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Warning: Becareful when booking with Lynott Tours

Glen Head, New York
Level Contributor
837 posts
40 reviews
109 helpful votes
Warning: Becareful when booking with Lynott Tours
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Keep in mind if you get an agreement with an escorted tour company that the tour is guaranteed departure, this is not always the case.

I had a client booked on Lynott Tours for a LUXURY escorted tour to Ireland. I was told on numerous occasions by the person who worked for Lynott that the tour was GUARANTEED departure. I purchased the air and travel insurance for my client. 2 1/2 weeks before the trip we get notified by an email the tour is cancelled. The tour that they substitute is not anything like the tour they picked, but the owner of Lynott insists it is the same.

1. There are now 3 less dinners

2. There now is 5 day escorted tour and the other tour had 7 days of escorted tour.

3. There are many major differences where the daily tours are going. The original tour goes to Dingle now this one goes to Ring of Kerry (one example of many)

On top of all this they insist they are doing us a favor and the tour they are giving us actually costs more. How can that possibly be with less dinners and 2 days less of escorted days of touring.

The owner of the company was extremely nasty and not flexible at all. She felt she was right and that was that. The customer service skills at this company were really lacking.

My advice is always be careful and get everything in writing when booking with Lynott or any other tour company you pick.

I do not recommend this company, if anyone is looking for luxury this is not the right company. There are other choices to look into, like possibly Tauck. Tauck was sold out! Now I know why!

Deborah

minneapolis
Level Contributor
16 posts
1 review
7 helpful votes
1. Re: Warning: Becareful when booking with Lynott Tours
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Hello.....would have to agree as I just had a conversation w/the owner after the 1st gal couldn't speak english and the second one they passed me onto didn't know a thing,she kept putting me on hold. Also the 1st one told me when I asked for the manager/owner she told me she was no longer there.....and out of no where when I got persistant on my issues ....there she was ....the owner on the line....very rude and I was told I was blowing everything out of proportion....nice!!! As a travel agent when I want everything in order especially the airport transfers and I question them,I don't think I am blowing anything out of proportion. Kind of important to make their transfers to the airport. They haven't changed the itinerary yet but now I guess I will be holding my breath.

new jersey
Level Contributor
9 posts
85 reviews
27 helpful votes
2. Re: Warning: Becareful when booking with Lynott Tours
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We had a horrendous experience with lynott also. the very same issues concerning the customer service. the owner is extremely hard to deal with and we felt she was very rude. we have a complaint pending with the better business bureau.

Chicago, IL
2 posts
3. Re: Warning: Becareful when booking with Lynott Tours
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Wow- I wish I had found thiese posts before I had booked my tour with Lynott Tours. I have had the same customer service issues that all the other participants have had. The company even illegally charged the wrong credit card for my entire trip and then tried to blame it on me! The representatives are clueless, they have no idea what is going on and never returned any phone calls. I feel like I am completely in the dark and that my trip is going to be a complete disaster.

I got on the phone with the President of Lynott today and she was the worst of all of them!! Her attitude was terrible, she tried to tell me that the issues were my fault, she had no idea what her staff was up to and she even had the nerve to yell at me over the phone. I have NEVER experienced a company with so many issues and such idiots working for them.

Now that I've checked their listing on the Better Business Bureau website I'm considering cancelling with them and booking with someone else just so that they won't get my business.

Rochester, NY
Level Contributor
39 posts
9 reviews
17 helpful votes
4. Re: Warning: Becareful when booking with Lynott Tours
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Last year we booked a self-drive tour through Lynott...and now looking back we got SCREWED!

No one told us about the additional CDW insurance, or that we would have to put an extra $2,000 down. We found out when we got to the cara rental agency, and had to jump through hoops...insisting that because we weren't informed, we shouldn't have to pay.

The B&B vouchers were a joke...so many MORE B&Bs won't accept the vouchers, and the selections that did were limited.

This was my first trip to Ireland...a dream come true...I wanted to stay in a Castle...and they recommended one (which I booked)..come to find out it was just an old estate that someone had tacked on turrets to look like a castle. We felt misled....

I asked a lot of questions...about choices, alternatives...and because I'd already booked...they didn't seem to want to deal with me.

You can do MUCH better bookin independently!

dancoyle1
Level Contributor
42 posts
3 reviews
4 helpful votes
5. Re: Warning: Becareful when booking with Lynott Tours
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We didn't have any of the problems listed with Lynott Tours. We used vouchers, too for hotels and B&B's and found them easy to use. I would not recommnd B&B's in Dublin. Those people had a bad attitude.

