Service quality has dropped VERY

Tour 08/20/16 "Vacation under Spanish sails". This was my fifth trip with the Accord, so there is something to compare. I understand that the main task of the company now is not to raise prices and at the same time make money, so I won’t criticize for the practically absent sightseeing tours, fragmented electives at very high prices, and even for very long journeys (there were no such tours before , but everything is clear here - saving on hotels to reduce the price of the tour. By the way, hotels (with the exception of the base one - Flamingo in Lloret de Mar) did not cause any special complaints. But the organization of the trip itself, in comparison with the previous ones, is useless.

Firstly, at first we ordered and already paid for a tour to Greece at the agency. Three days later they called us back and said that the tour would not take place either on August 3 or August 17 and they offered completely different replacements. We refused them, chose this one, and a week after the payment, I found out that there would be a tour to Greece on 17.08. This fact has already greatly spoiled the mood, but we got together, threw away all the bad things and tuned in to rest. Even the first 14-hour move did not unsettle us. But new tricks began the very next day. Part of the group left for Venice, while the bus and I stayed at Lido di Jesolo. Exactly at 19, all the rest left for the "Venetians", and after an hour of travel in a crazy thunderstorm they learned that the boat with them did not depart at the estimated time of 18.30, but would leave only at 21.00. And we will have to wait for them at the indicated place at 22.00. Everything is clear - force majeure, but the guide knew about the delay already at the time when we set off, it was possible to call us back so that we would later leave for them, firstly, we would not risk a trip into a terrible thunderstorm when all the cars stopped on the side of the road, secondly, they could spend this time at their own discretion - cafes and shops were all open. Instead, we spent two hours at an unfinished gas station with a "bio" toilet on the side of the road. The advantage of this event was that we got to know each other and got as much as we could (although not everyone was able to do this) the pleasure of communication. It was bewildering that none of the drivers had a guide's phone and we got all the information from the texts of one tourist. Despite this, the majority tried to forget this fact and accepted with humor the complete inability to navigate the drivers and the guide on the ground, an antediluvian GPS navigator, because of which we had to walk for 45 minutes to get to the beach on the island of Garda, while we were overtaken by our own bus, the windshield of the bus broken by the parking barrier and, as a result, an hour-long trial and delay for the part of the group that remained in Nice and, accordingly, to the hotel, and a couple of hours loitering around the town of Figueros, while some of ours were in the Dali Museum. The result was that we really had 4 nights at sea (but three days!). We made up for negative impressions with an independent tour of Barcelona, ​​wonderful Nice and the ability to enjoy life under any circumstances. But...

The end of the tour left a lasting impression. After passing the Hungarian border and all the formalities from the tourists on the Ukrainian side, we were informed that the bus had been arrested due to an expired license, we were again returned to the neutral zone, where we waited for about seven hours until the necessary documents arrived. I will not describe the condition of 52 people, most of whom had trains leaving a couple of hours after the scheduled arrival (at 23.00) .... All this time, the guide (Olga Lamakh) called the management, constantly running away from us and our questions, but all household the little things had to be decided by ourselves. We arrived in Lvov at about 4 am... Yes, the Accord company returned the money to someone, helped someone with tickets and with a hotel in Lvov, but the feeling of irresponsibility for tourists remained. It is clear that the bus lessor will be to blame, but, I think, the competence of the tour organizers should include checking the necessary documents, communicating between drivers and the guide, and the guide’s ability to calm people down in an emergency. Luckily most of us were better psychologists than our guide.

I have always recommended "Akkord Tour" just for the excellent organization, but now, judging by the latest reviews and our situation, something went wrong with them ...

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