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Reviewing the RSteves tours

We took two RS tours this spring and we were sent requests for a review in just my husband’s name. Has anyone else had this happen to them? I both phoned and emailed the main office asking where my form was and was told they were having problems with reviews. Still no request for my thoughts.

Posted by
41 posts

My husband and I received and submitted separate reviews. We have different emails & phone numbers in our RSE profile. Not sure if that is the reason.

Neither of our reviews (nor any others from our group) have posted on RSE website as of yesterday though there are several from groups after ours. I like to see the reviews posted.

Posted by
8570 posts

I wouldn’t take it personally. Simply use your husband's account and write a review.

Posted by
2380 posts

We did two back to back tours (Sicily and Southern Italy) this past month. I was sent a request for a tour review. The review request didn’t specify which tour it was so I assumed it was the first tour we took. I started the review and then realized it was for the second tour. The review pages won’t let me go back and start over. My husband never got a tour review request for either tour. I also never got a tour review request for the first tour. I hope they fix this as the reviews help them to improve the tours.

Posted by
1060 posts

I hope they fix this as the reviews help them to improve the tours.

That brings up what is a bit of a sore point for some people. Until a few years ago they used to ask a dozen or so questions (you can see the old questions at https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/here-is-the-old-tour-evaluation-format ) and then they'd post the entire reply each person submitted, uncensored, on the RS site grouped by tour date. This is why we took our first RS tour. A tour is an expensive purchase and we were impressed by a company so open sharing what its customers said (which was almost always very positive).

Since they changed the questions and stopped posting the entire response we've decided to stop answering them.

Posted by
1259 posts

Take the questions they gave your SO and post your answers here in the forum.

Posted by
69 posts

My husband and I each received a separate request for tour review. I am the primary person on the account but he did receive a request for review. Perhaps make sure you have two emails listed.

Posted by
90 posts

Early on in signing up for our back to back tours in April, my wife was not getting any emails. I contacted the office and they were able to fix it. Next year I plan to do separate accounts for our tours so we both get our own emails.

We both received our after tour survey and I saw both of my responses word for word posted in the review section.

Posted by
97 posts

My husband received a post-tour evaluation form but I did not. We both used the same email since my phone worked internationally. I was very surprised to find that the evaluation limited character fields in the responses field. I guess RS doesn't really want to know all our feedback.

Posted by
104 posts

My husband got his for our Southern England tour, I did not :(

We have separate emails, so that is not the problem

Posted by
924 posts

Hey all, this is an initial reply to say that I'm checking in on this. I'm not directly in control of the emails as it relates to Evaluations, but I am in control of many of the other emails tour members get. I can say that if you share an email address for each of your accounts, it is very likely that the system can only send you one email for one evaluation. Why one email? Because of blocklisting and email deliverability issues. If any entity (aka Rick Steves Europe) sends a duplicate (or near duplicate) email, it gets you on blocklists really quick, affecting deliverability for everyone.

Also, if you have had the issue of one person getting it and the other didn't, and you can't combine your review info with that of your travel partner (or you run out of space as someone noted), you're welcome to email it to us. I'd send it to tour@ricksteves.com and ask for it to be forwarded to our Tour Operations crew.

Posted by
924 posts

Oh, and if you're missing an email, be sure to check your email account's spam filter, junk folder, promotion tab, etc!

I'm told the Evaluations emails are currently being sent from the new third-party system that provides this Eval service, so you may not recognize the From email address. You might see "qualtrics" somewhere in the From address. We are working on getting this to (appear to) be sent from an @ricksteves.com address.

Posted by
549 posts

I love it when the Webmaster comes on and 'splains things...! Thank you!

Posted by
3 posts

How long does it take to get the tour evaluation? We just returned from the Best of Istanbul tour.

Posted by
69 posts

@apwilliams - it is usually 2-3 week post-tour for receiving evaluation request.

Posted by
27 posts

The disappointing thing for me is I didn't have time to complete the survey when I received it, but I glanced at it to see about how long it would take to complete and what to expect, and as a result, I lost the opportunity to complete the survey. When I try to open the survey now, I get the message "You have either already completed the survey or your session has expired." Not a huge deal, but I would have liked to provide some input after completing the Best of Turkey in 13 Days tour. When I complete my next tour in December, I'll be sure to not open the survey until I am ready to complete it and submit it.

Posted by
42 posts

Mile High, I had exactly the same thing happen to me. I wrote the RS office and a couple of weeks later I received a response with a new link. I spent a lot of time offering detailed feedback, but I still haven’t seen it published (no I did not ask for anonymity as I wanted my guide to see the positive feedback on her performance). Anyway, I am concerned that maybe the link didn’t really work or the review got lost in the shuffle.

Posted by
548 posts

I was sent a “special” link, finally, to rate the 2 tours we took, but they have never been published.

Posted by
42 posts

Luv2Travel, Two more weeks have passed (maybe four in total now?) without my “subsequent link” tour review being published. It’s frustrating since I don’t know if the Co. (and especially our guide) really ever received the feedback. I’m hoping this is just another glitch associated with using a new third party for the reviews.