Railbookers Reviews 

Hillary was great to work with-fast, efficient & knowledgeable.

responsive. we sorted out the information needed
Courteous and knowledgeable

Still, months after trip I have not received refunds on over booking. They upcharge everything and then there is a problem they ignore you. Simple car rental for one day turned into a mess costing me hundreds more than what it should have. Ever step of the way was a problem.

Railbookers has amazing customer service. As a travel agent, working with them is a dream. They are quick to give me quotes, manage the booking, and resolve any issues quickly.

Spent 40 mins on the phone with an agent detailing a Swiss rail trip. She confirmed all the details and promised to get back to us. Never heard from her again. What a waste of time!

Hillary was a great helping me to figure out the best train schedule and ways to get from Train Station to my hotel. She laid out the options so that I could make a better choice.

We needed a last-minute change due to airline cancellations. Hillary helped us with rail tickets, so a flight home could be caught in another city. It ended up being a simple addition, but she was very patient with me on the phone while we determined it was the right call. Thank you, Hillary!

RB put together a good trip for us overall. Our first hotel was terrible, but after that rocky start, the rest of the trip was good. We had 2 snafus—and though they alerted us to and solved in real time one problem that they created in our itinerary, they did not alert us about another, resulting in a missed train. I called, they confirmed the problem, told me to book tickets and submit for reimbursement once I got home. As instructed, I submitted that reimbursement to the “customer care team.” That “customer care team” does not respond. So our trip started off on a bad foot with a crummy hotel, was good in the middle except for this problem, and has now left me totally soured on a company that claims to provide “customer care,” but in fact does not. So if you book with them, just know that if you have a problem, you’ll be SOL.

My fiance (now husband) and I decided to elope and honeymoon in Europe. Since we both work full-time, I am in school full-time, and neither one of us has planned a European getaway, we thought it would be easier to use Railbookers to handle the details of the trip (except for the flight which was already booked).
Things that went right...
The initial phone call for booking the trip went pretty well. It was nice having an agent that had access to all the rail schedules so she could find the best ways between cities. She also offered suggestions like maybe saving Rome for another year since crowds were extremely high this year.
Things that could have been better...
1) they say if you have any questions or adjustments to just send them an e-mail. After multiple e-mails went unanswered, I had to call. 2) even months out, their block of hotel rooms were sold out for two of four cities. This meant I had to book our own room for one city and we had to switch cities on the other. 3) they say they will keep you informed of things that might affect your trip. There was a strike in France that shut down train travel on September 10. I heard about it from my hair and make-up artist, not Railbookers. We did not have any rail travel planned that day but I feel like if you are in the country during the time, Railbookers should reach out if they are going to make that promise. In fact, it was a good thing that the artist told me because, due to a delayed flight, our train schedules got pushed and this would have ended up affecting us if I had not known in advance. 4) Speaking of the train schedules, I feel like we ended up wasting a LOT of money. When our flight to London was delayed 6 hours, I called Railbookers to say we would miss our train from London to Paris. They said the tickets were non-refundable and sold me more tickets ($1300 worth, again non-refundable) that they said would align with the new arrival time. Well...after baggage claim and traffic, we missed that train by 20 mins. We saw a ticket stand and just bought tickets ourselves for about $900. Spending that much extra money was like a kick in the gut. But what made it worse was, later in the trip, we missed another train (due to Railbookers, see next point) and the station directed us to customer service. They were able to transfer the tickets for an $88 change fee. So now I feel like we spent over $2k when Railbookers should have said to see customer service upon arrival to transfer the tickets. 5) They booked trains too close together in Paris. The trains were at different stations. By the time we took the metro between stations, our train was leaving. 6) For car services, they use a company called Sixt. That will get a whole other review (horrible experiences all around). For the first part of our trip, it was me, my husband, and our photographer. Railbookers know this as they booked train tickets for 3. That means 3 people plus luggage. The itinerary said "Private Van Transfer", so imagine our surprise when the driver meets us and says he was only sent in a sedan and won't be able to transfer us. So we had to pay for a taxi. 7) I feel they owe us for an unused train ticket. The agent knew the photographer was leaving us in Paris. However, a train ticket to Switzerland was booked for him. I called and said I needed a hotel room for him in London and mentioned they booked the extra ticket by mistake. They were quick to charge me for the hotel and the Switzerland ticket disappeared but I was never refunded for it.
I will say, it felt like a little relief of stress having someone else plan the trip, at the time, but now that we have been and know how everything works and after losing so much money, I would never use Railbookers again. I would suggest just doing a little research first and only use them if you still feel like you can not handle booking things yourself.

