I strongly advise against booking with Arenal Rafting. We booked a class III-IV rafting trip for our family and received two emails noting pick-up time of 8:20 am at our hotel. We waited for 40 minutes and contacted the office where the staff informed us that they can come at 7:50 am and left. They considered this a "no show" and charged us $350. They said that they emailed and called us but we had no missed calls, texts or emails with the last minute pick-up time change. See screenshot of the email that we were sent the day prior to the rafting trip with the 8:20 am pick-up time. Arenal Rafting refused to reschedule our trip on another day or give us a refund. We highly anticipated the family rafting adventure and Arenal Rafting's poor communication, last minute pick-up time change and refusal to issue a refund or correct their mistake were upsetting. I do not recommend this company.
Hello April Tritto and Christopher Tritto, We are sorry to hear that your family was disappointed with the experience. However, we believe it is important to clarify the circumstances surrounding this reservation, as several details mentioned in your review do not correspond with the information documented in our reservation system or with the communication received from the booking agency. First and most importantly, Arenal Rafting did not change your pickup time at any point. Our records show that the 7:50 AM pickup at Arenal Manoa was confirmed to the booking agency and communicated in advance, as early as April 26th. This was the pickup time our team was instructed to follow, and it remained unchanged. We would also like to clarify an important point regarding the 8:20 AM time mentioned in the reservation. 8:20 AM was the departure time for the rafting operation, not the pickup time at Arenal Manoa. The transportation and pickup schedule was arranged so that guests could be collected at the confirmed hotel pickup time and transported to the river in time for the scheduled departure. Therefore, arriving at or interpreting 8:20 AM as the hotel pickup time would not have been consistent with the confirmed itinerary. This reservation was made through Viator and a travel agency hired by your family to arrange the trip. Because the reservation and communication were managed through the agency, our direct communication with your family was unfortunately not even possible. On the morning of the tour, our team attempted to contact the phone number provided in the reservation. However, the number connected us to the travel agency rather than directly to your family. The agency informed us that they had also been attempting to contact you but had not been able to reach you. At the same time, our driver/guide followed the information in our system and waited at the confirmed pickup location at Arenal Manoa at the scheduled 7:50 AM pickup time. Our team was therefore present and prepared to provide the transportation and tour according to the confirmed reservation. We did not receive direct communication from you before the scheduled pickup that would have allowed us to clarify any misunderstanding. It was not until approximately 9:00 AM, after the confirmed pickup time had already passed, that we received your message: “I am checking in our pickup time: Tritto family at the Manoa Hot Springs Resort?” By that time, the 7:50 AM pickup had already passed, our driver had already waited at the designated location, and the reservation had to be treated as a no-show according to our operational policies. We want to emphasize that there was no last-minute change, cancellation, or modification of your pickup time by Arenal Rafting. Our records clearly show the 7:50 AM hotel pickup, and our staff acted according to that information. The 8:20 AM time was the scheduled river departure time, not the time at which guests were expected to meet our transportation at the hotel. We fully understand that missing an activity—especially one planned as part of a family vacation—is frustrating and disappointing. We genuinely regret that there was a misunderstanding regarding the schedule. However, it would not be accurate to attribute the missed tour to Arenal Rafting changing the pickup time or failing to provide the agreed transportation. Our team was at the confirmed pickup location, at the confirmed pickup time, and was ready to operate the reservation as scheduled. The situation was further complicated because the reservation was made through a third-party agency, meaning that we did not have a direct and reliable way to communicate with your family before the scheduled pickup. We could only communicate through the contact information and agency associated with the reservation until we were eventually contacted directly after the pickup time had passed. For this reason, we must respectfully disagree with the suggestion that Arenal Rafting changed the pickup time or caused the missed departure. The documentation and operational records available to us do not support that conclusion. For future travelers booking through an agency or third-party platform, we strongly recommend confirming both the hotel pickup time and the activity departure time before the day of the tour, and contacting the tour operator directly whenever there is any uncertainty. We are always happy to confirm these details in advance and assist guests in avoiding exactly this type of misunderstanding. We appreciate the opportunity to clarify what happened and hope this provides a more complete and accurate picture of the circumstances surrounding your reservation.
