Great Value Vacations

Honestly this is one of the first times I ever buy a package deal like this one and I was very impressed with how professional and well timed everything was. They had all of our paperwork and tickets ready, I can’t even think of one time where anything went wrong or was wrong, very nice people I will definitely buy another trip soon!

Good value and ligit package.

I love discounted and the reservation was quickly.

Too many flight changes, so that was a nightmire. Lost luggage, wrong seats. Couldn't upgrade hotels.
So was adequate, but took away from the enjoyment

We had an amazing time in Iceland. The excursions with our package were very good. We had one small issue and customer service worked it out. Very happy

WARNING!

This company seems like the right choice based on price. BEWARE! DO NOT USE! They are not helpful prior to trip. They mislead you when you speak with customer service. We took a trip to Ireland and were told by customer service that the hotel was in Sligo and Cork after asking prior to our trip. When we arrived, the hotels were both over one hour out in very small towns. This is one hour to the city we were told we were going to by customer service and one hour back.

The rental car we got prior to trip with our package, we paid to upgrade to a larger car. Then we paid extra to have an automatic car. When we arrived, we were told that we could have paid much less by just doing it onsite at Dublin airport. The car rental was in shock for how much Great Value charged us for the car rental.

You can save a lot of money if you book this Ireland trip on your own. And save many headaches. The kicker to all of this is when I got home and tried to speak with customer service. The lady told me she could not do anything to help me. I must instead email a supervisor. I did have email communication with GVV and they were quite snappy and rude. They refused to help me in any way. I asked them to change their wording so that the next customer would not be misled like we were. I would NEVER recommend nor use this company. There are too many reputable tour groups out there.

Please don't waste your money on a company that does not care about you.

**Edited**
In response to the reply that GVV gave to my negative review.

It is pleasing to see how quickly you can reply to a negative review. If only you were so quick to respond to my queries prior to my trip.

To begin, my review is public. However, it is NOT OK to include my name when replying to a review when the name was not included by me in my review of you.

Next, when responding to my review you must be truthful. For you to say: "We are not surprised to receive this review as we did not agree to your request for a cash refund in exchange for you not posting a negative review." is false. In my initial phone call to customer service I was told to tell you what I wanted. Since you never asked, in my email communication toy I stated "I will be happy to complete your survey with my negative concerns and complete multiple reviews on your company if you choose to not correct this grand misleading mistake. I do not want to receive a discount for a future trip. I believe some money back to me is fair due to the amount of gas money and time I lost for travel due to the poor locations of the hotels."

I did not say I was disappointed with the hotels in Cork and Sligo. I said I was angered that I was misled by customer service prior to my trip when they did not inform me the distance to the cities on the tour. I asked if they were centrally located and was told that they were. Again, when I arrived, I discovered that they were over two hours round trip, without traffic. My initial communication to you was to inform that this was misleading. Your company seemed to be defensive of my comments from the start.

I called customer service before the trip because you switched my hotel in Dublin. My original hotel was one 45 minutes away from the city. You switched me to a hotel that was in Dublin after finding the original hotel was unable to host us. The new hotel in the city was centrally located. Great news. But the closest parking garage was 3/4 mile away. Perhaps you could suggest a hotel in the future that has closer parking so that when your flight is at 7am one does not need to walk the streets of Dublin at 5am.

My complaint to you is the absolute disdain and lack of concern that you have for customers after the trip. Even after my trip was booked I was unsuccessful at receiving any positive support.

I do not want this communication to continue. You are trying to prove your point as I am mine. But keep in mind, you should not use the name of the consumer if they did not disclose first themselves. Please check
in house legal for affirmation. Also, please be accurate and truthful when disclosing your side.

Just as you had to get the last word to our email thread by sarcastically stating "dully noted".

Your lack of professionalism speaks volumes. Perhaps this is why you get so many complaints and low stars on your reviews.

We did not receive sufficient, timely support when our flights were canceled and itinerary impacted. The outgoing GVV messages for immediate travel support communicated a reply window of 24 hours when the impact was immediate. We were forced to contact the airlines ourselves. We then called GVV and found regular call workers were on the phone when prior urgent emails when I responded to. We were given no assistance with flights and repeatedly told by United that GVV needed to take action. This when on over numerous calls. We were told we could not be assisted with ground transport being informed of our delayed arrival. I then emailed the hotel who contacted the transport company. We were told we would receive a call regarding our unused tour in Athens and as a last resort given a refund. We received no call. In short we received no support at all. We have used GVV multiple times and are very disappointed. I’m really rethinking our future travel and hope GVV makes some substantial accommodation.

GVV has replied to this review; here is my response: When they called - I answered and said hello but their phone system immediately shut me off and went into my vm. They also didn't answer when I called right back. They clearly do not want to address that the ACTUAL ITINERARY - that states our full names -provided to us AFTER PAYING IN FULL FACTLY does NOT state that the hotels listed may or may not be what we are going to be booked in - it IS misleading - they keep ignoring that part. They have also not indicated why they refuse to cancel these rooms and book us at the hotels listed in our itinerary - or even better hotels, for that matter. They just say we appreciate your understanding. Well, we don't understand why they won't budge in accommodating us properly for our $2K worth of 4 hotel bookings over 6 days. They also still haven't addressed that we have been booked in a room for the hearing impaired at one of the hotels - we do not want to take up a room for someone in need. We do intend to enjoy our travels in March but it will have nothing to do with Great Value Vacations whatsoever. The hotels we're stuck in will only remind us of how poorly we have been treated by the company we trusted with our money to book the hotels we expected as listed in our itinerary, but did not receive. We got burned and have learned an unfortunate lesson.

