Our values and standards

We want your time with us to be your best in Hawaii.

Aloha!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit Maui Eco Tours on the Internet. I'm the company president and I wanted to take a few minutes and explain our standards of excellence as well as a few ideals that are of great importance to us.

Frequently when speaking directly with customers on the telephone I am asked "what do you mean by eco tours", "how are you different" and "why should I choose your company". Obviously I'm very proud of our organization, and indeed we are a company among very fine competition, all of whom do a nice job in their respective domains. That aside, I wanted to address not the differences between Maui Eco Tours and others, but rather tell you who we are, what we stand for and how we do things.

You're not just our customer, but our partner. A partner in both business as well as our environment, and that is a relationship we value very much. We like to think of our mission as one that's devoted to more than the obvious goal of supreme customer service. We strive to give back to our surroundings, both environmental as well as societal. To us this is simply the only way to do things.

Please take just a moment and read through the following paragraphs so you may better understand all that we have to offer and what it means to be a participant on a kayak snorkel adventure with Maui Eco Tours.

Our standards of integrity are as follows:

Support the local economy.

All five of our guides are Americans who live here on Maui full time, as we believe that supporting our local Maui economy is indeed an important eco-principle.

Have respect for the environment around us.

A key maxim that is unique to us at Maui Eco Tours is that on any given day, we never have more than 20 guests on the water, island-wide. In addition, our maximum number of 20 is indeed a maximum, and is almost always substantially less.

This means that on most every single day, we have an absolute minimum impact on our environment by limiting both numbers and concentrations of guests across the island of Maui. Not only does this help keep our environment pristine, it also means an incredible time for our guests, as our groups are always small and private. This is a big reason why we are known as Maui "Eco" Tours.

Give our customers the best.

When you come on a trip with us, we insist that you leave us with a spectacular experience that you'll remember forever. At the start of 2008 we closed our own testimonials section and moved exclusively to using Trip Advisor for our reviews. Anybody can post all positive reviews on their website, so we decided to let the great reviews speak for themselves. All reviews on TripAdvisor are un-solicited and completely from 3rd parties, all of whom have actually gone on a tour with us. We wanted our guests to read about us from other guests, not from a company's marketing department.

If you're considering joining us, please definitely check out our reviews and read the great feedback!

Strive for health and wellness.

The very nature of kayaking and snorkeling is one of a "connection" with the atmosphere and ocean. We've uniquely expanded that to include the lunch offerings of our trips. All of our tours feature a full lunch that optionally caters to a vegetarian diet. The food is prepared locally and made fresh each morning so you're enjoying a healthy, complete and rewarding experience through and through.

Provide uniformity of quality.

This is fairly simple, but very important. We have all blue kayaks that are low profile, non-disruptive or overly obvious and are of the highest grade and stability available. At the same time, all of our gear is cycled whenever it falls below a new and fresh condition level. We like to have clean and new equipment that isn't obvious, obnoxious, disruptive to others or unnecessarily complicated.

Provide the finest experiences possible.

We are based here in Maui, however our customers usually aren't, and so we take extra time to ensure your protection.

We don't endorse timeshare presentations and the associated discounts passed along to customers because we don't believe the high pressure sales environment that guests are forced to endure in exchange for a few dollars of savings is relaxing, fun nor desirable.

Our guests are on a vacation and not in a sales seminar and we believe that they should be treated accordingly.

By the same token we ensure that our prices are as competitive as possible. If you look hard you may occasionally find a price slightly below ours. We are firm believers in "you get what you pay for". We strive to charge fair prices in exchange for incredible personal attention and fun. Prices can always be lower using some economies of scale, but as I've laid out in this letter, we don't feel our customers want to be part of someone's "economies of scale" on vacation.

We strive very hard to avoid situations of large scale (i.e. lots of people in one spot). That is one additional reason why we have a maximum number of 20 guests per day on the water, island-wide, as described above. After all, it's your vacation and we want you to go home with the best experience possible.

If you ever find yourself with a question, comment or concern while looking through our materials, please contact me directly as I personally would like to hear from you. Mahalo for your time and we look forward to hosting you and your loved ones!

Richard Lomas

President

Email Richard