Alexandros

Antwort von Matteo:
Dear Alexandros, thank you for your feedback. I am very happy you enjoyed the tour, and you rated it 5 star! Thank you again! P.S. Regarding your comment about what happened with other walkers, before writing, next time, I would recommend some caution as you might not have had the whole picture of the situation. When other walker wanted to tip 5€, let’s be precise and explain that this was the contribution for 2ppl, which means 2.5€ per person. I was surprised and disappointed of course, as every professional tourist guide would be in such a situation. As everyone can read on the GuruWalk booking page you there are tipping guidelines: “you choose how much to give, you can take into consideration how satisfied you were with the tour”. I asked nicely, as I always do in such cases, if the walker didn’t enjoy the tour and they answered it was good. I then explained that we (all the gurus) are professional certified and authorized tourist guides, that have expenses, commissions to pay to the web portal, and live on this, paying our bills. We DO NOT receive any contribution from local tourist board for the walking tour we offer, we are freelance. Tipping guidelines from GuruWalk keep saying when a walker book: “a guruwalk is a pay-what-you want walking tour, which means, it's completely free to book and join the group, but the 'guru' expects to be rewarded once the tour ends. Some people give €10 per person, some people give US‎$ 50, you choose the price.” It is not a matter of a “minimum price”, nobody has ever asked for that, and not did I. Other people reading this would agree with me that 2.5€ per person was totally out of range from any tipping guideline, in any country of the world, for a full 2H tour that you also, as many other walkers, rated 5 star in the end. In the episode you cited I felt offended in my professional position, treated as I would beg for a reward, when on the other side we all gurus are people who give all ourselves to do the best we can so walkers have the best experience ever. I even felt very bad accepting 2.5€ per person and decided to give their tip back, so they had their tour totally for free, at my own expenses. I also explained that I was sure that they would have also wanted to be rewarded properly for their work, on their workplace. And I did it nicely, with well educated manners. And this would be “letting the attendant in an embarrassed situation”? What we all guide expect is just a bit of recognition and respect for our work, not feeling used and tipped the amount you would not even pay for a bus ride. “Free walking tour” means “free to join, leave and, free to decide how to reward, using common sense of course. I would strongly recommend you, before judging what could have happened in a small group tour (there where even only few people that time) to reconsider in the future if you had really all the elements and informations to do that, and include a wider spectrum of points of view, not only the one of the walker but also the one of the gurus, as the distortion of the reality can cause misinterpretation by others. Thank you again for having been part of the tour and enjoyed it. It was a pleasure and an honor for me to show you the city where I live and I love to share insights with visitors. Wishing you all the best for your future walks. Matteo.