Star Tours - A Shattered Dream with Misspent Money

Star Tours UK
★★★★☆
4.2
From 1680 reviews
87.0% of users recommend this

Guest's review of Star Tours UK

“Star Tours - A Shattered Dream with Misspent Money”

★★☆☆☆

written by on 10/05/2012

Allured by their ad, my wife and I flew to London for availing one of their tours. From the beginning, I was concerned about our seating position, and before leaving Canada, called Star Tours a number of times requesting for a couple of seats towards the front side. Every time, the impolite reply was: the seating arrangement was automatic, done by the computer according the booking order – and that there was no way to change it.
In the morning of April 25/12, a Star Tours bus picked us up at East Ham. The video of the bus shown on their website was a far cry from what the bus actually was. The front part of the lower luggage space was modified with low ceiling height to accommodate twenty additional seats totalling 77 tourist accommodations. At the gate the guide gave me seat numbers – the very last two positions at the hindmost row of the lower floor. After being seated, I looked around with great disappointment. At the front end of the aisle, a curtain blocked the forward vision. The small opening over the driver’s shoulder was blocked with two suitcases. The curtained windows were narrow compared to that of a standard tour bus, and the ceiling was low. Seat belts, control knobs for the air-vents, speakers etc. were all broken. The garbage sac was almost touching my left elbow, and the stinky toilet was just a metre away. With my wife seated at the window, I could see very little. When asked, the guide told that he had put all senior clients on the lower floor foreseeing their inability to climb to the upper floor! Later in the tour, he however took all those so called disables to the top of snow-covered Mount Titlis in Switzerland, and to the top of Eifel Tower in France involving a lot of stair climbing.
Seating in the half-dark chicken cage, the entire duration of the five-day excursion was full of anguish with constant irritation – not being able to have a look around the beautiful countries we had been passing through; have had paid extravagantly to see.
The guide quietly turned down seniors’ request to play some soft music instead of the incessantly blaring Indian movies. With one far-off small screen, the movies could not be watched either.

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Star Tours's Comment

Written on: 14/05/2012

Dear Valued Client,

Thank you for taking the time to visit our page to remark on your experience.

We at Star Tours are naturally concerned when any of our clients have cause for complaint.

Within your review, you have mentioned various points which we believe an elaboration would be appropriate.

During the 25/04/2012 departure of the Panoramic Europe Coach tour, a double-decker coach was employed. The coach was specifically designed to accommodate a group of 77 passengers. The coach has two levels, the upper deck being accessible via staircase. To avoid the inconvenience of employing the staircases during boarding, the more vulnerable members of the tour were granted seats on the lower deck. We attempt to ensure that the more vulnerable members of our group are accommodated to the best of our abilities; however we are unfortunately unable to change the layout or composition of the attractions which we visit. Seats were available on the upper deck and could have been employed to accommodate you and your wife if you were not satisfied with the seats which you were allocated. In the future, we would suggest that you relay your sentiments to the Tour Manager on the tour to see if we are able to come to an amicable solution.

We believe that there has been a miscommunication in the point you make regarding the method of seating list construction. All of our seating lists are created by individuals of our in-house Operations team who take into consideration numerous points which are vital to compose correct and fair seat allocation. Seating preference in normal circumstances is based on booking reference numbers. To ensure fairness and continuity of policy, individuals who book in advance are granted front seats. We find that this policy creates incentives for individuals to book early and help to confirm tours well ahead of departure. This early confirmation allows individual to make concrete holiday plans without the fear of cancellation and the burden of expensive travel arrangements. Unfortunately, your group was one of the last to book aboard this specific departure and as such you were provided with seats towards the back of the coach. All those whom this applied to are informed prior to confirming their booking. To ensure that your group receives the seats which you request, please ensure that you make early reservations for the tour of your choice.

We at Star Tours employ coaches which go through rigorous and regular inspection to ensure that safety standards are maintained to the highest degree. Specific coaches vary due to different makes and models, however all coaches which Star Tours employ are fitted with microphones, DVD/CD functions, air conditioning, toilet facilities and appropriate safety devises. The coach depicted on our website is a typical 49-seat coach. This is a typical representation of the average vehicle which may be employed, however we clearly state that variation is possible from the depiction.

As with all group tours, our tour managers must cater for the group. In terms of entertainment whilst travelling, the tour manager must gauge the opinion of the entire group and find compromise when appropriate. Both music and movies are played whilst on tour and special requests are taken from the entire group.

We hope that you enjoyed the various excursions, quality of hotels and dining experience which have provided as part of your tour package. We hope that these elements highlighted the level of service which we provide at an unbeatable price point.

We are disappointed that you did not cherish your tour due to the various reasons which you state in your review. I hope that we have elaborated on your points for clarification and we hope that our points have allowed you to book a future tour to your satisfaction, however if you wish to discuss the matter in more detail please feel free to contact Star Tours directly for further clarifications.

We thank you for choosing Star Tours for your holiday experience and we are confident that if given the opportunity to serve you and your family again in the future you will find no cause for complaint.

Kind Regards,

Mr Jayshiv Parekh
Customer Relations Manager
Star Tours LTD

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