Roll Call spamming - SPB Tours

[KeithJenner]

3 hours ago, lois1112 said:

I booked (and have made payment) SPB after reading good reviews here on cruise critic. I leave in August , anyone use them lately. I'm getting nervous and leary now 

I wouldn’t worry.

 

My issue here is these tactics. I don’t believe that it reflects in any way on the actual tours.

 

The main St Petersburg tour companies all seem to be very good, and I don’t really see much difference between them based on actual reports from people I know to be genuine. Personally, I would probably not book SPB based on some of these tactics, but I wouldn’t be concerned if i was already booked with them. Very possibly others are doing the same thing (although I never experienced any sort of pressure when I was there with a different company and none of my friends have reported anything similar). 

 

I’m sure you will have a great time.

[KeithJenner]

12 hours ago, Dukefan said:

I like small boutique  hotels and get ask probably more than 50% of the time to make a comment on social media.   My guess is that you stay in larger chain hotels where I admit this is less common. Probably because they have a sizable advertising budget. Smaller hotels have to reply on word of mouth as their major form of advertising.  It is interesting though that you stay in 20+ hotels a year and have never been ask to post a favorable rating on Social Media.   As an individual with 10,000+ posts on Cruise Critic, I would think you would get asked often.  I have stayed in over 40+ nights in hotels for over 50 years and the biggest change that I have noticed in the past 10 years is the promotion of Social Media.  For the first 35 years of my travel it was all done through a travel agent, now I find myself doing more and more of my bookings myself because of the information available on sites like Cruise Critic, TripAdvisor and other Social Media.   Also I guess because I am retired I have more time to do it myself.

Yes, I tend to use one of the major chains for my hotels, so that may be the difference between our experiences.

 

I have never used a travel agent in my life, and use various sites for my research (I also review quite regularly on tripadvisor), which is a reason why things like this are quite important to me. Doing your own research is so much easier these days, but you have to be aware of the pitfalls.

[Turtles06]

I've had tour operators and hotels ask that we review them on Trip Advisor if we had a good time, but I've never had anyone try to bribe me to do so, whether with a gift or money or anything.    I wouldn't do it; I think it's unethical, and I think places like that should be banned by social media if proved that they are doing it. 

[Dukefan]

10 hours ago, lois1112 said:

I booked (and have made payment) SPB after reading good reviews here on cruise critic. I leave in August , anyone use them lately. I'm getting nervous and leary now 

We are also booked on SPB Tours in September.   I worked with all the major SPB Tours companies for this trip.    I selected SPB Tours for the following reasons:

1)     They did the best job of matching the times we wanted to spend at each site

2)     They had very good comments on both Cruise Critic and Trip Adviser (In fact when we booked they had  5,356 reviews on Trip Adviser and were rated excellent (Trip Adviser’s Highest Rating) by 91% of them)

3) They allowed box lunches each day (the boxed lunches will take in to account any diet restrictions anyone has).   The box lunch allow more time for touring and less time wasted with a hour or sometimes more for lunch.

 

To date, I have been impressed with SPB Tours reservation and booking process.   Of course, the tour itself is where the "rubber meets the road".

 

I have been to SPB before and used other tour companies.  Every one of them were great.  Because of our past trips, we had some very specific requirements for this trip on where we went and how long we visited certain sites.   Also we are there on a Sunday and Monday which causes some tour challenges because of closings.   SPB Tours did the best job of working with us in dealing with all this.   

 

I would feel comfortable with any of the major companies.   If past experience is any indication they are all good.   Of course, the guide that you end up with for your tour is the major factor on how will it goes.

 

While I have no problem with SPB Tours and others asking you to post a review on Social Media, I do have a problem with offering gifts for doing so and would include that fact in my review.   Several of the reviews that gave them 4 stars instead of 5, stated that while the tour was 5 star that they docked them a star because they were offered a gift for a high rating.   Also I never rate any travel service provider until I return home from the trip and have a chance to reflect on the experience.

Edited May 31, 2019 by Dukefan
grammar

[Slowboattochina]

Thanks for uncovering this.  Many of us rely on Cruise Critic to make decisions upon whom to trust our vacation time and $s with.  If a company is spamming (or using a spam workaround) to market on this site, we need to know. I would hate CC to become flooded with fake reviews like another well known online shopping site.....

Edited May 31, 2019 by Slowboattochina

[fabnfortysomething]

st Petesrburg tour operators regularly have controversial reviews

 

over the years have been monitoring Baltics forum there is a lot of back biting amongst private tour companies and reports of fake reviews/tax avoiding etc

 

however they all seem to offer better value than ship excursions

 

if  I  received a request from either of 2 companies I have toured with -Anastasia and TJ I would reply to them it would be violating the forum rules and likely to cause me to be blocked from future postings-neither of which have sent such a request