Travelzoo

I recently purchased a holiday to Crete that was advertised at a really low cost for a five star all inclusive holiday. When I came to pay, the cost had doubled and the flights were purchased separately which means I have not got ATOL protection. The way the holiday company went about the transaction was done in a way that you were not aware that when you had paid the advertised price they then charged you in addition for the flights. I am usually savvy but not in this instance. After writing to Travelzoo stating that they should simply put on the advert that commission is not included in the price they did not respond. They got their commission and that is their main aim. I paid an additional £300 on the cost of a £600 low season holiday. Be warned don't book a holiday through Travelzoo and next year you are going to pay the privilege of paying £30 to become a member. But not me!

The tour was with Trafalgar and was a 19 day Britain and Ireland Panorama. It was a very unorganized tour. The hotels we stayed at were at the outer parts of the city. We arrived at the hotels late and there were usually no pubs close by and therefore we're eating at the hotel. Since we arrived late the museums were already closed.
The tour guide we had was less than mediocre

Thousands of us fell victim to Utovacation because Travelzoo continuously recommended it as hot travel deals. We all believed Utovacation which turned out to be a fraudulent entity because of Travelzoo's continued vouching for the company.

Even after some victims contacting Travelzoo after being scammed and telling Travelzoo to stop advocating for Utovacation, Travelzoo continued to do so and claims it is a reputable business. There were some speculation that perhaps Travelzoo is profiting from running ads for the scam company so that they continued to do so despite reports from victims to Travelzoo.

You can view BBB revoked the business.
https://www.bbb.org/ca/on/richmond-hill/profile/travel-agency/utovacation-*******842 Utovacation has

Horrible Experience - hidden charges and no drop off or shuttle for early flights. The worst part -is they told us to drop off "around back" at 4:30am it was dark and 25 degrees. We had to walk around the facility to the front and wait in the cold for a Lyft. The resolution was I "should have read the website policy closer". Unacceptable, knowing that our safety was not taken seriously is really terrible. Hours should revolve around flight times. Enterprise and Avis were up and running with shuttles, use them!

Run. Stay away. Save your time and money. Booked trip to Asia (3 counties) with travel dates in Nov 2023. First deposit was in Oct 2022 and second in Nov 2022. Final payment should be in May 13,2023. On Feb 16 2023 I got email that I have to pay full amount by Feb 26, if I want to continue with booking and sign wavers (that in case of any problems with trip like Covid-it my responsibility (not company). I tried to call them but after an hours of waiting they hang up on me. Complete scam. I will call all federal agencies to get my money back. Stay away from Uto Vacation

This company has zero integrity and rips off its customers. I made a booking and 3 weeks before travel they advised me the hotel would not be open and therefore I had no accommodation. They then offered me compensation for the hassle and issues and advised me to send in my invoice once I'd picked and stayed a new hotel. When I submitted my invoice after my stay they are now refusing to honour the agreed upon amount even though it is clearly written in an email and recorded on the call. They have the worst customer service and dishonest employees. Do not give this scam company your money. They have zero integrity.

I find that Travelzoo often clogs my inbox with vacation offers that seem too god to be true, and once I click on the link and read the fine print, they usually are a lot more expensive than they advertise. They will advertise the worst time to go to a certain destination, for example. If there's a cruise involved, they don't include tax, gratuities and fees. The final prices would be 2 to 3X more than advertised, which is misleading to say the least. Travelzoo's lack of transparency in advertising makes me apprehensive of doing business with them and their 3rd party vendors.

The resort is such a rip off. The travelzoo voucher was not a good buy at all. You can get so much better deals on air BnB on your own. The resort misrepresented their events on their site when I booked with them. They had quoted movie under the stars, when I contacted the resort they said due to low demand and executive decision they moved the date to the long weekend. Just before arrival they cancelled that event. I was outside of my cancellation window with the resort. There was no value for the money! Terrible experience with travelzoo. Will NOT be using them for ever. Will contact travelzoo but reading other reviews it seems their service is poor. Lesson learnt. I ask for 50% of my money back! The unit they put us had a broken shower, the fridge smelt like a dead skunk, the lights were out and not fixed.

