I loved Kenya as a country. The safaris and the animals were spectacular. Unfortunately, I did not have the greatest experience with the tour company, African Breeze tours, and the booking agent, Cate. I was told day 1 that 2 of my hotels had been changed - 1 in Masai Mara because of new park regulations (which were actually changed in July but I was only told about it on pick up day). The other hotel was changed to fit in with other people’s schedules.
It wasn’t made apparent to me until I was on the tour that all the tour companies combine their clients’ itineraries to be more fuel efficient etc. My 3rd and 4th day were reversed to fit in with another couple’s itinerary. Because of this, a 3rd hotel was changed of mine and I wasn’t told until we arrived at the hotel. The communication was lacking which I found very frustrating, as did the other guests (on my behalf) on the trip.
On the last night at the last lodge, Cate messaged me asking that I pay the lodge $160 USD as her colleague had not paid the hotel for my stay. She said she would make arrangements for me to get cash back but the communication thus far hadn’t been ideal and our drivers didn’t always seem to know what was going on with everyone’s itineraries. So I said it was the responsibility of African Breeze to resolve and eventually they did.
I’d been disappointed with the lack of communication along the way with all the hotel changes and had requested a refund for the price differences of the hotels that had been changed as some appeared to be to a different standard to what I’d been told I was booked into. Following this request, I received various aggressive and unprofessional messages from Cate stating that I fell into the “bad tourist” category, that I was an “unkind” and “bad person”, and that no one would believe me in this review simply because of my request. I had to block her via email and WhatsApp because of the harassment. In all of my travels I have never once been spoken to and treated the way Cate has treated me and it is a real shame but I will NEVER be booking through this company again.