I recently had a terrible experience with LeBoat during a three-week tour in Venice, Italy, which was ruined by the poor condition of the boat and the company's shocking lack of customer service. The boat, much older than expected, was infested with bedbugs, causing multiple bites to my crew. Despite reporting the issue immediately, LeBoat's response was inadequate, sending only ant traps and bug spray instead of addressing the infestation properly.

The customer service was appalling, with LeBoat repeatedly denying the presence of bedbugs despite clear evidence, including photos. Their staff was dismissive and unhelpful, suggesting we handle the situation ourselves rather than providing a safe and clean boat as required. Communication was terrible, and their refusal to issue a refund added to the frustration.

Overall, I strongly advise against booking with LeBoat. Their lack of maintenance, inadequate response to serious issues, and terrible customer service turned what should have been a pleasant vacation into a nightmare. Choose a different company that values its customers and upholds basic standards of cleanliness and safety.

Before someone comes on and replies that you are just a first time poster who came here solely to whine, let me direct me to a trip report I wrote seven or eight years ago. A significant portion of the trip report dealt with our LeBoat experience (also negative in may ways including a leaking toilet and a boat that wouldn't steer due to a leaking hydraulics steering fluid problem).

One example: "But, my husband was having a lot of difficulty steering the boat. And often he’d have to spin the wheel three or four times in order to get it to respond at all; this was strange because on our boats at home a slight turn of the wheel produce a nice response. I kept asking if there was something wrong with the boat, and he kept blaming himself thinking that he just hadn’t figured out how to best operate this boat.

We were lucky that this day there were perhaps only four or five locks to go through. At one point the boat was so un-responsive that we missed when aiming to drive under the pole so I could trigger the lock. We had to turn around to make another approach—no easy feat making a u-turn with a boat whose steering mechanism did not seem to be working properly. This was quite a spectacle for people who had been walking along the canal and stopped to observe the boats go through the locks. I am sure we got lots of laughs from the spectators that day. As we approached another lock, an old man who was walking along the path shouted to us, 'Vous etes dans une mauvaise position.' And, we were in a bad position."

Here's a summation from that trip report: "Certainly, we are very definitely less than impressed with LeBoat’s rental fleet (and how poorly it is maintained) and we definitely wouldn’t rent from them again even though their employees were all good. I suppose some people might comment that a boat with lots of problems should be expected at the end of a season when the boats have been heavily put through their paces all summer. But, I don’t buy that. A rental car company isn’t going to send renters off with a very poorly maintained vehicle (I hope) just because it is getting to the end of prime rental season. Why should a boat rental be any different? We are pretty laid back, and we didn’t come away seething (as some people might) that our entire trip had been ruined by the pretty significant hassles we had with the boat."

Here's the trip report; the LeBoat portion begins at post #24 in this trip report.

https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...nd-car-1214779