Viator Reviews

I booked a day trip called "Yosemite National Park Day Trip from San Francisco" on Viator for the 3rd of September. I arrived a few minutes before the scheduled time, but no bus arrived. When I called the Viator office I was told that the bus had already passed there.

They did not agree to send the bus to pick me up and rudely declined returning the money (139$). I suspect that there was no tour that day...I strongly advise against booking with them.

Dishonest and advertise false services.Horrible customer service.

I purchased boat tickets and called BEFORE I purchased to confirm the times of departure and return that we needed. The representative "Jamaica" confirmed the times we needed were AVAILABLE and then proceeded to take my credit card payment. After she charged my credit card she then placed me on a 30 minute hold and came back on the line telling me the times were actually booked and NOT available. They sold me tickets that didn't exist!

I then proceeded to tell Jamaica that this was not acceptable service and that I was very upset. She then sent me an email and said I had to either accept the different times or cancel my booking. She offered NOTHING after clearly she screwed up! So without any other option I said I would go ahead with the tickets even though they were not the times I wanted.

She proceeded to send my voucher to me via email and asked for me to check my "tickets". I opened my email and got a voucher that had no time or even location information on it. I expressed that I was weary because they had already lied to me once and that I wanted something that clearly stated I had an actual reservation for the times I purchased. She then hung up on me!

(after 45 min on the phone) SO I called the customer service line back - got a different lady and had to re-explain everything. She informed me that their customer service was not able to call out or call back any customer! WOW! So the new lady placed me on hold for 20 minutes.

She then told me they could only email me a number for the boat company so that I could then call them and confirm that I had an actual reservation! I obviously asked to speak with the supervisor. I was placed on hold once again for 15 minutes. The supervisor admitted that their representative had messed up by selling me no-existing tickets.

THEN she said they couldn't do anything except refund my card and waive the cancellation charges! I asked her for her name and she refused to tell me! She then transferred me directly to the boat company. Once I was connected with the boat company I told them what had happened.

They of course apologized, but it wasn't their fault or in their control. They said the tickets I had been sold were sold out 2 days ago! I am taking the time to review and write this because this company "Viator.com" is lying and selling false goods! On top of it they advertise they sell special discounted rates and that is also a lie.

The tickets I purchased through them were exactly $1.00 - yes - ONE dollar difference. Do yourself a favor and avoid this website like the plague!!!!

A scam. Don't even think about doing this with Viator! I booked and paid the 20% deposit. Heard nothing back from the tour guide. When I emailed, back came the response that the price was now TRIPLE what it said on my Viator receipt (and on the Viator tour & booking website).

Also said that instead of starting at 9am as scheduled it would start at 11am. I said this was unacceptable.. No response from the tour guide nor from Viator as yet. This seems to be a dodgy outfit happy to wreak havoc with your vacation planning.

I booked for a tour of the underground river and crystal caves in Cancun. They confirmed by email and then cancelled by email 10 hours prior to the trip. I asked for a refund and they told me i have to do it myself and call another number for customer service, or email (too bad there is no customer service email address to contact them).

If you like losing your mind during your vacation go ahead and book with them.

Partly, so we could book a Viator tour of Buenos Aires before our cruise, we arrived there one day early. Having been robbed twice in that city, we didn't want to venture on our own. We booked the afternoon tour, since we wouldn't arrive in time for the morning one. At the hotel, we discovered that they had messed up the time, and the tour had come for us that morning!

I spent three hours on the phone between Viator and their local tour company (mostly on hold) trying to get them to come for us that afternoon. Neither party agreed to help us. So it was basically a wasted day. Equally infuriating was that Viator told us we should have made a long distance call out of the U.S. 4-8 hours in advance (while we were flying) to verify the tour, in other words, to make sure they hadn't canceled the tour and not informed us!

Viator offered to do nothing for us but refund our tour price, not even a future discount. No company that values its customers would refuse to offer any good faith compensation whatsoever!

Viator tours are a scam!!!! No one showed up to take us on our tour, so they threw us on another bus with a guide named Ali, who had trouble speaking English. We did not see all the places they advertised, no bottle of water, and most disappointing was that we paid $68.99 a piece and everyone on the bus paid $25.

