smarTours

In early January, I called to book a trip with Smartours.com to go to Turkey on 10/3 to 10/16, 2012. I was told over the phone to send in $300 to hold my place, so I sent in a check. I called today and told them due to ill health, I could not go. I spoke to Esther and she said the $300 was non-refundable but they would offer a credit of $150 for another trip within a year. I told her I was never told the $300 was non-refundable and had sent the check on 1/13/2012. The invoice with the information that the deposit was non-refundable was not sent out until 1/23/2012. I said the trip was 7 months away and I was not told, but they will not refund my money. I am 82 and need the money now that my health is bad.

I have been reading these complaints about smarTours. We have taken four trips with them without a mishap. Some of these stories about losing money because of missed flights or family issues make me think that these folks might need to consider using a separate provider for their travel insurance. We never use travel insurance provided by the tour operator. That is asking for trouble. We just returned from a Danube cruise with smarTours and were very pleased. It is true that most of their employees with whom you speak are rude and not forthcoming. You just have to accept that and go on. I did have a situation with the last trip where the lady at smarTours was most helpful. She even suggested not using their travel insurance, which I wouldn't have used anyway. I will use smarTours again and try to be smart about how I make my travel arrangements.

We recently returned from 2 weeks in Israel with smarTours and had the best vacation we've ever had. The tour guide was excellent, the hotels were top of the line, and the sight-seeing was wonderful, traveling aboard a luxurious tour bus. Not having cancelled, I can't speak to their policies, but we did purchase insurance just in case.

Had to cancel trip due to extended family illness that was not covered in the trip insurance policy. We canceled 4 weeks ahead of time. The whole trip was canceled by Smartours for a full refund of those who did not cancel. Moral of the story, do not pay in cash! I will not use this group again.

Smartours customer service is extremely rude and disrespectful. When asking questions that couldn't be found on their website, customer service reps consistently interrupted me and the operations manager even hung up on me after she was done talking. They were condescending and over-powered the conversation by talking over me.

The operations manager refused to answer basic questions and demanded an email be sent instead. When inquiring about changing my trip plans (this costs $150 per person), customer service refused to provide me with policy details for this change (what trips it applies to, whether the original trip deposit is used as a future deposit or the cost of the trip, how long in future I can schedule new trip, etc.). Instead, customer service said I needed to cancel my trip plans first and then they would provide me the details. I originally gave Smartours a "non-refundable" deposit of $600 for a trip. After speaking with their customer service, I do not want to go on the trip because of the way they treated me.

This is a commendation not a complaint. My grandson and I went to China last year with them and it was excellent from start to finish. I was so pleased that I am trying to set up another tour this year, with another grandson.

This is in response to Emily of Los Angeles' complaint of Jan. 29, 2010 regarding her smarTours of Thailand. Trip insurance covers most of the expenses you paid for and did not get to use. You should contact them. I am surprised that smarTours didn't point you in their direction. If you didn't have trip insurance, the person that is trying to profit from your tragedy is you and you need to grow up. SmarTours clearly defines their refund policy in the terms and conditions section of their website.

I purchased two trips for the Amazing Thailand tour as a present for my mom's birthday. Several months before the trip, I lost my job and was having a tough time in general. A few days prior to the departure, we had a tragedy that occurred and I didn't think that we would be able to go on the trip. I called smarTours and spoke to a manager and explained to her my situation.

I told her about the tragedy that occurred and also about the fact that I have been out of a job for several months and that this trip was the only thing that we were looking forward to. I explained that I didn't know if we would be able to travel because of this tragedy. She seemed to understand our situation and told me that she would help us out and that if we cancelled in writing she would be able to give us credit for any money they would be able to get back, minus whatever fees would be applied for the cancellations. The credit was to be applied for a future tour. I hesitated before cancelling in writing but she insisted that it's the only way for her to help me. I did as she instructed and cancelled in writing.

A few days afterwards, I called and spoke to the same manager. She assured me that everything was fine and that it will take some time before all the money is refunded to them. Several weeks passed and there was no communication from her. I called to check up on the progress and she told me that she was very sorry but that they were unable to recover any refunds. She said that both the airlines and hotels didn't refund any money.

I was very upset to hear that but accepted it as truth. The next day, just to be sure there wasn't any misunderstanding, I called the airline and spoke to a manager and she told me that everything minus a small fee was refunded back to smarTours all the hotels on the tour also had a full refund policy minus some fees. When I called back to speak to the manager about this, I was connected to another person who said that yes, they did get most of the money back but that they were not going to give me a credit. If I wanted to book another trip I have to pay full price.

Only after that conversation did I realize why ** was putting so much pressure on me to cancel in writing. This way they got a refund back from the airline and hotel and kept most of the money. I had a bad experiences with other businesses before but this was the first time that I experienced a business that would take advantage of some one's tragedy to make a profit. I made several attempts to contact the general manager about this situation. Every call was answered with, "He's not available" and every letter was ignored. The cost for two trips was $2,900.00

I have always wanted to voice my opinion of smartours in print. This will be my 5th trip with them and they have all been awesome. I've met many people who have travelled on their tours more times than I have. For the value, bang for your buck, you can't go wrong. For example, my husband wanted to go to just Australia, plan our own trip, but I said look, we can go to Australia, New Zealand, and Tahiti for 4000$. There is NO WAY we could have seen what we saw for that money if we had done it ourselves. Tahiti isn't included anymore because it is SO expensive but even without it's a good deal.

