I am the Tour Manager of Acacia Safaris in Uganda. I am writing to complain about the unprofessional behaviour of the management of Hotel Chez Lando in Kigali. In January 2007, the company (Acacia Safaris) started booking clients at Chez Lando Hotel. We requested for company contract rates, but they were refused because it was our first business. We had other clients later on and we paid full rack rates like any other client. In May 2007 again, I requested contract rates and I visited the hotel, since I had several booking for the summer season. They said that they did not know Acacia Safaris (yet we had bookings there) and never received my requests. I have never received further communication, yet we had about 10 clients between July and August. In September 2007, I had a group of 17 pax booked at Chez Lando. I communicated to the hotel management to be ready to receive them since it was a trip from a tour operator and I requested, again, for contract rates. On the email they replied that “they will decide.” I have never received further communication. I went myself to the hotel. They told me they did not know my request, which looked now unacceptable. Secondly, they refused to accept any discount at all for the 17 pax, yet there was a tour leader requesting for a complimentary. They locked the doors of the hotels to prevent clients from leaving and called guards against me for only requesting to talk to the Director before paying. They said the Director was not available and I had to pay first. They started to inconvenience all our clients, saying that Acacia Safaris does not want to pay, yet we are a respected company. On top of that, the day before they refused to organise a special dinner for the numerous groups, and thisresulted into clients’ delay in having dinner and, moreover, the hungry clients had to enter the kitchen themselves to look for food. For 17 pax, Chez Lando could only have one waiter. When I requested to organize a buffet menu to facilitate the dinner, they told me: “you can only choose from the menu.” Finally, they insulted our clients saying: “we do not need you, we survive without you.” At the end, we had to pay all food without any consideration of any discount for the tour leader. This is a terrible experience and I discourage anyone to visit and to book Chez Lando Hotel. No apology was given. Costantino TessarinTour ManagerAcacia Safaris (U) Ltd.Tel. +256 782 385446Web: www.acaciasafari.co.ugEmail: costantino@acaciasafari.co.ug