I guess it all depends on who you talk to. I remember that the person we talked to had an Irish accent and was helpful. We had our first night booked by then at Castle Oaks, which was nice and spent our last night near Shannon Aiport at a B&B because of an early return, both recommended by the gal at Lynott.

We prepaid the collission on the car, which is cheaper if you do it here than at the airport. From what I rememebr, that was about $10 a day more. Good value - no worrying about knocking off the sideview mirror.

Maryland
Destination Expert
for Las Vegas, Washington DC, County Donegal, Western Ireland
Level Contributor
80,406 posts
49 reviews
112 helpful votes
6. Re: Warning: Becareful when booking with Lynott Tours
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" I would not recommnd B&B's in Dublin. Those people had a bad attitude. "

All the people in Dublin, or just all the B&B owners? :)

Sarasota
1 post
7. Re: Warning: Becareful when booking with Lynott Tours
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We booked with Lynott for their Irish Melody tour of Ireland July 2007 .

Tour itself:

Though we did see most, but not all of the places on our itinerary, there was certainly not enough time to enjoy them. As I look back on the trip I feel like 70% of it was on the bus! The way the tour is organized, we spent most of our time getting to a place only to be rushed through it so we could get back on the road to the next. I don't feel the tour was properly planned out with travel time considered. For example we spent 2 hours in Dublin after touring the Guinness factory. That included trying to sight see on our own, get lunch and find our way back to the bus. We spent even less time in Galway. Because of all the travel time, by the time we got to a place, most shops, museums, tourist sites were closing. In Killarney, by the time we got there we had to run across town to get the last tour of the castle. Most people in our group did not make it. We took a short tour in Kilkenny and then had to get a very quick lunch then off again. It looked to be a very beautiful place, but we never got to find out. One of the worst planned parts was when we were placed in a different castle than was listed on the itinerary because the original castle was not ever contacted. It took us almost three hours of backtracking out of our way to get there. Plus, because we were so far away from where we were supposed to be, the next day we were on the bus even longer!! If it hadn't been for our wonderful bus driver, who didn't work for Lynott, we would have never even made it to the Cliffs of Moher. He worked overtime to make sure we saw them. We missed everything on the itinerary on day 7. By the way, he said he has had lots of logistical problems with Lynott before us. He wasn't even given an itinerary, we gave him ours.

Lodging:

Most of the places were nice, but a few were below the standard you would expect for the price we paid. The Castle House in Castle gregory was great and the inn keepers quite nice and helpful. Stay away from The Knockavon House in Kilkenny. The linens were theadbare and worn. Beds were not comfortable. Carpeting, drapery, tea cups all worn out and burned in places. No water pressure and no hot water unless you asked the inn keeper to turn it on. She was not nice at all and very pushy. She served breakfast start to finish one at a time to our group which took forever!! Very noisy place. Lynott did not have the proper reservations at the Aran View Guesthouse so we had to split up into two rooms. Again, no hot water. They also did not plan for our early departure so breakfast on the last day was severely lacking. The locations of the housing was not conducive to people without cars. In Westport we had to take taxis into town and back which were not cheap. Doolin had nothing to do and very lacking in restaurants.

Family Trip:

This tour was booked as family tour, but really did not include anything specifically for young people. There were three kids on the tour, two teenagers and one 9 year old. The itinerary billed bicycle riding, horseback riding, golf etc. but we had to figure out how to do those things on our own which took valuable time from the short time we had in each place.

Obviously, I would not book with Lynott again and recommend that you don't either.

Ireland
Level Contributor
3,619 posts
59 reviews
52 helpful votes
8. Re: Warning: Becareful when booking with Lynott Tours
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I'm really sorry you were disappointed. Perhaps you will come again on a self-drive tour the next time. I often see coach tour parties and wonder how much they are geting out of the trip. A lot probably depends on the organising company.

Austin
Level Contributor
933 posts
12 reviews
34 helpful votes
9. Re: Warning: Becareful when booking with Lynott Tours
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A few months ago, when I was procrastinating big time, I sent Lynott a link to this thread.

Lynott's response was bizarre; they sent me a link to a Wall Street Journal article about how some TA hotel reviews are written by friends of the proprietors, along with the reply "Don't believe everything you read."

(If it had been me at Lynott replying, I would have written something like "We work hard to make it an enjoyable trip and am sorry to hear about the complaints. We'll work harder now to make everyone happy.")

Dallas, Texas
Level Contributor
32 posts
2 reviews
11 helpful votes
10. Re: Warning: Becareful when booking with Lynott Tours
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Unfortunately, I had a bad experience with lynnotours as well. I purchased a bed and breakfast voucher. The company sent a packet with promo flyers, a mini-map, a customer satisfaction survey (ha!), and NO voucher. I never did get it - though I paid for it...and contacted them several times requesting it.

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