Tour start time: 1200 We arrived: 1130 Contacted Viator: 1215. No one at meeting place. Guide will be there in 10 minutes. Already 25 mins late. 1230: contacted Viator. No one here. Guide cannot be contacted. Refund will be issued. 1240: Contacted Viator. They cannot contact guide. Refund will be initiated. 1240: in a taxi heading for our hotel. Viator says the guide finally showed up. Go back. 1240: No, I'm heading to our hotel. This is 40 minutes after our start time. Guide is now there. Go back. Waiting for refund. Viator now says I needed to go back after they told me the refund would be issued. I have spent thousands at Viator. Refund my $ or I'm out of here. The guide (who is identified with a orange and white umbrella) never showed up and even after we waited 40 minutes. Unsatisfactory by the guide and Viator. Here are a few ways to format your review, depending on where you plan to post it: Option 1: Detailed & Formal (Best for a direct email to Viator Customer Support) Subject: Unacceptable Service & Refund Request – Urgent Attention Required Review/Message: I am writing to express my strong disappointment regarding a recent tour booked through Viator and to formally demand a full refund. Our tour was scheduled for a 12:00 PM start time. To ensure we were punctual, my party arrived at the designated meeting point at 11:30 AM. By 12:15 PM—25 minutes past the start time—no guide had arrived. I contacted Viator support and was informed that the guide would arrive in 10 minutes. By 12:30 PM (30 minutes late), there was still no guide present. Upon contacting Viator again, I was told the representative was unable to reach the guide and that a refund would be issued. At 12:40 PM, after waiting 40 minutes at the meeting point with no guide in sight, Viator confirmed a second time that they could not establish contact with the guide and that a full refund was being initiated. At that point, we got into a taxi to return to our hotel. While in transit, Viator contacted me to state that the guide had finally arrived—40 minutes late—and instructed us to turn around and return. I declined, as our experience had already been thoroughly ruined by the delay and lack of communication. Viator is now attempting to deny my refund, claiming I was required to turn back after being explicitly told twice by customer service that a refund was being processed. Expecting customers to wait over 40 minutes for a no-show guide, cancel their alternative plans, and turn around mid-transit is completely unacceptable. As a loyal customer who has spent thousands of dollars with Viator over the years, I find this handling of the situation appalling. The guide failed to meet basic professionalism standards, and Viator’s service response has been thoroughly unsatisfactory. I expect my full refund to be issued immediately. BTW, I have screen shots of all the conversations. Viator should be better than this.
Thank you for your review. We would like to clarify the timeline to avoid any misunderstanding. The reservation indicated a 12:30 PM start time, not 11:30 AM. You arrived at 11:30 AM, one hour before the scheduled start. Although the minimum of 6 participants was not reached, we still arranged for a guide exclusively for your group. The guide was at the meeting point at the scheduled 12:30 PM start time. At 12:40 PM, just 10 minutes later, we contacted you through Viator to inform you that the guide was waiting. We also attempted to reach you via WhatsApp but received no response. The guide remained at the meeting point until 1:15 PM. As you did not arrive, the reservation was recorded as a NO SHOW. The relevant times and communications are documented in our records and through Viator.
