Terrible tour director
 

We usually travel on our own, but have taken some guided tours and have had great experiences with the tour director. However, we just returned from a tour in China where we had a really terrible, uninformed, uninterested and non-energenic guide. The local guides were awesome (other than the obligatory visits to government shops which they are required to take you to). Our tour guide seemed to deal with only the logistics of the trip and we often didn't get enough information and were left wondering where do we go and when???

So, here's the question. We are being asked by the tour company to fill out an evaluation form of the trip and the tour director. The tour was great - we loved every minute of it, but we are stalling in returning the form and answering the tour director questions truthfully. We would hate to see this person possibly lose her job, yet we would also hate to have subsequent customers be unhappy with her ineptness. We liked her as a person and had some interesting conversations with her.

I think we know the answer to this dilemma, but would appreciate hearing from others who might have had this type of experience.

Thanks for your input.

If your reply to the tour company is a simpls fill-in-the-blank form, I wouldn't do it. If there is space for any kind of written appraisal, that's the best way to air your feelings IMO.

You mentioned 'the local guides were awesome', does this suggest that the person you are referring to was not a local but a tour group guide who traveled with you or something ?'

I did a whole long response before spotting that, I think it is a lot different depending on whether this was a guide provided from your home country to accompany the group.

I think you should be honest.

be 100% honest....SHE DIDN'T DO THE JOB AFTER ALL... she deserves some retraining it sounds like...

I would also be 100% honest. A tour leader can make or break your trip and I'm sure you wouldn't want others in future groups to have the kind of trip you had.

Be honest! And don't feel bad about it. She may not get fired..she may get some additional training. Or, as this doesn't seem to be something to which she's suited, maybe a change of career will be better for her in the long run.

If a company doesn't know about things like this, they will eventually find out when booking drop off or when others, less kind than you, start asking for refunds or adjustments.

You are doing everyone a favor by telling the whole story- the company, future paying customers, and even the woman herself. If the form is just a check off, print out your post here and attach it.

Thanks for your input. The form we are asked to fill out is 2 part. One is a "fill in the blanks" with a rating number and another part where additional comments can be elaborated on. I have written out a reply to the company which is honest. We enjoyed this lady as a person and had some nice conversations with her. But, that doesn't make her a good tour director. We had local guides in China and she is an American guide who travelled with most of the group from the U.S. We did our own air, so we caught up with the tour director and the group in Beijing.