Hong Kong Free Walks | Memory Tours - A horrible tour
Surely this cannot be the acceptable standard for tours in HK?
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Hong Kong Free Walks | Memory Tours - A horrible tour to take in Hong Kong
Surely this cannot be the acceptable standard for tours in Hong Kong?
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.
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.
The same company, same guide, different tour - on this tour there would have been anywhere from 20 - 100 people on the tour, it is like the guide Grace who we had on our tour has 2 personalities and lives in an alternate universe because we have never met a worse guide than Grace and I am a very objective person, if Grace was the best I would say so, the reason we did her tour was to check her out, a lot of our friends are always looking for great guides to add to the team - please note that on a group tour of even 20 people it is almost impossible to have one on one conversations with the guide, whose sole aim is not to lose anyone, stick to the largely memorised and awful script and make sure everything thing runs like clockwork!
I did 2,324 tours of Hong Kong in 9 years and I cannot remember ever a guest calling my tours incredible, I had a 5 star profile on Tripadvisor and I worked very hard to make sure I gave 110% on every tour and " a tour that was just incredible" to describe a cheap group tour with a lousy guide - it just does not fit.
We took this free tour version on August 20th, we where the only 2 people out of 20 guests that were on a free tour - I am simply too angry to write a review so my associate (a young lady and great friend who is one of the very best private tour guides in Hong Kong) did the job, she takes tours all over the world when she travels, she knows good from bad.
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 before Covid in January 2020 destroyed my much loved business as Hong Kong was literally closed to tourists for 3 years, that is in the past and I have a new related business now.
I do have some amazing memories of my time as a Private Tour Guide not least of which was the day I did a tour with a famous Princess on August 22nd 2012 and then another one when I shook hands with a famous alleged Hong Kong Gangster | Mob Boss | Triad Leader at an Iconic Temple in Hong Kong and also the Band members of the iconic punk rock group the Damned
… and today I learnt just how awful some prominent Tour Companies are in Hong Kong who simply have no idea what quality 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 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 knows what a Tripadvisor review is.
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 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, 330 so far in 2024
They have received 330 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.
I will state my conclusion to what follows below first and now and let me be 100% clear, if Grace had been awesome, amazing and brilliant I would say so, I have no axe to grind, my friends who are part of our group are always looking for exceptional talent to add to their team what is worse is if the company owners had witnessed what we did they would say everything went swimmingly, they have no quality standards and simply provide the bare minimum service and have absolutely no idea what makes for a great tour, I mean this is a company that will take 100 people onto the streets for a tour! I have this dreadful feeling that people doing these tours simply have no expectation that they are going to have a wonderful experience, they have no frame of reference and they do not write a poor review because they believe that this is the standard of tours in Hong Kong - that is enough to make me weep with frustration.
Grace - the BEST Tour Guide in Hong Kong?
There was no part of this description that can be applied to the Grace we had on our tour, our Grace was (and I am being charitable) at best simply annoying and we started the tour 34 minutes late because of her lack of organisation. As a tour it was simply not acceptable and a one star review on Tripadvisor would be one too many.
I often wonder how people can make the bizarre claim that their tour guide is the best tour guide in Hong Kong, we have approximately 5,500 tour guides in Hong Kong so you would have to do a tour with every single one of them to make such a bold claim! another clue that a lot of their reviews are fabricated.
I did 3 tours with the same company back in 2019, those where awful but the young lady guide was just a kid, Grace is a mature woman with 10 years of guiding experience, she should be ashamed of herself for her demeanour and lack of knowledge and she needs to drop those unfunny repetitive “sound effects” which are awful you will know what I mean if you have the unfortunate situation of her being your tour guide.
The perfect storm of mediocrity
At the risk of repeating myself too much, I am totally qualified to make these comments, I completed 2,324 private tours of Hong Kong in 9 years with over 6,000 guests and a 5 star Tripadvisor average and I am absolutely easy to please unfortunately this Company will NEVER reduce the limit of tour participants - for this tour we did, a maximum of 6 guests would be about right any more than that, well it is all downhill, it is basic common sense and naturally my own personal opinion, others may well disagree with me and for this company the only way they can make money it have large groups ( 100 people on a group tour!)