I have written complaints to the company and they lied and said we were late for our bus and they left us. We arrived at the Hyatt at 9:45 for our 10:30 tour. Our supposedly 5 hour tour was about 3 hours. This was the ONLY disappointment in our trip to DC. What a rip off!!!!!!!

I cancelled a tour 2 months out which is fully refundable. I had to call twice and 3 weeks later I still don't have the credit. I just had to create a dispute from my credit card company. Viator even sent me an email confirming the refund would be posted by a date-which was a week ago.

They said it had to go through a special process because of a glitch or something on their end. I just had to cancel another tour...a month out and they said the same thing. It would have to be sent to the "refund" department to handle...and guess what - you can't talk to them directly! SCAM.......

Got the round trip from Mexico City airport to the hotel, they never showed up in my travel back. My diabetic went down because they abandoned us and I was late for my fly and before lost $100.00 dollar bill I got no time to change it for confident on them. They literally said to me to take any car or loose my fly. It was sadddd!

I read your reply, Viator. Well, I think you didn't get my point.

1) Don't sell seats if you know they're not available! When I called you after my booking was shown "pending" for more than 3 days you replied that there are no seats left hence the booking didn't go through. Why do you show them as available on your website then (besides the website of the actual business has shown "no seats left" when I checked later).

2) I am still waiting for my A$164 refund for more than a week now. So while you're not actually fulfilling a service you still get to work with the money of your customers. A bank transfer within Australia usually doesn't take more than 24h. I am fine if it takes 3 business days but more than a week? C'mon, that is poor form and I am calling you out on that. We could have already booked an alternative event if we wouldn't be short on those 160 bucks.

3) Your phone customer service is not very helpful. They only got their standard lines and that's about it.

Again, poor customer service. Stay away.

I knew Edinburgh Castle was one of the most popular places to go, so I bought these "Skip the Line" passes! When I got to Edinburgh, it was raining and there was a long queue to buy tickets and enter the castle. I was so happy I had those passes as I surprisingly got to skip the whole line! I never knew it could be so convenient!!! It was so worth it, I would definitely buy from Viator again!

I had read the reviews that you should avoid Viator, but I booked our tour anyway. The tour was completely overbooked and we did not get to see the sites as described in the tour description. I wrote a one star review that was never posted on their website. I will not use Viator again and you cannot trust their reviews. How many other one to three star reviews do you think never make it to the website?.

I wish I had read all these comments before I booked our tour to Cusco/Machu Picchu!!! As others pointed out, Viator DOES NOT run the tours. They simply take whichever tour company or broker in the area, without even vetting them! A total scam!

I booked my family's 5-day tour in Cusco/Machu Picchu and everything was quick and we got our "voucher." However, when we got to Cusco, no one picked us up. We had to call the contact person, he sent a cab, and we got dropped off at a hotel that did not have reservation for us! The company that "handled" our tour in Cusco/Machu Picchu was also a broker, simply piecing together other tours already in the region.

For 4 of the 5 days on our tour, the company "forgot" to pick us up. We had to constantly call. The hotel people were shaking their heads! We would have been so much better off had we taken a different route and just booked all the tours when we got to Cusco, and it would have been cheaper, more organized, and fewer people in the tour. As it was we got passed on from one tour bus to the next. Cusco and Machu Picchu were so beautiful and historic, I would have loved to have taken a more organized tour of the area. However, we enjoyed every bit of the time that we were actually on a "tour."

It seems Viator takes 20% off from whichever company wants to post on their website, and they don't even vet the tour. A total scam. I will post this on my FB so everyone knows their scam.

I learned my lesson quick, though. We wanted to go to city tours in other places in Peru, and also in Argentina-- we booked the tours in the city itself. I saw the same tours on Viator, more expensive, and who knows which broker would be running them!

Do NOT take tours from Viator, they only select reviews that are very positive, and never post negative reviews. My negative review was never posted.

we wrote a bad review on Viator. it was a legit complaint aimed at warning potential customers to avoid that particular tour. Viator did not respond to our complaint nor did they print our low star review. Make me wonder how many other low star reviews are ignored. Seems like all they post are the 4 and 5-star reviews.