The Thailand trip was unbeleivable for the value. I took my neice on the Kenyan one and she still gives presentations on her experiance at school. Have you seen the prices listed for a 12 day safari with other groups?? It's like 5500$ and we paid 2800. My least favorite was the Tango Express...but I was in a bad mood and they don't have dates for it anymore. We leave for the Italy one in March and I will be very surprised if my mother, whom likes to complain, has any. I can't say enough positive things about smartours. I love them.

We were on a tour of Eastern Europe. All we got were a city tour and then everything else was an additional cost like on a cruise ship: anexcursion. That didn't seem very fair. The Hotel Scandia had a nice lobby, but the rooms were NOT any 4 or 5 star rooms altho they claim to be. Helsinki is VERY expensive. On the trip, we pretty much set out on our own, using the metro or public transportation. COncierge advice on where to go and what to do. We did SmarTOurs to India and it wasn't like this one-it was exactly what it said it was going to be-no excursions. If it was an add-on, we knew about it first.

This is in response to Barry of No-Woodmere, NY ((06/13/06) complaint re SmarTours Russian River Cruise from St.Petersberg to Moscow May 29 to June9.

My wife were on the same cruise at the same time. Barry must be a chronic complainer as our experience was the exact opposite.First of all the cost was about half of what other tour companies charge. The cabins were small but no smaller than some cabins on cruise ships. All the rooms were cleaned and vacuumed daily. The food was not gormet, but quite good with normal proportions plus you always order more if you so desired. The bathroom shower configuration was different from U.S. ships but quite adequate. You did not have to buy bottled water. The ship had drinking water avilable but passengers were advised it tasted different due to the factthe type chemicals used to purify were different from the U.S..

Finally in the SmarTours literature sent prior to the trip it stated: Do not compare to American standards. The river vessels were specifically built for cruising Russian Waterways; therefore, though quite comfortable they should not be compared with ocean cruises.

It is not fair to give SmarTours a bad name just because you expected first class accomodations for economy prices.

next time Barry should stay home.

RE Russian River cruise St Petersberg to Moscow May 29 to June 9, basically my complaints are about the ship 1-i didnt expect to find large size cabins but this was ridiculous, twice the size of a phone booth. My wife and I couldnt stand side by side and had a hard time passing each other.

2- my 6 year old grandson would just about fit on the bed. The mattress being about 1-2 inches thick and looking and feeling 20 years old. Sheets were changed only one time. 3- room was not vacuumed properly and appeared dirty . 4- there was no regular shower in bathroom -- hand held shower head in sink and large drain on the floor. I felt i was back in the army. 5- the food was atrocias. the portions minuscule for adults.micro pieces of meat in stews etc. Ate lots of bread with soup. I could not eat many meals as the food not only looked awful but tasted bad. 6- you had to buy water otherwise you were told not to drink the water from tap as you might get sick.

We took the Smartours 11 day trip through Eastern Europe. For reasons of economy, I assume, we were routed from JFK through Helsinki to Budapest. The time between flights was 40 minutes. When we questioned Smartours we were assured that the plane would be held if it was late. The plane was late and the flight was not held. We were told that the reason was that there was only 6 people from the tour on the flight and this was not sufficient to hold the flight. The next flight to Budapest was 8 hours later.

The result was that: 1. We lost most of a day in Budapest 2. We were late to the Welcome Dinner. We questioned the tour guide who basically told us that nothing could be done to compensate us. In fairness, the rest of the trip went reasonably well.

Booked trip to south america, was there 6 days, and when group arrived in buenos aires, tour escort told me my trip was cancelled and had a strange man take me from the domestic airport to the international airport and send me home with no explanation, no change to prepare for an international flight, and over half of my trip was aborted at that point. I did not want to leave,had paid for this trip months ago, and there was no reason for this. if the tour company had a problem, they should have advised me not on sat. afternoon, but thu or fri at which time i could have contacted the company in new york, as of course they are not open on sat, and i was not properly packed for an international flight of almost 15 hours.

My wife and I were supposed to leave on vacation to Vietnam on 2/17/03 from Fort Lauderdale and connect with Korean Air for the tour's transantlantic flight at JFK. As a result of the “snowstorm of the century” all flights to JFK were cancelled. When called smarTours for help, we only got a recitation of their rules and policies, such as no rescheduling of our vacation to another date, no refund of any kind and no offer of assistance with Korean Air who would only agree to rebook us on a flight either from JFK or LAX five days later.

We did get a good suggestion though from Sheila: “lose your paid vacation and book a new one with us”. Korean Air stated to us (also stipulated on their tickets) that the tickets are non-endorsable but are refundable, however, if we cancel the entire air portion to take another airline, a refund would only be made to smarTours who just told us they will give us none.

Smelling a trap and no other choice, we had to buy, completely on our initiative and expense, a new, one-way ticket from Miami to Bangkok on another airline, and got there a one day late to join the group. In spite of our request, their local agent specifically told us he received no instructions about our late arrival nor the authorization to provide the local services we lost.

When, on our return, we asked Sheila for a refund of the unused flight segment and the lost service in Bangkok we were, just as she indicated before, denied both. Our first letter of complaint about their service, by regular mail, on 3/11/03 was ignored. A second, sent by registered mail on 3/31/03 deserved an answer saying our claims for lack of help are untrue, a hearsay and conveniently ignoring the issues of the refunds by shifting the responsibility to a travel insurance. We have the Korean Air tickets in question and the name of the agent who tried to help us on 2/17 if needed.

The total economic damage resulting was $1713.80 consisting of the cost of two one-way tickets to join the group and one lost tour day.