Lindsey T.

I purchased a trip to Hawaii through Beyond Boundaries at the beginning of August, 2014. The representative I worked with was Daniel, but I also had contact with the owner, Doug Lofland. Listed below are the series of negative events I experienced with Beyond Boundaries. The taxi service claimed that the times, locations, and information provided by Beyond Boundaries did not make sense and caused a lot of disorganization and inability to schedule. For example, our itinerary listed our pick up time from the airport was as 4:45PM. Our flight arrived at approximately 3:45PM but our cab driver was to pick us up at 3PM, as per guidance from Beyond Boundaries given to Pono Taxi (cab company) before our arrival. Pono Taxi did not have any of the pick up/drop off times/locations that were listed in the itinerary provided, despite the itinerary stating otherwise. Beyond Boundaries failed to convey the proper times and locations to Pono Taxi in order to make this a worry-free trip for us. Next, when booking our hotel room through Beyond Boundaries, I had requested an "ocean view" room. Our only view was that of one of the other buildings on the hotel property, which completely blocked any chance of having an "ocean view." I paid extra for this feature and when I inquired with the front desk, they said that no mention of a request for an "ocean view" were conveyed on our behalf by Beyond Boundaries. It was disappointing to find out that Beyond Boundaries had not honored our request. Finally, a night or two before we left, I tried to contact Daniel in regard to maps and directions for the bike tour. I tried emailing him and was stunned to find out that he was on vacation during the entire week of our trip, especially since he was our point of contact for any assistance we may have needed. I tried calling the phone number listed in his auto reply email several times, and no one answered. Fortunately, we are resourceful and decided to go out and purchase a guide book which contained several maps of the island. We relied on that completely to help us navigate. All of that being said, I calculated the typical nightly rate offered by Kauai Shores (although I'm sure being a travel company, they offer Beyond Boundaries a discount of some kind) and the cost of the daily taxi rides (between $35-$90 depending on the location), both of which were "included" in the cost that we paid to Beyond Boundaries for this trip. I also added in the cost of the bikes and flights, which were NOT included in what I paid Beyond Boundaries, and in the end I was left wondering what I actually paid Beyond Boundaries $2,000 for. Just to break it down: Hotel- 7 nights@ $126/night= $882 Taxi- 2 days@ $35,3 days@ $90, and 2 days@ $70= $390 (not including tips) Bikes (not included in amount paid to Beyond Boundaries)- 2 bikes for 5 days@ $25/day/bike + 10% discount= $225 (not including tax) Airfare (not included in amount paid to Beyond Boundaries)- approx $1300 for 2 people Grand Total- $2797 Total Included in Cost Paid to Beyond Boundaries- $1272 I booked this 5 months in advance, and had to fight to even hear from Beyond Boundaries after my initial purchase. Our taxi service was not properly scheduled by Beyond Boundaries, our requests made through Beyond Boundaries for our hotel accommodations were not conveyed to the concierge of Kauai Shores and our "trip adviser" was out of the office the entire week of our trip without any follow on contacts who would actually answer their phone in case of an emergency. Not to mention, had we not purchased the guide book, we wouldn't have had any idea where we were going! Essentially, I paid Beyond Boundaries $728 more than what the actual costs were so that I could receive less than mediocre service. They didn't even email to find out how the trip went! We are both active duty soldiers- our money is hard earned. I was deployed when I booked this and was treated like a second class citizen by Beyond Boundaries.