UTOvacation Bewertungen 1.323

We had booked a trip to China and Thailand, then they cancelled due to quarantine restrictions not yet being lifted, understandable. They then sent an email stating they would be in touch to reschedule. This never happened.

When I reached out asking to reschedule they informed me that they were working on dates and would let me know when there was availability. This never happened.

Later I was told that I would just have to check myself as they do not notify customers when a trip becomes available and that I would just have to keep checking. Well, I've checked nearly weekly and our trip nor anything like it has yet to become available.

I reached out letting them know that it hasn't been available and that I worry our credit will expire before we are able to use them. They responded that we just have to wait until a couple months before their expiration and they will extend the expiration date.

Fast forward to a couple months before they expire and I am told flat out that they do not and will not extend the expiration date of our credit.

Essentially our option is to forfeit our credit or book something that costs 4x as much and hope that the company doesn't steal that as well.

SCAM!
UTO create trips on their website but has no intention to provide services.
They have "dispute penalty" in their T&C which means your booking suspended and no money is refunding when you open disputing.
UTO submitted faked reservation schedule to my credit card company that I called airline directly and confirmed no reservation arranged for my group.
Report OntarioCanada Consumer Protection Services

Booked the China/Japan tour, paid $999 and they were giving us the run around regarding travel dates. Travel was supposed to happened 02/15/2023 but we received an email on 01/25/2023 regarding travel maybe cancel because they were not sure of China restrictions to covid. They also noted that they will contact us a WEEK before travel date to let us know if travel dates are confirmed. I try several times to contact them regarding the notice was too short and I've already requested time off from work and babysitter, but their response was empathic. I contact my bank about refund and what was going on and the bank stated that there is a no refund clause in contact. Basically, I lost 1,000 dealing with this bootlegged, no response, no email, no compassion, greedy company. DONT DO IT!!!

Misleading. Misinformation. False advertising

We are not finding an appropriate tour - we had purchased a China/Japan tour for 4 - and had to postpone due to Covid restrictions. The staff has not been helpful at all in providing assistance to reutilize the issued vouchers which we are not finding deals because all the tours are now highly expensive. I think it’s a deliberate strategy to frustrate customers- and profit unethically.

We bought a package tour to China and Thailand via Travelzoo a year and a half ago (9/22); the arrangement is that they will provide travel information (airline flights, hotel) 30 days before departure. Today is 30 days before departure, and there was no travel information posted, so I tried calling and was disconnected three times after waiting on the automated phone tree. I then went to the online chat, where I was eventually told that the tour has been cancelled. There was no explanation available other than 'we received a notification from the suppliers that they have to cancel a few orders, and yours is one of them'. The chat agent was unable to say when they would have gotten around to telling us (remember it is 30 days until departure, and we have already booked flights to the city we were told we would be flying out of). I read the reviews saying UTO is a scam and hoped they were isolated occurrences; if you are feeling similarly optimistic let me tell you they are right, it is a scam.

Booked a china/ japan tour for a family of 4 nearly 2 years in advance because we were drawn by the low price. NO communication from UTO, just emails about other trips. I reached out to the online chat service and was informed our purchase was "suspended" because we did not submit proper documents (passport information). I tried calling their hotline but after waiting on hold, it would beep then complete silence. After 5 phone call attempts without success I gave up and will just to dispute with my credit card company. Stay AWAY from this company!

Booked and paid ($499pp) trip to China and Japan one year in advance. Literally 3 weeks before departure date received a phone call the trip is cancelled with little explanation. No written notice. Unable to reach UTO by phone or email, many hours spent trying. Several days later was able to reach someone via chat on the website who informed we would be reimbursed in 6-8 weeks with no further communication. Ultimately made a claim with my cc company who reimbursed me for the trip approx 8 weeks later. Would not recommend using this company for international travel. Four women organizing time off/schedules only to have trip completely cancelled 3 weeks before departure and their disregard for reimbursement.