I should point out that I know Hong Kong having lived here for 52 years, I am also self taught and even today I still spend hours every day researching Hong Kong, you can never have too much knowledge so when a tour guide talks rubbish I know instantly, as I keep pointing out to my friends statistics change almost daily, new reports are written, the press in Hong Kong is a vital source of up to date information and such so it is so important that you keep up with the changes, the Governments Tour Guide Training here is all about rote learning and it would never occur (it seems) to most guides that information changes and I got the impression that this guide on our tour simply made things up working on the theory that no one cares because she is so annoying and no one fact checks and the tourist will be gone forever in a day or two - what a depressing attitude to have.
Over the decades traditional Hong Kong Tour Companies have had a terrible reputation, particularly in the past 20 - 25 years as a result Government Intervention was inevitable and warranted but now it has gone too far, the Government has no idea or concept of what makes for a great tour and a great tour guide and they still believe that every foreign tourist coming to Hong Kong rides around 20 - 25 on a coach doing 5 stops on an itinerary that has barely changed for 50+ years and they have no idea that private tours, walking tours and food tours have totally changed the market since being introduced in 2010 | 2011 and myself and my friends will take the credit for that.
Most of the regulations are related to tours for Mainland Chinese Tourists and these unfortunate tourists were basically seen as an easy target (mugs) and the modus operandi was simple, offer a very cheap tour or free tour and then impose on them forced shopping where tourists on buses were taken to shopping malls all over Hong Kong and told to purchase products against their will, the retailers were more than happy to pay a hefty commission to Tour Companies.
This whole sorry saga is well documented in the press.
The Governments plan to clean up the business has worked very well but in my opinion too well, they have regulated the tour industry to such an extent that it is very difficult for foreign companies to offer tours and almost impossible for a foreign tour guide to legally lead tours.
… and now everything revolves around getting at a minimum 20 - 30 people on every tour and putting them on the streets rather than a coach or a mixture of both which is worse as I found out.
Honestly I fail to understand how anyone can enjoy being on a group tour with 20 - 25 other people and I have held this view for over 14 years, there is zero opportunity to build up a rapport with the guide or even ask questions with so many people on the tour. They have a schedule to keep and the more people there is the slower the tour goes
I was a pioneer of private tours in Hong Kong and a group of us have over the years done our very best to give tourists coming to Hong Kong a great experience, back in 2010 it was unheard of that someone would take just 1 person or 2 people on a private tour, no one could understand how you could make a living, well I knew better.
Amazingly bus tour companies still exist for foreign tourists and they have very, very poor reputations, they have a business model that is over 50 years old which is offer a cheap tour and then take the guests on a tour that does not quite match the stated itinerary (the itinerary is almost the same now as it was in 1972 when our family took a tour) unfortunately this also includes doing a stop at a jewellery “factory” where for 30 - 40 minutes the poor tourists are given the hard sell, this stop is under the guise of it being a cultural experience but it is a terrible experience - the tour companies also try and sell tacky souvenirs and such.
This is how I ran | operated my Private Tour Company J3 Private Tours from 2010 onwards, a totally alien concept to virtually all Tour Companies in Hong Kong - I was the first, my price list had prices for 1 to 4 guests, I basically almost NEVER did tours with more than 6 people which was my limit.
Because the Mainland Chinese Tour market is so regulated (80% of Hong Kong Tourists are from Mainland China) 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.
So basically what I experienced yesterday 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.
This company which has now become a major player gets between 30 - 50 Tripadvisor reviews a month, pretty much all 5 star and the reviews give the impression that you are going to have an amazing tour experience in Hong Kong.
I can tell you now quite forcefully that the experience we had did not come even remotely close to a great experience and bore no resemblance to the amazing 5 star Tripadvisor reviews, it was horrible and there was hardly any viable Hong Kong information given out and that was down to a tour guide trying to deal with 20 people on a coach and on the streets and having to screech to make herself heard and that was amplified on the PA System on the coach.
One classic example of the guides lack of knowledge was she stated twice that the population of Hong Kong was 7 million people, this is nonsense, it is slightly more than 7.5 million which has been reported in the press many times in 2024 and is clearly stated on numerous Hong Kong Government websites, it is a very basic error and I am quite sure if I had questioned her on this she would have screeched at me and put me down.
The Official Population of Hong Kong at the end of 2023
This is official data 7,503,100 from the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Government
I know tourism, I know the tour business and I know how it all works and it makes me so sad that the hundreds of guests who take these tours every week do not go onto Tripadvisor and write more realistic reviews because the 5 star reviews they are getting are obviously fake.
I am a realist, nothing will happen, the company is operating within the legal framework but with some questionable practices and it seems tourists will accept this despite knowing that something is not quite right, even before the tour gets started (in our case it started 34 minutes late even though we arrived 15 minutes early) after all they have already paid in advance.
