Heads up. CycleEurope is owned by Americans. We were hoping for a locally-owned guide company (like we've used in...
Dear Peter
This is Javier writing from the Cycle Europe office in Italy. I thank you for your feedback and I am happy to reply to your comments; We are very sorry that you did not have the stellar experience we aim for with all of our clients. As this is the first negative review we receive (all reviews so far have been 5- and 4-star), we value your detailed feedback. I will soon be emailing you our post-tour evaluation form (which we send to all our customers), and I hope we can get more detail from you there (for example, regarding the hotels). For now I will try to address the issues you point out, both to answer your specific concerns, and because this information is crucial to anyone considering a self-guided tour with us in the future.
We are an Italian company, headquartered in Emilia-Romagna and with an office an Tuscany. We have deep Italian roots - two of the company owners are Italian-American and one is Italian, and two of them work (and live with their family) in Italy full-time. The founders started running bike tours in Italy in 1972, and although we have grown since, we are still a small, family-owned company, the vast majority of our staff is Italian and we are very happy (and proud) to help people from around the world experience Italy by bike. For more details on this, please check our website (www.cycleeurope.com/about-us/)
Regarding our style of bike tours, we have served thousands of bike travelers, and cater to most types of cyclists - from beginners on their first bike tour to serious sport cyclists. Our tours, our service and our bikes aim to provide our customers the best possible experience, whatever their cycling taste and travel expectations may be. We also provide various types of pre-tour information (including a very detailed fact sheet in our website), that communicates most important aspects of our tours (route distances, topography and other detailed info; accommodations and itinerary; technical bike info; etc) - hoping our customers come on tour with the right expectations, and have an amazing overall experience.
Regarding the bike we provided you, we are sorry that you had such a negative experience. We assign bikes to each individual based on the height and stand-over height, and any other sizing info provided to us in the customer reservation form. After so many years of running bike tours, we have developed a sizing formula that rarely fails (as long as we have the proper height info when assigning the bike). The bike is then individually fitted by our staff prior to the tour start. It is my understanding that during your fitting, our staff (Giovanni, who is also a bike mechanic) was under the impression that he made the adjustments that you requested (to the stem) and you were therefore happy with the sizing. When you emailed us the following day telling us that the bike was not the proper size for you, we responsed as soon as possible by finding another bike from a local rental shop that we often work with (this was the fastest way to provide you with a replacement, as our headquarters are not at the same point as where your tour began). Unfortunately this second bike assigned to you had mechanical problems – but again, we responded as soon as we could to remedy the issue. As humans, we may make mistakes, but we feel the important part is to respond and try to remedy the problem – which we hope to have done here. Finally, please note that our ebikes are among the best offered by any rental shop or tour operator in Italy (and possibly in Europe) – both in the overall quality and reliability of the bike, as well as in the battery range.
Regarding the accommodations, we are very sorry you were not pleased. We have had good reviews so far in this very important category, so we hope to get more detailed feedback in your evaluation form, so that we can review each problem in detail. You specifically mention cigarrete smoke – the hotels are supposed to be non-smoking, and we will look at this issue in detail as well. Also, please note that we use 3- and 4-star establishments, that add to the overall travel experience, and we communicate the hotel name, website and details in our pre-travel literature, hoping that our customers have the right expectations before coming on tour.
Finally, we appreciate your comments regarding the route. Again here, w e have had positive reviews so far on the routes chosen. Fortunately, we have staff that is Tuscany-based, making it easier for us to review the routes.
I will be in touch soon with our detailed evaluation form and hope to hear back from you when you have the time. Again, we thank you for your business and for having visited our country.
Best,
Javier and the Cycle Europe team
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