I'm so sorry this happened to you. I have heard similar stories (of having confirmed BoB reservations, then none) from many people - not about Santa Maria, but about other agents. The whole system is so overloaded it can't cope. Do point out (I assume you already have) that this is listed on your itinerary and you have made a deposit for it.

I did, indeed, Kathie. And they've finally acknowledged that the mistake was theirs (not ours and not BoB's.) I don't know if there's anything they can do. Honestly, I feel they should prioritize us over other more recent clients given how far back we booked and confirmed this--but I know they won't do that.

We'll see what happens...

Oh Bill am so sorry for you, i too would be heartbroken. I guess they just can't cope with all the extra tourist but this isn't any consolation for you I was only just discussing a nov 2013 trip to Burma with D, so this is indeed food for thought.) I really have all my fingers and toes crossed it works out for you.
On a plus note my darling can't wait to see you in a few weeks.......,

I agree that they should prioritize you over other more recent bookings, and I would expect Santa Maria to do that, though I don't know that BoB will do it.

Thanks for this Filmwill. Until recently our correspondence with Santa Maria has also been excellent. We booked our January trip several months ago and once we'd confirmed our intinerary we sent the 50% deposit by wire transfer. In September we asked for prices for BoB and once SM had confirmed availability for a specific date we added this to our itinerary. We also added an Inle guide we'd been unable to contact privately. (We had booked Min Thu directly via email.) Our balance owing was updated accordingly.

Email responses have always been very prompt and I've been more than pleased with SM's service. However a month ago I contacted them with another enquiry and this time it was 10 days before I received a response. My last enquiry (albeit minor) 2 weeks ago has yet to be answered. Today we were discussing whether we should pay our balance prior to leaving to avoid carrying extra cash. Now, having read your post, I'm having second thoughts. I do understand the overwhelming interest in Burma and how difficult it must be for them to cope but I certainly don't want to find out that there are last minute problems with any of our reservations. I'm wondering if BoB would be able to confirm our booking. I also have no way of knowing if the guide we specifically requested has confirmed our request. SM has had such a stellar reputation that it would be truly unfortunate to see it tarnished.

NL are you emailing them at two addresses? Being overwhelmed with demand is one thing operating, but the unreliability of the internet in Burma is another that may figure in given that you haven't heard from them in two weeks. So I'd email them again, to two addresses.

I don't know if BoB can confirm your reservation or not. If you reserve through BoB, it costs significantly more than through Santa Maria.

Hi Kathie. I've been using the same address that I've used since first contacting them. I just reply using the last email I received and it's always worked. The last enquiry wasn't really time sensitive so I haven't tried emailing again. However I do intend to contact them soon with questions that I'd like answered before beginning final travel preparations. And they did get a significant discount for us with BoB! We paid about $250 more for a similar balloon trip in Cappadocia.

Filmwill and NL - when we went to Bagan, albeit a few years ago, we couldn't get reservation at first for BOB as well. We called the company as soon as we landed in Yangon and by the time we got to Inle, we were confirmed. The situation is much different now but in case Santa Maria doesn't come through with your bookings I would give it a try.

I would advise you both to start emailing and/or faxing all your hotels in Myanmar as well to reconfirm if you have a booking!

Hanuman. Perhaps I wasn't clear but SM did say BoB had been confirmed. However I hadn't considered that our hotels may not be. When I initially contacted them I gave them the names of the hotels we wanted and they replied saying all but one had been reserved. They reserved a room at another hotel instead and put us on a wait list for the hotel we'd requested. A couple of weeks later they confirmed availability at the hotel we'd chosen and said they needed the deposit to secure the reservations. Given our correspondence I find it hard to believe the hotels haven't been confirmed too!!! Had you used Santa Maria?

NL, no I haven't used Santa Maria but I had contacted them to enquire about booking a trip for us. I found their prices more than what we could get contacting the hotels directly and they try to "push" a guide on us at every destination which I didn't want. Ended up doing things myself, a bit easier than you guys since I live in Thailand, and used a travel agent that had offices in both Bangkok and Yangon for the internal flights.

