Viator Reviews

Name: Viator
Address: 360 3rd St #400, San Francisco
Rating: 2.11

2.1 Rating 1,226 Reviews

27 %

of reviewers recommend Viator

Company Reviews

Questions

Metrics

2.1

Based on 1,226 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Own Driver
On-time Delivery	Greater than 7%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Over A Week
Customer Service	1.1 out of 5
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process	Difficult

Visit Website

Phone:

888-651-9785

Email:

support@viator.com

Location:

360 3rd St #400
San Francisco
94107

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Sandeepkumar

Mari

Viator 1 star review on 25th January 2025

Colby

114

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Rated 1 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“Viator/TripAdvisor charged us a family of 6adults+5children approx. $2,000. They booked multiple half day trips to Aix-en-Provence on the same date June 29th 2018 $211.73+$502.48+EUR933.35. I have made no less than a dozen calls, including but not limited to sending an email to the leadership with no response. They literally have STOLEN OUR MONEY. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY PEOPLE FINALLY GIVE UP AND THE KEEP THE MONEY.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“I booked my tour through Viator and they made no mention of the company they would be outsourcing my booking to, it was not stated anywhere! To my horror, the tour was conducted by Keytours (which have many negative reviews). I would not otherwise have chosen Keytours given their record. Needless to say, my experience with Keytours was far from pleasant! Read on for details. Think of anything worst than horrible and this is what Keytours is! the group tours are large and overbooked with way too many people, very disorganized, no way to keep track of people who belong to ths group, took at least an hour to figure out who belong on what bus which delay start of tour. Tour guide kept losing people and the rest of us had to wait around all this time until they find them which delay the tour. Tour guide gave long boring lecture style history lessons which everyone just stopped listening or fake attention after awhile. You can't hear her half the time and she's walking way ahead of the group. It is very impersonal and very uninteresting. Some people who did not pay to be part of the tour kept going around with the group and basically randomly join in with the tour and the guide either didn't notice or never bothered to get rid of them! The included lunch is a horrible experience, we are extremely late so not lunch, more like early dinner by the time they get us there and then they rush us with little time to eat so they can keep up the next part of the "tour" and no beverage included, they serve hot tap water meaning not even ice provided. A lot of the tour is self guided despite advertising "guided" and they leave you to figure out how to get back with the group so they kept losing people because they got lost or took forever to get back to the vaguely described meeting place. Hotel drop off is a scam, they drop you in the middle of nowhere basically and you have to pay for taxi, walk or find other ways to get home! keep in mind it is dark at night and Greece seems to be saving money by not turning on street lights, most people are new in the unfamiliar city and it's unsafe and dangerous the way they leave you to wander around trying to find your hotel, in my case I'm female and alone on the excursion! Key tours is a NO if you are looking for a company to book tours with! Key tours is worse than HORRIBLE! Viator is also responsible, again, I booked with them and nowhere did it state with whom my tour would be because I would have cancelled the booking immediately had I known it was with Keytours.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“The cooking class we booked changed location/venue & time which was no where near what was advertised. The time was originally at 10am and was changed to 5pm and the overall cooking class went from beautiful Amalfi to some guys apartment nearly an hour away from where we were. All these changes were sent to us (through the Viator website) a couple hours before the cooking class. Total bait and switch. The service provider contacted us asked if we wanted to cancel and we agreed and asked for a refund which they said they would make sure was done. Over a week and a half later and we had not seen a refund so we called Viator and was told they would contact the "operator" and get back to us within 24-48 hours. 2 Days later and we called back again, having been put on hold for nearly 2 hours. They said they needed to contact the operator yet again and said it would be 24 - 48 hours. I asked for a supervisor and they hung up on me. We called back yet again and they said they would send an email which we received that said "no refunds" due to Vitaor having paid the tour operator in full. And now we are out $400! We have documented proof through the Viator site that shows that what was changed by the service provider and they don't care that it was changed. Total scam. My credit card company has been contacted to document this and we will report this to the FTC and every other consumer rights protection agency in both the US and EU.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“Three of us booked “the taste my Swiss City Lugano.” We took the voucher and accompanying print out to our first stop, Bottegone del vino. We presented the documentation. We were seated at a table served a light lunch and lovely glass of wine. We were then given a b”” for 115 euros. We presented the voucher again...along with the print out listing their restaurant, the waiter took it, discussed it with three others. The manager then brought it back to us removing 15 euros for the wine and chastised us that we should have presented it first? We did! So after paying over $200 for the “free” tasting we had to pay 110 euros. It was very clear victor had doneeither a poor job selecting the stops or partnering with them so they understand their responsibility. We want our money back! We did not pursue the other stops....it was just too expensive and uncomfortable! I am trying to reach viator now to get a refund. They don’t make it easy to reach them. This is the first site I found to complain.