We booked Lemala Mara because of its location close to the river (according to the map in their website). When we arrived, we discovered that the camp had moved a few years ago and is now about an hour away from the river. Had we known that the map they show in their website is not right, we would have not stayed there but in another lodge closer to the river.
We booked our stay for 4 nights. When we arrived, the manager told us that we would have to move rooms the following day (we're a family of 4: our kids are 16 and 13). He wanted to give us the family room for one night and then have us move the second night for the 3 remaining nights. Our response was that we did not mind being in separate rooms, but that we did not want to move rooms. After moving hotel rooms 3 times in the previous 5 days, we really wanted to lay our things out and be put for a bit. He said that he needed to look into it. About an hour later, he said that he had checked and, since the people that would stay in the family room were not minors, we could stay in the family room for the 4 nights. That was the last we heard about it until lunchtime on our third day while on safari with our tour guide. He received a radio call saying that we had to change rooms for the last night. We told him that we were not happy about it but that, if we had to, we would move rooms after our safari. We stressed that we did not want people touching and moving our things. Our tour guide spoke on the radio with the manager (we did not have phone reception to call the camp) and communicated that. Later that day, we had some phone reception and read a message by Mia, our agent from Grumeti. She mentioned that we had to move rooms. We, again, said that we would but no-one should move our things until we were able to pack them. However, the manager at the camp decided to pack our things and moved us to two separate rooms without our consent. Again, we would have been happy with 2 rooms for the length of our stay which was what we had reserved but that was not an option at the time we checked in. Furthermore, when we arrived from our safari, the manager told us that he only moved us because the family that was staying in the family room had threatened him to cancel their reservation if they did not get the room. We were pretty upset when we arrived and saw that they had packed our things. They mixed our clothes. For example, my daughter's pjs were in my husband's carry-on. My son's medicines were in mine, and so on. (I felt very uncomfortable as I had washed my panties and my daughter's and left them in the rack to dry). We spent the last night of our safari going from one tent to the other with the clothes and personal stuff they had mixed. At the beginning, we had escorts, but at some point they left, leaving us on our own in the dark.
We reached out to Grumeti the following day, only to receive the following: " On the day of the transition, our records indicate that despite being informed of the need to move rooms, you left the tent without packing your belongings." and " they say they were there in the shadows as didnt want to encroach on your privacy the fact of the matter remains that you didnt know they were there and that is not right." We saw them walk away. There was no one in the shadows!
We paid a lot of money for their "luxury travel experience". Not only did we not receive that "luxury treatment", but our integrity and honesty were questioned. Given the central management reponse, you should reconsider staying at any Lemala...
  Â
Read more
Learn more insights from Wanderboat AI.