So my advice to tourists - do your research there is absolutely a link between the low price paid for the tour and the actual experience, you get what you pay for and be very wary of of companies getting 30 - 50 reviews a month pretty much making out that they are going to get a fabulous experience even though the price is so cheap.
please read on to see how our day unfolded.
Hong Kong Free Walks who had | have a very patchy quality issue seem to have merged with a company called Memory Tours in Hong Kong and I am appalled by their business practices and lack of quality of their tours.
In our Society of Hong Kong Private Guides which has been running for over 10 years we monitor the competition on a daily basis, common sense really, in business you need to know what the competition is doing and we are always looking for Tour Companies to add to our informal association of Tour Guide Companies as long as they are committed to our aim.
Most of the owners of our informal association of Tour Companies in Hong Kong - that is me in the black shirt and I am thinner these days!
Our aim is as simple as it gets and that is :
To give the best possible tour | experience to our guests when they visit Hong Kong
Bear in mind I have menu links on this website that is for a list of the very best tour companies in Hong Kong with links to their websites and key people, we are the best and I am more than happy to shout it from the roof tops! we want you to have the best possible experience in Hong Kong and even though I no longer offer Private Tours of Hong Kong I like to promote my friends businesses.
Hong Kong Free Walks is also known as Hong Kong Free Walking Tours and Memory Tours it can all get a bit confusing.
We have over the years also monitored very closely the Tripadvisor review site for Hong Kong, every now and then a company will manipulate Tripadvisor with fake reviews to get a high ranking and the higher the ranking the more bookings they will get it does not happen very often these days but recently this company in Hong Kong came our of nowhere in 2023 and in 2024 racking up on average recently 30 - 50 mainly 5 star reviews a month.
This is clear manipulation, since 2011 even the very best Tour Companies in Hong Kong (and I know them all) will average 5 - 10 a MONTH! - a clear indicator of a fake review is that the reviews tend to be short, lacking in any real detail, they use the words fantastic, brilliant, amazing etc and over time a lot of the reviews have somehow been written in perfect grammatical English even though a lot of the tour guests do not have English as a first language and generally the reviews are written by people writing their very first review… I commend Tripadvisor for removing a lot of these bogus reviews but then let another 70 be listed almost immediately!
Clearly their algorithms are not as good as they think they are.
In my long experience of doing Private Tours (2,324 in 9 years) I found that guests where guarded with their praise for the tour and did not go overboard, I (and my friends then and now) worked really hard to keep the quality levels at a 10 | 10 level and yes our tours were paid tours just like this one.
Here is a tip - ignore every review that uses the words | BRILLIANT | AMAZING | WONDERFUL | EXCEPTIONAL | FANTASTIC as I believe them to be fake reviews - a GREAT review every now and then is possible but after our horrible experience, gosh it was the total opposite and this fascination people have with the meeting point and how wonderful that they where given precise instructions to get there, our experience was we were sent a booking confirmation with the meeting point stated, NO details on how to get the place, there was ZERO other messages
Please bear in mind that they mingle paid tour guests with free tour guests and I guess just hope you do not talk, of our group 18 of the 20 paid full price for the tour at the end of our 2 1/2 hours we were told NOT to get back on the coach and pass the HK$200 to Grace discreetly in the street and that was that
To this end, the company at the centre of this manipulation is a merged company of two tour companies, one offering free tours and one offering paid tours they call themselves Hong Kong Free Walks | Hong Kong Free Walking Tours | Memory Tours and they recently lost in July 2024 about 50 of their amazing reviews and yet within 3 - 4 weeks, they have somehow managed to get about 70 new reviews virtually all 5 star reviews, it is hard to keep up with the changes.
If you compare side by side Memory Tours and Hong Kong Free Walks | Hong Kong Free Walking Tours you will see the link immediately in fact all reviews for Memory Tours have a canned response from Hong Kong Free Walks | Hong Kong Free Walking Tours.
The Memory Tours Tripadvisor Listing, it shows a typical group from a Hong Kong Free Walks Tour and frankly you would have to be start raving mad to take a group tour of 100 people onto the streets of Hong Kong
The review below to me is completely accurate by the way
I had a couple of days ago a discussion about these 2 companies with my friends, I had actually done some Hong Kong Free Walks tours in 2019, they where pretty terrible and quite a few of Memory Tour reviews were quite flaky and yes, the management response for both companies is Hong Kong Free Walking Tours, these days they simply just issue a statement which is pretty meaningless no matter how good or bad the review.