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“8th September 2018 We purchased a full day trip to the Hoover Dam with Lake Mead cruise for the last day of our scheduled trip to celebrate our wedding anniversary. This we had booked several months in advance so we had been really looking forward to the trip for some time. 24 hours prior to the trip we contacted Viator booking office as detailed on the tickets to confirm our booking to be told we would be picked up by a Gray Line minibus at 9 am in the Valet area of another hotel in the area as our hotel was not on the pick-up line. On the day of the tour we arrived at the designated correct pick up place 45mins before the due pick-up time. At 9.15 am we still had not been picked up and so called the office only to be told they had contacted the bus driver who said he had been running late but had pulled into the valet area and waited 5 mins and that we had now missed him by 4 minutes. This is a complete untruth told by the driver as we later confirmed with the hotel’s CCTV no Gray Line bus had pulled into the valet area during the hour we had been waiting. He had not entered the valet area of the hotel at all. They refused to send him back for us or for us to be picked up at another location. Viator then told us we could now only be booked onto the 12.15 half day trip but we would not be able to do the Lake Mead cruise. So we transferred to this as it was our last day and wanted to see the dam. We again confirmed all the same pick-up details and time. The minibus only arrived at the pick-up location following another phone call from us at 12.15. When the minibus arrived at the same pick-up location we had been waiting at in the morning we asked the driver why he had not called on the morning route to pick us up only to be literally shouted at angrily by the driver in front of all the other bus passengers. He said we would need to take our complaint up with Viator, he wasn’t interested and just demanded us to show him our ID or we were not getting on the bus. So we got on the bus only to be ferried to another Gray Line waiting location where we then waited another 20mins before being transferred onto another bus. Later we learnt that quite often if the bus driver is running late on his pick up round he will just miss out certain pick ups so as to arrive at the Gray Line booking-in terminal on time! Once he is here he then spends 20 mins or so just chatting to other colleagues and eating croissants!! The rest of the tour was disappointingly less than great, we spent most of the afternoon picking up and dropping people off and once at the dam we were rushed to ensuring we completed the dam tour quickly as we only had 1.5 hours to explore before we MUST be back on the bus or be left. It is evident from the countless poor reviews we have since read that there is a re-occurring theme of poor service throughout and it is obvious this company are totally less than interested in learning from the comments made by their dissatisfied customers but instead only want to acquire your money and an ever-building bad reputation.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“THEY ARE CONS, JUST MIDDLEMEN WHO HAVE PATHETIC CUSTOMER SUPPORT AND WILL RIP YOU OFF YOUR MONEY! I booked the ten lakes tour of the Lake District for 11th August with my family. Since the web site page stated that kids over 5 years are allowed. I, therefore, I called the helpline and asked specifically whether I could take my three years and five-year-old kids. I was told that I needed to buy a ticket for the 5-year-old kid and there was no need to buy a ticket for the 3-year-old who I can take along. After travelling all the night from London, I reached Windermere at the Information Centre but was denied the boarding the minibus by the Mountain Goat agent that children under 3 were not allowed. I told them that the Viator had allowed me to take. Had they not confirmed that why would I have booked and caused so much inconvenience to the family. I called the VIATOR helpline and they refused to intervene rather said that they can't help since the Moutain Gate agent refused. Both VIATOR and the MOUNTAIN GATE not only caused severe inconvenience to me and the family but also refused to refund the amount! Spotting an opportunity of minting more money, a female staff of Moutain Goat rushed to us and offered us that she could arrange another tour for 275 GBP, which we refused to avail! Guys, please avoid them, they're cons and are only concerned about ripping people of their money.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“I had requested hotel pick-up for two tours in Rome. Our hotel was listed as a pick-up site and I received a confirmation. 24 hours before the first tour, we were told there was no hotel pick-up. I tried calling Viator customer service (never an answer). I finally wrote through the website. I received my first response 18 hours later that they were contacting the tour company. I never received any help from either Viator or the tour company. The last email said that I would hear something back in 7-10 days but that surely doesn't help since my tours are over. Their 24/7 customer service statement is blarney!!!! :sad:”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“*********** Horrible customer service ******** I have used Viator for several tours and for the most part the tours were good and the tour companies have been professional. Buyers should beware- if you are buying with the impression that you will receive customer service if something goes wrong, Viator is not the company to use. On a recent trip to Rome, we bought the fast pass for the Vatican. The meeting instructions were poor and when we found it the tour company left and there was no one there to help us. We ended up buying a tour from another company. When returning to the states I tried to rate the experience but found the tour did not show on my bookings; I called Viator to get it added to my bookings and I got the run around. I tried for over a week to no avail and when I asked for a supervisor the customer service agent would not transfer me, place me on permanent hold until they disconnected or say they would call me back. I agent would not listen to my concern and just kept reading off a script.