Awesome Guide! Company not very accommodating

Posted on: 2021/06/01

The good- our guide Garry was incredibly knowledgeable about the rocks, plants, birds, very accommodating regarding bathroom breaks and stops along the way, and incredibly kind and thoughtful. We have nothing but raves for him. The company on the other hand was a bit of a pain in the butt. We first booked this tour as a party of 6, and we were told that these tours booked in groups of 9, so they would be adding in 3 additional fares to the tour group. Later they informed me that my son was too young for the group tour, but the private tour had no age restrictions. For an extra ~$400-500 we booked the private tour, since we wanted a tour that would let us see the lava glow at night, and this was literally the only tour that did that. However, even though we were paying so much extra for a private tour, they said that they couldn't accommodate us by going to any stops different from the usual tour, they couldn't start/end earlier, and they were unable to provide pick up/drop off from our hotel 15min away. Then, a few days before the tour, they called to tell us that because the lava flows stopped, they were changing the tour from 10a-10p, to 7a-7p, and adding a stop at Rainbow falls to make up for the loss of the lava flow at night. No dinner meal. Still unable to pick up/drop off from the hotel. And unwilling to make any time changes. I would have appreciated some compromise for our requests considering the extra costs of the private tour or some discount since they were both unable to accommodate our requests and had changed the original nature of the tour significantly.