Railbookers will ruin your travel

We had seen rail bookers on advertisement and WheelofFortune and thought it would be a great travel planning site. We picked the itinerary we were interested in and asked for a quote. I was basing my travel on the itinerary and what they said online that was included. I also had checked - before we booked for reviews and didn't see anything bad.

I spoke with their guest reservationist after waiting an absurd amount of time on hold. I told the reservationist we wanted the trip that was titled Heidelberg, Bavaria & The Alps. I told the agent that we liked to travel in premium travel fashion and wanted hotels equivalent to a Hilton or Marriott. The agent gave us a price and I went to confer with my spouse.

15 minutes later, we called back and asked to book our trip. In that 15 minutes the agent told us the price had gone up. Oh well... we thought, this would still be a wonderful trip, so we booked. Last year, the hotels rail bookers offered were not listed and our agent never told us we had a choice.

We paid a deposit and were given a semi-itinerary (no times, no clear locations of trains or tours). I looked at the itinerary and noticed it said "room only." I checked each hotel to make sure that they were at least adequate and found out from each website - that just like the rail bookers.com website, breakfast was included with each reserved room.

Cut to just recently - 3 weeks before our trip, we finally received a detailed itinerary with half of the train tickets promised. I called about the remaining train tickets (mind you each time you call - you can be on hold for 20 minutes to over an hour).

Then this week I wanted to see if I could change the time of one of the excursions they included. I found out the Heidelberg city tour is a free tour offered by the town. This was never disclosed. Then, I asked why the hotel reservations said room only and not saying "with breakfast" since each hotel website stated that a reservation for a room came with a free breakfast (just as rail bookers website stated it was included). They said I should have read earlier that it was "room only" on the draft itinerary that they had sent me. I reiterated that I had told the agent we wanted the tour just as it was represented online and which we were led to believe we had paid for.

Well the agent said we would have to pay extra for that. WHAT?? On the rail bookers website it says each itinerary hotel room comes with breakfast. The agent insists that they didn't book us our breakfast and they wouldn't call the hotels to rectify this matter. BUT THEIR WEBSITE SAYS ITS INCLUDED WITH YOUR BOOKING.

I don't know what kind of people they have working there, but this is false advertising and their agents are useless. I've insisted to the supervisor that I won't settle for anything less than the breakfast included each morning for the itinerary I booked. In Euros this could run our family another $30 - $75 a day. I shouldn't have to incur additional costs for items that are clearly stated "included" on their website. Why in the world would I think I wasn't getting something that is still on their website today!

We leave in less than 3 weeks and already we are feeling anxious, stressed, and lied to. We paid thousands and thousands of dollars to have our trip planned and perfect, and now I'm realizing that these rail booker trip planners don't give a fig about you or your trip. We would have been better off booking the quality hotels we wanted (with breakfast) and using the Europe train app (SBB Mobile) to easily book our train travel.

It is definitely not worth the price or hassle of the rail bookers "guest reservationist."

This was our second holiday booked through Railbookers. Our first trip went like a dream but, last month, that dream turned into a nightmare. I have delayed posting this review as I first gave the opportunity to Railbookers to resolve my complaints which I raised with them on 25th June. Initially I was advised I'd have a reply within 2/3 business days. No reply came so I chased again and was advised on 2nd July that the customer care team would get back to me within 15 business days. Still no reply - so much for customer care!
In a nutshell we did not receive the outbound accomodation as stated in the itinerary and the train we were booked on for our return journey was no longer operating, leaving us stranded and having to make our own arrangements to continue our travels.

UPDATE - since posting my initial review, Railbookers have resolved my complaint and will be addressing the issues with both train operators - OBB and Deutsche Bahn.

We toured through Switzerland!! Zurich, St Moritz, Zermatt, Lucerne. We spoke about what we were looking for and they delivered!! Hotels were great and accommodating and we followed our itinerary provided and we had an amazing trip! Thanks so much

very disappointed. o booked a trip through the Canadian rockies everything went well until I got to Lake Louise, where the were we were to get a gondola ride and lunch (included) well when we got there there was no shuttle and no taxi to take us to the sky resort where the ride and lunch was, it was a 45 min walk uphill and I was told by everyone don't walk the wildlife were very active in the area bears etc. needless to say we did not get to go. when I called Railbookers to complain there was no apologize or help.

