Iceland Arctic Coast Way self drive holiday

Thank you again for your patience while I have been looking into the feedback and issues raised. I’m terribly sorry that the standard and expectations were not met on this occasion and it’s very disappointing to read how many issues occurred on your holiday to Iceland. I have been looking into each point to that I could address everything in one go for you. Please see our conclusions below.
Avis Akureyi:
I’m sorry to hear that the Avis office was closed at the time of your arrival and that additional information was requested, which I agree, could have been requested prior to departure. It sounds like a stressful start to your trip and I’m very sorry for this. Their official opening hours are limited to office hours unless there is an international flight arriving or departing outside office hours and/or if certain number of bookings are for domestic flights arriving or departing outside office hours. The decision of staff being on site are often taken with short notice
and we trust that our guests are informed by our supplier by SMS with clear and sufficient information, if any actions are needed before their arrival to domestic airports. I see that my colleague has already been in contact with Avis regarding this matter and hopefully this is a one-off incident, but for sure this is something we need to keep an eye on to ensure services meet our expectations.
Building Works at Hotel Natur:
I have investigated the building work at Hotel Natur, and they have confirmed that a new building with 10 new rooms was opened in the beginning of May. My apologies that we were not alerted of the refinements happening. The unfortunate frequent banging was due to a faulty soft opening mechanism that had been set up on your day of arrival. I’m glad to hear that this was resolved and you were moved to another room at Natur Hotel and provided with two bottles of wine in your room for your last night, as a way of apologising for the disturbance
Hlin Guesthouse:
Regrettably, availability in Skagafjordur was very limited at the time of booking, especially with availability for two rooms. The decision came to book the guesthouse, which offered the location & room availability. I acknowledge that we should have been much clearer to you on the more basic nature of this accommodation booked and why it had been chosen. I can only imagine how frustrating it would have been trying to check yourself in, and only have been provided with one code, and then experienced a delay getting the correct information to check-in. I approached them for a comment and explanation, and they have said the following:
Unfortunately, if that is the case at any self-check-in accommodation, there is always a certain waiting time guests have to endure if they decide to call GoNorth and not the accommodation directly. GoNorth has to process the call and information and contact the accommodation for new information and on return, get back to guests with the correct information and advice about key code function they are likely a bit unfamiliar with, as we are not on site. I can
see also in our record for the emergency phone that on top of this call, our staff member is dealing with two other emergencies at the same time. If your guests felt this took longer time than we can expect for this process to take, maybe that could be a reason for a delay in reply with information. We apologise if there was a delay in our service, but it was due to unforeseeable situation at the time.
Saltvik Guesthouse:
We offer two different hotels as part of this package, near the Ice Cave excursion, both of which are a similar distance away, around 30–35-minute drive from Lake Myvatn. Activities at 09:00am, from accommodation in Husavik area, is very common. We regret that we did not discuss this in more depth with you to check if a departure from the hotel at 08:00 would be too early, or if a 30-40 minute drive to an activity was acceptable. Regent take responsibility that for not clarifying and checking these key details with you first, prior to giving the ok to Go North. A suggestion for a better location has been put forward to our supplier for those who would prefer less of a drive in the morning of a 09:00 activity.
Car Return:
I’m very sorry to hear that you were provided with the incorrect information about your car rental return at Akureyri Airport. I can see that your documentation, as provided to us by Go North, clearly states an 8am drop off. They are investigating with their Service Manager how this error happened and make sure that details like this are provided to Regent correct, so that we are not relaying misinformation to our clients.
Reykavik Transfer:
It’s very disappointing to hear that you had to spend 90-minutes trying to sort out your transfers, which should have been there to collect you on-time. Please note that I have already processed a refund of £186.00 for this transfer, which will reflect in your bank in the coming days. I have contacted Snaeland to understand why the transfer did not show up. They have advised that IT have noted a glitch in the system at the time of this booking, which unfortunately deleted the inbound transfer, but not from the confirmation. Both transfers appeared on our confirmation and voucher as normal, but the inbound had not worked in their system – which resulted in them not showing for them to action on the day. I’m glad that you were able to take a taxi, which I can see from your bank statement which we have reimbursed you for. Compensation has been agreed and the complaint was resolved.