Trafalgar has redeemed themselves as a great tour company

I finally received another response to my last letter, actually there wasn't much of a response, but there was a check covering part of my extra expenses occurred due to the Hotel Continental Venice 'forcing' us to leave early.

I want to thank everyone at Trafalgar for investigating the issue and acting accordingly. I will definately tour with them again.

I heard back from the BBB (Better Business Bureau) today

They simply sent me a link to their website which contained the same information as the letter which Trafalgar sent me. So I typed up a quick response, attached a copy of the second letter that I sent to Trafalgar, and faxed it to the BBB. We'll see what happens.

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Letter from Trafalgar

I finally received a response from Trafalgar, the tour company which put us up in the worst hotel i've ever stayed in. While I give them credit for responding to all my points (in my 2-3 page letter), and sending a lengthy response, I do not at all agree with their answer. Trafalgar focused 90% of their response on the lack of air conditioning in the hotel. They pointed out over and over how air conditioning in Europe isn't always 'up to par' with a/c in the U.S., and that this is clearly stated in their brochures, etc... They pointed out how many hotels don't even have it, blah, blah, blah. Now, there are several problems with that answer. The first being that I made it quite clear to them that I understand that things break. But it was the attitude of the hotel staff in not caring that it was broken, not offering us water or fans, and moving my room from the 1st floor to the even hotter 3rd floor. The staff tried to lie to us about the length and cause of the broken a/c, but the truth finally came out and we learned it had been broken for several days, yet no repairman had shown up yet. The second problem I have with their answer is that other hotels in the area DID have air conditioning. They try to make it sound as if we were lucky that our hotel even had a/c, even if it wasn't working. That's just a crock of an answer. And the main problem I have with them focusing 90% of their response on the a/c, is that that was just a minor portion of my complaint. The main part of my complaint was about the dirtiness of the hotel and the rooms, and the fact that not all rooms were created equal. In fact, some of the rooms were a 7 out of 10, and some were a 1 out of 10, they weren't even close. It is not at all fair that I paid the same money as other people and they received a newer, cleaner, more modern room with a working bed. Whereas I received an ancient looking, dirty room with a broken bed and peeling wallpaper. In addition, Trafalgar wouldn't even reimburse $15 for a lost travel adapter which was misplaced b/c the hotel gave us 10 minutes one morning to switch rooms. They said had I spoken to the hotel about it the hotel would have found it for us. What an awful response.

Trafalgar said they would not reimburse us for anything. Not for the adapter, not the $500 we spent to change our plane tickets, nothing... Instead, they gave us a 5% coupon off of another tour. That made my laugh. Why on earth would I want to tour with them again after having just written a 3 page complaint? And to offer my 5% off. That's just a slap in the face.

So...I will be writing another letter this week and contacting my local Department of Consumer Affairs. I've already contacted the Better Business Bureau.

I'll keep you posted...

Picture of Hotel Continental Venice

Here's just one of the pictures I took from one of my disgusting hotel rooms. It clear shows how dirty the wallpaper is, and you can see the large piece that was peeling off. The rooms were so disgusting I cannot imagine how more people haven't complained, and how people continue to stay at this hotel. Two of the three rooms we stayed in had broken beds. All the rooms had mosqitoes. The bedding looked like it was from 1970. The furniture looked even older. One of our friend's who stayed here as well had an incredible amount of dust in her room. It's as if the hotel staff hadn't dusted her room in months. it was really disgusting. I'm still waiting to hear back from Trafalgar, the tour company, regarding the letter I sent them. I requested reimbursements for the final night which we didn't use, and the money we spent to change our plan tickets. Hopefully they respond soon, it's been a couple of week's since I sent my letter.

New review posted at IgoUgo.com

Please feel free to visit and add your experience as well.

New reviews on ZoomAndGo.com

A couple of new reviews were just posted at www.zoomandgo.com

One mine, one from somebody else. Both are quite negative.