IN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Beware of this fraudulent agency
They don't organize any tours themselves and are just a broker who work with tour operators.
Beware of such fraudulent agencies, as they will not be available on phone (only way to reach them) after you have made the payment. NONE of the terms and conditions agreed upon will be honoured, and you will be at the mercy of the actual tour operator, who might just decide to extort more money at the time of starting safari.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Stolen our money and cut all contact
We had booked our honeymoon with them for June 2020 before the Covid-19 outbreak. We contacted them when outbreak first occurred and where promised a 90% refund as per their terms and conditions. When we them asked them to process this they went quiet, only replying when contacted on whatsapp and saying the hotels had our money. We have had confirmation from both hotels today that they are refunding 100% of bookings, so no money being held there. When I told Bee Eater safaris this they quickly deleted our correspondence and blocked us on whatsapp and cut all contact so they could steal our money. We are reporting to the police in the hope of justice.
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Worst customer service ever with too many lies.
Four years ago we did make a gamedrive on our own in Moremi N.P. Unfortunately we got stuck and so we decided in 2018 to go again, but now we did book a “professional” gamedrive. Not cheap, but we really wanted to see the park this time.
Unfortunately we did get disappointed again. In a very uncomfortable car and an incompetent guide we did not see what we wanted to see. The guide did not know his way around and lucky enough we had still the map of 2 years ago, otherwise we had to spend the night in the park for he could not find the exit. He was alo unable to find the Black Pool. So sad, because other guides did see some lions there. During the day we saw that nothing did work on the dashboard of the car and that the tires he no profile at all. Because the guide could not find the exit we left the park too late and therfore he drove too fast and if we had not seen a big whole in the road we would have ended up in hosptal. But the emergency stop he had to make because of this, was the end of the car as well. Gladly another car picked us up after a while and did bring us back to Maun.
Of course we did complain and the result was that we should get a refund and than the misery started. Because I am working in travelbusiness I did not go on the internet with this story, to give Bush Baby Call the opportunity to solve this issue in the proper way. He promised to refund us and that was ok with us inspite of our disappointment missing Moremi again. But now after 1,5 years we run out of patience and are really finished with all the lies he told us. A few examples of his OWN MAILS he did send to us:
04-01-2019 You have to check your account in about 7working days i have sent the money this morning
01-06-2019 As for us we will pay your whole amount within this month
16-12-2019 you dont have to make a bad review over $300,00. It will be unfair and you know it.I will send the funds to you.
30-12-2019 I will forward the money when i get back from holidays
02-01-2020 I am going to transfer the money on or before the 30 January 2020
31-01-2020 Can you kindly refresh me with the account details,i seem to have misplaced them,just came back from east africa,i want to forward the refund
04-02-2020 I will definitely send you the proof, i am doing a cheaper transfer method so i will send the proof once it is initiated, please let us finish this transfer,
13-02-2020 Hope this email finds you well, i will make a follow up when i get back to Maun from the safari, i had hoped u have already received it i will also forward the proof.
15-02-2020 I will be back on thursday, i will straight away go to the bank to find out and send proof.
20-02-2020 as far as i am concerned i am not refusing to send you your refund
And many more of these lies. We gave the owner enough time (1,5 years), but now we think the world should now what a lier this person is. Our advice: don’t book here. I think something can go wrong everywhere, but it is so important to solve the issue properly and he failed dramatically.
And many more of these lies. We gave the owner enough time (1,5 year), but now we think the world should know what a lier this person is.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
FRAUDSTERS - DO NOT BOOK
James was very charming and, even up to a few weeks before we departed he accepted extra money from me for an additional safari day. While we were on the runway in Cairo, on the way to Nairobi, I got an email saying the safari was off. We had to book a new safari, with a day's notice (Amazing Memories - highly recommend them and Tony, our guide) at the cost of another USD7500. James from Alliance Destinations owes us USD7000 and, despite promises to refund the money, we haven't heard a thing and not a penny has been refunded. Disgusting behaviour and we could not be more disappointed with James and this company. Of course, they'll reappear under another name so be cautious when dealing with any James at a safari company in Africa. Make sure it's not the same one.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The description does not match the tour; There is no help whatsoever on site ...
Stay away if you want what you've booked!
We had booked the "private tour", "luxury tour". The tour description was written by a four-wheel drive vehicle or minibus, a land cruiser was confirmed to us. Unfortunately, we ended up in a monstrous 22-passenger bus with the side open. We have tried several times to change this on site, but the way this provider deals with the situation is beyond description. After it was explained to us again and again (and always researcher) that it was not the task of the provider to set the correct information, the owner finally came to the conclusion that the size of the vehicle was not relevant anyway.
We found this really disappointing after 2 days of telephone discussion!
Next time we will book directly through the lodge: it really cares, has contact persons on site and provides accommodation and safaris anyway ...
