Sabah Travel — Attraction in Borneo

Our 3-day guided tour and activities in Tawau Hills National Park left us deeply disappointed. The promises regarding accommodation, activities, and guiding were not fully met. The discrepancy between what was offered and promoted as “wildlife oriented guided tour” and what was actually delivered, was too great to tolerate. Consequently, it caused us a great deal of frustration.

Main Issues: Incorrect accommodation: At the last minute, we were informed that the promised accommodation within the park was not available. They offered us two options: to be accommodated in a hotel with daily transportation to the park or to change the dates of the tour we already paid for. To avoid logistical complications on our side, we accepted the first option, but we did not expect it to have such a significant impact on our experience.

Unsuitable guide: Despite promises and claims of an English-speaking guide, our guide was not fluent in English. This not only made meaningful communication difficult but also impossible. We were deprived of information about the ecosystem we were exploring. We had expected the tour with a guide, who was supposed to be a conservationist, to be focused on sharing information and knowledge about the animals and plants. Despite our request to change the guide, we were told that it was not possible. Disclaimer: I must emphasize here that the guide, within his abilities, tried to communicate with us and share information, but this is practically impossible without knowledge of English. The blame for this situation lies with management, who assigned a non-English-speaking guide to a foreign group that had explicitly booked and paid for a tour with an English-speaking guide.

Absence of promised activities: Several promised activities from the itinerary were missing (lunch, two guided walks, etc.), including very important ones like the morning walk, which is crucial for observing monkeys and birds or any form of wildlife (discovering of which is supposedly the main point of the mentioned tour). On the first day, instead of starting with lunch and an afternoon walk, we began only with a night walk. The missing lunch was provided on the last day, but only after we made a request for its refund. On the second day, we experienced a guided hike on crowded trails, not the "off the beaten path" locations that were promised in the description of the tour.

Inadequate communication from organizers: When we pointed out the issues and the discrepancy between what was promised and what was delivered, the agency became unresponsive to our messages and calls - we received no replies to our messages and they wouldn't answer our calls. At one point, we had to take over the organization ourselves and arrange at least one morning walk with the guide, just to have one chance to see animals before they retreated into the more remote parts of the forest to avoid the crowds of hikers. We also had problems and additional costs with settling a "late check-out fee" at the hotel because we had not received any information from the agency about the time we had to vacate the rooms (and that this time did not align with the time of the organized transport to the airport, which was included in the total tour price).

Throughout the entire duration of the tour and its related activities, we did not gain any new knowledge about the park's ecosystem (which we would have expected from a conservation-oriented tour, as this one was promoted). The entire organization and communication from the agency were unprofessional, and as a result, the added value of the guided tour was zero. We could have done most things on our own with fewer costs and hassles. Based on this experience, I find it difficult to recommend the agency's services to people who truly want to learn something new. But if you just need a baby-sitter for walking the marked and momentarily crowded paths, then this is...

This travel agency earns the lowest possible rating due to a complete failure in basic customer communication.

The company's inability to respond to a WhatsApp inquiry demonstrates poor customer service standards. In today's digital age, where prompt communication is essential, especially in the travel industry, ignoring customer messages is unacceptable.

This lack of response suggests either inadequate business practices or disorganized customer service management. For a travel agency, where timely communication can be crucial for trip planning, such negligence is particularly concerning.

The complete silence after an inquiry raises serious questions about the company's reliability and professionalism. If basic communication attempts are ignored, it creates doubt about their ability to handle actual travel arrangements.

For potential travelers seeking assistance in Sabah, this company's failure to respond to inquiries makes it impossible to recommend. Their lack of basic customer service suggests looking elsewhere for travel planning needs.

This level of non-responsiveness is unacceptable in the travel industry, where communication and reliability are fundamental requirements for business...

My friends and I decided to visit Sabah to see some of Borneo's wildlife. Due to our tight budget, we couldn't go to Danum valley, so I found Tawau hills park where Sabah Travel offered a 3D2N wildlife-watching tour. We ended up very disappointed by the tour for several reasons. Firstly, it is not a tour focused on searching for wildlife but includes a bunch of touristy activities such as walking to a very popular waterfall with lots of local tourists, a visit to a botanical garden... They didn't provide us an English-speaking guide (so we couldn't get any information about the park, animals, the ecosystem etc.), morning walks (we started late in the morning instead of at sunrise, as promised in the itinerary), half of the activities on day one (which we only got after complaining to the authorities). Everyone we tried to contact was ignoring our calls and messages so we had to arrange some things by ourselves. Not to mention that we did not get any information about our check-out from the hotel in the city (where we had to stay because they did not have any place in the lodge at the entrance of the park), which caused many problems and additional...