In Reply to: Tour guides posted by Geri on Tuesday, 7. December 2010 at 11:14 Bali Time:
I work for a tour operator in Bali (NOT Tour East).
Our guides are specifically told to NOT hard sell tours. They take 'no' for an answer and I rarely get complaints about my guides being pushy.
We do not have tour desks set up in hotels like some other companies do, as we do not feel it is necessary to do this.
Remember, that MOST guides are honest and are there to do the best thing by the client.
Yes, they double check on flight details (this is because sometimes what the guest is holding in their hand differs from what we have in our system, and the last thing we want is for you to miss your flight, OR be picked up too early).
Yes, they may try to sell you a tour. This is how they earn their living, and feed their families. Despite what many people are led to believe, the guide does make a good % of this. The rest goes to the company, and then on to pay the huge number of staff it takes to run such a company.
My guides also check to see if you are happy with your hotel, and in the event that you are dissatisfied, they will contact me and I am able to step in and deal with the hotel directly to try to sort out the problem. I have been able to sort out many problems that guests have with hotels, simply due to the fact that our guide visits the guest to check on them.
In the end, it is your choice as to whether you want to buy tours from your tour guide or not. If your guide is too pushy, you should be able to contact the tour operator on the ground in Bali who can deal with the problem on the spot.
Remember, that by buying from your tour guide, he will end up with possibly the same amount of cash in his hand as the 'guy on the street' who sells the same tours, but who collects a lower commission due to his overheads being lower.
The 'guy on the street' is the only one who benefits if you buy from him, but if you buy from your tour guide, you are actually supporting about 30 families in the long run, not just the one.