GR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
This is FRAUD
We three families from Greece paid to this operator more than 14.000 USD and still wait for the refund. Non of the money was used on our safari we had to pay everything again and at a higher rate.
this is a disgrace for all the nice people we met in Kenya, and this lovely place
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible and dangerous experience
We book a day trip to Wasini Island in order to do snorkel and other activities. So the day starts when they pick us up in our hotel and then take us to the place where we should take the boat. There was zero communication, the driver of the car just told us: go there and you will find someone else, without any ticket or anything. We got in a random boat following instructions of someone we had no clue who he was. After a while in the boat they explained us the programme of the day that didn’t match at all with what they had promissed us the day before in the office. Then after a while in the boat the engine fell off the boat to the water what ended up ruining it as it didn’t work again. Minutes after this happened, a horrible storm started so we were in the middle of the sea, under a storm and with no engine. In this situation the staff of the boat didn’t informed us at all about what was going to happen or what they were planning to do to fix the problem. We were all wet and cold by the rain (including children in the boat) people started to get scared by the situation and then they found out they did not have life jackets for all of us. Many passengers of the boat asked the staff to call the police or the rescue services, however they were not listening and even they seemed to not have a clue about what they were doing or they could do to solve it. After an hour and a half under the rain a small boat arrived and managed to take us to the shore. Still with what had just happened the staff of the boat was trying to push us to still go for the lunch as planned (just to avoid people asking for a refund of the money) and then try to go for a swim eventhough it was raining. Of course we did not agree on this and we just went back to The office of this company to ask for a refund of the money as we not only didn’t do any activity but also had been in a dangerous and stresfull situation in this boat with 0 safety measures. For our surprise on arrival to the office and after explaining everything they refused to refund us as they claimed “it is not our protocol). We decided to call the person in charge to talk directly and instead of a helpful answer this man decided to start shouting at me on the phone. After a lot of discussion and a formal complaint we decided to leave our bank account details as they guarantee us that they would refund our money after few days following their protocol. As it was to be expected from this shameless people, it has already been a week and not only we didn’t recieve the money back but also they are not responding to our emails or calla.
JUST NEVER BOOK ANYTHING WITH THIS COMPANY. THEY DON’T CARE AT ALL ABOUT THE CLIENTS, JUST ABOUT THE MONEY. THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT QUALITY OR SAFETY OR ANYTHING. THEY LIE AND SHOUT AT THEIR CLIENTS. AVOID AVOID!!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Horrible
We booked a day trip to Wasini island, to the Kisite Marine Park. They charged us 60$. Since the beginning nothing went as they told us. When we arrive to the harbour, our taxi driver rushed us to get into a boat(if we can call it like that), it doesn't matter which one. Once there they said we will snorkel for 45mins and in the office they told us it could be as much as we want. Then, once that we are in the middle of the sea, our capitain dropped the engine to the sea!! So then that was not longer working. And the storm that we could see started to rain on us very heavily while we were trapped, soaked wet and cold for more than an hour. Communication with staff was very poor and they seemed to struggle to what to do. This was a safety issue, specially when they started to give life jackets randomly to people, and there were not enough to everyone. This is very serious!!! But what is more annoying is that after the staff got a small boat to help us, they wanted us to carry on with the activity as if nothing had happened!!! There were kids and people were scared. I guess they tried to push us so we wouldn't ask for our money back. The worst thing is we managed to go back to thr mainland and to the office to tell what happened and they didn't want to give us the money back. And we have to deal with the boss over the phone, being rude to us. Not acceptable!!!
KR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
never travel with this company
We went to Africa for our honeymoon and I planned this trip for more than 3 months but when we were there everything we have planned was all different. The local agent told me there's no migration at that time of the year(this was the reason why I chose this agency: and they guaranteed this).
The hotel rooms were double (four honeymooners)
the driver of the game drive(safari tour driver) didn't know anything, even directions of the park; it took whole day wondering around the park looking for the resort so wer didn't get to see many animals.
the safari car regularly broke down and we had to stop in the middle of the park or had tji travel far to get the car fixed.
this was disaster.
I complained about this to the agent back in Switzerland but she said it will be taken care of (for 6 months) and she said "STOP email her about it".
There are allot more to tell but I don't even want to spend too much time writing about them.
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
2WD car rented out instead of 4WD and failing camping gear
Unfortunately, we had quite a bad experience with Bushtroop Safaris. We hired a 4WD car with them including camping equipment. At some point, however, we got stuck in the mud in a national park and that’s when we found out the car wasn’t a 4WD, but a 2WD. By then, we had already driven on roads that were 4WD only and realized we had taken some risks there. Also, we had to change our plans as we weren’t able to access all roads anymore.
We contacted Jacqueline, who was always quick to respond and friendly, and she was feeling really bad about this and said that they hired the car from someone else and didn’t know about it. We agreed to get a refund on the car, but we’re now 4 months in and still haven’t received it. We have had contact with Jacqueline several times in the past months ensuring us that the money was on the way, but it never arrived.
Beside the issues with the car, the camping equipment wasn’t in good shape either. The tent poles had been repaired very often and were only barely useable. Also, after the first night we found out that the air mattress was leaking. We tried to have it fixed, but weren’t able to and they apparently don’t sell them outside Nairobi so we couldn’t get a replacement. Finally the gas muzzle didn’t work properly as it took an hour to get a pan of water to get warm. That last thing was an easy and cheap fix, but on the whole we weren’t really able to camp out.
So, unfortunately, it wasn’t at all what we hoped for.