Mis represented our tripped for 1st class hotel got alley views.Sure they get kick backs.

This company is basically a scam operation. They mislead you into thinking that there is some support or plan for your trip but there really isn't. They supposedly supply a hotel and meals (maybe) but the time schedule gets you in at midnight (no meals, no transfer to hotel) and leaves at 6:30 AM (again no meals, no transfers). None of this becomes obvious until your money is gone because the schedule is so basic that nothing shows up as an issue until itbecomes an issue. And this process repeats everywhere.

Kelli Lundquist did an awesome job putting together a fabulous UK/Ireland rail itinerary for me! Loved working with her!

Su Rao Jones has been excellent in organising every aspect for a trip for my employers.
Nothing has been too much trouble for her.
After many consultations and amendments to the original itinerary, she managed to incorporate them all.
I am very grateful to her for her knowledge and patience.

We chose Railbookers to plan our honeymoon, a once in a lifetime trip for us, expecting a seamless, worry-free European adventure. Unfortunately, the experience was far from what was promised, and we were left to handle multiple issues on our own, and pay more than double for travel and tours that we already paid Railbookers to take care of for us, due to their lack of proper coordination and communication.

To begin, we booked an expensive overnight luxury train from Munich to Milan. The train was canceled a week before departure, but Railbookers failed to notify us, leaving us scrambling to find an alternative way to Milan. The experience was miserable and set the tone for the rest of our trip.

In Milan, we were excited to see “The Last Supper” painting, only to discover that the tour Railbookers booked wasn’t even offered on Fridays—the day of our reservation. We missed out on this iconic experience entirely.

Next, the train from Milan to Venice had departed days ago, but Railbookers failed to mention this to us, so by the time we arrived at the station, we had to once again figure out how to reach Venice on our own.

In Venice, our arranged water taxi guide never showed up to take us to the train station. This forced us to hire and pay for another water taxi to avoid missing our connection.

While the train to Rome went smoothly, the issues didn’t stop there. Railbookers gave us the wrong address for our hotel, sending us on an exhausting uphill trek over cobblestone streets with all our luggage in tow before we finally found the correct location. To make matters worse, the tour they booked for the Colosseum fell apart when the guide failed to show up. We had to purchase another set of tickets on the spot if we wanted to enter.

The only bright side of our honeymoon was that Railbookers didn’t handle our flights. At least we could count on arriving in Europe and returning home without incident. The fact that this small comfort was the best part of the honeymoon is sad, to say the least.

Railbookers completely failed to deliver on their promises, leaving us frustrated and stressed to the point of tears during what should have been one of the most memorable trips of our lives. It got to a point where we thought Railbookers was ruining our honeymoon deliberately. We couldn't help it but we were sobbing every time Railbookers botched another travel arrangement or tour that we would never get another opportunity to do again. We in no way have the means to be able to travel like this, as the trip was a gift from our parents, so, for our once in a lifetime honeymoon vacation, we were angry and distraught that we chose Railbookers…

We absolutely cannot recommend this company and strongly urge others to think twice before trusting them with your travel plans.

This was our first time buying a travel package from an agency instead of booking everything separately ourselves. I figured since these companies book in bulk, it might be a better deal than us booking ourselves. This was not the case. We were charged over $6100 for a trip that, booked by ourselves paying full retail with no discounts, would have cost us $4600. When it came time for our trip, there were some necessary adjustments due to a forest fire in Jasper. We did not get to go to a sight seeing trip to experience the Icefields Parkway Discovery Tour which cost $340 CAD per person on the Brewster Tour Bus. Also, we did not get to experience a Gondola Ride in Lake Louise. I thought we would certainly receive a refund for these things we had already paid for. It has been 6 weeks since we returned from our trip and our travel agent has been working diligently to get a refund to no avail. Although we had a wonderful time in Banff, Alberta as well as a delightful train trip on the Via Rail, I will not book with Railbookers again. The communication through the entire process was quite difficult. Several times agents said they would get back to either myself or my travel agent and did not follow through. I am quite disappointed in our first vacation "package" experience. Although I would love to travel on our own back to the beautiful Alberta, Canada area.

Excellent experience. If it wasn’t for the help of the customer service reps and management, I would’ve been out the whole cost of my vacation. But even though they had no obligation to, they went above and beyond to help me save my trip, and even helped me customize it to better suit what I wanted to experience. Top tier support from customer service, sales, and management, all in one call. Special thanks to Denise and Christina! You can bet I’ll be booking another trip!