Their responses now just show the contempt they have for reviewers offering advice, they will never change and yes, too me these reviews shown below are completely accurate.
Personally I am pretty sure these 2 reviews are for Grace by the way!
Most of the discussions revolved around their avalanche of fake 5 star reviews and a name of tour guide also kept popping up recently, that would be Grace., see reviews below.
So here is thing, a lot of my friends who do Hong Kong Tours are always looking for new guides, quite a lot of guides are freelance and will work for more than one Tour Company and they favour companies that offer steady bookings and a decent salary.
I know from so many experiences that the quality of the estimated 5,500 tour guides in Hong Kong is very patchy, they tend to be Government Trained and frankly these days the Hong Kong Government makes it impossible for any foreign guide to lead tours so generally when you book a tour in Hong Kong in 2024 most of the guides are Hong Kong Chinese with varying degrees of English fluency but come with a background of pointless Government Training Programmes (or baggage as I like to to call it) finding a great tour guide is like searching for the perfect diamond! and can be very frustrating.
I do know for a fact that all of my friends who hire Hong Kong Chinese Guides hire the best of the best and give them a lot of training and try to suppress all the rubbish they learnt on Government courses.
So naturally when we saw these recent reviews for Memory Tours we all started wondering who Grace was as she gets these wonderful reviews and she may well be interested in doing private tours on a freelance basis, in other words quite a catch!
Our Group members are quite creative so myself and one other of my friends decided that we would book a tour (for 20th August 2024) with Hong Kong Free Walks | Hong Kong Free Walking Tours knowing that there was a good chance Grace would the guide given that this company + Memory Tours are one and the same and they rotate the guides around each tour offering.
Above is a copy of the actual booking form for the tour we wanted to do, with the booking reference number and please note the comment about tipping and what actually happened
Let me be clear, this was the only communication we received from the company and Grace the guide, there was no detailed instructions of any kind on how to get to the meeting point and certainly NO video instructions as mentioned in a lot of reviews, I am guessing that people who PAID for the tour might have gotten more information and better service.
Hong Kong Free Walks | Hong Kong Free Walking Tours last 3 Tripadvisor Reviews
…. and yes, we were quite concerned that the guide would simply not turn up particularly if it was raining.
This was what the itinerary promised for the 2 1/2 hour tour, more on that later and never in a month of Sundays would I have ever done this itinerary on my Private Tours.
So last night we were discussing the itinerary and we realised that the other company in this organisation, Memory Tours basically offered the same tour but a PAID tour (available on Viator and Tripadvisor) and roughly US$75 per person which is a lot more expensive that a free tour!
We had no idea what was going to happen at the meeting point today as basically it was the same meeting place for both tours (free and paid), a recipe for confusion I might add.
So today dawned in Hong Kong August 20th 2024, it was overcast and there was rain in the air and the two of us were looking forward to meeting the guide which we hoped would be Grace to check her out. so fortified with wonderful coffee and a raspberry croissant from Bacha we scoped out the meeting place and it soon became apparent that there we going to be a least 20 people on each of the tours and this is where it got confusing.
The guide introduced herself as Grace and the moment she started talking I just knew that the tour was going be a disaster she was clearly the evil twin of the Grace on the reviews - and she took us to one side out of earshot of everybody and basically told us we were the only 2 people doing the free tour so we would be doing the tour with all of the people who paid and we were told in no uncertain terms that we would only be allowed to participate if we agreed to pay HK$100 or US$12.80 per person in cash to the guide at the end of the tour…. so much for it being a free tour, Hong Kong has very strict laws when it comes to consumer rights and definitely they seemed to be in breach of Trading Standard Laws.
There are not many people doing free tours in Hong Kong and yet one of our group does just that and he is very honourable, he makes it clear that a tip is welcome but you are free to walk away from the tour at anytime with no payment needed.
So already irritated by this (it is a matter of principle not the amount) we asked about the itinerary, the free tour would be 2 1/2 hours whereas the paid tour would be 6 hours, so were told that we would miss out on lunch and a couple of major attractions (as it happens we were not even offered the free snacks and drinks mentioned on the itinerary)
Amazingly this was just the beginning of a breakdown in the logistics of dealing with 40 guests basically on a street corner, splitting the group into 2 and making sure that everyone that had booked had actually turned up, so it actually turned out that we did not start the tour until 11.04am which is not 10.30am!
