality" pitch is imaginary. A visit to their travel forum indicated that this last minute "notification" is how they run their business. See Jess's sad request below.....

Don Howard

URGENT! TOUR MATES NEEDED!!! RAJASTHAN EXPLORER AND BUDDHA TO BOLLYWOODopic: URGENT! TOUR MATES NEEDED!!! RAJASTHAN EXPLORER AND BUDDHA TO BOLLYWOOD
posted 25 July, 2006 11:21 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello all, sorry for the shouty subject but I need to drum up some attention.

I'm booked on the combination tour from Buddha to Bollywood starting on Aug 20th and this meets up with the Rajasthan Explorer trip.

I've just heard from an Im. Trav rep that I'm the ONLY PERSON booked on this tour!!!!! And that only 7 others so far are joining us on the Rajasthan Explorer tour.

Please please please, anyone who is interested in a trip to India with a couple of days in Nepal then sign up!!! It's an AMAZING looking tour and there's plenty of space for all. We go to some beautiful places and ride down the river Ganges at dawn and even ride camels across the desert - WOW!

You might even be able to get some kind of discount (though don't quote me on that) as it's a tour that leaves next month.

Anyway, give it some thought and I promise to buy you a drink if you come!!!

Thanks for reading this - Jess xxx

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Carmel [mailto:Carmel@adventurecenter.com]
Sent: Tue 1/2/2007 4:55 PM
To: Donald G. Howard
Subject: RE: IMAGINATIVE TRAVELLER FROM BUDDHA TO BOLLYWOOD TRIP REF: HABB

Hi Don,

RE: IMAGINATIVE TRAVELLER FROM BUDDHA TO BOLLYWOOD TRIP REF: HABB - 21 January departure

Imaginative Traveller asked me to let you know that at the moment you are the only client booked on the above tour(plus the male tourleader) but from Day 7 to Day 19 you will be joined by at least eight clients booked on the Rajasthan Explorer tour 27January.

The Buddha to Bollywood tour on 21 January will operate as scheduled and is still open to bookings but Imaginative Traveller just asked me to advise you, out of courtesy, of the situation.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Kind Regards,
Carmel Moore
Adventure Center
1311 63rd Street, Ste 200
Emeryville CA 94608
USA
Phone: 1-800 227 8747 ext 213 or 510-654-1879 Ext. 213
Fax 510-654-4200
e-mail carmel@adventurecenter.com
[url=http://www.adventurecenter.com]www.adventurecenter.com[/url]
Adventure Center

--------------------
Don

Re: URGENT! TOUR MATES NEEDED!!! RAJASTHAN EXPLORER AND BUDDHA T

Hi Don,

Thanks for your post and sorry that you feel let down by us.

On rare occasions unfortunately our tours do not achieve many bookings and out of courtesy we always advise travellers of these as soon as we can to let them know that there will not be a large group on their tour.

In these situations we are left with the unenviable task of either continuing to operate the tour with low numbers or to cancel the tour and offer an alternative or a refund. Because your tour 'shares' allocation (I will explain this below) with another tour in India we are able to continue to offer it even with just the 1 booking but sadly this means that there are no other travellers for you to travel with.

First of all, let me reassure you that Nepal remains a safe country to visit. We take the safety of our customers and local staff extremely seriously and would not offer tours to any destination that we did not deem safe. In reaching a decision we talk with our local staff, our regional office and the British Foreign Office. Although you will not be travelling in a group you will be with your own dedicated tour leader who will know the region well and who can advise you which areas are safe and which you should be slightly more cautious about.

I'm sorry that you were not notified sooner of the situation with your tour. There is a fine line between advising our clients as soon as possible whilst waiting to see if anybody else books. It it becoming more and more common for people to book long-haul trips last-minute and this in turn pushes back the time that we leave to notify clients if they are in a smaller than normal group.

I'm not sure where it states that a minimum of 6 people will be taking part in any tour out of Nepal? This is not normally the case, with I would say 95% of our tours being between 4 and 15/18 people. Please let me know where you read this and I will check it and amend this information as necessary.

Okay, so why did this happen? Without going into too much detail, some of our tours, including Form Buddha to Bollywood, share with another tour in the same region. Your tour shares with Rajasthan Explorer from days 7 to 19 and both tours combined have a total of 17 spaces. This is normally split with 8 spots allocated to your tour and 9 to Rajasthan Explorer. Our system automatically displays a tour as 'limited' when there are 5 or fewer spots remaining on a tour. So you are probably asking why your tour showed as limited when there should have been 7 places left? The reason for this is that we can manually 'steal' allocation from one tour and give it to the other tour. So on this date we have allocated some of your tour's 7 remaining spaces to Rajsthan Explorer, bringing it's total up and your tour's total down, meaning that your tour then had 5 or fewer places left and thus displayed as 'limited'.

As you have booked with Adventure Center in the US it is very important that you continue to discuss your booking directly with them. This is to ensure there are no discrepancies between their reservation system and our own. They have been in touch with our international reservation team and behind the scenes we are working on your booking and will get in touch with them again shortly.

I hope this helps to explain things a little more clearly. If yourself or anybody else has any further questions about this please feel free to raise them on this forum and I'll do all that I can to answer them.

Regards,
Brendan.

Re: URGENT! TOUR MATES NEEDED!!! RAJASTHAN EXPLORER AND BUDDHA T

This post has been removed due to the use of expletives

Brendan

[ 10. January 2007, 10:18 AM: Message edited by: BrendanG ]

Re: URGENT! TOUR MATES NEEDED!!! RAJASTHAN EXPLORER AND BUDDHA T

Adventure Center booked me on a "limited availability" tour and told me I had to pay in full that day to qualify for your 15% discount-which I did.

A week ago I was told that I was only person booked on the "limited spaces available". I understand what happened based on your pervious post.

What I don't understand is when I agreed to take the shorter version of the SAME tour leaving from Delhi rather than Katmandu that Maz at the Adventure Center told me I'd lost the 15% dicount because I hadn't booked the shortened version of the SAME trip in time to qualifiy for the discount. Her attitude was it wasn't her problem.

Your website implies your company prides itself on its ethical approach to doing business; why don't to ethics extend to this issue?

Re: URGENT! TOUR MATES NEEDED!!! RAJASTHAN EXPLORER AND BUDDHA T

Hi Don,

Thanks for not swearing this time

I'm very sorry that this has left a sour taste in your mouth and that you feel this way about us after your experience.

I gather that we had agreed to extend your 15% discount to the shortened tour that you were offered, and that Adventure Center had offered to help cover the cost of your airfare (both offers are against standard procedures and the booking conditions) but unfortunately you had already cancelled your booking before our agent was able to relay this information to you.

The basis of any successful business is customer service - none more so than in this industry - and we are fully aware of this and do all that we can to cater to our clients needs. Unfortunately it is extremely difficult to please everybody on every single occasion and I can only apologise that you were not satisfied with the service that you received on this occasion.

I hope you are able to find a suitable alternative and have a great trip anyway.

Regards,
Brendan.