Kilipath African Safari
- Office In:
- Size:
- 1-5 employees (Founded in 2022)
- Member Of:
- TALA & AITA
- Tour Types:
- Customizable private tours and fixed group tours
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $180 to $600 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
FI
20-35 years of age
I do not trust this company! They cancelled an already confirmed trip a few hours before as they resell peoples paid tickets
I would never trust this company!! We had booked a safari trip directly through them well in advance, paid the deposit as advised and received a confirmation of booking together with flight tickets. The night before our trip the company emails us at 10:02pm (pickup was agreed for 6:30am) to inform that they cancel our trip. They gave us no reason for cancellation and when our hotel staff called them, they told that they had re-sold our tickets to someone else. Later on they told us that airline had canceled the flight, which we found out to be a lie and no flights were actually canceled…
So besides causing us a huge disappointment, they also decided to blindly lie to us and not take any responsibility of their actions whatsoever. Our customer service representative Charity also decided to stop responding our emails leaving us unanswered.
All in all, incredibly bad customer service and non-reliable company. I highly recommend to book through someone else!
Reply from Kilipath African Safari
Posted on Feb 22, 2024I want to express our deepest apologies for the unfortunate experience you encountered during your recent booking with us. We understand the importance of your trip and the impact our actions had on your plans.
Regarding the cancellation of your flight tickets, we would like to clarify that it was not our decision to cancel, but rather an unexpected action taken by one of our new airline partners. We deeply regret any confusion caused by the conflicting information you received.
Our team acknowledges the disappointment this situation brought, and we want to assure you that we took immediate steps to address the issue. We extended our sincere apologies to you through direct communication and even dispatched a staff member to your accommodation to provide a face-to-face explanation and express our regret.
In terms of the refund, We have already fully refunded our customer and we understand the frustration this has caused, and we genuinely regret any inconvenience.
We take your feedback seriously and are conducting a thorough internal review to prevent such incidents in the future. Our aim is to provide reliable and professional services, and we deeply apologize for falling short of your expectations.
We appreciate your understanding and hope to have the opportunity to regain your trust in the future.
Below is the payment we received from our customer and also there is proof of the full refund from PesaPal reversal.
Payment Received
Payment through Pesapal
KILIPATH SAFARIS TZ, TANZANIA
13, February 2024
USD 103.63
You have a new PesaPal payment of USD 103.63 from Emma Confirmation Code: 7078172770436888303013
Payment Method
Card
Confirmation No
7078172770436888303013
Reference No
518758
Payment No
0085322402043801
Full Refund
Dear Merchant,
Your reversal request for a transaction with reference 7078172770436888303013 was processed successfully on 15, February 2024 and USD 103.63 has been credited to the client's account. Reversal code 7078172770436888303013-REF
DE
Email Anna Zielinska | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
I recommend you go for another agency!
We (my sister and myself) were discussing what score would be the most appropriate here.
We were hesitating between 1 and 2.
And eventually decided to evaluate our experience with Kilipath for one star.
Pity but we couldn’t have found any positive aspect of our most anticipated trip.
I started browsing safari options a bit more than 1 month before our journey to Tanzania. I sent out several inquiries and eventually decided for Kilipath that was able to accommodate my requests quite promptly.
My contact with Judith (coordinator) was efficient. She was very responsive. I was really amazed by how quickly she agreed to embrace my ideas and come up with a satisfactory itinerary.
But it turned out that this quick agreement has its own price…
Once she confirmed she can accommodate all my requests, I paid the required deposit (20% of the full price) and I was happy I finally got it sorted.
The day before the planned start of our North safari, we flew from Dar es Salaam and very late in the evening landed on the Kilimanjaro airport where we have been picked up by Judith and then we headed to Arusha.
We were extremely tired.
The very first thing Judith told us was that our itinerary has been changed and instead of visiting Tarangire Park first we’ll be traveling to Serengeti Park (that is much farther) and Tarangire was put at the end of the trip (not logical at all since Tarangire is the closest destination from Arusha). She said it has been requested by the rest of the group (it was a joining safari). I know the logistics is tough & tight and the accommodation bookings and also parks’ permits need to be managed in advance. However the fact she didn’t tell us that asking for our consent was outrageous. She changed the plan without our approval. She decided on our behalf that is in my opinion unacceptable.
The second info she provided us with was… a tipping guidance. She said it’s expected to tip everyone, including herself (!!!) 10$ per PERSON per day (sic!). That was too much for us.
We know what are recommended tips in Tanzania and 10$ are always appreciated as an amount per group and not per person, especially that there were only two of us (not a big group at all).
At this very moment I got speechless and stopped being chatty.
She also told us that we need to pay for breakfast in our hotel in Arusha (accommodation provided by the agency).
The next day we have been picked up by our “guide” (quotation mark on purpose; explained in another review) and realized there were two other people with us, so only the four of us were going to travel.
It turned out the agenda was changed on request of some other people who were supposed to participate in the safari, but they didn’t show up (either their flight has been cancelled or they missed their flight).
So the agenda was adjusted to people who eventually didn’t take part in the safari and all other people who were traveling were forced to go for it although no one was happy with that.
Another thing was that we were put into a safari group organized by another agency (not Kilipath) and we also haven’t been notified on this; needless to say: asked for our consent. Just shocking.
About the other agency we were on safari with (Serengeti African Tours) I posted a separate review.
This was our first joining safari experience in Tanzania and we didn’t realize that some definitions used by Kilipath in the quote we got (with the detailed plan of the safari) was very ‚tricky’ or better said: misleading.
Later (after another, private safari) when we realized how safari logistics looks like (or should look like, at least), we found some very weird terms in our Kilipath quote, e.g.: ‚transfer game drive’.
There is ‚a game drive’ (driving at a slow pace when you can find animals and observe them) and there is ‚a transfer’ where you are heading to another destination (a normal driving at a normal speed, so: no way you can contemplate animals, because you’re in hurry to reach next place).
There is ‚a game drive’ and there is ‚a transfer’. There is not such a thing like ‚a transfer game drive’! Be aware and cautious! Read your quotes very carefully before agreeing on anything!
Our safari (led by another company) was also a very unfortunate affair (I wrote another review that points out its reasons).
After second day in Serengeti we were so sour, disappointed, angry or even furious that we were considering dropping the safari and asking for a partially refund from Kilipath. Really. Eventually did Kilipath offer a 50$ refund which we declined.
To Kilipath: please do not take advantage of the fact you’re local (in a bad or even in a nasty way). Although we are outsiders, we see things and can easily and quickly realize if someone is trying to cheat on us.
I don’t recommend Kilipath at all. Very poor customer service.
I never gave that low score to anyone.
I tried to mention all the aspects of our experience and explain why we didn’t enjoy it, hence the length of the review