Where to begin: We booked three tours with Viator while in Asia.

NEVER AGAIN!!!

Our first bad experience was on the Hop-On-Hop Off buses. We were told the place to redeem our vouchers was a short walk away; We had to take a taxi!

The evening tour in Singapore included dinner at a restaurant. It was a room cramped with tables and dirty as well. With so many nice places in such a beautiful city, this pick was expensive and way below par.

The worst experience was our booking of Mt. Fuji/Lake Ashi/Bullet Train. This too was a pricey trip and we booked our hotel based on the fact that it was a pick-up spot for this tour, listed on their site.. When we called to re- confirm everything before the trip, we were told that the Shiba Park hotel was NOT a pick-up spot, but the bus station was only two blocks away and we could start the trip there,.All arrangements for arrival there were changed and confirmed.by Viator. We are four seniors who are now walking further than two blocks to arrive at the station. Once there, Sunrise Tours, who handle this tour, told us they had no reservation for us. In addition, we would need to pay an additional $10 per person as the trip was more expensive leaving from there. Having no way to reach Viator, we paid. They gave us the last four seats on the back of the bus.....all they had. Once seated, they told us that this was not the right bus and we had to wait for the next one, which, miraculously, also had only the last four seats in the back available. We are now in the terminal for close to two hours. We asked if we could wait for another bus to get better seats. We were told this was the last one out. On line, the bus coordinator told us that was not true, four more buses were after ours.

And then there was lunch..................an ice cold meal which even our tour guide apologized for.

The final straw came the next morning at our hotel. A group was waiting for a pick-up for the same Mt, Fuji trip we booked with Viator.

The difference? THEY were picked up!

Three booked tours...three bad experiences.

There are many sites that have these tours. We strongly suggest you try one of them.

So I drove 90 minutes for a tour I paid for through Viator and for which I received the confirmation "Voucher." They had not confirmed it with the tour operator. There was no room. Luckily, we set it up for 2 days later. I will never use these clowns again.

Just got back from LA where we booked a private limo tour. Viator sent an email, didn't bother calling, to cancel the night before our tour! Then wouldn't respond to emails or calls to them. They would not help at all!!! Do not use them! We went through our hotel and rearranged our schedule and finally got a tour.

Viator is a scam. They took money and do not provide tour I've asked for. Can't return/refund my money during more than month!

We had a very bad experience with Viator and i think this is needed to be posted here. We booked two tickets for 4th July for Space Needle, Seattle observation deck. ( booking number - 39159883 ). We got the confirmation email and printed out the same with bar code. When we arrived in Space Needle checkin counter for taking our boarding passes, we were told all tickets are sold out and they cannot let us in. Now, that's a shock, this is exactly the reason why we booked earlier with Viator in the first place ! When we contacted Viator customer service, it was told to us that 'It happens sometime, they are sorry, they will refund our money and they can give us tickets for next day'. Yes we got our money back, but we lost our whole day travel to Seattle space needle ( we went from California to Seattle - Olympic National park by the way ). And obviously we did not wanted to go to Space needle deck on 5th July rather than 4th July after being turned down with a confirmed booking in our hand.

So, the conclusion and perhaps the lesson we took ( which we also want to inform others who are booking with Viator ) is that sometimes our pre-booking confirmation doesn't matter at all and we should be prepared to get turned back !

universal tickets are cheaper, but are they good, the universal city said they are not we will see

Viator doesn't run the tours themselves.

We got to the Barcelona office of the local tour operator. They told us that they forgot about the "confirmed" tour that my whole family was supposed to join.

There was really nothing we could do. Nothing! I was thinking that Viator was recommended by my AAA agent that it should be really good. And knowing that it is a big city as Barcelona that it was a no brainer. They must have local operators that are dependable. Wrong.

What a waste of time and effort. They wasted our day in Barcelona.

Btw, I am still chasing Viator with regards to my refund. Even though I have a copy of the email sent by the tour operator cc'd Viator that they screwed up and to please issue a refund to me.

Viator is denying that there was an email sent by the local operator in Barcelona.

Okay, here is the operator's name ExploreCatalunya.com.

If you want a copy of the email from explorecatalunya.com just email me.