MX
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Scam Tour Operator (works close with Arusha Police Department)
My wife and I were booked a 5 day Safari Tour with Felix Kisamo (owner of Unison Safari) from January 1 2017 to January 6 2017.
To everyone reading this reviews "Do not book Unison Safaris" for any reason, is a dangerous tour company runned by a man called Felix Kisamo who works close with the local police department of Arusha to get away with his scams.
He will offer very good prices and promise you the time of your life but once you book with him he starts a "game" of lies asking always for more money.
We were scared for our lives as he picked us up from the airport (he didn't had money even to pay for the gasoline of the car he was driving us with) he told us he had lost all of our money because he kept it at his office which he said was robbed, we demanded him to go straight to the police and the detained him and explained that he has been doing this type of scams for quite some time (the police told us he was not robbed) and that he is full of personal debts and is spending the turists money who book with him to pay them but by doing so he doesn't fulfill what he agrees with tourist as a tour operator (accomodation, guided, park fees, etc.). We spend a whole day at the police station as they tried to make him pay us all the money we had previously paid him (around $3,500 USD) and were only able to get $1,000 USD out of him (after he went with family members collecting money to pay us back), so we had to book with another tour operator having lost $2,500 USD.
We have nothing to gain by writing this other than helping future tourists from being scammed by Mr. Felix, we were also told that many positive reviews you see of him are part of the "scam" as he arranges with people to write them for him to lure more tourist to his scams.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
8 Day Safari to Northern Kenya - highly unprofessional management
Itinerary: Nairobi – Maralal – Loyiangalani (Lake Turkana) – Kalacha – Marsabit – Samburu
First of all, this itinerary is really worth following, especially if you don’t want to just follow the usual touristic path.
Unfortunately, during those 8 days we encountered several grave problems with the tour operator and the manager Mr. Dickson Wambugu. The organization and also the handling of occurring problems was highly unprofessional and therefore we do not advise future clients to book tours through this tour operator!
We booked the tour well in advance, and about a month before departure we transferred the total amount (about 4800$) to the tour operators bank account as requested. Apparently the money was needed in advance to book rooms and organize car, driver and cook.
Several problems occured during the journey :
-Money: The driver and guide were not provided with enough money for the package we had booked. So at some point we had to lend them money in order to proceed with our journey, because the tour manager Dickson Wambugu was not to be reached. Highly unprofessional handling of the whole situation and we had to fight really hard to get that money back! Voluntarily almost no communication with the client throughout this whole situation.
-No accommodation was booked in advance even though the tour operator clearly indicates that in the program. That always made us loose precious time.Some of the campsites do not even exist anymore.
-We booked fullboard. Apparently the driver and cook had not been informed and we had to fight to get it. The food cooked the cook was good, whereas the restaurants offered were very basic and sometimes not very proper.
-Old car with many security issues: no seatbelts, no equipment (e.g. shovel), broken battery (with no money left to fix it)
Overall, the organization and also the handling of occurring problems was highly unprofessional and therefore we do not advise future clients to book tours through this tour operator! Back in Nairobi we reached out to the tour operator to discuss all problems in person. It remained really unsatisfying, because nothing was really explained and no real apology was presented.
We had a good time during this safari because we tried to concentrate on the positive things, have a good time as family and learn about the beauty of this country. However, having chosen a different tour operator surely could have improved the experience and saved us a lot of stress!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Liars, cheaters, scammers
I booked with this company in December 2015 for a safari in March 2016. I was required to wire over $4,000USD to reserve my safari. After doing so, I noticed a few bad reviews so I contacted them about a partial refund if I changed my mind. The refund policy was provided at the time of deposit allowing for cancellations on a tiered level. I then booked with another well-known company and proceeded to request my deposit money from Tembea. They stalled for many months consistently telling me that they would send a refund April 2016. With lies and excuses it was then promised at the latest November 2016. I went on my other safari in March, as planned, and could see evidence of disreputable companies waiting at the reserve gates or being denied entry and realized I had made a better choice on my second try. I have to date received nothing from Tembea but excuses and promises never kept. At this point I have realized I have lost my deposit completely. Choose another company. Very unscrupulous vendor.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fraud - None of our reservations were made despite pre-payment. Do not send them your money!!
We pre-paid for a 7-day safari and 7-day Kilimanjaro trek. Despite pre-paying in full before arrival, none of our reservations had been made as promised. The owner also reversed the order of our safari and mountain trek without notifying us until we arrived. As of this writing, Bramwel Safaris owes me more than $5,000 USD which they are unable to pay.
If you send this company money, you risk arriving in Tanzania with nothing -- no hotels or lodges, no guides, no park fees paid. There is a word for this - it is called theft.
SE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Owner cancelled the trip 4 days before arrival!
I will do my absolute best to hereby share my experience with African Sunset Safaris in the most objective way.