I've been trying to reconcile the hotel issues with GVV, but am not finding a representative willing to go past "our website indicates 'or similar' hotel". Nor will anyone escalate to upper management for me to talk with. The itinerary we received after paying nearly $2,000 for 4 hotels for their California road trip specifically indicates to get ready and check in at 4 very nice hotels listed within it. The vouchers we received later indicate 3 of them that are not that similar and certainly not the really nice hotels we expected when we received our itinerary and that we were excited about. The website may say "or similar" but our itinerary does NOT say "or similar" anywhere on the document (mis)leading us to believe we were going to be staying at the exact hotels listed within it. If they are going to fall back on what their website says, they should include that terminology in the exact itinerary they send customers after they pay in full, and they did not. In addition, they, or the 3rd party they contract with to book our hotels, put us in first or second floor rooms (I prefer higher floors) and in one of them they put us in a room slated for the hearing impaired with one bed rather than the two we requested for each hotel stay. We do not want to take up a room for those who are in need of this special room type. They also input my travel mate as a male, when she is female and say they can't change this either. We booked many months ago for a March trip, so there was plenty of time for them to book the right hotels for us that our itinerary clearly states. I had to push recently just to receive the hotel confirmation numbers. In addition, the vouchers indicate check in after 3 AM - no hotel offers this time for check ins. Clearly our bookings were rushed and without thought for what we expected and paid for. Unless you don't care what hotel they book you in, regardless of the itinerary the company provides to you after paying for the trip, don't book with this company. This is a once in a lifetime trip for us and this company has taught us never to trust a 3rd party to book hotels for us. From our itinerary: Mar 14 - Check in - The Park Central San Francisco - we were not booked there, as one example. This experience has been most upsetting and sorely disappointing - to say the least.

-THE TOURS WERE VERY INSTRUCTIVE WITH DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS TO INFORM ABOUT THE POINTS OF INTEREST (THEY DESERVE 5 STARS).
-THE HOTEL SELECTION WAS VERY DISTANT FROM THE CENTER OF THE CITY OR TURISTIC AREA. THIS DIDN'T ALLOWED US TO DO SELF TOURING AND PARTICIPATE IN LOCAL ACTIVITIES. WE SPENT MORE THAN 500 EUROS JUST IN TAXI TRANSPORTATION TO GET TO THE MEETING AREA OF THE TOURS, NOT AN EXPECTED EXPENSE!!!
-TRANSPORTATION FROM THE AIRPORT TO THE HOTEL AND VICE-VERSA, ALSO TO THE TOURS, SHOULD BE AN OPTION WITHIN THE PACKAGE. DUE TO DELAYS WITH THE TRANSPORTATION UPON ARRIVAL, WE WERE NOT ABLE TO SHOW UP TO OUR FIRST TOUR.
-THERE WAS NO RESPONSE FROM THE EMERGENCY CONTACT WITH GVV TRYING TO RESCHEDULE THE TOUR, EVEN AFTER VARIOUS ATTEMPTS BY E-MAILS. THE LOCAL AGENTS, WERE NOT ABLE TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SELL THE TOURS DIRECTLY, AND WE DIDN'T HAVE A REFUND!!!
-WE ARE NOT SATIFIED AT ALL WITH THE OFFER EVEN THOUGH, THE TOURS WERE GREAT WITH INFORMATION VALUE. YOU SHOULD PUT YOURSELF IN THE SHOES OF SOMEONE THAT DOESN'T KNOW THE AREA, WHEN ORGANIZING A TOUR PROGRAM!!!
-THE CHECK-IN PROCESS WITH DELTA AIRLINES, WAS VERY DIFFICULT. WE WEREN'T ABLE TO GET OUR SEATS UNTIL WE CHECKED-IN AT THE AIRPORT, AND WE WERE ASSIGNED TO THE FAR BACK SEATS IN THE PLANE. WERE NOT ABLE TO RECLINE FOR REST DURING THE FLIGHT!!! IMAGINE MORE THAN 10 HRS WITHOUT SLEEP BEFORE STARTING A WEEK OF TOUR SCHEDULE!!!
-MOST LIKELY WE WOULDN'T THINK OF GVV AS AN OPTION IN OUR NEXT VACATION PLANNING!!!

It was a great vacation experience from Iceland

Everything was perfect The only thing we would like to know our hotel a little sooner

I love that what's represented is what I received...we are about to experience a 3rd trip ...so that speaks volumes....great trips for the money!

I took one of the "solo vacations" offered by Great Value Vacations and felt like they really planned a great itinerary! There were a few mistakes - my name did not match my passport (but thank goodness I was able to travel without issues) and the hotel voucher for Vienna had one hotel name but the address for a different hotel (it turned out I was booked at the different hotel, which unfortunately was quite removed from the city center.) These issues taught me what to watch for on a future vacation, and I would definitely travel with Great Value Vacations again.

I like that your cheaper, but how bout you make zip locks that actually functions. Otherwise your completley useless. I might as well spend the extra money for a WORKING F@#$%^& ZIPLOCK

I'm struggling to hear back from the company about a trip that was cancelled. I've called several times and have not had the customer service I expected.