Grace the abysmal Tour Guide for Memory Tours Hong Kong
She needs to be completely retrained or fired from her job
A Unique Talking Tour of Hong Kong with Jamie, your passionate Hong Kong local expert, host and storyteller with 2,324 Private Tours of Hong Kong completed.
Book Now | A Talking Tour - Cultural Tourism at it’s very best
Grace the abysmal Tour Guide for Memory Tours Hong Kong
She needs to be completely retrained or fired from her job
If this is the quality of your average Hong Kong Tour then I am going to end up in a very sad and dark place - our experience was in no shape or form anything like what the hundreds of Tripadvisor reviews mention, it was the total opposite of a 5 star experience
The shockingly bad tour offered by Hong Kong Free Walks | Hong Kong Free Walking Tours and Memory Tours, a free tour or a paid tour. There is a link above which gives a very detailed explanation of our terrible experience from August 21st 2024
I was a pioneer of Private Tours of Hong Kong, putting up my website in 2010 and doing my first tour in April of 2011, I completed 2,324 private tours of Hong Kong
… and recently I learnt just how awful some prominent Tour Companies are in Hong Kong who simply have no idea what quality service even means, the Hong Kong Government loves to talk about how great our Tour Companies are, a few are, most are not even remotely great and are distinctly average and | or poor and the Government has no way of knowing or checking, unless they stick a “secret shopper” on tours, I doubt anyone at the Hong Kong Tourism Board even knows what a Tripadvisor review is.
I appreciate very much that 5,500 licenced local tour guides are not all bad, there are some real standouts and they work for my friends.
I have quite a radical opinion on what it takes to become a great Tour Guide in Hong Kong
they must unlearn all the rubbish that the Government Courses teach you
you should be over 35 (I do not think young kids have the life experience to do this job)
if you want to deal with foreign tourists then fluency in English is an absolute must (all my Chinese friends that are guides pretty much speak flawless English) and being totally fluent in other European Languages is a real advantage
and you must have the ability to get on with foreigners and show them Hong Kong in the way you would do for family members and friends.
If you can tick all these boxes and are passionate about Hong Kong and spend a lot of time acquiring knowledge then you will do very well for yourself - I have 52 years under my belt living in Hong Kong and I can really get along with people and did a lot of tours and worked hard to maintain my 5 star rating on Tripadvisor.
So as a reminder - our reasons for doing this tour where two fold :
to check our the Tour Guide Grace whose amazing reviews made her a potential desirable hire as a freelance tour guide
based on my long experience in the tour business, it is simply NOT possible for a company offering the tours that they do to get so many 5 star Tripadvisor reviews, to say it was | is fishy was | is the understatement of the decade.
I have a lot of experience in this business having completed 2,324 private tours in 9 years, there are so many recent reviews for Grace that say she is simply so amazing and knowledgeable, this is why we wanted to check her out because frankly in our experience, NO ONE is that good but we wanted to be sure and I repeat again, I say it as I see it and I believe that most rational and normal people would agree with my comments - our Grace and review Grace appear to be 2 completely different people, Jekyll and Hyde if you will.
What I am writing here is objective and not emotional, our informal association of the best tour companies in Hong Kong has extremely high standards and we share knowledge, information and market intelligence daily, we are always on the lookout for talented tour guides but we do not tolerate clear manipulation of the Tripadvisor review system by companies who have a substantially inferior product and service ethos. we want visitors who come to Hong Kong to have the very best experience., it really is that simple.
If you review their 2 websites, click on the buttons above, you have to ask yourself how they can get so many 5 star Tripadvisor reviews in such a short space of time with these very poorly designed websites that could have been cobbled together in some ones back bedroom and Memory Tours has a gmail address as an email contact, there is just something that is not right. It took me 9 years to get to 800+ reviews and 2,324 tours, this company has 600+ reviews in under 2 1/2 years! 210 in 2023, 345 so far in 2024
They have received 345+ reviews in 2024 (not including the 50 that where removed recently) even the top group tour companies in Hong Kong who do a lot more tours than they do and offer a proper 5 star experience only get 5 - 10 reviews per month at best.
