I am writing this as a warning to other travelers, since time on vacation is precious and I feel that a considerable amount of ours was wasted completely unnecessarily by AC.
We made a reservation for to rent a boat for 6 hours, starting at 10:30 and going until 4:30. When we woke up, the weather forecast for the morning was not great, however as we would have to pay the full rental amount for a reservation no show, we headed out at 9am as we were staying in Como and needed to stop for groceries first.
AC did email us and tell us the weather wasn't going to work and that we could either try for closer to Noon that or the next day, however we didn't see this email until after we arrived.
When we arrived it was pouring rain, so I talked to the men staffing their booth who told me it was unlikely they'd be letting anyone out that day, but maybe at noon (same message as the email). I asked if I'd be charged for the rental and they said no.
Since we had driven an hour, we went to get a coffee and see if we could wait it out. At about 11:45, the weather had improved considerably and the rain had all but stopped. We went back to the booth, and the man working was completely dismissive, rude and disrespectful. I tried asking if he thought they'd be opening soon, and he just said it was about more than just rain and it was unlikely.
I told him we'd be back later if the weather got nice.
About 20-30 minutes after the sun had completely broken through the clouds, we came back to the booth (this was about 2pm). I saw they were sending boats out, and asked if we could still use the rest of our reservation. The man staffing the booth acted like I was crazy, and told me they had no boats until almost 4. I asked what happened to the one we reserved and he said since we had canceled they'd given our boy to someone else.
We absolutely never cancelled our reservation, and I made it very clear I wanted to take the boat out.
I completely understand the weather is out of anyone's control, and my frustration isn't with AC not letting us out in dangerous weather. However, at no point was it communicated that they'd give away our boat (especially so quickly) if they suddenly decided the weather was permissible.
The company had our email, and phone number. It wouldn't have been hard for them to send a quick follow up email letting us know they were sending boats out. And if they had communicated that I needed to be sitting at their booth the second that they decided it was safe, I would have done so (My wife and I were in Como for her birthday and our anniversary, and it was very important for us to have this experience).
I emailed my concerns to the company with how the situation was handled, and received what I perceive as a quite hostel response back (accusing me of lying basically). They have a tendency to do this on Trip Advisor to negative reviews, it's probably worth reading how they treat customers when things aren't right.
TLDR - Poor communication about their policies for rain delays caused my wife and I to waste a considerable portion of our vacation on a boat ride that didn't happen. read more
