Các bác ạ, em xin phép nói trước em không muốn gây ra cãi nhau, chỉ trích nặng nề các hãng du lịch. Nếu bác Admin thấy em post bài thì bác chuyển bài đi giùm em, em cám ơn bác nhiều. Em chồng em mới vừa gửi em link bài blog của 1 đứa bạn nó về Vietravel và chuyến đi Đà Lạt. Em đọc xong quả thật em không biết nên có ý kiến gì, mà em thấy đây là 1 bài đáng để đọc, nay em post lên để các bác xem. Blog = tiếng anh nên mọi người chịu khó chút xíu.



http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-1T9vR9gwaKpFIS8xh4I8QbdKgB0-?cq=1&p=310



Vietravel - Da Lat Tour and Hung Vuong Hotel (I posted this on Facebook and TripAdvisor as well)


Flickr Photos:


Facebook Photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56025&l=af0b6&id=676961831
This is a warning to who has used, is using and will use VIETRAVEL service. The last four days (from Jan 27 to Jan 30 2009) are the first time I've ever used it, and also the last one. Here's a few reasons:


1) There were some mix-ups at the first day when we left for Da Lat from Vietravel headquarters on 190 Pasteur, Dist. 1. We, the travelers of 4-day-3-night Da Lat trip, were told to sit on a goddamn WRONG bus. It was for 3-day-2-night Da Lat trip's travelers. Therefore, we had to switch back to our right bus at Dambri. It was the 2 Jan in Lunar Year and no one would want such things like that to happen. Besides, the first/wrong bus looks very stylist and elegant in pure white and its interior is too way nice. However, the second/right bus looks very ugh with so many ugly colors and there’s a lot of mosquitoes inside when we first got in (!). I killed three mosquitoes by slapping them against the windows, haha, too bad I forgot to take a picture of them dead. Many buttons or whatever it’s called, the thing to change the fan’s speed, were broken. Both groups of travelers/tourists were going to stay at 3-star hotels. How come Vietravel put us in such a terrible bus???


2) The tour guide was very quiet. She did not talk about anything at all. Most of the time she told us the time when to leave the hotel, the amount of time to visit a place, and that was it. Although I go to Da Lat almost every year, I really don't need any info about the pagodas or churches, whatever, but a tour guide is supposed to be talking, not hiding herself in a corner and sleeping.


On the first day (Jan 27), when we arrived at Hung Phat restaurant for breakfast, we were absolutely terrified. There were so many traveling buses there. The restaurant didn’t have enough seats for all tourists. I had to walk around, standing and waiting for 20 minutes to finally have a seat, and another 20 minutes till my noodle came. I understand it was because of Tet, many people went to faraway places for holidays, that was why the restaurant was beyond crowded. However, I watched other tables and people there had their own tour guides (of different travelling company) finding seats for them, then non-stop urging the waiters to bring food and drink for them. Many of those tour guides even ran to get breakfast and put each bowl of noodle in front of each of their travelers and wished them have a great meal. I, as well as other travelers in our bus, asked ourselves, “Where the f*** is our tour guide?”.


In the evening, after arriving at Da Lat but before reaching to our hotels (since Vietravel split us into three small groups to stay at three different hotels), we went to Nha Toi restaurant to have dinner. When the bus in front of the restaurant, she simply got out of the bus and we followed her. Many thought they were at the first hotel until they saw “Nha Toi Restaurant” neon lights. Well, its name was mentioned in the tour introduction paper, but I believe not many people remembered it or brought it with them. Later on, one guy found out that she used to be a tour guide, then she was moved to work in the office (maybe Vietravel did see she sucked at it), but because this is Tet holidays, there aren’t enough tour guides so Vietravel took anyone possible and pushed them out to guide travelers.


From all four days and three nights there, it looked like she knew too little about Da Lat, and she couldn’t say a full sentence without babbling or tripping over words.