Note: This review do only cover their services in regards of booking accommodation and their general way of working and communicating, since Mr. Haron (the owner) decided to cancel the trip only 4 days before arrival!
Mr. Haron is a well-spoken person. The problem is that he lies a lot!
He lied about the condition of the tents at our confirmed accommodation, and therefore asked us to pay more to move us to another hotel.
He lied about the cost of our accommodation when calculating on our refund.
He lied about the Kenyan tourism levy rate (6% instead of 2%).
He told me it is against the Kenyan law to share the receipt of his payment to the hotel (I have not confirmed this, but I find it very hard to believe).
All in all, his last-minute cancellation made us find another agent in very short notice, in peak season.
It cost us 300 USD more than initial agreement, for the exact same itinerary due to out-sourced jeep rental.
I would never recommend African Sunset Safaris to anyone.
Full time line:
October 10th: We agree on booking of 2 nights at Mara Leisure Camp + game drive in jeep + transport from/to Nairobi at 1400 USD for 2 persons.
October 16th: I transfer 945 USD (~70 % of total amount) to Haron as deposit.
October 24th: Haron confirms payment is received and "hotel is cleared".
Dec 18th: Haron emails: "I had to move you from Mara leisure to Sarova Mara due to unavoidable reason being at Leisure the were affected by the short rains two weeks ago and currently most of there tents are under Maintenance." ... "I kindly advice we shall have a small hick on the price by USD 250."
Dec 19th: I find Haron's message suspicious and contacts Mara Leisure Camp directly to verify that their tents actually are under maintenance. Their sales manager dismisses this false facts and personally guarantees there are no problems with their facilities. They also say "your booking is still on tentative status awaiting for payment to confirm". (meaning my pre-payment had not yet been received by the hotel!)
Dec 21st: I get back to Haron: "We believe we will be very satisfied with Mara Leisure Camp, even though the tents are in bad condition.
I want you confirm the booking of a Nyati tent at Mara Leisure Camp ASAP and send them the money to confirm the reservation before it gets lost to any other client."
Dec 21st: Mr. Haron now seems to feel neglected and decides to cancel both the safari game drive and transport! However, he promises to pay the money to Mara Leisure and refund us the remaining amount of 200 USD.
Dec 22nd: I asked Mr. Haron about a reciept for his payment to Mara Leisure to confirm that 200 USD is the correct amount to refund. He now refers to their listing rates instead (which is higher that his agent rates) and concludes that I actually owe him additional 35 USD, but in the same e-mail he also states that he is willing to refund 200 USD anyway as a Christmas gift (?!).
Dec 22nd: Still without showing any receipt of his payment to Mara Leisure, I at least get the 200 USD in refund.
Jan 10th: After a number of emails to Haron and Mara Leisure Camp, I finally received a copy of Haron's payment of 716 USD, i.e. 264 USD less that what he tried to tell us when referring to their public listing rates + Christmas supplement.
PT
Company not good
Dont recomend this company.
They give diferent from wath they sell in the ofice. We pay for 3 days safari and day give 2 days only, thay say yhe 3 day is to return in Arusha web the distancie is 2 hours.
They ate nor correct to in the hotel day sai, wen we bay they day we sleep in lodge in ngorongoro caráter but we sleep in camping.
If you book with them tell to right everithing in the recipt because after they tell we are nor correct.
IL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Shabani's scam
We booked 4 days safari with Shabani's company. It was a disaster!!
1. The cars were completely full. 9 people including the chef instead of 7 as promised. When we asked Abdul (our guide) to solve this issue he gave us unacceptable solutions (leave the chefs and that we will cock for our self). Also the cars were fulled with equipment so there was no place for the legs.
2. Abdul the guide was unprofessional. After we talked to him about some of the problems he decided not to talk to us and didn't explain anything during the game drives, even not the names of the animals. He was just a taxi driver that took us from one location to another.
3. Time in the Safari weren't as promised. In the first day of the Sarangeti we had only two hours of game drive.
4. A lot of small annoying issues: there were not enough tents in the first night for everyone, in the second day the chefs refused to wake up early in the morning to make us breakfast because it was too "early" for them.
When we came to Abdul ,asking for solutions for our problems he didn't show any intention to figure out them out and he even blamed us one time that the reason we got late to the Sarangeti (16:30) is because we asked him to stop to photograph giraffes on the way.
When we got back to Arusha we went to Shabanis office to talk with him about everything. During the talk he blamed us for being "hard customers" and didn't even say he was sorry about anything. Eventually he started to talk in aggressivly when we said we will write a bad recommendations. When we got out from his office (without any compensation) he even tried to hit one of the girls and we had to stop him. When we walked out to the street he keep followed us, this was really scary and unpleasant.
I think Sahabani is a dangerous man and even that his prices is low it doesn't worth the bad feeling.
