US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
BEWARE OF THIS SCAMMER/CON ARTIST! Stole < $10K from US tourists
BEWARE OF THIS SCAMMER/CON ARTIST! If you come across Splendor Holidays and the owner Lucy Njeri- RUN. We made a mistake of trusting her partner Glory with Glorious Tanzania, who my best friend in the states has known for a decade. Glory was only able to provide services for TZ, so she referred me to her “amazing partner” in Kenya. We started planning this trip back in May of 2022.
At first Lucy was very responsive, the price was fair, and the itinerary seemed decent. Our entire trip was planned around the Giraffe Manor in Nairobi. She promised us that she got us a slot on June 5, 2023. We also requested a stay at Mahali Mzuri and she confirmed the dates were free. She confirmed that she had already booked these, and she asked for 50% deposit, which we sent. I sent the funds for a group of three travelers totaling $10,477. We had some conversations throughout the year, and she promised the trip was well planned and in March she claimed her sister died and she would get us a final itinerary.
On May 2, 2023, we were doing the visas when we found out her website was down. When we discovered that, I reached out. She stated that her friend’s mother had died, and she would get back to us. Glory went to Kenya to take Lucy to jail, she supposedly spent 3 days in jail. She admitted on video and via messages she used the money for personal reasons. She claimed that it was for funeral expenses.
When I was in Kenya I went to the embassy and the had me go to the police station, which is how we found out the police report number and court documents were fake. They watched the video of her “arrest” and find it very difficult to believe it was a police station. When Lucy was released, Glory sent me a photo of herself, Lucy, her mom and another person all smiling in a selfie, which is absolutely bizarre.
When I took it up on social media, a few people mentioned her sister died a few years ago. Not in March and Glory confirmed her mother stated the sister died before as well. Lucy, her cousin, and daughter have all been reaching to me and no funds has been returned. They sent a “contract” stating that they would pay it back in 10 months, it’s July and I haven’t seen a penny. The last conversation at the beginning on July, Lucy claimed she is still selling the land and it’s taking time.
She is still doing business and I am here to warn people to stay clear. Through my research, I found out she scammed a local tour operator in 2018 and he was unable to recoup funds. She also stole almost $3,000 USD from a tour agent in Uganda and wanted by police there. She also scammed a Canadian tourist out of a few thousand dollars too.
I hope reading this saves you from the trouble we have encountered.
LT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Unreliable and defensive service in Coastal Kenya
I wouldn’t recommend this company for the following reasons:
1. The company doesn’t keep its promises. I wanted to book a tour with them, and we agreed I could make a bank transfer. Yet, since it was a public holiday in my country and the tour was just in the next few days, I warned them they might not receive the funds in their account before the tour, so I asked if I could send a bank statement and a screenshot to prove the transaction. They agreed. However, when I transferred the money and sent the statement with a screenshot, they refused to accept the evidence and said they wouldn’t confirm the tour until they received the funds in their account.
2. Their employees are unprofessional and extremely defensive. Whenever I tried to explain to them that they don’t keep their promises (as described above), they were quick to blame me for everything. For example, they said that I “guaranteed” they would receive the funds on time, which never happened and which is why I asked if they accept statements as evidence of payment. The other day, they emailed me, claiming I used offensive language when talking with them over the phone. However, I saw the phone number they said I called for the first time, and I always contacted them using a different number, so apparently, they mixed me with someone else that was using abusive language with them. No apologies were made on their side for making these false statements about me. The only answer I got from them was that I was “wasting their time.”
3. The company’s approach to receiving client payments seems shady. I paid 110.00 USD for a tour by bank transfer, which was successfully processed by my bank and correctly accepted by their bank. However, they reverted my payment without an explanation. This would be fine, but they refunded only 70.00 USD, meaning 40.00 USD was deducted from my account. When I brought this situation to the company’s attention, they refused to accept that they even got my payment, blaming the banks for not transferring the money to their account. However, I contacted both my and their banks, and both banks confirmed that Travel Shore Africa did receive my money but decided to return it partially without providing any explanation.
All in all, my experience in Mombasa could have been better if I hadn’t contacted Travel Shore Africa. All I got from them was empty promises, disrespect, and lost money.
