Viator

Please do not rely on the customer reviews on the website of Viator. It appears that they only publish positive reviews. At least, this happened to me. When I submitted review that criticized provider and Viator, They have refused to publish it. They said my review did not meet their guidelines. This was surprising to me since my review did not include any bad language or politically incorrect statements. It only criticized their poor customer service and some misleading statements in their trip descriptions. - So, when you read positive reviews about a tour or Viator, please keep in mind that you do not see all the reviews of the many customers who were unhappy about a tour or the service quality of Viator.

I bought tickets for Vatican museums and Sixtine Chapel for 6 people (via Viator) on 5th October 2024 at 3.30 p.m. It was raining, there was a strike of public transport workers, it was impossible to get a taxi. We were there for 3 days so we decided to walk around, doesn't matter that we were wet, we wanted to use those three days as mich as possible. Two (2!) hours before we were supposed to enter, Viator informed us that our tickets were cancelled. The explanation was trivial. So, we didn't see the museums. They kindly informed us that we can still wait and buy them at the entrance. REALLY? Well, we bought them from you, Viator,in order NOT TO WAIT FOR FEW HOURS! The best thing was that at that moment the tickets were being sold on their site for much higher price. A terrible experience, terrible business, terrible everything! I rated it 1 star as that's the lowest, but if there was 0, you would get that. The only good thing is refund in 2 days.

We purchased the Giverny/Versailles day trip. The Monet home/gardens portion was delightful. Then we went to Versailles, where our guide, walking very fast, took off with the group. We could not walk that fast, but kept her flag in sight. Inside the gate, in pouring rain, there was no sign of any of them! The guide, plus a new guide, were told that we were missing, but did nothing. We walked along both of the 2 long lines trying to find them, with no luck. Ultimately, refund a café and sat inside for awhile until they closed. Then we found another Cafe. We paid $331 to Viator, who sells us to another company in Paris.
I spoke with customer service at Viator, who said she would send my request for a partial reimbursement to her supervisor. Twi days later I received an email stating they would not give a partial refund, with no explanation.
Find another company.

We had booked a cooking class in Lucca Italy for Oct 18th at 5pm. On the ticket it listed a remote location to be picked up due to the fact the class was at a private home. We arrived at the assign location at 4:45 and waited until 5:30. I tried to contact Viator because there was no phone number for the class operator. The Viator agent told me I had the wrong day! I explained the i was looking at my ticket and it was booked for today. The agent was very rude and had no solutions.
We had paid in advance $645US. After several conversations with Viator they are unwilling to refund any
of our money!
This is completely unacceptable! Our ticket showed a location to meet at and we were there. There was no contact information about the cooking class operator to call for help and the Viator agent was rude with no help.
This was an expensive class and I don't feel we did anything wrong. To not be refunded is just wrong! I will never use Viator again!

Viator is a total scam. DO NOT USE VIATOR. I tried to book a sailing excursion in Madeira Portugal and only received automatic emails asking me to rate my experience. I was charged for the excursion and tried to confirm and make adjustments to my booking and never got a actual response, only got more automatic emails to review my experience. So I tried to contact the vendor directly by email, Viators messenger, Whatsapp, phone, and text, and never received a response from the Sailboat or Viator. When I went to the vendors address and meeting spot, I could not find any evidence of the company. When I added this same review to Viators website, it was rejected bc their "guidelines" prohibit posting negative responses so that the public has no way of finding out that they are a SCAM. Apparently only EU citizens have the right to appeal that they will not post negative reviews. DO NOT USE VIATOR. IT IS A SCAM. Hopefully the credit card will refund

Booking a cruise experience with Viator in 1000 Islands, Canada turned into a nightmare for me and my six friends. Despite their offer to rebook with a promise of reimbursing the original payment of CAD 380, I've been left paying twice with no sign of the refund after a month. Each week, I spend 45 minutes on calls with customer support, only to be assured that someone will address the issue, yet there's been no progress. Viator's customer service has been abysmal, leaving me feeling scammed into rebooking and utterly disappointed in their lack of resolution!
Date of experience: 15-06-2024
Booking reference: BR*******393

I attempted to post this review on Viator, but they emailed me back to say, "Our travel community appreciates that you want to share your experience with them. Unfortunately, we cannot publish your contribution as it does not meet our review guidelines." Here is my review:

NEVER buy Paris catacomb tickets from anyone except from the official ticket office (https://www.catacombes.paris.fr/en). We purchased 2 tickets for the Paris Catacomb tours from Viator. When we showed up at the Catacomb ticket office and scanned our tickets, they showed as "invalid" and we were not able to use these tickets. The Catacomb ticket office provided us a letter confirming we had two fraudulent tickets, and they shared that they never sell tickets to third party vendors, so any ticket that is purchased anywhere else except directly from them would be invalid. I reached out to Viator to let them know about this issue - they have not yet refunded our 108 Euros for the invalid tickets. Learn from our mistake.

We won't be booking with Viator again after this trip in Europe. We had a problem with one of the tours, and it took three contacts to the help centre, and none of the promises of contact from the company ever happened. With at least one of the help centre 'chats' it was so poor, I assumed it was a bot, but was assured it was a real person on their end. We ended up missing the tour, despite our attempts to sort it out in advance, and Viator refused to issue a refund, despite the communication record of our three attempts to contact them.

