Anyone book a Collette tour from their website with DC points?

[jancurious]

We are wanting to do a tour to just Australia (not New Zealand) and Collette has a good one on their website but Marriott's site doesn't list it. I talked to an advisor and she said she didn't think it could be done if it wasn't on the Marriott site.

Anyone successful in arranging something like this?

Jan

 

[Quilter]

You should search Collette here on TUG. The news I've read is they aren't that great a group.

Here at Frenchman's Cove the guy who comes to the room to help with trip planning was telling us with all our points we could be taking advantage of the selection of tours available. We have zero interest in them.

 

[FractionalTraveler]

My 2 cents worth on Collette Vacations. I have no skin in the game because I have never used them or any other tour aggregator.

If you search the internet you will find good and bad reviews from this outfit. As I would expect from a large wholesale and package bundling operation.

Having read many of the BAD reviews it’s hard to distinguish if the blame for the bad experiences is truly due to Collette missteps, other third-parties, or the vacationer who just has different expectations for their investment.

Collette is just like any other tour promoter. Their service is to bundle other services provided by other third-party providers, wrap them up in a bow, and invoice you for their managed contracts.

Some of their contracts in certain regions of the world are good which end up turning into fairly nice customer experiences being posted on the internet. Some are awful as well. Adding to the complexity are regional agreements and regulatory constraints placed on many of these service providers.

Many of the bad reviews I have read IMHO are inappropriately directed at Collette only because that's who they purchased the tours from so the customer feels like that is who is to blame.

Some examples of such bad reviews include:

1. Blaming Collette for a bad experience at a particular hotel for not enough air conditioning or slow/non-operational elevators.

2. Bad restaurant choices because the customer didn't like the food in Istanbul.

3. Too many people booked on the tours.

4. The tour guides not speaking fluently in English

5. Too many stops at commercial sites to panhandle souvenirs.

These are but a few of the complaints provided on the internet. In today's social media environment many folks also overreact to a single bad review from thousands of experiences.

It reminds me of the recent Scrub Island experience by a vacationer who had a bad experience. Next thing you know the Marriott insiders were advocating not staying at the property because of safety concerns.

Not saying any of these things don't matter but in order to truly find out if you should use one of these operators one needs to understand what you are paying for and the underlying services that are being provided as a baseline from which to provide objective feedback.

My recommendation to anyone looking to use any Tour Aggregator is to find someone who has been to one of these tours (especially the tour I'm interested in) in the last 12 months with Collette Vacations and seeing what their experience has been.

Take the reviews on the internet with a grain of salt.

 

[jancurious]

We have a Collette tour scheduled for April so I will know first hand if I'm willing to take another tour in 2014 with them. We have toured extensively over the years with a number of tour operators (Uniworld, Grand Circle, Friendly Planet, Smart Tours) and everything you say, Fractional, about reading the reviews are so true. When you are subcontracting out to so many people and businesses all over the world......stuff just happens. We are flexible people and understand that and try not to let one bad experience impact our impression of a very memorable trip.

But to get this thread back on track, I'm not interested in knowing if I should go with Collette but rather if anyone was successful booking a Collette tour that isn't on the Marriott website. Thanks for any responses if anyone has any experience with this.

Jan

 

[SueDonJ]

There have been relatively few reports to TUG of folks using DC Points for any of the non-Marriott resort options, and I don't remember any where someone was able to tailor a trip to something other than what is explicitly offered. If you're not sure that the rep you spoke with knows enough to answer your question, I guess you could try speaking with someone higher up the Marriott chain or maybe a Collete rep.

But I would guess that what you're asking for wouldn't be doable simply because the partner relationships and reciprocity deals, and the DC Points costs to us, are worked out ahead of any options being offered to us. DC Points don't have a dollar conversion value, meaning the Marriott or Collette reps wouldn't be able to take the cost of the Australia tour you want and convert it to DC Points.

I hope if you take this further and find out something different, you'll share it with TUG. Good luck.

 

[BocaBoy]

Collette is just like any other tour promoter. Their service is to bundle other services provided by other third-party providers, wrap them up in a bow, and invoice you for their managed contracts.

All tour promoters are definitely NOT the same. With some, like Tauck, the same Tauck tour guide stays with the group the whole trip and even conducts many or most of the local tours himself/herself. They also exercise on site quality control over the hotels, restaurants, any local guides, etc., by being there with the group the whole time. The result is an exceptional tour experience almost every time. Their service is much more than merely bundling third party services. There are other similar top flight tour operators, and there are also ones who operate as you describe, with widely varying quality levels. I have no experience with Collette.

 

[jancurious]

Thanks Susan. I might try making another phone call as I didn't feel the rep was sure of what she was telling me.

I agree with you about the partnership needing to work out the deal to do something like this but you would think that these parameters might already be in place i.e. a tour costing $2000-2500 per person = 9,000 vacation points (just an example). None of the Marriott tours offer airfare, so that simplifies the conversion also. It would be a win/win for both companies if this could be accomplished easily as there are a lot more offerings on the Collette site.

Thanks for letting me know that this hasn't really been tried before. I'll definitely share if I find it is an option and will also probably pipe in to offer an opinion on Collette after our Shades of Ireland tour in May.

Jan

 

[FractionalTraveler]

All tour promoters are definitely NOT the same. With some, like Tauck, the same Tauck tour guide stays with the group the whole trip and even conducts many or most of the local tours himself/herself. They also exercise on site quality control over the hotels, restaurants, any local guides, etc., by being there with the group the whole time. The result is an exceptional tour experience almost every time. Their service is much more than merely bundling third party services. There are other similar top flight tour operators, and there are also ones who operate as you describe, with widely varying quality levels. I have no experience with Collette.

Thanks for the recommendation on Tauck. Sometimes niche operators are much better than the larger ones that just try to be everything to everyone who comes through their doors.

The challenge is of course to maintain the same levels of quality control with their subcontractors/vendors as they expand their footprint.

Your only as good as your last tour so word of mouth recommendations are worth a lot in this industry.

I agree there are some very good tour operators out there. The real work is finding those gems in a sea of weeds.

 

[BocaBoy]

Thanks for the recommendation on Tauck. Sometimes niche operators are much better than the larger ones that just try to be everything to everyone who comes through their doors.

The challenge is of course to maintain the same levels of quality control with their subcontractors/vendors as they expand their footprint.

Your only as good as your last tour so word of mouth recommendations are worth a lot in this industry.

I agree there are some very good tour operators out there. The real work is finding those gems in a sea of weeds.

You should definitely check out Tauck. We have done a 3 week China tour with them, a 2 week England, Scotland and Wales tour, and a 2 week European River Cruise where Tauck chartered the whole boat and was responsible for all tours and onboard activities. All were fantastic trips. Tauck is not cheap, but you definitely get what you pay for.

Tauck is not a small tour operator by any means, but they do not operate their tours like you would expect from the large mass operators either. They have tours all over North America and Europe, as well as several in Asia, Africa, South America and Australia/New Zealand. From reading your posts here, I am quite sure that they would be the type of tour you would really appreciate.