Hit "Submit" too soon!

My point about reconfirming hotels with the hotels themselves is just for peace of mind. We are hearing "stories" in Thailand about tourist arriving thinking that they are staying in a 4 or 5 star hotel ended up in 3 star hotel.

And now with the news that Obama will visit Myanmar I would really try to reconfirm with the hotels ASAP. A big group of the president's entourage will be staying in local hotels so that will "push" out other tourist IMO and could cause havoc with those travelling to Myanmar in the next month or two.

i would follow pook's suggestion..

i think in the end it may all work out.

Well here's a story that (hopefully) has a happy ending. And a testament to the fact that persistance and, most importantly, patience pays off.

Despite the instinct to fly off-the-handle, I kept my calm and emailed them on a daily basis. Not letting up, repeating the "evidence" and insisting that I wouldn't accept anything other than a booking on that tour.

They came through.

We'll see if it actually happens or not, but I did get a confirmation for the BoB tour for the original date we planned.

But, the original point of my thread still stands: they're overwhelmed--so it pays to double check. Hadn't even thought about the hotel confirmations. What a great suggestion, Hanuman! I'll have to get on that this weekend.

Well done filmwill!

Tourism is certainly to increase even more after President Obama's visit later this month.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/world/asia/obama-to-visit-myanmar.html

Great, I'm glad it is working out. I do believe that Santa Maria will take care of you, despite how crazy it is in Burma these days.

On the Thorntree, someone recently posted that they cut their trip short because they couldn't find accommodations - one of those people who thought it was silly to book ahead.

Yikes!! I just wire transferred the final payment for our trip; we leave on Thanksgiving Day--I also realized that I failed to put the SM account number on the wire transfer. My DH doesn't believe that'll make a difference, and I've confirmed the wire transfer to the Accounts Section, but hearing about how overwhelmed SM is does give me pause. These slips are disturbing. I'm going to call our various hotels to confirm that we have reservations with each of them--and also e-mail Din to confirm our BOB reservation.

Both the Account section and Din responded immediately when I e-mailed them with a couple of questions.

520 if you are wiring to their account in Thailand then the account number is important! How did your bank permit the money to be transfer without the payee's account number?

I DID put the recipient's account numbe; I didn't put the SM invoice number, which the SM Accounts department has already responded to me to say that it was okay not to have the invoice number on the transfer.

I see that I wrote SM account number in my previous post. The consequences of writing in the wee hours
It was the INVOICE number(--she repeated.)

i can just see a us presidential motorcade in yangon..

So glad it worked out...SM was top notch when we used them in July

I hear you Bob!

Better yet, imagine them walking the sidewalks without lookiing down every minute. And then there is the 'group' in horse carts in Bagan. Seriously, I doubt if they do anything but get out of the luxury vehicles and walk to the front door.

Did you directly email BOB? They seem like a very nice and well organized business and they might be helpful. You might also call them as soon as your arrive in Burma. Good luck!

FilmWill and Hanuman ... Advice well taken. Many thanks! However ... NOT good news. I contacted our hotels and BoB in Burma for confirmation over the weekend. One hotel confirmed our reservation and also said that it was a good idea to check with our hotels directly because of problems since the recent huge interest in tourism.

The BAD news ... I also received another response saying that our reservation for 4 nights at Inle Lake had not been confirmed by SM and there was no reservation. This hotel said they had contacted them in August to confirm. My correspondence with SM on August 30 says they still hadn't received a response from the hotel indicating availability.

I replied to the Inle hotel, indicated we had responded immediately to SM in early September at their request to confirm the room and had made our deposit. I also copied my email confirmation details from SM and then contacted SM advising them what had transpired and asking what they intended to do. ASAP.

