Viator

I felt completely ripped off and deceived by Viator tours located in San Francisco CA their advertised packages are very misleading. My orginal purchase from this company was an Alcatraz package which included Hop On/Hop Off bus tickets but was advised upon arrival at their ticket pick-up location which happens to be miles away from Fisherman Wharf pier and our hotel location that our tour package had been changed to an Alcatraz/ Bay Tour Cruise which was unfortunate for us because I had purchased a set of Bay Cruise tickets from another company prior and had missed their ticket cancelation. And FYI, don't get fooled into believing that you have to purchase a $200+ Alcatraz package to visit the Rock tickets can easily be purchased for adults, senior's and children for $40.00 and under from the Alcatraz website and most tour's have on-site purchasing available at the pier which will save you traveling time, additional parking and uber fees.

Viator is more of an aggregator of tours, led by different tour companies/guides.

They are more of a middle man between the tour company and you, instead of working directly with the local tour company.

Even so, I have used them in the past, as they show a bunch of options all put together and you can search by length of tour, time of day, and your dates.

I used them more frequently before I realized I could more easily book these tours on my own for a little bit less, but when I did use them they were always reliable and helpful with any issues, if they arose.

I've booked tours with Viator in Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, Australia, among many others.

Each time, I've always had great communication from Viator, and the few times I've needed to cancel a booking, they've always been understanding and tried to help me with a credit or refund when possible.

I would recommend Viator if you want an easy way to search and book a few tours without having to work directly with multiple different tour companies yourself!

My wife and I have done numerous tours and other events with Viator in the past, and were generally quite satisfied. However, a recent booking with them in Madrid soured us on Viator completely.

We paid approximately $42 for "Skip the Line" tickets for the Reina Sofia Museum. However , to make a long story short, the tickets were not supplied as indicated in the emails that we received, the email loop that we got stuck in was not helpful and there was no one at the museum that could help us. The irony was that we waited only 2-3 minutes in the line, then were given free entry passes as seniors. So what exactly did we pay for?

Despite at least three separate emails to Viator seeking a refund, they have totally refused. All we have gotten were generic responses that did not even address the specifics of our dissatisfaction. Likely, these were generated by AI, with no humans even addressing our concerns. This lack of genuine responsiveness by Viator was even more upsetting than the ticket failure itself.

As indicated above, we have used Viator extensively in the past, and had every intention of continuing to do so in the future with other planned trips. However, their failure to address our concerns in a professional way, makes it likely that we will take our business elsewhere. Others may very well wish to do the same.

While the trip we took was absolutely wonderful and worth the money spent 100%.....DO NOT PAY THE EXTRA FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHER!!! They tell you that it's a great deal and you won't even need to carry your phone or camera around to take extra pictures but if we hadn't??? Let's just say that my 90's cell phone took better pictures than what we received! They were horrid! Too far away, blurry, poor quality, eyes closed and apparently not even looked at to make sure that there were useable shots or even extra taken to ensure there were a few good shots at least. Dissatisfied, disappointed and they refused to refund the $94.60 we paid to have those awful pictures. Again, the company seemed great and we were so happy with the day until we received the pictures a day late and already out of Country where we couldn't go down there and speak to them in person. I am just so glad we took selfie's and other pictures of the once in a lifetime trip or it would have been a complete loss and waste. Save your money.
I also want to say that I had 1 Viator person who answered my WhatsApp query with rudeness and was completely condescending with no care whatsoever that I was upset. I was not a jerk and simply explained my problem with our tour and was told..."What do you want to now. I apologize for that on out behalf.
what do you want to for this now. I do apologize for that on our behalf.
***How unprofessional first of all and another operator got on and wanted me to tell him the solution instead of offering up one, but it was all a complete waste of time since they emailed me and said that the refund was refused!
I would avoid Viator and try Klook since I had a good experience with them and their prices were better!!!

I had a horrible experience with Viator that resulted in me losing 65 Euros. I tried writing to them and they rejected my inquiry, and when I posted a bad review, they rejected that as well. No wonder they have so many good reviews on their site. Shame on Viator! Never again.

