Travel firms cry wine and sell vinegar TUOITRENEWS   Many tour organizers boast three-star hotels and other high-quality features in their packages, but what they actually provide holidaymakers is sub-par service, many duped tourists have complained. In mid-February, L.T.T. and her husband booked a four-day tour to Cambodia at PNS, a company based in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 3. The package cost VND3.98 million each, with the company promising that tourists would be staying at three-star hotels for the entire itinerary, T. said. While the first destination was set as Siem Reap, the company actually took its customers to Phnom Penh on the departing day, saying it was “to avoid the crowded Siem Reap,” she added. “Even worse, we had to stay at the Nokor Khmer hotel, whose rooms were dirty and smelly with out-of-order water heaters, and three out of 22 rooms had broken air-conditioners,” she lamented. The holidaymakers were then taken to have breakfast at a facility named “VIP Restaurant” when they arrived in Siem Reap. “The food was really inedible, and shortly after the meal, half of the 44-tourist delegation experienced stomachaches,” T. recalled. A day later, the tourists were again asked to eat at the restaurant, as “the company could not change its booking with the venue,” she said, citing the company’s response to tourists’ complaints. The tour organizer PNS confirmed with Tuoi Tre later that they had settled the issue with T. and other tourists. Specifically, the company apologized to the tourists and refunded each of them $20 for the incidents and they accepted the deed, it said. Similarly, Nguyen Thi Cam Nhung, based in HCMC, experienced the same difficulties when she was on a trip to Phu Quoc island with her 13-member family. Nhung booked the tour at Viet Sun Co. in District 3 at VND7.2 million per tourist, and was expecting to stay at a three-star hotel. “However, after check-in, we doubted that the hotel met three-star standards,” she recalled. “I asked a person in charge and was told that the Ngan Sao hotel where we were staying was in fact a two-star hotel,” she added. Nhung later contacted Viet Sun Co. for clarification, only to receive a number of unconvincing protests, she said. “The company first said that the hotel is in fact three-star, but claims as a two-star hotel to avoid taxes. Then they told us that the real standard of Ngan Sao is two-star plus,” she said. Nhung said the price disparity between tours with two-star and three-star hotels is as much as VND520,000 a tourist. “This means they ripped our 13-member family off at least VND7 million for the disparity,” she said. “When I asked for compensation or a refund, the company reiterated its unreasonable explanations, saying they did nothing wrong,” she added.