EC
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
do not perform scheduled tour
chose by rating, not my first safari. feeling that the comments are paid. instead of 3 promised visits to Maasai Mara. only 1, they got underweight back to the hotel, the guide did not hug anything, pulled from the place so that everyone flew around the cabin. people were stuffed into the car like sardines in a jar.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
BEWARE- Did not refund whole deposit for TZ after referring us to a tour operator in Kenya who scamm
Beware of the company and proceed with caution if you need help with major issues. I reached out to Glory around May of 2022 to start planning my trip. The trip was revolved around getting a stay at the Giraffe Manor.
She referred me to her partner in Kenya who she raved about. Lucy with Splendor Holidays, she seemed very responsive and provided a decent itinerary, price and promised she got the room for June 5, 2023. Glory planned her side, and I paid both deposits. There were three people going and I paid $10,477 for Kenya and $2850 for TZ USD.
Everything seemed fine and we kept in touch here and there and as the date inched closer, Lucy claimed in March that her sister passed. By the end of April I started chatting more frequently. On May 2, we were trying to fill out the visa when the website on Splendor Holidays was down. We found out that Lucy wasn’t being responsive or making up excuses. Glory went up to Kenya to have Lucy arrested and she documented everything. Glory provided a police number and the court documents, which was a little off. People on social media and a journalist had pointed out the number wasn’t right, but I gave the benefit of the doubt that there was no way Glory was involved.
Glory said she felt so terrible and that she wasn’t attentive to our tour. She said she had personal reasons and that she let us converse directly with Lucy. Normally, she would arrange things with Lucy (Splendor Holidays) and take the money. I asked her multiple times, why did she change protocol on us, and this happened?
Glory tried to suggest another tour guide to do driving and to pay nearly another $1000. When I reached out to the company, their website was down as well for “reconstruction.” Glory promised she was going to come meet us when we landed in Kenya and she didn’t. Glory did not reach out to us at any point during our Kenya trip, she was silent. We received help from strangers in Kenya.
Due to the complete change in itinerary, my friend and I had originally booked to fly from two different airports in TZ. There was no way to make it work and be able to fly home with a reasonable price. When I reached out to Glory, she only gave us 50% of the deposit back. When I asked why, she said last minute cancellations are very difficult. I asked her to provide the cancellation invoice to submit for my travel insurance or something. She then stated that she doesn’t have them, and it is very exhausting to get the evidence I need.
I told her if I can reach out to the hotels, I think anyone knowing I got scammed would make an exception. She said that her reputation is already ruined, and she will not give me access to the hotels and ruin it by reaching out to them. She also claimed that she respects the hotel’s time and policy. I got upset and said so you don’t respect me and the money I’ve lost. How I spent my dream vacation going to the police, embassy, and running around trying to get my money back from her “wonderful Kenyan partner.” Glory claims she had no idea that Lucy could do this and that she did what she could. She kept saying no one else would do this for me when she caught Lucy.
I finally called Glory out on the fact that she never checked in on me in Kenya and broke her promise of being there. She stated she was following me on social media and gave me space to deal with the embassy and that they would help. She said she had stuff back in TZ to manage and she lost money. I told her it costs $0 to check in.
I had been warned before that there was a chance Glory could be involved and I gave a benefit of a doubt because she was friends for so long with my best friend in the States. There is a chance she has nothing to do with it, but the way she handled it has been terrible and she will not give you back money. She said she’ll make me whole, but in November. It is very odd that she will pay out of her own pocket versus trying to reach out to the hotels to get the deposit back. There is another person on tripadvisor that left very similar feedback about her lack of help. She had mentioned this, and I thought she only had one bad review, but I do believe the validity at this point.
I can give the benefit of the doubt that she had no idea all these tour operators weren’t scammers as she claimed, but the way she responded was unacceptable and because I had questioned Pesapal, the payment platform why Glory required all my banking account including my SWIFT to give my deposit back, she blamed me for the delay. She sent emails calling me a liar, etc…gaslighting me.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The worst thing that happened to us was you guys
You lied to us from airport pick up with a land cruiser n sent us a smaller car n squeezed us in with kids. Booked wrong rooms from ones promised during advance booking.worst experience by far
RO
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Uncoordinated, rushed and disappointing experience.
