The worst part about our trip was dealing with Side Street Explorers

We booked a trip to Vietnam, Sapa and Hanoi, through this company. After saving for two years we were very excited to finally book the trip. We both work in hospitality and are used to offering the absolute best experience and service for our client’s day in and out. So, it would come naturally that we expected the same for the large amount of money we paid them well in advance.

We booked a packaged where all flights, accommodation and transfers where included. We could have gotten away with spending much less but we did not want the stresses of traveling in a new country and wanted to be spoiled as we saved for so long so we had paid for everything to be pre-booked and arranged.

First off let me say Kirsty was very well prepared and very accommodating when we first booked the trip in September 2018. She came recommended from a friend of our so we took the leap and booked. The pleasantries ended there!

In the interim she left the company and handed over our booking to Charlene who knew nothing about our trip. Two days before our flight I asked the airline if there was a possibility to upgrade our seats only to find out our flights have been moved up a day and we were now flying earlier. To our surprise we were not informed by anyone from Side Street or Travelers Corner as "your file was marked as completed". In my experience a trip is not completed until you return home. No vouchers for accommodation or transfers were given to us, out of experience we asked them to send it through.

Charlene quickly then opened up the "closed" file again and arranged accommodation for us in Hong Kong as we now had an unplanned lay over for a day. The accommodation they booked was horrific, dirty and so small we couldn't even spread out our arms when standing in the room. We were exhausted from the 13hr flight so naturally when getting to Hong Kong we wanted to go rest. We were rudely evicted from our room being told that we were not booked into this hotel anymore and needed to move to another hotel of the same name but in a completely different side of the city. We then had to cover our own costs to get to the hotel because of their mistake. No follow up was communicated and the initial response was – that is how they are in Hong Kong from Charlene. None of the above was ever communicated with us. No one indicated that there was a different person that we need to speak to at Side Street for in case of any issues or general communication throughout our trip, we were send back and forth between agents. They then didn't arrange our transport back to the airport properly and the transfer never came. We had to figure our way through Hong Kong subways in morning rush. However an exhilarating experience it was we would have missed our flight to Hanoi if we had not realized the transfer was not coming. We made it just in the nip of time to the airport after having to cash out more unexpected funds. Rocky start however this was merely the beginning.

We arrived in Hanoi later on and the hotel was nice enough to have us check in early. No one at the agency bothered to look at our flight times to realise we would be arriving everywhere way before check in time, to arrange early check in or at least check up with the hotels that everything was sorted for our arrival. When we were checking out, we firstly had the problem that the hotel was trying to make us pay for the accommodation we had already paid Side Street for 8 months earlier. They showed us that the card Side Street wanted to process through booking.com was reported as a ****** card and they were unable to take payment. We sat for almost two hours trying to get hold of someone back home, but due to the time difference it was almost impossible, the hotel also did not want us to check out without payment. The plans we had for the day were ruined.

After finally getting hold of someone, going through 4 different cards and getting the outstanding accommodation paid we were told by Hanoi Boutique Hotels employees the transfer that was supposed to take us to the train station would never be in time for the train. I feel Side Street could have done much better research on the trip, as it was weekend and the night market was happening we needed an additional hour to get to the station. The hotel arranged directly for us for the transfer to pick us up earlier so we could make the train. We were dropped at the wrong train station by the driver and had to walk almost 2km with our luggage at night around Hanoi to get to the correct place. We paid Side Street for a private cabin only to find out that we were now sharing with people. The train we were on and the train we were booked on looked nothing like the pictures they sold to us.

Horrific train ride later we finally get to Sapa and the transfer is there waiting for us. Get to the hotel about an hour later and we again find out no one contacted the property to let them know about our arrival or earlier than usual arrival. We had to wait quite a while until appropriate check in time to finally relax. The hotel they booked there was spectacular and beyond expectations.

A few days later we were heading back to Hanoi with the train. We were assured by Gregg that we would have a private cabin, he even sent us a screenshot of the email from the company assuring the private cabin. Again, we get on the train, this time not sharing with people but we have no cabin at all and we were stuck with no overnight seats. We then had to buy another two overnight train tickets which we didn’t anticipate as another additional cost to our trip just to get back to Hanoi. No offer from Side Street was made to reimburse the original cost of our private cabin for both trips, we paid Side Street for this well in advance at an inflated cost to cover their commission, we were willing to do this at the time to safe as any unnecessary stress throughout our trip.– however on the way back Gregg over whatsapp told me he will reimburse the additional amount we had to pay for a private cabin on top of what we already paid, nothing came from that.

When we get to Hanoi, we get told they didn’t book our transfer back to the hotel, which was included in our package. Greggs response was they do not do a transfer back from Hanoi station due to the constant changes in arrival time – I find this quite odd as we paid for these transfers well in advance? We had to pay for a taxi from the station to the hotel which was incredibly expensive, again more additional costs we had not budgeted for.

In short, we paid so much more additional costs that we had already paid to Side Street Explorers and were treated as a file that’s been paid and discarded. I will never again waste my hard-earned money on this travel agency. What could have been a hassle free, stress free trip turned into a bundle of constant stress. Poor communication, complete uncer*****y about all information and just bad customer service with added poor professionalism with no follow through! Commission was made and we were ‘filed as complete’.