Caddo River Rats Kayak & Tube Rental — Local services in Caddo Valley

The customer service is always rude and hostile. They keep deleting reviews and Facebook comments of people complaining, but everyone knows the level of customer service you get at River Rats. I've been a customer since 2018 and every single employee I've ever talked to speaks as if I'm inconveniencing them by purchasing their services. They even have kids working the parking lot who will speak to you with the same disdain. You can see tons of other reviews also echoing the rude customer service.

Now (06/09/2024) they have announced they are adding a $5 fee per person to exit the river because, I quote from their FB page, "Please remember that you are exiting on our property and using our parking, air compressor, and trash service."

We don't use their shuttle, tubes, air compressor, bathrooms, trash cans, or anything except the stairs to get out and the parking…which we were already paying for! They have not added any value to any of the services we use to justify a price increase.

Until they deleted all the comments several people were complaining they had a male worker, not in any kind of uniform, at the exit screaming and yelling at people demanding they give them an extra $5 when leaving. Just some random guy running up and screaming at people to pay him. Not just at the adults either, he was screaming at and scaring families and children demanding extra fees from people who have been floating the river for years without the fee, who had no idea it was a new policy. This was BEFORE they had announced the new $5 per person fee on their website or social media. I don't know anyone who carries extra cash when they float the river. Even if they had added it to their price board, if you are just paying for parking as usual, there is no reason to even go look at the price sheet. You just pay on the way in jump in a buddy's truck and ride to the drop-off. Most people would have no idea it was even a thing. To handle that situation by screaming at their customers shows how unprofessional they are and their distaste for anyone who tries to use their business. Shameful behavior.

Speaking of shameful behavior, let's talk about their online presence. River Rats does not always post when they will be closed. You can look at their post history and see a lot of people just trying to see if they are open. So if you are traveling to float, you have no way to be sure they are open. It's fair enough that they don't control the river, but they do control when they are open and could answer customer questions about conditions. They also delete anything negative said about them and don't care about customer feedback. They just get in as many tourists as they can knowing they won't see them again.

I was happy to pay to park a vehicle at the bottom for a convenient place to leave, (our party usually parks at least 5) but if they are going to be screaming at customers and adding random fees without adding any value to their service then we won't be back. It was bad enough being spoken to like trash.

We hold an annual family/friends river float trip every year with several members (including myself) traveling back to Caddo to meet up and float at least once (usually twice). We have gotten used to telling everyone not to take the staff's rudeness personally and justifying dealing with the bad customer service for the parking convenience. I've had family ask us to find somewhere else to float for years after being talked down to by the staff...and I suppose this is the year we leave Caddo to meet up somewhere else. It's sad, we've always enjoyed supporting our favorite town and going to Flying Burger after a long day of floating.

At this point it's not even about the money, it's about the disrespect they show to anyone who tries to be their customer. "river RATS" is definitely an appropriate...

CONSUMER BEWARE!!! DO NOT USE THIS PLACE!!! GO TO GLENWOOD INSTEAD!!! Checked their Facebook page like usual to make sure they were open and even commented with one of the employees to let them know we were driving 2.5 hours from Shreveport to float. We pull up and they told us they were not offering any more floats for the day but sent us down the street to the Exxon to buy our own tubes and told us we could could pay $5 and drive ourselves to the drop off and they would provide us with a ride back to our truck once we made it back to the take out. We showed up to the take out and the employee that told us he would be there until 5 was no where to be found at 3:50. Then another employee told us he could take us less than a mile up the road back to our truck for $40 a person and there was 4 of us!!!!! This was my 10th time to come float with caddo river rats and after this experience I will never spend another dime at this establishment. Their communication with consumers that are traveling from other areas to float is disgraceful. Seriously look into other companies to float with. As a business owner myself, I would never allow my business to be run like this.

Editing this comment in reply to the owners response...NO the employee we spoke to originally and said that he would be there when we got back was NOT there. Another employee was and apparently it was his first day on the job. What kind of business leaves a brand new employee by himself on his first day? I have NEVER had a problem with your pricing as I’ve spent plenty of money supporting yours business in the past. As mentioned, I previously floated with you guys many times before yesterday. If it was a pricing issue I wouldn’t have come back. Your business is poorly run and your communication with the public traveling from out of town is severely lacking. You turned your reviews off on your FB Page which tells me all I need to know. Clearly you had plenty of bad ones. Your poorly run business is the reason I won’t be returning and I’m encouraging other consumers not to waste their time or money with you. Not...

As others have mentioned...they definitely nickel and dime you for everything. However, that wasn’t what made the experience so poor for our group. We had a fairly large group of people and they do not allow reservations; that would be fine, except they also have no system for getting people onto the shuttles. Our group waited over an hour baking in the parking lot sun while smaller groups jumped in line ahead of us because the shuttle just pulls up into the lot and whoever gets their tubes in first gets on. A lot easier to coordinate with 4-5 people, so we kept getting cut in front of. When we tried to ask the workers (very politely) if they could help prevent this, they were extremely rude and basically told us they couldn’t help. Eventually the owner came and made sure we got into the next shuttle (he is the only reason they are getting any stars at all - he was great). There were no instructions given prior to getting off the shuttle regarding where to get off the River (or literally anything else), no safety instructions, and no option to rent safety equipment. 3 of our tubes ended up having leaks in them that we discovered basically as soon as we got into the water, so they were completely useless by the time we got halfway through the float. The river is very, very slow here compared to other areas we have floated. The trip took much longer than we expected and was not very pleasant as we kept having to get out and carry our (mostly deflated) tubes over shallower areas.

Basically, the owner was nice and no one died. Other than that, the whole experience was very unpleasant and the rest of the staff were very rude and did not care whatsoever about helping customers out. Our group will be taking our business...