Viator

On Saturday October 5, at around 5.00pm I rang Viator to book the Cape Leveque 4WD Tour from Broome for Monday October 7. The booking clerk Henry by name was eager to book this tour. I asked him to first check with the tour operator Kimberley Wild Expeditions if they would accept the booking before I paid for the tour. He put me on hold for over 20 minutes and then confirmed that they would accept the booking. Only then did I book the tour through him and paid for the same. I received a confirmation via booking reference BR-[protected] at 5.25pm on Saturday October 5.

The next day Sunday October 6, I contacted Kimberley Wild Expeditions to check the time when we would be picked up from the hotel on Monday October 7. Oscar told me then that they had not received any booking from Viator for us. I immediately rang Viator again as we made the trip to Broome specifically for the tour of Cape Leveque and Cygney Bay Pearling as it was on our bucket list. This time the gentleman who answered the phone assured me again that the tour has been confirmed. I asked him to talk to Oscar to sort the matter out and call me back. He told me that he could not call me, but would send an email, which for a travel agency is not acceptable in my opinion. Not satisfied with the response from Viator, my wife and I contacted Kimberly Wild Expeditions and requested Tiegan for an update. Tiegan told my wife that Viator do not have access to Kimberley Wild Expeditions online booking system as a result they take the booking and hope that it will go through. She also told us that they were booked for three days until October 9 and if Viator had contacted them they would have been told that there was no vacancy. Tiegan said that this is not the first time they have had problems with Viator.

I did not hear from Viator but received an email at 1.03 pm when we were on another tour, that the Cape Leveque tour has been cancelled.

Having experienced poor customer service from Viator, my wife and I desperately tried to look for an alternative tour operator who could take us to Cape Leveque and Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm with the help of the Visitor's Centre in Broome. Julie at the Visitor's Centre was very helpful and professional. She spent over an hour looking for land based tour operators without much success. Eventually she managed to get the last couple of seats on Fly The Falls Air Adventure on October 7 and Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm which ended costing us a total of $ 1, 318.75 as against $538 for the tour booked through Viator.

As this problem was caused by Henry an employee of Viator by not checking with Kimberley Wild Expeditions before taking our booking (I have an email which states that at 5.25 pm Kimberley Wild were closed for the day so Henry lied to me), and in view of Viator's system not being able to view online bookings with Kimberley Wild Expeditions, we would like to be compensated for $ 780.75 which we had to pay extra at the 11th hour for the tour.

I would expect Viator to do the right thing by us and compensate us for the difference in price which we had to pay extra due to an error by Viator.