I booked a tour vacation one year in advance and adhered to all guidelines and requests set forth by UTO. 3 weeks prior to the tour I was notified via email that the trip was cancelled by UTO. This was devastating news as I had been planning this trip for a year. Attempts at contacting UTO to speak with a representative were futile. It is extremely difficult to speak with a live agent. UTO did not refund the payment. My travel partner had to submit a claim to the credit card company for us to receive reimbursement for the funds. I would give 0 stars if that were an option as I was given 0 tour days.

The offer of $299 US was real in 2018 prior to Covid. We were able to visit China with 1st class accommodations, plenty of good food and a couch bus included. However, when we purchased the second deal it did not push through due to covid and now they no longer offer the same deal so we just got issued vouchers which we couldn't use at this moment because all the tours are now highly expensive. the downside, we get too many calls from China and we believe our personal info has been shared with businesses. The hotels also collected our passports when staying overnight.

SCAM!!! Do not give them your credit card info. or any money. This company is as bad as it gets! Don't fall for the cheap $299 trip, it's more hassle than you can imagine and they do not offer refunds, NO MATTER WHAT THEY TELL YOU. Lie after lie is all I ever got from them. I STILL am trying to get my $1,300+ back!

This is our second experience with UTO- the first resulted in them canceling our trip a week prior to departure because they claimed the hotel expenses increased and if we wanted to go on the trip, we needed to cough up more money. The second experience was a trip to Turkey we just finished a couple of months ago. They advertise a low price to get you suckered in- but do not be fooled!! First, the travel brochure they advertise is carefully worded to let you think you’re getting more that what they provide for the advertised price- most everything is an upcharge including all transfers, all excursions and entrance to sites mentioned in the brochure and they charge twice the amount that you can book on your own through TripAdvisor for these items! It turned out that our 9-day Turkey trip left us without any possible way to get back from Cappadocia and get a return international flight from Istanbul on the 9th day. Talking to them for hours on the phone resulted in no resolution to this issue and we had to book and pay for our own overnight hotel and air transportation from Cappadocia. We paid $1,772 in upcharges for several options, including upgraded 5-star hotels, however the hotels were 4-star at best and everyone stayed at the same hotel- even those who did not pay for the upgrade!! We paid for the Bit & Sip (evening dinner) package but everyone got the evening dinners, even those who did not pay for the package!! We paid for excursions including the Whirling Dervishes Performance, but again everyone got that excursion, even those who did not pay for the excursion! We asked for a refund of our upcharges and while they agreed to credit us $148 for the Bit and Sip (we paid $200 and months latter still have not been credited to what they agreed) and gave us some bogus nonsensical explanations for why they were not going to refund the rest. They also charge a compulsory tipping of $180 per person that they do not tell you about until you book. We spent a good day at places on the guided tour where they try and sell you things such as rugs, jewelry, pottery etc. These stops are not on the itinerary, so a full day was lost on that nonsense. The UTO tour guides are second rate at best and you will not be happy with them- poor English for example and hard to follow and most of the time your left on your own- they call it “free time”. While those who did not pay for the upgrade options and got them will no doubt be happy, those who did and got ripped off are not. That is how they get a few 5-star reviews, while most are 1-star at best. If you decide to use them DO NOT CHOOSE ANY TOUR OPTIONS! You’re much better off if you DO NOT USE UTO, because there is a good chance you will get ripped off and pay way more then you expected.

We did the marvelous Phuket Land Package in Nov '23. Communication was good from UTO and airport pick-up was no problem. DON'T UPGRADE your Hotel room! It was the same as the other couple that didn't!! Could've saved $400! Our hotel was changed just before we arrived. While the new hotel was fine, it was in an isolated area on a high traffic road, virtually nothing within walking distance. The guide who picked us up and did the city tour was contracted. She was fine. The (free) Old Phuket Tour was more of a high pressure sales event with Pearls, Cashews, and Gems. The boat tours were great, highly recommend.
Hindsight, we probably could have coordinated this on our own with more research, chosen a better hotel location. We didn't hate our experience, no regrets, but wanted to give an honest review.

