I made arrangements for a special group ( wife’s 50th birthday) for 19 people on one boat, the Herra. I made the reservation over 1 year in advance. 2 months before the trip ( after our deposit had been made and after flights were booked), I was informed (only by email) that Sail in Greece had made a mistake and had booked our boat with someone else. No single boat for our group was available on our dates and they offered dates only after our kids returned to high school and college.
Instead , they offered us two boats ( splitting our group) for an up charge of $6000 Eu. At our cost, not theirs. The 2 boats were supposed to have a kitchen and chef each. Two weeks before our departure, one of our group looked up the boats and saw that nether had a kitchen nor chef. Sail in Greece never let us know this. It was up to us to find this out for ourselves and had we not looked, we would have never known about this significant change. When we called the company, No discount nor rebate were offered as we had already paid for the trip in full. We, at this point, had no leverage.
Upon arriving at the port in Corfu at the expected departure date and time, neither boat was in harbor and no one let us know this. I called sail in Greece and they responded by email noting that a sail in Greece representative would meet us in 10-20 minutes to explain why the boats were not ready to board. 1 hour and 10 minutes later, the representative showed up stating that our boats were delayed due to “ Bad weather” and would not be in harbor until 10pm that evening ( 5 hours after the expected departure). “Bad weather “ was the reason for the delay. The weather was perfect with calm seas, a mild wind and no clouds. Clearly this was not the truth.
I am disappointed with this company and would highly recommend against booking a trip with them. Their integrity is highly questionable. From start to finish, Simos, their marketing director has been exceptionally poor with communication, vague and often times misleading and untruthful. When asked pointed questions, he skirts the issue and we have come to expect delayed and confusing replies to simple questions.
I f you do book with this Sail in Greece, expect beautiful waters and warm pleasant winds; these are the given “ Natural talents of the Greek Islands”. But this is for free. For the hard earned money you will spend on this trip, equally expect disappointment, frustration, mistruths and an significant damper on a once in a life time trip.
. I believe they could do better. I believe there are better more honest, companies to book with. Please look for additional comments from my group on this incident. All 19 of us will write about our own perspectives on this trip so please look forward to these upcoming comments.
If you have any questions about Sail in Greece consistent paucity of communication , lack of integrity and general poor business standards, please call me at +17607092507. Mike Karch, MD Mammoth Lakes CA USA