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very bad experience with this company
Very unhappy with Richard Kilonzo and his Safari company:
We booked a 7- day Safari with Richard Kilonzo. To start with, we arranged that somebody from his company would pick us up at the bus station and take us to our hotel; nobody came. Someone from the bus station that didn' t work for him took us to his office. The entrance to the office is embarrasing, full of mud and puddles. He showed himself very friendly the very first day. Not like that the last day when we came back from Safari, that hardly had time to speak to us.
We were supposed to spend a full day driving in Ngoron- goro crater, from 06.00 a.m. until late in the afternoon, as it was written in the planing that he had sent to us when booking the Safari.
Our surprise was that the night before going into the crater he told us that it was not possible to spend the whole day. We could only be inside the crater for 4 hours (from 06.00 until 10.00 a.m.) and then we had to go out of the Park. The problem was that he should have paid one more day fees for us (we were four people in the jeep) in the crater, but he did not. He told us that "laws have changed lately" and he could not do anything, so if we wanted to stay more time in the crater, we should pay the extra- charge. If you look in the Official Website of the Parks, since so many years, the entrance- fee is paid for a 24- hour stay; if you want to stay longer, you have to pay another entrance. He lied to us. So after all, we could not be in Ngoron- goro crater for longer, which is one of the best Parks in Tanzania.
Moreover, the last two nights we were supposed to sleep in Tarangire campsite. He tried to convince us to sleep everywhere else, telling me that in that campsite there was no water (I do not know why), but finally, after my insistence, we slept there.. with hot- water showers. The last day or the Safari we were supposed to have a morning- drive game in Tarangire before coming back to Arusha, and what we really did was to have breakfast in the campsite and inmediately come back to the city; no game driving our last day of Safari, as it was written in our initial planning. He told us that we didn' t ask for the driving that morning... Why have I to ask about something I have already paid and it was included in the Safari plan??
Another german couple came with us for 4 days in the Safari. Richard changed their plans almost everyday, even every 2-3 hours sometimes the planning changed...
I would not recommend at all this company for a Safari in Tanzania. You cannot trust this man absolutely. He sold us a Safari that we haven´ t really done. I strongly recommend every tourist to look for another better and more reliable choice.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Dishonest and Disorganised
We booked with Bonfire Adventures for a 3 day trip to Mara Maasai and after our experience would not recommend Bonfire Adventures for the following reasons.
1. Disorganised.
Bonfire were highly disorganised. I felt as if I was doing most of the organisation and I was trying to organise their agent to book things for us. I had to repeatedly follow up with them about if they had made the booking and what time we would be collected to start the Safari. They only confirmed who was collecting us at 7pm the night before we were due to leave at 7am the next morning. They asked us to let the driver know where to collect us from even though we had already provided them with that information more than a week in advance.
2. Dishonesty
We asked them for a quote as to the cost, which they provided to us. It wasn't until after we paid that they informed us that they had quoted us the residents rate rather then non-residents rate and would have to pay more money. I have a very English first and surname so I have no idea why they would assume that I was a resident. They then said that I should have known that it was the residents rate as they had charged us in the local currency rather then US dollars. I asked them to return my money to me as I did not want to pay extra as this would make the safari significantly more expensive. It was only at this point they said that they could actually offer it to us at the residents rate.
Perhaps more disappointing was that they were dishonest with money. I sent them the money for the Safari and paid the bank fees. According to my calculations I unintentionally underpaid them 700 KES (Approx. 7 USD) due to the different the conversion rates. However Bonfire said that I had underpaid them by 5,600 KES (Approx. 53 USD). When I questioned this they said the difference must be due to bank fees. I went back and checked that and in fact I had already paid these fees. I asked for further proof of exactly how much they received in the transfer but they only provided an internal spreadsheet, but nothing from their bank. I have asked them to provide me with a way to pay the remaining 700 KES and am waiting to hear back from them.
3. Driver
The driver was also disappointing as at the end of our Safari we were dropped off at Lake Naivasha. He put pressure on us to pay him to drive us back to Nairobi after we were finished at the lake in a few days time. He asked us to pay him $120,000 KES and told us that we wouldn't get anyone to drive us back to Nairobi for less then $100,000 KES. We phoned a great driver we had previously used in Nairobi who immediately suggested a much more reasonable price of 70,000 KES and didn't pressure us at all to go with him.
They also ask to do a client feedback form which you then return to the staff who you are assessing so its difficult to give honest and open feedback in these circumstances.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Unethical business practices
The director, Naphtally, accepted our payments in advance. Upon the very morning of the start of our safari, the local tour guide showed up with Naphtally on the phone. He claimed the government was slow in allowing bank transfers into the country, etc. He asked that we pay for the park fees in advance with our credit card and that he would in turn reimburse us for the different at the end of the tour. In fact, he has not paid the tour guide, the local operator, or us. It is unfortunate because he gives tourists a bad feeling about all local companies which is unfair and unethical. Do NOT give this company any of your money or business.