Feedback - Trip to Hangzhou

Chen Zihong Edwin

Reviewed on 22 May 2024

Feedback - Trip to Hangzhou - Private Tour

I have just returned from my trip to Shanghai and Hangzhou and wanted to share that it was certainly below expectations.

Feedback for Hannah

The trip started off well with a tour of Yu Garden. However, this was followed by activities which were not planned.

Sampling of tea at a shop not too far from the exit point of Yu Garden. This seems to be more like a shopping trip as this shop sells tea too which I feel are exorbitantly priced. (200 RMB for a tiny container of tea)
The tour guide recommended a lunch venue (Bei Fang Ren Jia) and joined us for lunch which I thought is not the norm.

We then went to Starbucks Reserve Roastery (world's largest starbucks) and had cakes and drinks with the tour guide. Subsequently, we then requested to go for a cruise. The tour guide then offered to accompany us for the cruise and share with us more while on board the cruise. However, as it was past 6pm by then, she then asked for extra payment of 100RMB each for the driver and herself to be paid to her directly which I felt did not seem to be legally correct as all payment should be directed to your compnay. Hence I declined the offer. In fact, I initially offered to pay your company directly and asked for an invoice. However, the tour guide was unable to do so. Just wanted to find out if your tour guide is given the prerogative to ask for extra payment? And do they usually join the clients for lunch/snacks?

Instead of recommending just one place, your tour guides should recommend a list of 2-3 places for clients to choose from for lunch and dinner (Eg, Fu 1088. Old Jesse, Xin Rong Ji etc)

Feedback for Sofia and the trip

We had engaged a tour guide as we wanted to ensure that our trip will be a smooth one without any hiccups. However, we were shocked and utterly disappointed when we were only sent to the railway station (to return to Shanghai from Hangzhou) a mere 5 minutes before the departure time resulting in us missing the train. Fortunately, we had managed to secure a train ride about 45 minutes later. However, this resulted in me being late for my dinner appointment with my business partner in Shanghai. As you had mentioned in your earlier chain of emails, we should buffer about 30-40 mins at the train station. However, this was not practised by your tour guide. More importantly, the tour guide did not advise us on what to do if we were to miss the train. Certainly, we would expect more from your tour guide.

They should ensure that we start off at the appropriate time (We left it to the team to propose as we trusted them) such that we would have sufficient time for lunch (at least 1 hour with time for toilet breaks) and ample time to walk from the cruise site to the lunch venue. We had shared that we would be going with our parents and hence more time should be allocated for them to walk. In fact, we practically had to rush through our lunch and could not consume 1 of the dishes we ordered which we gave to the driver (Cost: 128 RMB) . The time management is one area which can be improved upon.

Just wanted to share that the distance from the drop off point to the cruise venue was longer than expected and wondered if that is the only drop off point. It would have been a plus if the driver could have picked us up from a site nearer to the cruise venue to minimise the time spent walking.

Noted from your website that your tour guides have about 5+ years of experience. Just wondered how many years of experience Sofia has as she is only in her early 20s.

The proposed lunch and dinner venues could be improved upon. In fact, the venues proposed on your website seem worth heading to, with a handful recommended by my friends as well. However, your tour guide had recommended other venues which turned out to be below expectations. Given that we have arranged a private tour, the team should propose better venues for our meals (Eg, 28 Hubin Road) and not those which are convenient for them- Either located next to the performance venue - or the cruise venue. - (Eg, Wei Zhuang). We had gone ahead with all their recommendations as we trusted your team.

Based on what we have shared so far, I am sure that you will be able to understand why we are not satisfied with the trip.

Please convey our feedback to the officer in charge and we look forward to receiving a reply from them.

Replied:15 April 2026

Hi Edwin,

Thank you for sharing such detailed feedback about your recent trip to Shanghai and Hangzhou. I'm very sorry to hear that your experience did not meet your expectations. Please allow me to address the concerns you raised:

Tea Shop and Lunch Experience:
We understand your concerns about the tea shop visit and the lunch venue. It is not typical for our guides to take clients to commercial establishments unless it’s part of a planned cultural experience, and we apologize if this felt more like a shopping trip. The suggestion to join lunch with the guide was not intended to be inappropriate, and we’ll remind our guides that this should be handled carefully to respect our clients' preferences.

Regarding the extra payment request, our tour guides are not authorized to ask for additional fees directly from clients, and all payments should indeed go through the company. We take this matter seriously, and I’ll investigate further to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.

Tour Guide Recommendations:
We value your feedback regarding the lunch recommendations. We usually aim to provide a variety of choices for meals, and we will make sure to improve this in the future by offering multiple restaurant options for our clients to select from based on their preferences.

Train Station Timing & Trip Management:
We are very sorry that the timing at the train station caused you to miss your train. Our guides are trained to ensure that clients have sufficient time at the station, and we will address this issue with Sofia to ensure better time management in future tours. We understand how important punctuality is, especially when you have subsequent commitments.

We also apologize for the rushed lunch and the inconvenience of not being able to enjoy your meal fully. We will work on improving time management, particularly when there are elderly passengers in the group, ensuring ample time for breaks and a more relaxed dining experience.

Distance to the Cruise Venue:
Thank you for pointing out the drop-off location for the cruise. We will review the itinerary to explore alternative drop-off points closer to the cruise site to minimize walking distance. This will be a great enhancement to make the experience more comfortable, especially for families with children or elderly travelers.

Guide’s Experience:
We appreciate your feedback on the guide’s experience. While Sofia is relatively young, we have rigorous training and a mentorship program in place. However, we understand your concern and will review her experience and ensure that all our guides are fully equipped with the necessary skills to meet clients' expectations.

Dinner Venues:
Your input on the dinner recommendations is valuable, and we will review the venues suggested by our guides. Our team should always prioritize quality and client preferences over convenience. I will ensure that future tour guides suggest restaurants that align more with the quality of the tour and your expectations.

Next Steps:
We take all your feedback seriously, and I will pass this on to our management team and the guide supervisor for a thorough review. We want to ensure that future tours meet the high standards you expect and that we learn from this experience to improve.

I will also follow up with an official response from the team in charge.

Once again, I sincerely apologize for the issues you encountered, and I appreciate you bringing them to our attention. If you have any further concerns or additional feedback, please feel free to share.