Travelzoo.com was the site I used to book my tour to China. When I found out I was unable to travel because their partner never booked me on the tour. They refused to help me. Their vice president of HR Lisa Oswald did nothing to help me. When I posted a negative review on their face book account they removed it. So when you read their reviews you don't see the tens of thousands of negative reviews because they remove them. All you see our positive reviews. Their platform on Facebook is a fake.

Date of experience: January 18,2023

Would not have anything to do with them as been scammed £1020 by travel zoo so stay clear or you may loose money to be warned

After UTO vacations tried to rip me off on a China/Japan trip, I spoke to Travelzoo about it. Travelzoo could not care less and they also continued to advertise the same trip from UTO on their site! UTO said the trip was canceled and tried not to refund me. I must admit that in the end UTO did refund my money but it was not easy to get the refund. UTO will try to get YOU to cancel in anyway they could and if you don't they still try to not refund you. When I originally bought the trip I asked myself how they could sell these trips for so cheap and the answer was that they cannot.

For several days now, I've tried to reach Travelzoo. The phone number listed for voucher refund is not working (*******000), password reset doesn't work and I get no response from customer support. I've tried multiple times.
I purchased 4 hotel vouchers and used 3 with no problem. I'm trying to get the 4th one refunded, as it will expire in a few days and I won't be able to use it.
I'm extremely frustrated, as I thought I was dealing with a reputable company. How wrong I was!

A person called Rahul scams you by telling a false deal with a heading paper, will send you an email to cool you down. Then rip out your account unless you're ready! However, I've already reported travelzoo are frauds in day lights. Get away from them!.

I was a loyal Travelzoo fan for 15 years. Booked my honeymoon hotels in 2006 from Travelzoo and got hooked since!
Travelzoo is an advertiser for UTOVacations, and every week there is one Top20 deal that they recommend. So I booked a family vacation on June 21. I contacted UTOVacations within one week of booking to reschedule because my mother got diagnosed with late-stage cancer. However, they told me no dates are available, even though they were advertising new tour dates at the same timewith Travelzoo! (see attached screenshots). I was told by them to contact my credit card company if I'm not happy with the travel date. That's why I opened a dispute. However, UTOVacations then said we would have given you other dates but because you filed a dispute, we don't want to do anything with you, and you lose your security deposit. It was frustrating to hear this after 2.5 months of diligent follow up.
I checked the contract terms again that said free reschedule. The terms do NOT state anywhere that you will lose security deposit IF you file for dispute. That's when I started digging further into UTOVacations and read reviews where this company takes you on "mandated shopping trips" aka timeshare style. This was NOT mentioned anywhere in the Travelzoo advertisement! I realized that I booked with this merchant only because it was recommended by Travelzoo.
So I called Travelzoo and asked them why the merchant would NOT reschedule me. I even agreed to travel on the original date. After 6 weeks of diligent follow up with Travelzoo, I was told that the case is still being handled by upper management. Meanwhile every week, I continue to see UTO Vacation deals advertised in the Top20! There was more than one time when I heard the Travelzoo customer representative laughing as they reviewed my case notes, and I asked them "what is funny?" I heard back "Oh, I was just clearing my throat"

In 2020 I booked a trip with Jetliner Vacations for a quick, cheap trip to Iceland. Two weeks before the scheduled departure, travel was shutdown. Received a voucher, so far, so good.

Just tried to rebook. Quote was about $550 more than the original trip, I get that, however, no direct flights from Boston were available so I would have three flights taking over 20 hours. I agreed and was told they would have to check on flight availability before confirming. Did not receive a return call the next day. Tried calling the following day, Friday, left a message but didn't receive a return call. Called again on Monday, no return call. Called again on Tuesday, agent was out on break so I was transferred to Customer Service. Customer Service said the agent was on break for an hour but they would have him call me. Two hours later I called again and the agent (Hayden) picked up! I was put on hold while he confirmed the flights. This time they had direct flights for an additional $250 or I could get a refund. Decided to cut my losses and go for the refund. Any bets on when I see that?

