I hesitate to reply to this thread (for reasons that are likely obvious), but since there are some who expressed interest in learning about the experience of using a tour company, I will share mine. And thank you to Liltravlr for taking the time to share a thoughtful summary of her experience.
I recently completed my first Camino (Norte to Primitivo to Finisterre/Muxia) booking with Follow the Camino, a total of 42 days and over 1000 km (620+ miles for the metric impaired - I include myself among you!).
Before outlining my thoughts on the experience of using FTC, for those who are trying not to be judgmental but find it challenging to understand why anyone would do this instead of backpacking and booking as you go, maybe this one pilgrim's thoughts will be helpful, but there may be many other reasons to arrange it this way.
For me personally, because it was my Camino, I did it because it WAS my first Camino. It was hard to really understand how it all worked, I had never undertaken anything of this magnitude before, and I have never backpacked and at 64 years old it did not seem like a smart idea to try to do something like this and try to backpack for first time, so felt I needed a luggage transfer. I also felt it was important to be able to sleep at night and for me that means a private room. The prospect of having to identify and book 42 hotels also seemed daunting. By using a booking company, one very critical, very daunting logistical aspect of convincing myself I could do the Camino was taken off the table. Additionally, as Liltravlr notes, if there were problems, I felt that I would have someone to turn to for help, not some soul-less website with no human beings on the other end. Related, my husband was a little worried about a single female walking in a distant land, and with FTC, if I didn't show up at my hotel on the designated day, the hotel would first call FTC, then FTC would call me, and if they couldn't contact me, they would contact my husband (I wasn't sure how useful that would be, I would likely be dead I guess, but it felt comforting to my husband to know that someone was tracking whether I showed up - this alone might have been worth the entire premium I paid, he's a worrier). So this was my thinking. I didn't discover the forum until about a month or so before I left (but booked about 6 months earlier).
Lastly, I understand the freedom and flexibility of just getting out there and doing it and figuring out your stops as you go, and to some extent I'm a little jealous of that and have now been asking myself if I COULD actually do it, next time. I can understand how some really like to figure it all out as they go and don't mind spending the afternoons after the walk working out the options, pre-booking or not. But can we all agree that different people have different needs, limitations, anxieties, desires (and yes, maybe different resources)? None of this makes someone better than anyone else. If using a booking company makes it POSSIBLE for someone to undertake a pilgrimage they otherwise feel they wouldn't be able to do, why belittle it?
Ok, enough of that, here's my experience with Follow the Camino:
1. They were great helping me before I left and redid my schedule a number of times as I changed my mind about Frances then Norte/Primitivo, then adding Finisterre/Muxia.
2. FTC seemed to have no actual idea of the distance between destinations, the route planner would indicate, say, 12 miles, and then by the time I hit mile 6 I knew I was no where near halfway, often it was 15 or 18 miles. They didn't seem to care, just said they use some guide or whatever. This doesn't seem to be unusual, at least based on some posts on this forum that I read after the fact, that the distances aren't well indicated. But, I did think FTC should have indicated that the distances indicated and actual experience are often different, erring only on the side of being longer than indicated, never shorter. After a while, I stopped caring, but the first few weeks were tough and not knowing how far I would have to walk that day made it tougher, mentally anyway. I might have modified my route somewhat had I known, but in the end it didn't actually matter.
3. I paid to upgrade accommodations, and that may have been a mistake because it may have resulted some hotels further off the route than I fully appreciated. The extra 45-60 minutes of walking that didn't seem too far on paper, was brutal on days when the distance actual distance walked was was significantly longer than that indicated on route.
4. The hotels were mostly ok (a couple of standouts, but mostly ok), but it wasn't always clear why they had chosen certain hotels. Some were too far off the route, others were really cheap (I remember one 20 euro room in particular - there were other better hotels in that town, all with availability, I checked that day) especially given the upgrade. They don't really care about where the book you, how long you have to walk to get there (take a taxi! adding 50 euros each way for one, for a not great room; there were other rooms available in the town that did not require taxis, I checked that day); in some cases, after long walks (including lots elevation gain), getting to the hotel involved either significant elevation gain (in one case, something like 400 meters in the last mile) or dangerous road conditions with no shoulder to walk on. By the end I felt they were really trying to cheat me, which I didn't like, but tried not to let it bother me because at that point there was nothing I could do about it.
5. There were days where the planner indicated I should take a taxi to the hotel, but didn't explain where to find a taxi. Ok, I know now that if there's a train station that's a good place to start, but I felt there should have been more explanation. There were also days where they SHOULD have indicated that a taxi must be taken, but for some reason they didn't.
