The Mzansi Experience

Hi Ezekiel. Thank you for the lovely review and we are happy that you had a great time on tour. The reason you had to pay extra was for special shuttles (both ways) at different times than our standard shuttles, since you failed to disclose your flight times until the very last minute. These flight times did not fit into the standard schedule of our tours. To book special shuttles, there are additional fees involved. It is therefore, sadly, due to your own oversight. We contacted you many times before your arrival for this information, but you simply did not respond. Therefore, putting the extra costs on us is not fair, nor accurate. Thank you. Leon Steyn

Hi Mr Dudycha, I note your review, and also the reviews stated on other platforms. I want to immediately address the fact that you were stuck overnight – not two days. This happened late afternoon on the day you were in Moremi Game Reserve on your way back to your accommodation. You were out the next morning and safely back at your accommodation. As a person so focused on facts, the mention of two days right in your opening sentence is placed with specific intent. I fully understand and acknowledge the distress caused to you by being stuck in thick mud overnight in a wildlife reserve. That has been acknowledged right from the start. I have assured you that we do not take it lightly. I really was sincere in my initial communication which was summarily dismissed by you as characterization. It was not. I have also assured you that a situation like this is the first in the history of our business (established 2017). This does not alleviate what you very unfortunately experienced, but it does point out that these types of events were not experienced by us before. We issued a refund for the upcoming activity (helicopter flight) in your itinerary even before we received a complaint from you - even though you said you do not want to do it, which normally means forfeiting at full charge. Or we could have asked to move it to another day, but we opted not to and just issued the refund. This immediate action to refund (which you approved on TourRadar only 10 days later) has not even been acknowledged in any way to us directly. Not a word. I have taken great care and effort to fully investigate with all parties involved with the information available, and gave a full, multi-page report on this. This has been met with complete disregard and anger from your side. I explained in detail what measures we will be putting into place so that this will not happen in future. From this situation, we have learned about additional measures that we will put into place going forward – but that is not a requirement by law for a tour operator. Hence, we are in full adherence to what was required by the tourism authorities of Botswana. The extraordinary circumstances (road conditions due to severe weather and rains) leading to this situation have not been taken into consideration at all – painting a picture to readers of this review that we operated unprepared and dangerously. Any person that does some reading into Moremi Game Reserve and Chobe / Savuti area of the past few weeks, will quickly see many roads got flooded, and some roads and crossings have been closed as too many vehicles got stuck and it became generally inaccessible for the time being. I can assure you that you would have a different opinion if you had insight of operations and daily dealing in safari business in a remote location like this. It is also very easy to comment on better preparedness in this situation or hinting at incompetent management as the cause of the situation. In Botswana, road conditions are a challenge sometimes even in the dry season. That is why we have a maintenance team looking at our vehicles very often. Communication is severely limited, with no mobile reception and the radio lines were off (or not responding). Regarding signal fires - there are dangerous animals so you cannot just get out of a vehicle and go build a fire at night. It is highly advised to stay on the vehicle in such circumstances. For a DAY TIME game drive, which we run daily, we had everything normally required on the vehicle. Most importantly, in these circumstances, you were always in the capable care of our experienced guide, delivering you safely and without any harm to your hotel the next morning. We were so glad to know you were all okay! We are certainly not deflecting responsibility, and stating that all problems could have been avoided is far overreaching the circumstances to the event. Based on our extensive communication, and your ongoing efforts to put my company in a bad light overall - for an isolated, and highly unfortunate incident - I do not know what to further respond since nothing is going to be acceptable for you. This is highly regretful as I really tried my utmost best. I wish you all the best for the future.

Hi Patrick, Thank you for the review. I would like to respond factually to this review, as you are painting a picture here that is not correct. 1. You had a flight delay and eventually landed in Kruger International Airport, letting us know by 14:16PM you arrived. This was already too late (even if you found the driver immediately) to make it to the lodge in time for the afternoon game drive departure. 2. Not being in time for the game drive, due to an outside delay, technically counts as a no-show. But we were very accommodating and offered the game drive on the last morning, so you still get all your game drives. 3. The driver's number was not wrong. The call simply did not go through to him. I tested this very number and the driver answered. This could be due to mobile network problems - but I would rather not speculate yet mobile signal can be affected by adverse weather. I acknowledge the fact that the driver was no at arrivals at the time, but he was there was a long time before your arrival, to be there once you arrived so you do not have to wait for an hour for him to get there from the lodge. This already shows we went above measure to accomodate your flight dealy (which we do not have to do). The fact remains, the flight was already too late to make the game drive in time. 3. You chose (own decision) not to take the morning game drive on the last day, which was entirely possible to do. Saying you had no choice but to miss it in this review, is incorrect. 4. Saying we placed the blame on you is also incorrect. The flight delay is with the airline, and that is what caused you missing the game drive on the first day. You are not recognising this as the source of the problem, and keep on saying we (as Mzansi Experience are in the wrong). Did you reach out to the airline perhaps to try and recover costs? I do not think so. Creating the impression that we were not helpful and accommodating is grossly inaccurate. Also - we did not keep the fees of your forfeitted game drive for ourselves. Those fees are paid to the lodge for costs such as the guides payment, already paid entrance fees at the Kruger gate, fuel costs, levies and vehicle maintenance. We do not keep one cent for any game drives. As communicated, I advise you contact your travel insurance to receover costs incurred due to your flight delay, being the main reason for this situation. Wishing you all the best. Leon Steyn Managing Director