Several mistakes were made
Switzerland
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Oct 3 - Oct 7, 2024
I do not think I would this company again for future trips. While we had a mostly enjoyable vacation, there were several avoidable mistakes made for our trip to Switzerland.
The initial issue was that our company waited for about four weeks after our deposit to arrange our hotel reservations. At this point, one of the hotels was full, so the company switched us to a different hotel. That hotel ended up being our least favorite, with stiff beds and no one at reception for much of the day. I believe it was the same tier hotel as the one quoted, but it begs the question as to why they delayed four weeks.
The second issue, which was much larger, was that they booked one hotel room for our trip when we had requested two. When I caught their mistake, the tour company’s response was that this was our fault, since we did not catch their mistake on their first itinerary. They wrote saying we needed to pay them an additional $1300 to get the second room. I had to call Kimkim to sort it out, and ultimately we received the two rooms that we had requested. However, this experience left a bad taste in our mouths given the initial response and having to argue about it. And for the record, follow-up communication from Kimkim was non-existent: I heard nothing from either company for a week while this was being resolved, which was stressful, and in fact never received a single follow-up from Kimkim about it at all.
The third issue was another attention-to-detail mistake. The tour company told us they made seat reservations for our train trip to Jungfrau, a popular tourist destination. This was written, in bold, on our itinerary. When we got to the station, we encountered hundreds of people, and we got stopped at the turnstiles and turned back for not having reservations at all. Two ticket attendants confirmed that we were holding non-reservation 2nd class tickets, and we were told to wait in line for the next available train with open seats. Long story short, our 1.5 hour trip took 3.5 hours, as we waited a full two hours in line, as train after train filled up with pre-reserved travelers and tour groups. This was a truly miserable experience.
My conclusion is that the time needed to double-check and correct the tour company’s mistakes could be better spent simply planning the trip on my own.
Activity Review
This was an enjoyable experience. We learned a bit about chocolate, got to taste many varieties from dark to white chocolate and each made three chocolate bars.
We would like to clarify that, following your initial booking, we secured one room for your stay, as per the confirmed itinerary at that time. When we were later informed of your need for a second room, we worked closely with KimKim to find a solution that would be both accommodating and fair.... Read more