As others have written here, once you dig a bit deeper, Viator is not a tour company--it is an aggregator of tour companies and guides around the world. They act as a middle man and take their share of the profit.

If the tour company they represent does not provide the agreed upon service, Viator has no obligation or willingness to help you. You are completely dependent on the tour company they set you up with and there is no recourse if they have not provided the expected goods and services.

This has now happened to our family for an expensive Eiffel Tower tour package.

You are better off researching local tour companies rather than relying on Viator as the middle person. Viator will protect the tour company before protecting you.

I'm adding to the long list of 1 start reviews. There customer service is horrible. They were not able to refund my money when their system makes an error. I had to work with my credit card company to get my money back. Beware!
Viator doesn't care about the customer, only their booking fee. If they did care, they would claim this business on Yelp and response to people's comments.

The Blame Game

We had lots of problems with a tour and asked Viator for help and a refund.
The answer from Viator:
"As this was booked with Booking.com, Viator cannot assist you, unfortunately"
In 2021, Viator entered into a partnership with Booking.com for the sale of their products. It gave Viator a new sales channel, but also another scapegoat to blame for any problem that might occur. We have been in contact with the tour operator and received confirmation that the tour we are complaining about was ordered and paid for by Viator. Our ticket says "Delivered by Viator". We have contacted Viator's help center where they say that the errors are due to the tour operator and that they have no responsibility. Viator thus blames everything and everyone and assumes absolutely no responsibility for what they sell.

My recommendation: Buy tours from local providers. They usually feel responsible for what they do and they need the money much more than these multinational booking companies who don't want to publish their contact details, don't bother to provide customer service, but just take a high payment and sometimes keep the payment without delivering what they were paid for.

They are just a place for scammers and maybe they are part of it, I had the worst experience with one of the companies, they offered us an excursion on Punta Cana, and they gave us totally diferent trip, they took us to doesn't places, they just cut the trip time to the third they treated us as animals, we were almost 12 people in the trip who complained , and what Viator did? They sent us that they asked the compnay and they answered that the 12 passengers are lying and they did everything as in the itinerary, so Viator just closed the case based on their answer !!!!
Don't use this fake website

We booked a trip to Paris. It was advertised as a 10 hour tour with 4 hours in Paris. Our driver was stopped by the police on the way for talking on his cell phone and again for parking illegally and the bus being out of compliance. We spent 20 minutes at the Arch Triumphe before being dropped off at a mall for a bathroom and food court break for a bit over an hour before being told we ran out of time and took us back to the ship. We were refunded 1/2 after numerous emails but were told that they provided transportation so full filled 1/2 their obligation.

I wish it was possible to leave a quarter of a star for my review. This company does NOT stand behind their service. We booked 3 tours through them 2 days before arriving in Dubai. When we landed in Dubai, we found out that one of the tours, a two destination tour to the Miracle Garden and Global Village, had been temporarily closed. They ended up taking us to a one destination event that had a significantly cheaper entry fee than the events we paid for, and they refused to credit us the difference. When we asked why, they stopped communicating.

The second tour we had booked was even more of a disaster. My wife and I told the Viator rep who booked our excursions that our party of 5 had 2 mobility scooters. She assured us that would either have a vehicle big enough to accommodate us or they would send 2 vehicles. She said due to our party size, we most likely would be the only ones in the vehicle with the driver. None of this was true. I called the night before our second tour, because no one called, texted or emailed us to remind, confirm or tell us our pick up time. I reconfirmed everything with a second agent. She had the driver reach out to us, and I reconfirmed with him for a third time. I even sent him pictures of the scooters. The driver came late with 5 other passengers and no room for even 1 scooter. We ended up missing 2 hours of our tour, and again Viator was unwilling to provide is with a partial refund.

I truly believe we would have had greater success if all 5 of is stood by the side of the road with our 2 mob scooters and hitchhiked to all of our stops. Would've been cheaper too! We paid good money and received subpar service.