By this time I was thoroughly annoyed with Grace and her condescending personality and then a coach turned up, there was NO mention of a coach at anytime, the itinerary was such that if done correctly it could be done easier and quicker on foot!. to us there was simply no need for a coach and I hate coach tours passionately but as I point out later in this missive, 20 people in a group is just too many and remarkably they state that the maximum group size is 100 people!
Grace was your typical Hong Konger, a tour guide for 10 years but trained by the Government and she was pleasant enough until she opened her mouth, basically she was a screecher who liked to make “jokes” and kept repeating herself and used sound effects when she spoke (you had to be there to understand), it was bad enough on the street listening to her but her screech and laugh were amplified on the coach by the PA system.
I guess she screeched so much as it is hard for 20 people on noisy streets to hear what she is | was saying.
I will skip to the end kind of…. in a nutshell she basically worked from a memorised script and I bet she never ever deviates from it and the entire experience was a diverse group of 20 people being treated like 5 year old’s on a school outing her attempts at humour fell very flat and every now and then she would also take a call on her mobile (a total red flag amongst the private tour fraternity)
Most of her “speeches” relating to Hong Kong facts were very short and there was no continuity in what she was saying and because we got off and on the bus 3 times in a short space of time she would stop mid conversation and that was that, there was no continuation of her interrupted speech and to be honest and I am a little sad at revealing this but I just tuned her out because her screechy voice and stupid “funny sound effect lines” began to infuriate me and there was so little useful information I quite frankly could not care less., look at it this way, imagine having some one screeching and shouting at you to make herself heard for hours on end in a very loud voice on a bus and on the streets and in a Temple, it is just wrong.
Tours are all about the guides and there was simply no chemistry, there was no attention to detail and to be fair, she was bombarded with questions by many members of the group but when you are dealing with 20 guests, there is no time for one on one conversation, the only goal she had was to keep on schedule and make sure that she did not lose anybody, I actually started to feel very sad mainly because I knew that Grace simply did not give a damn, this is how she does her job.
This is why on my tours I restricted the number of guests to 6, I did do a few tours with over 10 guests and I explained to the party the pitfalls of having to deal with so many people, everything slows to a crawl, somehow I made it work but after a few years I simply referred these guests to my friends who were experienced in doing large group tours, it is hard to get right but so, so easy to totally mess things up.
The phrase that kept springing to mind was that “ I was embarrassed to be on the tour “ at each stop I wandered off because I simply could not deal with the inane and very loud chatter, her attempts at being funny with childish noises, incorrect facts and figures about Hong Kong and jokes and that loud screechy voice
My associate on the mission was able to keep focused and comparing notes, we figured that every single fact and figure she gave out was incorrect, naturally the tour guests had no idea as for many of them this was their first visit to Hong Kong but I have lived in Hong Kong for 52 years and completed 2,324 Private Tours in 9 years with over 6,000 guests.
I had to bite me tongue more that once when she gave out nonsensical facts.
I always have my camera with me, I took some photographs as I wanted a record of our tour.
Absolute proof that our Guide Grace was the same guide that gets all these amazing Tripadvisor reviews, this reviewer wanted to give her a 10 star review and this review is also August 2024, I am sorry but I cannot reconcile these amazing reviews with the experience we had, a one star review would have been one star too many.
This is the same Grace that told us we could not join the tour unless we agreed to pay HK$100 (US$12.80) per person in cash at the end of the tour, she was very adamant about this, even though we made an official booking for a free tour which states the tip is according to the value of the tour and our budget, so much for her 5 star reputation.
I am sorry, this cannot be a real review, our experience was the exact opposite of this wonderful experience and there is NO possibility that this was Grace having a bad day on our tour, our Grace threatened to kick us off the tour before it even started oh and the nonsensical phrase about her sharing a wealth of information - there was very little of that and it was all incorrect.
I mean seriously "one of the best tours of my whole life" and "with a one in a million tour guide - Grace" a real person would NOT write nonsense like this and if the experience was so amazing then why only a review of a couple of lines?
After we left the tour at the end of our allotted 2 1/2 hours I will say this, based on that itinerary, a group this size (20 people) has no business being on the streets, it is far too many people and very hazardous given the narrow, crowded sidewalks, it is an accident waiting to happen not to mention it would also be quite easy to lose someone without even noticing and cramming 20 people in a very small temple is just wrong and we were not the only tour group in the temple.
