TravelzooReviews 219

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

Please stop advertising for UTO Vacation. This travel agency is problematic and engages in bait and switch, breach of contract, and possibly other fraudulent activities. It has recently been suspended by the Better Business Bureau. I love Travelzoo, but continuing to advertise for UTO feeds vulnerable customers to this wolf of a disreputable company that will swindle your money and never take you on any promised vacation.

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!

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.

Booked a hotel in Niagara on the Lake with Travel Zoo. Stayed one night. Looking forward to using the jacuzzi but the hot tap broke off so could not get Any hot water. Told front desk who said Maintenance closed for the night. Girl offered me a compensation of a bottle of wine, but we declined as we do not drink wine. Next day checking out mentioned to front desk what happened, and she said 'that was unfortunate'. I asked if they would give us some kind of compensation she said 'Take it up with Travel Zoo as you booked with them. Contacted Travel Zoo who checked with hotel and hotel said they offered me for next time a suite. She never said that. I told Travel Zoo that she did not say that. I never hear back from TravelZoo. Nothing no response. It seems Travel Zoo closed the issue. Where is the Customer Service in that. Just not bothered to even answer me back. Seems Travel Zoo believed the hotel not the Customer. What ever happened to the Customer is always right, not in this case in fact the Customer got Forgotten.

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 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"

My husband and I who are retired 66 years old bought a trip to China & Thailand for Oct 27,22 departure and paid $1194 through Travelzoo by UTO travel. We recomended our 24 years old son and his girlfriend to buy too so they paid $1194 also Total paid $2388. After holding our money since Feb 22, UTO canceled the trip due to Covid but refuse to refund and Travelzoo doesn't refund either. We only trusted to go with UTO because of Yravelzoo that we trusted since we had taken trips with them before. They used my personal email to advertise and enable a scammer company like UTO. We were looking forward to this trip and now lost money we can't afford to lose We are planning to fight it as far as it goes.

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.

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!.

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.

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

I generally find Travelzoo's offerings to be useful, but they must stop recommending UTO Vacations. There are many complaints with BBB and other sites from customers who were unable to complete a trip (some UTO cancelled) and UTO doesn't follow their own terms and conditions and refuses to give refunds. I booked a trip to Greece for April 22 back in November 2020. After I made the final payment, they told me that the date was no longer available, the trip would cost more and we would have to sign waivers assuming all risks for the trip. Ever since then, all they did was run out the clock so we couldn't go on the trip and any credit would be minuscule. Refuse to give a refund even though there is a Level 4 travel advisory for Greece, they raised the price over 10% and we were never given a deadline to pay that, but our spots were given away. This agency is master of the bait and switch!

I booked a room at Holiday Inn Express in Orlando through TravelZoo and Hotel Planner. I prepaid one amount but when I checked out of the hotel, the hotel receipt was for a lower price! Hotel Planner was not willing to adjust the price -- they stated that I had agreed to the price and that was it. A second issue was my rewards account with IHG. Hotel Planner asked for my membership number and included it on my reservation -- making it seem like I would be getting reward points for my stay. Not true! Booking through them did not give me points.

So, I learned my lesson... book directly with the hotel for the best price and for the reward points.

It was really frustrated when I end been scammed with travelszoo. Sale scammers which they use Travelzoo logo and they act as agent the worst was the unfair treatment by bank and delay I was lucky with transfergo to stop one of the transaction they were nice and act in good manner but other transfer agency called taptap they act really in a way I felt sick there was one transfer not approve and one pending they realised the one not approved and they miss the one pending so it is gone through so I lost lots money. My bank revolut is careless and make me laugh sick saying not enough evidence. My advice anyone subject to scam contact the agent that they are using to transfer your money you may have someone human and stop it for you or careless next the bank if your bank have bad reputation am advising people base on my experience do not bank with Revolut. Contacted travelzoo they said it is scam if you know someone acting on your name what have you done to stop them

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!

Beware: Travelzoo doesn't warn customers of risk of loss and won't offer a refund when its travel partner absconds with your advance payment.
Travelzoo promoted a Thailand trip in one of its "Top 20" emails sent to subscribers in December 2019. The Travelzoo "deal expert" for the trip promoted it as one of the best deals they've seen, and the email included a link to the Travelzoo webpage, which had another link to the actual travel provider, Phoenix Holidays. Trusting Travelzoo's recommendation, I booked the trip for Feb 25,2020 and paid $2,813.
Due to COVID the trip got postponed several times, and ultimately Phoenix Holidays stopped responding to my emails. A Travelzoo rep confirmed that the company was out of business, apologized, and asked me to send documentation from Phoenix Holidays for a possible refund. After I submitted the docs, Travelzoo responded that it had no responsibility for my loss because it was only an "advertiser."
Just because Travelzoo acts as an advertiser and front-end portal for its travel partners doesn't absolve it of wrongdoing of its travel partner. It has the responsibility to vet and ensure that its travel partners are financially secure and not scammers. Otherwise, it needs to let its customers know that it takes no responsibility in the event of loss and that there is, indeed, a real risk of loss.
Travelzoo did not make this disclaimer or indicate this risk. Had it not promoted the Thailand trip in its Top 20 newsletter and provided the link to the travel partner on its website, I never would have booked the trip. Had it stated that there was a potential risk of loss of advance payment because it does not take responsibility for its travel partners and does not vet them or hold back funds or a reserve for losses, I never would have booked the trip and lost my money.
Travelzoo now refuses to discuss restitution, EVEN FOR THE COMMISSION IT MADE from my payment. They simply provided a link to a Quebec gov't website to submit a claim (all in French) or contact the Travelzoo legal department.

They are not a reputable company. They do not honour their refund policies without a ridiculous amount of effort from the customers. I was one of the lucky few who got my money back, most were not so lucky!

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.

In Sept of 2020 I booked a trip for Crete Chania through Exoticca. That trip is scheduled in 19 days. The US has just put Greece as Level 4 (do not fly) travel ban. The US has also imposed entry restriction for the next 500 days on folks coming from Europe. Greece itself has imposed travel restrictions in Crete and Chania. Chania the town is currently in lock down and has curfews. Exoticca will not cancel my trip nor refund my money. How is this possible? How can they take your money, trying to force you into flying into a pandemic war zone?