Reviews
Glaring failure to deliver services that were promised and paid for.
My husband and I went to Puglia, Italy, July 20 - July 27, 2022. We had researched towns/villages we wanted to visit and in October 2021 contacted Carly of Audley Travel to book a custom made private tour. (Tauck Travel, the company we often use, does not travel to Puglia in the summer).
Carly made a huge point to underline Audley’s ability and commitment to book a solid program custom made to our specifications and needs, stating “That is the reason you travel with Audley…..with Audley you get personalized attention to your wishes and needs and attention is paid to the most minute details of your itinerary”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Audley failed to meet its commitment to us: not correcting mistakes in the original itinerary that were pointed out in October 2021; not sending any information about the final itinerary until 3 days prior to our flights to Puglia which led to our being unable to revise the itinerary and undo mistakes; booking a substandard motel room in Lecce (after complaining, the decent B&B owners moved us to the suite we actually had paid for); sending us a “detailed itinerary” at the last minute that had no details about our guided tours. While the local guides were good, Audley's inexcusable and total lack of communication with them crippled our guides' ability to go to sights we had requested and fully provide what we had paid for. We did not even hear from Carly for 8 months until 6/30/22 when she sent us an email that she was quitting her job; the poor transition to the new specialist led to confusion, uncertainty and missed opportunities.
At $1200. per day (PLUS all tips to drivers and local guides, all lunches and dinners - an extra $200 Euros per day) Audley Travel was a rip off. Great companies such as Tauck Tours offer a week in Puglia ($1072 per day) that includes stays in palatial hotels and spectacular masserias, tipping for all local guides, most lunches and dinners with wine in superb restaurants. Companies such as Vantage Travel and Viking World travel also offer all-inclusive superb value for about $1200 per day and at times they offer promotions that include free international travel.
We did communicate with Audley representatives and they did offer 18% refund, nowhere near enough to compensate us for what we missed.