So here is the thing, anyone reading this blog post may well be upset with my comments but I am a person who says it as it is, I do not mince words and I am totally qualified to make these comments, I pioneered Private Tours in Hong Kong, I completed 2,324 of them in 9 years and had over 6,000 guests.
I know the parameters of what constitutes a terrible, poor, good, very good and excellent tour guide., our tour guide was simply awful but it would never, ever occur to her to consider self improvement and research on a daily basis as all great guides do, to her it is just a job (that she probably hates based on her demeanour) and it shows., if Grace had any redeeming features I would say so and her sound effect humour with repetition (you have to experience it to understand the phrase) wore very thin, very quickly, it might appeal to a 5 year old kid but not grown adults.
It is entirely possible the guests on the tour really enjoyed themselves but I talked to quite a few of them (without revealing who I was) and they were simply not impressed, I am sorry but after 10 years of doing tours I would have thought that “Grace” would have improved, clearly it is just a job for her and I can read people very well, particularly in Hong Kong which has been home for 52 years, this was not even up to the standard of going through the motions, clearly she memorised her script and to be honest she is so bad that every I now and then I would laugh at the absurdity of the situation I was in - this is a guide who simply does NOT care about herself or how she treats guests, she works from a memorised script and is safe in the knowledge that the average tour guest would have NO reason to doubt what she saying they would naturally assume that as a 10 year veteran of tours she would know her stuff - but gibberish is too polite a word.
If she was good at reading people (most great tour guides have this gift) she would know that people were not enjoying themselves but like I said neither her or company management care one jot.
I should point out again, that the tour itinerary is one that I never did or would do.
The owners of the company should be embarrassed but they won’t be, Hong Kong even in the recent past has a bad reputation for treating tourists with disdain and tomorrow another 20 suckers will turn up and that is that, bear in mind as well that 18 of the 20 guests on our tour where paying for the tour which to me just makes it a lot worse.
and to emphasise … and tomorrow, the day after and the day after that will be another 20 tourists experiencing a truly awful tour.
I should also point out that as Free Tour Guests we were kicked off the tour after 2 1/2 hours, missing out on lunch, a Star Ferry ride and other attractions but I simply cannot imagine that Grace after a hearty lunch turned into Hong Kong’s best tour guide to closely match what reviewers were writing - these were | are fake reviews.
I was going to write a review on Tripadvisor but have decided not too, I no longer do tours and as much as I would like to shame the company into improving how it deals with tourists, it is simply a waste of time for me to do so, they will never change, it is entirely possible they will get worse but they have no incentive to improve because they are using fake Tripadvisor reviews to climb the rankings and it seems that people that join the tours have no expectation of a quality experience as the price they are paying is very low, so sad.
I am pretty sure that none of the other 18 guests on the tour had any idea that we were on a free tour version of a paid tour, I do not think it would have been a positive reaction if they knew.
Finally, not many people read my blog posts which is a shame, I would like to think that the company (ies) mentioned above would contact me and invite me in (for a fee) to discuss their shortcomings (there was NOTHING POSITIVE about the tour) but they won’t because they are caught in a trap, they get most of their bookings through OTA’s like Tripadvisor and Viator to which they pay a hefty commission, they do not charge much per person so they do not pay a good wage to the tour guide so the quality of the tour is abysmal and they need numbers to make a meagre profit so they use fake Tripadvisor reviews to boost their customer base and hope there isn’t an avalanche of negative reviews.
I should point out that there is basically zero chance of improving the tour unless they cut the tour size to a maximum of 6 guests or less, it is simply not possible to offer a 5 star experience when you have 20 - 100 guests on a coach or on the streets and that is that.
The tour guide suffers, the tour guest has a very poor experience, the tour company makes barely enough money to make a profit and the OTA’s are laughing all the way to the bank.
I have had 24 hours to reflect on what I have written above, I simply cannot shake the sadness I feel that I had such an awful experience and knowing that the tour provider has no interest in changing and Grace will continue to screech and crack repetitive and pointless jokes.
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.
The truly stunning and amazing panoramic day view from the Lugard Road Lookout at Victoria Peak
The truly stunning and amazing panoramic night view from the Lugard Road Lookout at Victoria Peak
Lugard Road Lookout at Victoria Peak
If I had any followers on Instagram who liked views rather than my car images then this would be a classic, Mum, Dad and 4 kids aged from 12 - 22 from England, perfect weather, the planets aligned as they do on most days at the Peak.
This rather sums up Jamie’s spot at the Peak.
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.
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Current images from my Instagram feed