I've read how TravelZoo shops their Top 20 to insure quality, now I seriously doubt that. TravelZoo needs to do a better job at vetting their recommendations or they lose more customers like me.

I had decent experiences with Travelzoo if the payment is made to Travelzoo. However, they are unfortunately promoting scam-oriented companies and value profit over loyalty. UTO Vacations is one of them. I bought Barcelona vacations for $499 each for two. UTO offered me 30 months of company credit in exchange for canceling my trip but offered me the price of $1200+ for each person. When I refused, they cancelled my trip and gave me no other option. Travelzoo did not care. In the end, and after too many emails, I got back $800 (they cut $200) after one year. So the scam is clear. They offer too low prices, they get your money and keep it at least one year, and they cancel the trip and offer you two to three times higher prices to use in the next 30 months, or refund you after a year with a cancelation penalty of $100 per person, although they are the one cancelling your trip. The trip is not available even if you want to go! Terrible scam and shame on Travelzoo. What is worst is that even after many similar complaints, Travelzoo is still promoting UTO Vacations!

This is my first time using Travelzoo and it's been an unpleasant experience. I began purchasing a trip to Bangkok and Phuket for $1299 a person for 7 nights in 5 star hotels. 3 nights in Bangkok and 4 nights in Phuket. Flights were included out of LAX. I gave my credit card and they sent me the itinerary. The flight to Bangkok was 3 legs and took over 26 hours arriving around midnight which basically wasted a day. The same coming back having 3 legs. I asked for flights with 1 stop and that was going to bump up the cost of the trip by $400. They came back saying they could charge it to $1575 a piece for my brother and I with only 1stop and getting into Bangkok 945am. I said ok. I went ahead and booked the trip only to find out they lowered us from a 5 star hotels to 4 star hotels. This was never negotiated only the flight cost was. Needless to say I wouldn't recommend anyone to use this company. Booking a trip is supposed to be fun and this has been nothing but deceitful and stressful. DO NOT USE TRAVELZOO for booking you vacation.

Operates to give fraudulent travel agents a forum to scam unsuspecting customer. Just lost $2000. Allows tour companies to cancel trips and not give refunds

What they offer and what's provided are not the same and they blame the merchant for making the change. Never again will I purchase a hotel packaging or anything else from this organization.

Travelzoo books many trips from 3rd party vendors. Thus, they may play the blame game. They do not stand behind products on the site. I have attempted to get a refund for a hotel room purchased on the site. Advertisement was false. Pictures posted were not representative of the hotel. They give unverified pictures and when you arrive, it is not as advertised. Perfect bait and switch. This wonderful advertisement show a beautiful room and location. When we arrived, windows were broken, rooms were dirty and unsafe. My son was hit in the head when the shower fell on him. Advertised as close to the sites, the had to take 2 busses. Feeling stranded in Europe, we had to find an alternate hotel on our own. My daughter's dream graduation gift ruined. Still waiting on an apology and refund. Buyer beware!

Travelzoo is the only site that is not refunding over bookings cross border, even though merchant said I could get refund from Travelzoo as they hold the money until you actually stay there. Unable to cross the border for when I booked but too bad. Never again. Had no problem cancelling all other bookings. Aeroplan, hotel.com, booking.com

TravelZoo has been sending me emails without my permission for years now. I have tried and tried to get them to stop but they won't. They have an unsubscribe at the bottom of the page but you have to make an account with them, including password, before you get into the site to unsubscribe. What kind of nonsense is this? I have blocked them time and time again but they keep getting into my inbox. Now I am getting emails almost every hour. Today, I did some research and found a phone number, I called to be told it will take time to remove my email since there are already many emails going into my inbox. I asked for a supervisor and their rep, Yamal, started arguing with me. Any company that has to keep someone hostage to keep up their numbers is a company you should never trust. Run from this nightmare. There are companies out there with good reputations.

The Inn at Mystic needs some serious updating. Avoid at all costs room 229 and its
Bathroom. Ground in discoloration on tub floor and back spots around the tile that
Lined the bathtub. Horrible! The room itself was large but the interior needs
Serious attention. Curtains especially. The gratis breakfast was fine and the attached
Restaurant very good, but it must be a different owner.