I truly didn't expect any of this to happen. Needless to say I'm upset but staying optimistic it will be resolved. Of all our 4 week travel plans in SE Asia this was the one hotel reservation we were most interested in.

I still haven't heard from the third hotel or from BoB. In 35 plus years of travel this is the first time I've ever had a problem with hotel reservations. I guess my lucky streak is in jeopardy. I'll be in touch with updates.

NL - sorry to hear that but at least you will have the chance to try and correct the problems before you get there.

Good luck!

Do let us know how things develop. I hope it all works out for you.

Kathie & Hanuman. Thank you for your kind words. We're still in shock and hoping things will work out. However in the absence of confirmed and satisfactory accommodations in Burma, (especially Inle and still no word from the other hotel), it's likely we'll request a refund and reconsider our vacation plans to SE Asia before other payment deadlines approach. Even then we will have lost significant $ amounts. But we're remaining hopeful that we'll receive positive news soon. I also hope others on this forum will have contacted their agents for confirmation too. Please check in again ... I'll update as I hear something significant.

I really do have all my fingers crossed, so sorry to hear your troubles please keep us posted. It really is a cautionary tale as I have used SM before and they were fantastic and we are considering Myanmar Nov 13 but am already reconsidering whether I should use SM!!!

Remember that you dealing with a country that has very basic and often unreliable infrastructure. It strikes me that even within-country communications have bogged down. I know that Santa Maria will do everything they can to make things right for you. Hang in there - we're cheering for you to get things resolved.

Ditto. I hope it all works out for you. God knows how I felt when I was looking at just missing out on a tour--forget an unconfirmed hotel!

Speaking of: I've written all of ours and so far only heard back confirmation from Tharabar Gate. I suspect the others are just caught up in the usual Burma email vaccuum. I'll keep resending and hopefully we'll be all set on the hotel front.

Good luck, NLspirit!

On November 9th, I was on the line for over an hour with the 800 number for GMH to confirm our reservation with The Strand, but finally gave up. I e-mailed Din at SM on the 9th to confirm our BOB reservations and our hotel reservations--and haven't heard back yet. I had asked him about something else about The Strand, the previous week, and he had e-mailed me immediately that The Strand was confirmed. We booked a B & B in Inle Lake ourselves, The Princess Garden Hotel, and they confirmed back in July--but I think I'll call them tonight to reconfirm. Haven't tried Tharabar Gate or Rupar Mandalar, Mandalay hotel. Our Pandaw Cruise is, of course, confirmed....

And all our flights are confirmed.

Guess I'll call the other hotels tonight....

Wow so far 3 out 3 SM customers who will be traveling soon are having reservation troubles! At least filmwill has resolved his BoB problem and I hope both NL and 520 will be able to sort out theirs as well. Imagine if you guys didn't check and to arrive in Myanmar without a hotel reserved!

I wouldn't say I'm having reservation problems, Hanuman. As far as I know I'm confirmed on everything--I do know my flights are confirmed, The Strand is confirmed. I have an itinerary from April saying that everything is confirmed, and I booked the B & B in Inle Lake myself because they don't deal with travel agents, and they confirmed in July. BOB was confirmed by SM when I paid the first half of the trip in early May. The only reason I'm expressing concern is because of the experience Will has reported. And, of course, hearing about Smeagol's experience is disturbing.

From everything I've read, I think all travel agents, hotels, and probably everything else that applies to foreigners is overwhelmed and just not up to coping with what is, for them, a huge increase in tourism and business people wanting accommodations and immediate responses in a country. This in a country barely equipped to take care of the number of travellers that had been visiting until now.

I'll report back after contacting the other hotels AND SM.

My reservations are confirmed at Tharabar Gate and at The Strand; from everything I'ver read about the Rupar Mandar, it's not that filled--EVEN with the hordes descending, so I don't think I'm going to call. The only thing I don't have confirmed, then, is BOB and I haven't been able to get through to SM this evening--but given the terrific experiences I've had with SM throughout the process of planning our trip and that many others on this forum have had with SM until now-with these two recent exceptions--I feel pretty comfortable about things.