Having such a beautiful country, this should be such an easy job. Well it was not, it appears that the group I was in was too large for the company so they had to hire an external contractor, 3 busses from the conpany, one outsider. The best experience was the outside contractor. There was no coordination between the drivers, it almost appeared that the 3 drivers from the company had a problem with the outside contractor and did not support him in any way. The 4th driver with the people he had in his care were abandoned 2 times on the safari, one time for 1 hour and a half, when the bus could not move and see anything because the papers for the bus were with the other drivers. So 7 people out of 27 missed a part of the safari, the only encounter with a leopard. After all this, at the end of the safari we were suppose to cross the river and see the big migration, but the car we were in could not cross, luckily we were taken by a total stranger group ... otherwise we would have missed it. Last but not least our driver kept being harrassed by the others to drive faster on public roads, break the speed limit and really put our lives in dager with unsafe driving, I have seen him being called literally every 5 minutes, I felt UNSAFE! So yes ... poor experience in one of the most amazing places in the world!
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible Safari Experience and Unprofessional Tour Guides
This is probably the worst safari experiences I ever had with Startluck Travel. We had a group of 8 people and booked a 10-day package service with the company. The two drivers (also the guides) assigned to us were totally unprofessional, especially one of the drivers who name is Carlos. Carlos had been playing a game during the safari with us all the time. During one of the safari days, he left and dropped us in the middle of the game drive and requested us to join the other group to continue the drive, as he needed to go to pick up the park tickets and had his car have maintenance service. Also, on one of the days, he just disappeared and remained unreachable for the entire day. As a result, we lost one day to experience the game drive and were left in the hotel for doing nothing. The company Starluck however did NOTHING and was unable to resolve the issue after receiving our complaints, which was totally a disappointment.
That being said, this is ABSOLUTLY not a company to recommend.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Unprofessional
AVOID SAFARI UPDATES IF YOU CAN BY ALL MEANS!!
Safari Updates from the airport picked us in a small car with babies when we paid for a landcruiser to and fro pinning it on non existent chaos. Stalled us at a bar with kids while we waited for a second car on the way to transfer into. At the hotel they had us in a cabin with three beds instead of the promised and paid for new builds in the hotel we were staying. Once we checked in, our contact person went MIA, didnt pick any calls after that. We asked for the difference in refunds and they said nothing.
All these just made the trip not worth it at all!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Look Elsewhere
My husband and I just completed a 6 day safari through Kenya from Nairobi to Mombasa with drives through Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru, Amboseli and a sanctuary bordering Tsavo West. We advise you stay away. When we booked the tour, our itinerary listed two game drives through Tsavo West, Tsavo was a bucket list park for both of us, so we were really excited to explore this historical place. Unfortunately on the days of Tsavo, our guide gave us the plan and we were only going to be doing game drives through a resort sanctuary, not through the national park. We felt the company completely misled us about the itinerary and what we thought paid for. Once we expressed our frustration, they told us we were now too far from the actual national park entrance to have any game drives there. This was all after being deceived a couple of days prior about the entrance fee and cost of visiting Lake Naivasha and Crescent Island. Hyrax tried to charge my husband and I $150 USD for this short, optional excursion. We told Hyrax they were overcharging and the entrance to the island wasn’t that much - we checked Crescent Island’s official website which openly lists the price, but we were told by Hyrax that they were being honest with the prices. Once we got to the lake, we took matters into our own hands with what the boat ride and entrance fee actually costs and of course - Hyrax was grossly overcharging us along with the boat company. When we brought this to their attention, they feigned ignorance to the prices or knowledge about the island’s website and listed prices. On our way out of Voi to Mombasa, we discovered they overcharged again for the train ride. They told us they charged us $5 per ticket but the tickets only costs 290KSh (About $2). We were ultimately quite disappointed and frustrated but tried our best to enjoy the animals anyways. Tourists anticipate being overcharged but not disrespected so thoroughly with an apparent professional safari. Look elsewhere.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Horrible experience
We booked this company for both Kenya and Tanzania safaris, They completely spoiled our Kenya Masai Mara experience, the guide we got name called Ole spoiled our complete experience by misguiding us and when we tried to call the tour company owner George, he was not at all responsive while we were in Kenya.
They treated us well while we were in Tanzania got a very good guide name called Omar but our Kenya and Masai Mara experience was horrible.
And when we were suppose to get AA Lodge at Ambosali National park, they gave one basic room where it was not a finished room with open nails and all, the beds were not even equipped with mosquito nets and my kids were bitten by at least 50 Mosquitos on that night.
Summary: Our experience in Tanzania is ok but definitely spoiled my Kenya experience.
I recommend you to avoid this company.