6. I personally don't mind paying some premium to have the booking work taken care of, but some of their choices were simply incomprehensible. In particular, on one day, by the time I got to my destination, I realized that the next day's destination was less than 5 km (!) away. It was not possible to tell from the planner, which indicated it was about 10 miles, which for sure made it one of the shortest days , but I couldn't tell from the maps if the short length was intended as a rest day or because lots of elevation or what. I managed to fix the problem, skip that destination, make the next day longer, move a few reservations up a day and add an extra day in Finisterre, for an additional 80 euros or so. Annoying, but in the scheme of things not a lot of money and it was worth it. However, FTC refused to explain to me why they booked it that way, never answered my questions as to whether they knew it was 5 km, what their thinking was in booking a 5 km day, or to accept any responsibility for it. They just said it was my responsibility to review the bookings and ask them to make adjustments if I didn't think they would work. But that's why I was paying them a premium, and I couldn't figure it out based on the information I had. For me, this was the final straw when it comes to whether I would use them again, maybe all of them make similar mistakes, but after this I felt they really didn't know what they were doing, and then not being able to admit a mistake, even worse.
7. A lot of my bookings included half-board. I didn't think much about it when I reviewed the bookings, but I agree with the commenters about not paying for dinner. First of all, most didn't serve dinner until 8 pm, and it was better to eat with other pilgrims met along the way. Also, breakfast was included at all places, but I often left before the usual 7:30 or 8 am breakfast time, skipping breakfast. In many cases, it wasn't worth staying for it anyway, but in other places I was glad to have it where there wouldn't be many options along the way. Generally though I liked getting a cortado, maybe a tostado or tortilla, after a couple of hours of walking, but on the routes I walked that wasn't always a possibility (or maybe not until after 3 or 4 hours walking).
8. There were a few times I really needed some help along the way, and on those few occasions I was able to reach someone and usually my problem was solved, although sometimes not in the most intelligent fashion. These were mostly in first few weeks, and I was grateful to have someone to reach out to.
9. I did not have any issues with luggage transfers, everything moved smoothly and no lost bags. In fact, on the second day, somewhere along the route I lost a little pochette that attaches to my daypack shoulder strap (where I kept glasses, hotel voucher, change purse, etc., nothing critical but annoying to lose). Another pilgrim found it and called the hotel, the hotel arranged with the luggage transfer guy to pick it up the next day, attach it to my luggage and deliver to next destination. I never learned who found it, neither the lady at the hotel nor the luggage transfer guy would accept a tip. A sweet Camino moment for me, in more than one way (but that's another topic).
10. I have thoughts on individual hotels I stayed, where I would stay again, where I would not, but I don't have the patience to go through a list of all 42! (sorry).
11. Lastly, this doesn't relate to tour companies, but only to language. I speak French (and on the Camino some days actually spoke French more than English), I learned a few words of Spanish, enough to communicate a few basic needs and could understand more than I could speak. But I found the Spanish people, many of whom spoke almost no English, uniformly kind and willing to work with me on issues that were more complicated than ordering food or finding toilettes. Google Translate filled in some gaps. In my experience, the French, for the most part, are less forgiving, and will pretend not to understand if your French is poor and won't try to understand if it's non existent. The Spanish all tried to work with the language limitations and be helpful, lovely country!
Bottom line: Does it cost more? Absolutely! Was it worth it? For me, yes at that time and for my first Camino. Would I do it again? Maybe or maybe not. I'm thinking about Le Puy, I speak French, so maybe that would make booking a little easier, I wouldn't worry about language issues. I now have a better understanding of how things work, what kind of distances I can do, the minimum services I'd like to find (and to do without where not available), but I'm pretty sure I would use luggage transfers (but then again, maybe not!). I think I would recommend using a company for someone doing their first Camino and having some doubts or feeling overwhelmed, but make sure they understood the pros and cons and how to check through the planned route. But now that I have a better feel for what's involved, I feel like I could make better choices for hotels and save 30%-50% of the price; I may make some unwise choices, but then that's on me and I can't get mad at the tour company.
I have wanted to walk the Camino for a long time, but didn't think I COULD do it until I learned about booking private rooms and luggage transfers. It was an amazing experience, I'm so glad I did it, I treasured every minute (and my daypack was actually heavy). How many times have I read that the Camino taught some one to be less judgmental? What a great lesson. And don't all of you who stay in Albergues just wish that that really loud snoring guy would book a private room instead of keeping you up all night?
). There is a Spanish website Gronze.com, if you do a Google search your browser will probably offer to translate it into English: they list accommodation and have links with more details and peoples comments. (Be aware that Google also translate place names though.) Wise Pilgrim has peoples comments too. Remember that the stages are only a way of organising the information. You choose how far your own stages are.
we now want to do the French camino but as it will probably take us maybe 36/40 days we can’t afford to do it with a company so I’m going to try and do it myself , but I’m not sure where to start , we are both in our 60s and would like to walk probably between 11/15 miles a day and stay in private rooms or hotels can yiu help us in any way it would be appreciated as I seem to be going around in circles 
