For the past several years, we have travelled to different areas for wine tasting. For all these trips, we have hired a wine tour company to create custom itineraries. In all these previous tours, we had excellent customer service. Unfortunately the experience we had with Elite Tours in Yakima was not excellent. First, we were told to make the reservations for our tour. On the website, it expresses that they take care of the details for a customized tour. In all our previous experiences, making reservations has not fallen to us. The reason we were told to make our own reservations was so vineyards wouldn't call the company, but all they needed to do was give them our name and phone number, thereby avoiding the annoyance. We were also not told we would need to make our own reservations until after we had paid them. Second, two of the vineryards on our itinerary were closed, which Elite Tours did not know until we told them. As a result, we had to spend more time calling places, emailing them and waiting for them to call me back. All in all we spent 2 to 3 hours of extra time to plan the details of a tour that should have been taken care of by Elite Tours. Third, the vehicle used for our tour was dirty with food crumbs, handprints and dirt on the floor boards. It appeared that no one had done any kind of cleaning of the vehicle for some time. While a tour vehicle does not need to be brand new, it does need to be cleaned and be clean for clients. This lack of cleanliness gave us the feeling that Elite Tours did not value us as clients. Fourth, our driver, on the first day, did not wear his seatbelt several times and my mother had to tell him to buckle up. He swerved many times on the road, while looking at the itinerary. When we asked him to move the Mercedes, so we could move my mom's car to a new location, he refused, telling us we had plenty of room. On the second day, while sitting at our table, he fell asleep at the table and it was 11:30 in the morning. We had to wake him up and let him know we were ready. I rarely ever want to complain about an employee because I recognize they are not responsible for all the problems with a company, but we were disappointed. Fifth, the driver told us that he could take us to another winery, which we went to, and arrived home about 45 minutes past our end time. Elite Tours wanted to charge us for this extra time. The driver did not tell us that it would be extra money and when we told the company this they did not charge us, but after spending $1200 plus tip, we were suspicious that they were trying to take advantage of us. We wrote this review after we emailed Elite Tours with our concerns and did not receive a reply. We requested a $200 refund and their silence suggested they did not care. We also texted them to let them know there was an email sent about our experience and we emailed them again to see if they wanted to respond to us. They did not. read more

I would rate this company in the negative category if that was an option. We have been to many areas wine tasting and have always hired a wine tour company to drive us and were always pleased until our experience with Elite Tours. They did not make the reservations at any of the wineries for us, which is the standard procedure. My daughter had to do all the work that they should have done. The car was filthy and the driver was substandard. When a complaint was submitted to the owner, he failed to respond. This shows that he cares nothing for his clients, only wants your money. DO NOT use Elite Tours! read more