Cimeron Morrissey

Review of KiteWorldWide Tour Operator

Beware of KiteWorldWide. They completely ripped us...

Beware of KiteWorldWide. They completely ripped us off and ruined half our vacation. We paid 1300 Euros for a week at their Sri Lanka resort. But part way through our stay (at 2am), power and water went out, which left everyone in our building sleepless and devoured by mosquitos since our rooms were sweltering and they don't have window screens or mosquito nets. By 5pm the next day, power and water still hadn't been restored and they had no estimated date for restoration, so we checked out to go to the hotel next door, which had water/power. (Come on Kite Worldwide - you've got to provide guests with flushing toilets, a working shower and a functioning ceiling fan or AC. That's just basic.) Quite unbelievably, Kite Worldwide would not refund us for that ruined night, or the remaining days of our stay that we'd already paid for. That's just shocking, especially since we paid so much and the resort promised "European Standards."

Even worse, Kite Worldwide refused to talk with me about the refund when we checked out - they said I had to email the company, which I did repeatedly, and it took Kite Worldwide FOUR WEEKS to get back to me to deny the refund. We paid for a hotel room with power and electricity, which they couldn't deliver, and yet they refused to refund us. That's seriously inexcusable customer service and demonstrates very untrustworthy business practices.

Oh, and when we chatted with other equally upset guests, we found out that Kite Worldwide charged us twice as much as others.

Kite Worldwide also lied about their offerings at the hotel in their advertising materials. They said you could kite right from the resort, which is patently untrue - the hotel manager and kite instructors verified that you can't kite from there due to thick seagrass, shallow water and shifty winds. There were many other problems, like that the AC didn't cool our room, the food was often burnt and inedible, the mini fridge wasn't functioning, there was no hot water, the bed was thin and there were wasps and spiders in our room. There's nothing about that place that lives up to their advertised "European Standards."

My husband and I frequently travel in developing countries and we roll with the various issues that you are likely to encounter at hotels, but this was unlike anything we've ever experienced. Kite Worldwide is a seriously dishonest company. Beware of them. I hope no one else has a vacation ruined by Kite Worldwide.