Railbookers,

500 Cummings Center, Beverly, MA 01915

"Although convenient, I will never use Railbookers again. They overcharge and under-deliver. From the very onset of booking our trip (Basel - Strasbourg - Paris), they began overcharging. Claiming a “computer system update” caused them to inadvertently drop one of the included side-excursions (Eiffel Tower) they made me pay extra money beyond the original quote to get the side-excursion included. Bait and switch! Not only that, but the booking agent scheduled our visit to the Louvre on Christmas Day when it is closed, so I had to contact them multiple times to get it rearranged to when the museum is actually open. We were promised three 4 star hotels - the first was pretty nice, conveniently located right by the train station in Basel and an easy walk to the city center. The second was a chain hotel (Marriot) that catered to business travelers, nice amenities but no charm and located inconveniently (not near the train station and not in the city center of Strasbourg). The third was by no standards 4 star, charmless, spartanly furnished with add-on costs, and terribly inconveniently located in Paris. The original set of travel documents they sent did not include all of our train tickets, requiring me to contact them multiple times during our trip, at additional expense, to get them to send me our needed documents. I tried to reschedule a day-trip to Colmar and they were going to charge me an outrageous 2.5 times the actual cost of the train tickets to do so. Then the final straw: I was supposed to receive our Louvre tickets by email 24 hours before our scheduled timed-visit at 2pm. That did not happen so once again I was forced to contact them and only then learned that our entry time was inexplicably moved from 2 to 2:30 pm. No notice or apology and we had to rearrange our day. Then, the Louvre tickets stated they were to include an audio guide but in actuality they did not - we had to pay an extra €15 for the audio guides. I believe Railbookers seriously overcharges for their services. They are not worth it!!! They are a giant rip-off!!! They also arbitrarily select dates and times for travel and side-excursions without once consulting the traveler on timing and convenience. Their service is not personalized in the least, which you would expect given the exorbitant amount they charge. I will never use this service again, am sorry I allowed myself to be duped by them. Caveat Emptor!!!"

"Grossly inflated prices, inflexible and punitive payment and refund policy. After submitting a non-refundable $500 deposit I received a quote for my trip that was over 60% more than the direct prices I found available online (I was quoted $2216 vs actual prices of approximately $1364). Note as well that Railbookers require full payment well in advance of your travel dates - 60 days in North America and 90 days or more in Europe. They have a very punitive refund and change policy after you've made your payment. I'm willing to pay a premium for service provided but this was absurdly, offensively inflated. Find another travel provider."

"I have had the worst experience using Rail Bookers. The whole trip in Italy was a disaster. First I was told, after being booked for over a year that I did not have the first class seats I booked. I insisted that I get the seats and after changing rail times, that completely decreased the amount of times to get to tours, I had seats. I was unable to make some tours and some canceled us. When traveling to Italy, not seeing the sites you dreamed of, is pretty pointless. An apology was given but after many assurances that everything would be fine, it wasn’t and we had a terrible vacation. Find a company or guided tour that can assure you see the things you want to see!"

"First they changed all our hotels last minute. Next they changed our train seating so the 4 of us didn't sit together. On one train I was assigned 1D which didn't exist. The luggage racks were there. There is no help getting bags in train. One train was delayed 4 hours. Hotels were supposed to he 5 minute walk. Florence was 15 so 4-66+ women were dragging suitcases, carry on and purses through the crowded -uneven streets of Florence in 86 degree temps. Hotel was dated, keys didn't always work, lock would fall out of safe when not locked. We were booked for "small tour priority access" in Florence. There were more than 100 people going to boats, we walked about 10 minutes through crowds like cattle to boats. Everyone was pushing through banging into people to get seats. Never again."

"When originally booked our tour it was to include all transfers including from train depot to hotel and to excursions. Placed in a hotel that did not have shuttle to train depot and also a hotel that the shuttle did not run 24/7. Requested king size rooms and 2 out of the 4 places stayed that request not honored even though original paperwork stated King. Would not book through them again Just to update, a representative from guest relations called and left a message. When I called them back a few days later, the representative was busy so told them I was available for a her to return my call the entire day. Never received a call back."