Please note that approximately 20 x 2024 reviews have not been sorted by date and you have to scroll to page 55 plus to see the reviews.
I should point out that I have been monitoring Tripadvisor since 2011 on a daily basis, I know what to look for when it comes to fake reviews and the fact that Tripadvisor recently removed 50 reviews, well, that should tell you a lot about the company.
Some more context
Because the Mainland Chinese Tour market is so regulated (80% of Hong Kong Tourists are from Mainland China and this figure has been stable for almost 20 years now) some “bus tour operators” have now turned their attention to foreign tourists - they know that forced shopping will not work any more so the business model (made possible by listing on sites such as Viator and Tripadvisor) is to sell a very cheap tour and basically play the numbers game to eke out a meagre profit, their plan it totally reliant on every tour having a minimum of 20 - 30 participants and making sure that every part of the tour including “meals and snacks included” is the lowest possible quality that they can get away with and they pay the tour guides peanuts.
So basically what I experienced On August 21st was a now standard tour model for foreign tourists based on the Mainland Chinese Tourist Business Model and it just made me so sad to watch how the tour unfolded
Any tourist coming to Hong Kong has a certain expectation of quality, they are also not stupid, they know that the price is cheap and well below market prices for private tours and they know that corners will be cut but this is no excuse for what unfolded, if you accept a tour you have an obligation to provide the best tour possible, no excuses.
I hate cliches at the best of times but the one that is most apt here is “you get what you pay for” if you stop and think about it, do you really think you are going to get personal service and time with a tour guide that is dealing with 20 pesky foreigners and has as much love for her job as visiting a hemorrhoid clinic.
Something to think about
Below is just a partial list of my private tour guests and their rather diverse occupations, I completed 2,324 Private Tours of Hong Kong in just 9 years with almost 60% of these private tours being 6 - 8 hours long and the ability to talk to so many wonderful people from all walks of life is a gift I acquired, I had over 6,000 guests, not bad for one person!
I have done private tours with so many wonderful people who have the following diverse occupations:-
A REAL Princess, Very close relatives of a US President!, One Star Admiral of the US 7th Fleet, Nuclear Missile Operations Officer (Missileer) for the USAF, Plumbers, Postman, Supplier of ALL frozen burger pattie’s to McDonalds, Nuclear Sub Commanders, Farmers, Chip Shop Owner, Teachers, Pulitzer Prize Award Winning Journalists, Photocopier Repair Guys, Lawyers, Rocket Scientists, Movie Producers, Consul Generals, Police Officers, Homicide Detectives, Travel Agents, House Keepers, Linguists, Retired and Serving CIA Officers, Fighter Pilots, Army and Navy Guys, Socialites, Students, Judges, Journalists, Software Geeks, Nuclear Power Plant Inspectors, Surgeons, Doctors, Forensic Pathologists, Nurses, Coroners, Venture Capitalists, Hospice Directors, Town Planners, Accountants, Psychiatrists, Nuclear Physicists, Professional Athletes, Ferry Captains, Commercial Pilots, Airline Crew, Social Workers, Veterinarians, Musicians, Theme Park Executives, Professional Photographers, College Professors, Gaming Geeks, Inland Revenue Tax Officials, American Airforce B 52 Bomber Pilot, Senior Engineer / Ballistic Missiles, Bodyguards, Beer Salesmen, Park Rangers, Scuba Diving Instructors, Popcorn Machines Makers, Coastguard Officers, Firemen, Structural Geologists, Veterinarians, Architects, Surveyors, Hooters Waitress, Dentists, Ski Instructors, Civil