Why more companies are telling travelers ‘no’ these days

“No.”

It’s one of the dirtiest words in hospitality — and travelers may be hearing it more these days.

The travel agency Discover Africa had to say it when potential clients asked if their young son could ride a lion while on safari.

“When we said no to riding a lion, the guest asked what other wild animals he could ride,” said Susan Swanepoel, a senior travel consultant at Discover Africa. “I reminded them that they were wild animals, and there was no possibility of this happening.”

In the end, she said, the travelers decided not to travel with the company, saying “they were going to go to India where their son would be able to ride a tiger.”  

That’s one of the strangest requests that Swanepoel and her colleagues have fielded over the years. But there are plenty more.

There was the Japanese company that wanted Japanese food, prepared with Japanese ingredients by Japanese chefs, for some 6,000 guests for six weeks surrounding the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. (Swanepoel said the company she was working for at the time successfully pulled this one off.)

And the guest who wanted a new, unopened jar of crunchy peanut butter present at every meal during an 18-day safari in the Kalahari Desert and Botswana.

Other asks are more maddening than logistically difficult. Like the time a couple traveling with Discover Africa — who requested a feather pillow on the left side of the bed, and a foam pillow on the right — called at 10 p.m. to say the pillows had been mixed up.

“I asked if they could swap the pillows themselves as it was late, and the housekeeping staff had already gone to bed,” said Swanepoel. “The answer was no. They wanted me to get hold of the camp manager to go to their tent to change the pillows around for them.” 

Andre Van Kets, director and cofounder of Discover Africa, said there’s been an uptick in such requests, especially among people who are new to safari vacations.

“First-timers often have the most unusual…