We originally scheduled a vacation to china, covid hit and that vacation was cancelled by them. Refused to give our money back so we scheduled a Peru vacation. They said we did not apply the credits from the china trip and cancelled the trip again. We are now out of our money and once again they refuse a refund.

October 11, 2023 we took UTOVacation’s France, Switzerland, Italy tour and feel compelled to warn others of our experience. Our original trip to Japan/China was cancelled and UTO will not refund your deposits, instead you are forced to apply the funds to a new booking. We switched to this European tour because I have always wanted to spend a day at the Louvre. This is only one example of many similar experiences on this trip. The company was somehow unaware the museum was closed on the date and time they had arranged for our group to visit the Louvre. They moved our visit to the following morning just before we were scheduled to leave Paris. We took a 30 minute taxi to the museum and others on the tour took a 1 hour trip by metro. This gave us one hour to see a tiny portion of the museum before we had to return to the hotel to leave Paris. The schedule was so tight that we didn’t even have time for lunch before boarding for a 5+ hour drive to Dijon. When we arrived in Dijon for a wine tasting/dinner, the restaurant said we were too late for the wine tasting and our guide refused to let us stay and order dinner. We drove for another half hour out of town to our hotel where the attached restaurant said they could not accommodate such a large group without prior notice. Our tour members either ordered in a meal thru Uber from the nearest town (a 1 ½ hour wait) or did what we did--paid a taxi 28 Euros each way to take us back into town to a restaurant. We had arrived in Dijon well after dark that night and left the next morning before 7:00 am we saw nothing of the town. Our tour guide never introduced herself or the company, argued constantly with the bus driver (even after the tour members begged her to stop), and did not see it as her job to resolve issues or help tour members in any way. She spoke English but we quickly concluded that she either did not understand the language or she simply didn’t listen when questions were put to her. She consistently would tell us what time to return to the bus and then after half the tour group had left the bus, would change her mind about the return time, leaving half the group uninformed. This led to confusion and short tempers among the group including people missing some attractions and two elderly women were even left behind at one point. She never provided any insights into the places we visited or the areas we drove thru. Her English was such that when we asked her about the history of one hotel where we stayed, she said “monkeys” used to live there and that was the extent of her knowledge about the monastery. The bus driver ejected her from the bus twice over the course of the tour and he “quit” once and refused to drive further until an elderly Indian couple acted as mediator and paid the driver funds he said UTO owed him and our tour guide agreed to ride in the back of the bus for the rest of the tour. We were surprised to discover we had to pay the taxes on our hotel room each morning before leaving. Nowhere was this indicated in our contract. This added up to a considerable amount over the tour length, appeared to be a scam, and none of us were able to get thru to UTO with this and other issue using the phone number provided by UTO. Very little of the information provided by UTO regarding tour attractions we had signed up for proved to be helpful or correct. Hotels were located an hour by metro or 30 minutes by taxi from attractions we had paid for as well as from restaurants. We often arrived at our destination too late for site seeing and after restaurants were closed. Our tour guide complained constantly about how difficult her job was, hoping for sympathy for her poor performance. Another example of her leadership skills: we booked gondola rides in Venice. Four gondolas should have held five people each. Our tour guide got in the first boat with us and 10 minutes into the ride discovered a couple had been left behind on the pier. She immediately began to berate the gondolier who at first ignored her and then finally laughed and asked if she was the leader of the group, what was she doing in the first boat instead of on the pier taking care of her team? This was typical of her performance. I politely asked her to quit haranguing the gondolier because she was ruining what was supposed to be a romantic boat ride. When she persisted in shouting at the gondolier, I asked if she would kindly shut up or refund the cost of the boat ride. This was unfortunately her behavior for the entire trip. When you book a tour you expect things to occasionally go wrong and it’s usually easy to roll with the changes. However, this tour was so badly managed that we had to laugh because none of us had ever seen anything go so completely sideways. I could give you many, many examples of things that were not well managed, but my advice is to book your dream vacation with anyone but UTO.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! They have shady business practices.
I booked a trip with UTO travel in Jan 2022 for Oct 2024. The basic trip was $299 plus additional days added and gratuities paid upfront. In 2023, I was notified that my trip has been cancelled and that I could use the money already paid for another trip. I was informed that the original trip is sold out and no other tours are available from their seller. I was also told that if I cancelled my trip, the full amount of my deposit would not be refunded, even though I'm 305 days out from my trip.
So my choices are either I pay them more money to take a mediocre trip (from what others have said on their reviews) or take an $1100 loss. This screams Class Action Lawsuit.

