Review: Africa Safari, South Africa, Bostwana, Sabi Sands, Victoria Falls, Hot Air Balloon Tour

Upgrading to a different lodge in Bostwana...

TRAVEL COMPANY COMMENTS:

We very much enjoyed working with our client and his group of friends, and were sorry to read that he felt we were not as available by phone as he would have liked. That said, we very much appreciate all feedback from our clients as it helps us maintain and improve the high standards for which our company is known.

In the case of this client, we actually have the good fortune to be headquartered in the same city in which he lives and offered to meet with him in-person in our offices from the outset, but our schedules didn’t come together. The balance of our interactions were by phone and by email.

Phone call limitations aside, we are very pleased to have provided to this client (and all our clients) highly personalized services including a custom-tailored itinerary designed to fit his preferences and budget, specialized invoicing to assist him with billing for his party of 4, significant communications between our offices and members of his party when a medical emergency arose pre-departure, quick action when it turned out one of the travelers had an expiring passport, and a surprise gift of a hot air balloon ride to ensure his trip was truly memorable.

Our service also includes regular check-ins with clients while they are traveling via our on-the-ground Concierge to be sure everything is satisfactory. This was no different for this client's party and, in fact, the feedback we received was that they were “having a fantastic time”.

We did learn later, however, that two members of the group are vegetarian and were disappointed in the dining options available to them at their first lodge in Botswana. Had this been communicated to us on the booking form we supply to all our clients the moment we confirm their trip, we would have advised all the lodges and on-ground teams so they could prepare. Unfortunately, the booking forms returned for these two guests showed “none” written into the section on dietary requirements (which specifically calls out “vegetarian”), therefore we assumed, as did our ground team, that there were no special dietary needs.  Of note, however, is that since we do check-in throughout the trip at each and every lodge, once we were alerted about the vegetarian needs from the first lodge in Botswana, we then quickly communicated that to the rest of the lodges on the trip who then seamlessly attended to that for them at all of the remaining stays, 

Additional good news is that overall the trip was an incredibly enjoyable one for this party (“amazing” was the word this client used to describe it upon his return, as well as looking forward to planning a return Africa trip) and we hope we have the good fortune to work with them again.