Many of the postings on Viator are a scam. Viator will then cancel bookings without notifying you. Was also severely disappointed in the Viator customer service reps; when I called to express the concerns about a fake listing and that the operator doesn't give appropriate notice, they hung up on me twice and refused to take this listing off the website. I honestly don't think I'll use Viator again for booking experiences as they have no investment in the operator doing a good job and don't have accountable customer service.

I booked a Rome tour through Viator for my family of four. It was quite expensive. I went to the Viator web page and found a tour on June 17th. When I went to purchase it, the web page said that particular tour was sold out on that day, but "here are some similar tours that are available on that day". So I clicked on one and purchased it. Somewhere along the line, Viator's web page changed the date to June 4th. As soon as I received my confirmation email I contacted Viator and explained their mixup. I requested they revise the date to June 17th as I had entered into their system. This was literally within a few minutes of placing my order. I was told that all sales are final, no changes, no refunds. I proceeded to spend the next six hours of my European vacation with numerous Viator support people and supervisors trying to rectify their mistake, to no avail. Viator tried to wash their hands of this saying that it was not their responsibility and that it was in the hands of their third-party tour operator. This is not true, because I purchased the ticket from Viator's web page. They sold me this product. This has left me with such a feeling of being robbed. I'm out over $600 and received absolutely nothing in return. It is worth noting that I never entered the Date June 4th. The only date I entered into Viator's web page was June 17th. I was scammed!

The simple correction is for Viator to honour my request to change the date of the tour to June 17th - as I had entered to start the process.

Date of experience: June 04,2024

I've tried several times to update my review to be fair. Not knowing how, I write another one, even if it comes late.

The week after my review was displayed, Viator and the tour operator refunded me in full with apologies.
The story had a happy ending.

Nevertheless, the experience was disappointing and I will never trust these people again.

Absolutely scam artists. Let you book a time slot on the website, but don't actually book the time slot. They will send you a link hours later and expect you to then book a time slot. They obviously expect you to be constantly checking your Viator account whilst on holiday. I had this happen to me and the tour was sold out. I complained and was told no refunds under any circumstances. So I have paid the I travel to the tour location. Have paid roaming charges to complain and also for a tour that I didn't get, and won't get refunded for as it was sold out. They will put all the emphasis on you and will say it's your fault for not booking a time slot sooner. Absolutely scam artists

Viator offers 24 hour in advance cancellation however if your cruise ship decides or is told they cannot dock (due toi winds or other factors) only hours before scheduled arrival, you will lose 100% of your payments and Viator will not negotiate. For this reason, I will not book tours on a cruise from Viator again.

Booked an excursion while in Ireland that ended up being cancelled by the provider due to weather. Viator refused to give a refund and said they take no ownership due to weather, even though no services were rendered. Now I'm stuck disputing with Amex.

Do you want to deal with a company that promises you excellent service and don't deliver. Do you want to deal with a company that promises fool refund for horrible and life threatening experience and don't deliver. I don't advise.

We booked a $12 walking tour in Cartagena, Colombia. Viator specified it would have 25 people or fewer. There were about 35 people who we in our group. The tour guides held an umbrella with "free tour" printed on it. It was obvious that they accepted those who did not pay, with a pitch at the end (which we were told would be coming with an explanation that it did not apply for us) that people should contribute to the guide. Seeing the number of people in the tour, we told the guide "we were told that there would be no more than 25 people. We would like to get our money back." The guide responded "oh, we didn't have enough guides. I'll see what we can do about a refund." After another 30 minutes, we were told by a Viatour person on the phone that we would be reimbursed and they did not appreciate us being rude to the guide! Rude? We'd wasted an hour on all this...luckily we were staying another day and could book with another guide later.

Made two bookings, both were canceled for no reason. Contacted customer support, they set up new bookings and then, even though I tried three different credit cards, the payments were all rejected. Useless company and I won't even try to use Viator again.

I implore anyone reading this not to book through Viator ( or Trip Advisor/ same company)
They are simply a clearinghouse for local tour companies. They take your money quickly through a very user friendly web site but when there is an issue good luck.
I've spent hours trying to resolve a simple refund and I give up. I disputed it with my credit card company. DO NOT BOOK THROUGH VIATOR.

We feel Viator totally cheated on us when we realized that the actual Upper Antelope canyon tour was only 80$ a person while we paid Viator a total of $190 per person. Their website lists it as $125 per person but the total comes to 190 per person without a clear breakdown. We will never ever use it again and would like to warn others

I had a problem with a guide in Seychelles because she didn't turn up (her name is Sheena) and at the end she wanted to get paid and refused to accept my full refund (for a tour she declined)…! Viator was very correct and professional because they refunded me. So, the tour operator wanted to cheat, but Viator was correct and reliable. I highly recommend and I will continue to book through them. Viator can obviously be also affected by unethical tour operators.

If I could give zero stars I would.the customer service of this company is horrible. Any issue you have will not be resolved in your favor. Attendants at the excursions are rude. Stay away! Book anywhere but here

I recently booked a private, four-hour tour for two people with Viator. While the guide was pleasant, he knew little and took us to too few places. He did not know what was open or closed, he sent us off on walks by ourselves while he smoked at cafes. This is not what I expect for an over $400 tour. I would like my money back.

VerUsually I check Viator for booking excursions as they have a good reputation.
Viator should revaluate Carmel Car & Limousine Service in Memphis, Tenn. As we were not happy with a VERY long wait for pick-up from that company because of their confusion and mix-up with their drivers. (We had verified the day before our trip,