Kimkim Italy failed us

Italy | Sep 29 - Oct 8, 2024

This was our 2nd time using kimkim; it's unlikely there will be a 3rd time.

We made clear when we planned this trip we wanted 4 rooms in Florence and 3 rooms in Rome (we were a group of 6 for 6 nights, and 5 for 3 nights). Kimkim only booked us 3 rooms in Florence, and we had to pay extra, at the last minute, for a fourth room which we were only able to secure for 2 of 4 nights in Florence. In Rome, we learned just before departing for Italy that kimkim had booked us only one room; thus, at the last minute, we had to pay way too much just to get a 2nd tiny room that three grown women had to share. This was a major error by kimkim.

In each Italian location, we had to pay an additional amount for "city taxes" about which kimkim never told us; they absolutely should have told us about this ahead of time.

Kimkim booked us on several tours. Some were very good, but too many of the booked tours were unsatisfactory because the guide was poor, the tour itself was just bad, or the audio quality was quite poor. There were instances where kimkim didn't provide detail where to go for the tour, told us incorrect start times, or provided incorrect travel times to get to the tour.

Given the money we paid, we didn't expect to take any tours with other people, but in two instances we were provided poor quality tours with at least 15 additional people. A tour of the Vatican was promoted as a 3 hour tour, but was only 2 hours, and we felt VERY rushed. Moreover, the guide failed to take us to St. Peter's Basilica, which we believe should be the highlight of any Vatican tour.

The driver Kimkim scheduled to take us to the Rome airport at 6:30 am failed to show up, causing us to scramble and squeeze into a tiny taxi. Multiple times during the trip, including when we attempted to figure out why the driver didn't show up, kimkim failed to answer its own after-hours "emergency line", which was absolutely inexcusable.

Bottom line ... for the substantial amount we paid, we expected a dramatically better experience.

We used KimKim for a trip to Croatia two years ago and had a wonderful experience. To the extent we had any issues, our Croatian kimkim travel agent gave us her phone number so that if/when we had issues, we had instant contact with her. Kimkim Italy did not provide us with similar information causing us much stress when we had issues.

Kimkim should be highly embarrassed about our experience. To make up for its errors, kimkim ultimately gave us about a 3% refund of the amount we paid ... ridiculously inadequate.