520, I think I misread your comment when you wrote " I was on the line for over an hour with the 800 number for GMH to confirm our reservation with The Strand, but finally gave up." I thought you meant that your reservation with the Strand was not there. Glad all is in order!

Hanuman, "on the line" is idiomatic; it would have been more precise to say I was waiting on the phone...but, happily, reservation is there and it was much easier to get through to The Strand by dialing them directly than by trying to get through on the GMH 800 number.


And, yes, I'm glad that all is in order, too! (I haven't confirmed BOB and may keep trying to reach SM, but not tonight.

Good news. This morning I received replies from both the hotel in Bagan and BoB .... all is well and our reservations have been confirmed. Both responses were very friendly and personal ... a pleasant departure from the form response one sometimes gets.

I still haven't received a reply from SM or from the Inle hotel where the reservation problem exists so I'm hopeful they're both working on a solution. If internal communications systems are being compromised, as Kathie has suggested may have happened, it's possible it created havoc with the initial reservation process. I'm not sure this can be resolved easily if the hotel is fully booked but given my experience with SM I do think they will try to resolve the situation soon.

I'm still optimistic my long time dream of visiting Burma will be realized. And my friends will be happy that I'll stop talking about it! (Just kidding of course.) They'll just have to put up with the stories I'll bring back! Many thanks again to everyone ... I really appreciate your encouragement and support. I'll post updates as they occur.

That's great news! I have faith, as well, that SM can resolve it for you. As you can see, just a little bit of patience (even though nerve-racking in this situation) may pay off in the end.

I've been emailing SM all week (although do note that they were closed yesterday for a religious holiday) so they should be getting emails.

It sure sounds like they're aware of the issue and probably scrambling to fix it.

If my end result is any barometer, they should be fixing this for you fairly quickly.

Give them a few more days to sort it out -- and, just to make sure there aren't any email issues, keep resending the email until you get a response.

It sounds like things are getting sorted out. I'm so glad to hear it. The people at Santa Maria were wonderful to us, fixing problems caused by flight time changes and such. They have close relationships with many higher-end hotels which helps in making adjustments to reservations.

520, when we were at the Rupar Mandalar last year, it was full the whole time. First with independent travelers, and at the end of our stay with a whole Russian tour group! I expect every place will be full this year.

Thanks FilmWill. The holiday yesterday may have been the reason I hadn't heard. If I don't hear from SM soon I'll resend the email ... internal communication problems may cause more delays.

Hi Kathie. We must have been writing at the same time because I just noticed your response. It's helpful to know that SM has close relationships with the hotels. I know they are very well established and their reputation has always been held in high regard. I'm sure it makes a difference when problems occur. My fingers are crossed that everything will work out well!

I have given up the idea of going for the immediate time.

Santa Maria has not even responded to my emails.

emdee, if I recall, you weren't planning on going until 2014, correct?

If that's the case, I would encourage you to be patient and wait until the holiday rush is over. I'm sure they're just prioritizing email responses based on travel dates.

With well over a year and some change to go, I think you've got plenty of time.

Good news! Kathie ... you were right. Santa Maria was working on the problem even though I hadn't heard from them with an update.

This morning, when I still hadn't received a response from SM, I decided to check with the Inle hotel to see if they had been in contact. They answered almost immediately (surprising considering the 10 hour time difference) saying that they had been working with SM and were able to offer us a possible solution. We had booked a junior suite and although they were now only able to offer 2 days in a Deluxe and 2 in a JS they would let us know if something in either category opened up for our dates. I am so relieved! I had visions of choosing between sleeping on a monastery floor for 4 nights or postponing the trip and losing a bundle. And I'm really looking forward to this part of our vacation and staying at this particular hotel. Now on to the next step ... applying for a visa. Thanks again to everyone for your suggestions and support!

That's great, NLspirit. Glad it all worked out for you.