Talk about a rip off. They post cheap trips with misleading information. Nothing is included besides the hotel which they jack up the price four fold.
They may include a free walking tour. When you try to reach them on the phone, it's virtually impossible to get somebody to talk to. I would never book with them again and i'll just book my own trips without in a tour company if this is what a tour company is all about.

Please check BBB website:

Accreditation Revocation:
On 08/02/2023 this business's accreditation in the BBB was revoked by the BBB's Board of Directors due to failure by the business to adhere to the BBB requirement that Accredited Businesses meet and abide by the following standards:

6. Address disputes forwarded by BBB quickly and in good faith.
6A. Provide a response to each complaint that:
Is professional,
addresses all significant issues raised by the complainant,
includes appropriate evidence and documents supporting the business' position, and
explains why any relief sought by the complainant cannot or should not be granted.
6D. Cooperate with BBB in efforts to eliminate the underlying cause of patterns of customer complaints that are identified by BBB.

My Complaint:
First, this company operates out of Canada. The U.S. doesn't have jurisdiction there. If there is a dispute, you're at the mercy of UTO. Secondly, the price is usually low but by the time you add the trip insurance (mandatory!), and others, the total price adds up. Next, the fee is non-refundable. Back in Sept. 2022, we booked a 10-day trip to China/Thailand for April 2023. However, due to Covid, China at that time didn't allow any tourists. Yet, UTO refused to refund us the money. We had no choice but to agree on a future trip for April 2024. Now, four months before the trip starts, we tried to make the final payment but they refused to honor the deal, citing that the due date is over! They also decided to keep our $4,000 deposit. As a senior citizen on a fixed income, we lost part of our saving. We are contacting BBB and TICO in Canada for help. Don't be a victim like us. Do your homework and work with reputable companies in the U.S.

We arranged and paid in full for a UTO vacation to China and Japan one year in advance.
Three weeks before departure UTO found us and canceled the trip
There after they were impossible to reach by phone or email and many hours were wasted trying.
On chat one service provider said we would get a refund and 6 to 8 weeks. Never did we receive any written communication about the cancellation or refund. Of course they did not refund our trip and did not communicate with us.
Luckily my credit card after their own investigation refunded my money.
I have read many similar reports online and the Better Business Bureau have withdrawn their accreditation.

After posting this review UTO got in touch with me twice by phone and responded to nine week old texts despite not having heard from them since they canceled the trip.
They said that since my credit card had reimbursed me they wanted me to take my review down.
On the second call they insisted they had reimbursed me but upon checking with my credit card that was not true.
They also demanded additional information through trust pilot so this review would be removed

I have noticed that a lot of reviews I initially saw about UTO vacations are gone. It seems like they put significant effort into having negative reviews removed.

I wish they put some of that effort towards communication and reimbursement at the time of canceling their trips.

We had a fabulous time in Japan. Our guide, Carlos, was knowledgeable and patient with us every step of the way. The only downside were the hotels in Osaka and Tokyo. They were relatively far away from the city centers. Our bus driver in Osaka and Kyoto was excellent and we appreciated his service and abilities. All around, the trip was great and Carlos really helped take it to another level. Michael and Jean