family-pumpped-up-for a classic family safari
Doyen Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2004)
- Member Of:
- Kenya Tourism Board
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $480 to $1,200 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
AE
Email Ashley Vera | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Liar, Thief, Coward and an Overall Scam!
I am absolutely disgusted with how horribly I was treated during my stay in Kenya after booking through Doyen Safaris. The owner, Kennedy, is the biggest liar, thief and coward I have ever met in my life. When we booked the trip in December, Kennedy was very responsive to my questions and concerns and gave me an itinerary with all of the hotels I would be staying in, so I felt comfortable and excited for the trip. But that was all a lie. From the moment we arrived in Kenya, there were several mix-ups and we were not delivered what we were promised. The hotels we stayed in were 3 of the most disgusting, dirty, old, and unsafe accommodations I have stayed in. The sheets we marked with blood from the mosquitoes and the beds had dirt on them. We were supposed to stay in glamorous tents when we went to Masai Mara, but I was shocked when we got there and I learned that first off I had to share a tent with a total stranger I had met in the car an hour before and second the place was a complete dump and even had a mouse in it. My group was promised a private tour but soon realized Kennedy had placed us with two other travelers. Every time we tried calling Kennedy to fix these issues he would tell our driver, Stanley, he was too busy to talk. The one great thing about the trip was our driver. Stanley was absolutely amazing and made the safari worth it, but anything else Kennedy was involved in was a complete disaster. The food was included in our package and it was the worst food I have ever eaten and I actually came home with typhoid fever because of the dire conditions of the camp. On my last night in Nairobi I was supposed to stay at the hotel Kennedy listed in my itinerary but of course when I got to Nairobi he said the plan had changed because the hotel was booked (he had already done this to us the day before with another hotel as well). I became very angry with Kennedy and began listing all the things that had gone wrong since the start of the trip and he acted like this was brand new information to him even though Stanley had been telling him all along what was going on. He denied everything and seemed shocked when I told him I had to share a tent with a stranger and he blamed the camp. He refused to take any responsibility and promised me he would put me in a 4 star hotel to make up for it. He had a driver take me to another hotel and as soon as we pulled up I knew this was not a 4 star hotel. It was a complete dump. They showed me to my room and when we walked in it turns out there was someone staying in that room already, so we went back to the lobby. I called him and told him this was not acceptable and that I had paid him a lot of money in order to stay in a nice hotel. I sent him several pictures of acceptable hotels I had found online and told him any of those would be fine. He asked me to go to booking.com and pay for the room and that he would send me money a week later through PayPal. Obviously I refused and told him he had to come to the hotel and sort it out right away. He finally came to the hotel and looked upset and annoyed and tried to convince me to stay there. I told him I would not stay there and he just sat around not saying or doing anything for about 20 minutes. Finally he got up and walked out of the hotel without saying a word. After 10 minutes I had the driver call him and he said he was figuring something out. An hour later I was still sitting in the lobby and now he was ignoring the driver's phone calls. I had the hotel call him and he told them to tell me I could either stay there or find my own place and pay for it myself. I was SO upset. What a liar, thief and a coward. Absolutely disgusted that these kinds of people actually exist. Do NOT book with this company. This man is only out for one thing. Your money. My goal is to spread this to as many people as possible so they don't have to experience what I did.
DO NOT TRUST THESE PEOPLE. They ripped me off TERRIBLY.
I previously wrote a review on this company for January 2015. IGNORE IT. please make your booking elsewhere. Unfortunately I discovered too late that these people ripped me off. They stole money from me which I could then not spend helping children from the poorest regions in Kenya. When they were caught out recently, they just denied everything and disappeared. I came to Kenya to set up my charity for abused children, which these people knew. They charged me what I now know to be extremely overpriced amounts for multiple driving services. Despite my best intentions for the poor children in Kenya, these people from this company still had the audacity to rip me off and steal from me. The amount they took from me has greatly deprived the little kids in my charity whose lives I am trying to save. I am ashamed that I trusted these people.