22 Apr 2025
The tour had an organized agenda but were not able to get to everything in allotted time. The tour ran over time to get to the Souq (market). I thought we were clear when we told our driver we only wanted to see the market IF we had time. He said “no problem” and said he would “drop us off for 30 minutes”. While we were told additional time would be $35 per hour, we did not expect to be charged since we specified we only wanted to do it if we had time. We’ve been to 100’s of markets and could care less about the market. Due to traffic issues getting to/from market, we were back to the hotel 2 hours later than expected. We were told we had to pay $70 additional and the office was unable/unwilling to accept payment by credit card (which I offered immediately even though I did not think the extra charge was just). The office began harassing me via calls and texts and sent driver INTO OUR HOTEL to find us for immediate cash payment. It was incredibly unprofessional and an intimidation tactic I did not agree with. My husband had to walk with the driver a block away to an ATM machine to pay so he would leave us.
The driver should have communicated that the market would push us over the arranged time (despite being on the agenda) and the office should have communicated that overage would be expected in cash. The experience definitely left a bad impression and I would NOT recommend this company as a result.