3) This is the major reason why Vietravel is a liar. As mentioned above, we were put into three different hotels, which were Mai Vang Hotel (3-star), Thao My Hotel (2-star), and Hung Vuong “Hotel”. Mai Vang (on Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street) and Thao Vy (on Hai Ba Trung Street) are very near the center of Da Lat City, including Da Lat market and many good entertainment spots. However, Hung Vuong “Hotel” is the farthest one, which locates at 46 Hung Vuong Street, a pretty deserted area of Da Lat City. Vietsovpetro Hotel, 07 Hung Vuong Street, is considered very far away from Da Lat City’s center, but Hung Vuong is even farther. If I wanted to get to Da Lat City’s center, I’d have to ask the receptionist at the lobby to call a cab for me. She said going by a cab was the easiest and effective way to get there. Also due to the “hotel”’s horrible location, cab drivers didn’t even know the direction to get to it and pick me up. It costs about 40-50k VND for cab from the “hotel” to Da Lat market (approximately 4.5km). Because I bought this tour at Vietravel rather late, so the tour seller guy said I’d stay at Hung Vuong “Hotel”. I had never heard of this place before so I asked him where the heck it was. He said that it was near Con Ga church, which was quite near the city’s center. The truth is this “hotel” is about 6-7km away from Con Ga church. So bloody nice huh. That’s part of how Vietravel mistreated a small group of travelers/their own customers. If he told me as well as other customers the truth and asked me if I would like to stay at that place, it would be much easier to deal with and keep the customers’ trust in the company. Everyone who got to stay at Hung Vuong “Hotel”, including me, was very pissed when we arrived there. A man threatened to complain to Thanh Nien papers straightaway. Later, a family, including a woman and her two daughters, moved to stay at Cam Do Hotel (on Phan Dinh Phung Street) and bore all costs. The tour guide begged us to stay and said all 2 and 3-star hotels were fully booked. Besides, she said it was the salers’ fault and she did not know anything. She also told us to ask the tour seller carefully before buying a tour. However, when the tour seller lied to us like that, what could we do? Personally, I came to Vietravel because of its (former) great reputation but I was deeply disappointed. And I’m sure other travelers had the same feelings.


Hung Vuong “Hotel” is not exactly a hotel. In front of it, they have two boards, one said “Hung Vuong Hotel 3-star”, and one said “Hung Vuong Motel” (Please look at my photo album, I took all pics on my last day in Da Lat with my Benq-Siemens CF61 and the time-stamp ON, hah). It’s owned by Agribank (Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural) and most likely for Agribank’s employees to stay at it. It has two elevators but they run very slow. Although the “hotel”’s front looks pretty nice, its rooms’ interior is opposite. The bathroom does NOT have any carpet or whatever like that for me to step on when I got out of the bathtub. I could have tripped and smashed my head on the hard surface. Here's the trick. This “hotel” has a very small water tank, so if you shower/bath for too long, hot water is all used up and replaced with cold one, then you have to wait for 15-20 minutes for the new water to be warmed up. The room is quite small with two beds. They are quite okay, clean sheets and soft pillows, but they’re not big enough for a couple. The stand around the sink is big enough for me to sit on it and stay close to the mirror to put on makeup. Why did I have to use the mirror in the bathroom? Because the room doesn’t have any mirror. It does have a table, which I thought it was a vanity table, but where is the mirror? There was no mini-fridge, and no food to order if I was hungry. The TV’s quality sucked, only a few channels were clear enough to watch. The weirdest thing was the windows area (Look at the photos). Just imagine at night when you pulled up the curtains to look outside, you saw a pair of eyes looking directly back at you. What would you do? SCREAM? (lol, I think I watched too many horror). A 3-star hotel room cannot be like this. One of the cab drivers, who took me from the “hotel” to Da Lat market, told me it was just finished building two months ago, maybe that was the reason why it was so ill-equipped, then how come it could receive 3-star rating? I’ve stayed at motels, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5-star hotels from all of my previous travelling trips, I know very well what a 3-star hotel room must have. Therefore, I myself believe the “hotel” owner used money to buy the rating and the “hotel” title, so they could gain some money for this Tet. About the whole using money to buy titles thingy, since it’s not strange in Vietnam that the “Doctor” title could be bought, then hotels’ rating could be too! Who knows?


Who stayed at Hung Vuong “hotel” would have breakfast at its dining place. It was called buffet but it had only two dishes to choose, beef noodle soup (pho bo) and sunny side-up eggs. That was for the first morning (which was the second day of our trip). The second morning was a little bit better with sunny side-up (still), fried rice and bun bo Hue. The third morning was boring with sunny side-up (again), beef noodle soup (again) and rice soup with salted eggs. Once again, because it was a new place and far from the city’s center, there were not many tourists staying at it, so they didn’t cook many dishes. However, Da Lat City can also be considered a jam/jelly city, because people there make lots and lots of jam from oranges, strawberries, plums, etc. Why can’t the “hotel”’s chef and cooks buy sandwiches and jams, and maybe butter and cheese? They are all simple breakfast dishes and cheap.


Two only good things about Hung Vuong “hotel” are its cleanliness and helpful staff.


4) After all, the tour guide told us that there were different departments taking care of a tour, including sales, customer service, guides, hotel bookings, food bookings, etc. Therefore, all of them are responsible for Vietravel’s reputation. What Vietravel has done to me, as well as other tourists of the same trip, is beyond damaged. They put us in such a situation that we literally could not do anything and acted like a swindle. I will never use Vietravel’s service again. Ever. If you think you’re going to use Vietravel’s service, please think again for your own sake, okay? Period.