Engineers, Air Traffic Controllers, Electricians, Top Law Professor's at major US Universities, Librarians, Steel Guys, Economists, Homemakers, Novelists, Book Publishers, Currency Traders, Carpenters, a Rabbi, Boiler Maker, Strawberry Farmers, Food Bloggers, Morticians, Financial Advisers, Corporate Video Makers, Private Investigators, Bounty Hunters, Chiropractors, Air Traffic Controllers, Builders, Stonemasons, Botanists, Dog Sitters, Spy, Geneticists, Interpol Agents, Prison Food Suppliers, Radio Announcers, Military Cryptologists, Forklift Drivers, Locksmiths, Icecream maker, Pastry Chef, Baker, Zoo Keepers, Explosives Experts, DEA Agents, Coffee Traders, Diamond Buyers, Wedding Photographers, Google Guru's, Geologists, Professor of Medieval History, Navy Chef's, Camp Site Operators, Animal Embalmers, Telecomms Engineers, Helicopter Pilots, Oil Industry Divers, Navy Seals, Editor for USA Today, Landscape Gardeners, Mary Kay Super Agents, Hotel Owners, TV Actors, Optometrists, Gourmet Chef's, Acclaimed Plastic Surgeons, Barristers, Travel Bloggers, Politicians, Funeral Home Directors, Former Gang Member, Anthropologist, Children's Book Author, Geophysicist, Chicken Artist, Priest, Movie Makeup Artist, Expert Witness, Bail Bondsman, Opera Singer, Master Brewer, Child Prodigy, Debt Collector, Victoria Secrets Store Manager, Head of a major Charity, Celebrity TV Talking Heads (!), Fortune 500 CEO's, Corporate Trainer, Futures Trader, Waitress (quite a few) General Manager of a Worm Bait Company, Owner of a RV Dealership, Convenience Store Owner, Owner of an Amusement Game Manufacturer, Elephant Conservationists, Chemist, High School Students, Crematorium Operator, Concert Pianist, Vet from Honduras, Hair Stylist for a Funeral Home, Calendar Maker, Pedicab Operator, Poets, F16 Fighter Pilot USAF, Steve Jobs Doctor, Major US Democratic Politician, Big cheese Executives from HBO and CBS, Famous journalist and a Journalism Professor, former Secret Service Agent, Famous Rare Coin and Stamp Collector, Major Charitable Foundation Owner ... and some really, really senior people from J. P. Morgan, Starbucks, United Airlines, Boeing, Google and Microsoft.
J3 Group Hong Kong
J3 Consultants Hong Kong | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong
J3 Consultants Private Hong Kong Experiences are tailored for individuals who prefer to explore Hong Kong independently but would like a Hong Kong Expert to tell them about Hong Kong
This unique experience offers an authentic insight into the real Hong Kong, providing a deeper understanding of the city's culture, history, and local way of life.
Led by Jamie, a dedicated Hong Kong specialist and resident for 52 years, the experience covers many aspects of Hong Kong's identity, spanning its time under both British and Chinese rule.
Cultural Tourism at it’s very best
J3 Private Hong Kong Experiences
You want to learn about the REAL Hong Kong from a local host
How local do you want to get?
You have come to the right place.
Jamie, your friend in Hong Kong
52 years living in Hong Kong, our family arrived on January 2nd 1972
I have lived here for 25 years under British Rule, 27 years under Chinese Rule
I have 45 years of Business Consultancy experience in Hong Kong
My wife is a local & has lived her entire life in Hong Kong, her first language is Cantonese
We have 3 Adult sons all born in Hong Kong, 2 still live here and 1 in the UK
I pioneered the Private Tour Industry in Hong Kong in 2010
2,324 completed award winning Private Tours of Hong Kong from 2011 - 2020
……and yes, I am a bit of an expert on the Hong Kong car culture!
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Consultants Hong Kong | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | | 2011 - 2024.
All rights reserved.
Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
Current images from my Instagram feed