Terrible experience based on COVID cancellations
I'm writing to express another bad and similar experience with France of the Beaten Path due to the extreme price increases since my original booking in 2020. I do want to say that I went on the Provence tour, so I'm a repeat customer (doesn't matter), and it was very nice although very overpriced for what you get. I was fortunate to get an early booking discount and a waiver of the single supplement which was the only way I was able to afford the trip. I booked the tour to Loire valley with the same early booking discounts (a year and a half) and paid $3,098 for a 5 night tour for one person. Due to Covid the tour was cancelled in 2020, I rebooked for 2021 and also had to cancel due to Covid and traveling restrictions. After emailing with Christy numerous times about taking the trip in 2022, she would not honor my original agreed upon price for the trip and required an additional $2,000 for the same trip for a total of approx. $5K. Also, she was very vague about the additional cost until the additional bill came. I cannot afford another 2K, nor is the trip for 5 nights worth this price. She will not refund my original 3K and will not be reasonable enough to try to find a solution that we both would be satisfied with. I have travelled with numerous tour groups both larger and small boutique ones. Most have worked with their customers during the COVID pandemic to make reasonable changes. I'm really disappointed in the way this has been handled. I'm sympathetic to the costs increasing due to the loss of business and general increase of goods and services but an increase of 66% to take the same trip is truly unfair. BE CAREFUL when booking with a small company with this kind of history! I'm afraid I'm out $3,100 now since the current price would be $5,600!! (over $1,100 a night!). I truly don't know what else to do.