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“Terrible company! Do not trust them! We paid for 6 snorkeling tours in Cozumel. They refused to take us because of lack of time and refused a refund! We were not the only group they ripped off!! If anyone can tell me more ways to post and get the word to people please let me know. People need to know and this company does not need to continue to rip people off!”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“Bought tickets to Burj Kalief ( tallest building in Dubai) Printed all information and tickets sent by Viator and they where not accepted at the Burj ticket booth. Please beware of Viator as they are a scam website.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“DO NOT USE!!! BEWARE!!! They are ressellers taking 30% from the real tour operators. One of the worst booking platform. They connect suppliers from all around the world, take the money from the clients and do not assist in no way. Buyers cannot contact Viator assistance center / no phone no email. Suppliers cannot update bookings. Eventually they keep the money of clients and pay to supplier 45 days after the tour. SCAM. Why they keep the money? why they do not provide a supplier contact details in advance. People just book because they even don't understand that the Viator is 3th party re-seller. We as a supplier and as a buyer recommend you to find tour operators in country you planing you visit and book directly with real tour operator. They rate tour operators having 1 star ( worst ) rating in the world. SCAMMERS, MONEY LAUNDRY, DO NOT USE BEWARE”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“Didn’t deliver and horrible cust9mer service”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“We booked a full day CULTURAL tour of Hutong in Beijing on April 7. It said there would be learning of Tai chi, Chinese calligraphy, paper cutting, opera mask painting tour of hutong and lunch at a local family. Except for a hour of Tai chi by a master, everything else was done in less than 2 hours in a room without anyone showing us what to do but we were just given the materials to do it on our own! There was no mask painting but we were given already painted mask to take home! Lunch was nothing special. We paid $188 Canadian per person for this kind of mediocre tour. Viator your selection and oversight is terrible and irresponsible! I write to them for complaints but I never heard back. I will never use this company.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“Offering “PRIVATE” tour when it actually is a normal tour. When i saw title, i even called the hotline from overseas before making booking and they “confirm” is it a “private” tour. WHen I made the booking, I got an email asking me to cancel it because they made a mistake. And not offering any solution even when i keep asking for any other option. IRRESPONSIBLE COMPANY! Just judge yourself how bad this company is by looking at the most recent reviews, nothing more than 1 star. JUST AWEFUL!”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“Disgusted I am disgusted with this company. We book months in advance only to be told 2 DAYS before the booking that we have been thrown off for someone else, My advice, AVOID at ALL COSTS”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“professional scammers”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“The date I booked was not even within my travel range. When I got a confirmation text I IMMEDIATELY tried to fix it, both through Viator (which required me to call them 3 TIMES to get a resolution) and through the tour company, but I was required to pay the full price of the tour.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“We booked a tour of the Royal Palace of Madrid for March 30 at 11:30 a.m. The supplier for this tour was Pancho Tours. We arrived at the meeting point 15 minutes before the tour was supposed to start. Since no tour guide showed up at 11:30 a.m., we called the phone number for Pancho Tours that was listed in the voucher. The lady who answered the phone apologized, saying that they tried to contact us to change the time of the tour for earlier that day. She tried to reschedule for another day but we could not accommodate in our schedule. I specifically asked whether we would be refunded since they changed the time of the tour and she guaranteed that we would get a refund. I contacted Viator 9 or 10 business days later since I didn't see a refund. After contacting Pancho Tours, Viator informed they would not refund us because Pancho Tour replied that the tour left at the regular 11:30 a.m. time that day. I am upset with Pancho Tours because that is a lie and I am contesting the charge with the credit card company since no service was provided to us and it was not our fault. I am upset with Viator for not doing a more thorough investigation and a better screen of their suppliers and, quite frankly, for not trusting their customers.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“Booked a trip in Punta Cana. Viator confirmed. Next day they cancelled but never refunded money. Had to spend an hour to get it back a month later. Seems like they hope it gets overlooked. Then they offered 10% discount on next booking. Like that would make up for their incompetence and my inconvenience.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“Great until you need an amendment. Requested cancellation 60 minutes after receiving booking confirmation but was denied a refund even though the tour is 3 weeks out. Two separate agents delivered the same canned response that contradicted the tour information itself. After speaking with a supervisor (Alex), she rudely cut me off as I spoke, grew frustrated at the customer, and refused to escalate further. She verified her agents never called the tour supplier. The point of using a travel agent is to leverage their existing relationships with vendors, not disrespect and dismiss customers. Not the experience I was expecting after having used Viator 10+ times in the past. Everything is great as long as you don't have a problem - as soon as you do, good luck garnering support. Not only have you lost a loyal customer, but I am extremely upset with how I was treated (as well as many others after reading similar reviews)”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

Viator is rated 2.1 based on 1,226 reviews