Sometime in the last few years TripAdvisor has gone from being an advisor to actually booking hotels/cruises/activities etc through its sister 'bookings' company Viator.com, which TripAdvisor owns. This company is now very dangerous for travellers. Specifically because they do not properly verify the owner of the tour/activity/hotel etc they advertise and so anybody can list themselves as 'XYZ Cruises, take your money and then do a bait and switch scam on you as you approach your booking dates. Let me give you an example. I booked a cruise in Asia, through the Tripadvisor site, thinking that I was booking it through the real owner of the cruise… I received a confirmation via Viator proporting to be from this Cruise Co.... i.e. the real company itself. Turns out I have booked it with Joe Blow Co. who is advertising that he is Cruise Co. owner. I paid the money in good faith (remember, I currently trust TripAdvisor) and then found out by pure luck that this Joe Blow Co was a fraud who took my money and would have 99% likely contacted me days before the tour date and deceitfully told me that "unfortunately the cruise cannot run on your day so we have done our best and put you on a 'similar' ship", which of course would be substandard and much cheaper than the original cruise/tour/hotel/whatever and then he pockets the huge difference. In the end you get a substandard experience, and most likely leave a bad review for the real operator – who then has to wear that reputational damage.Why doesn't TripAdvisor/Viator do something about this and verify its business operators properly??!!! You should also know that this was complained about nearly 10 years ago and they said that their "engineers we're working on a fix"... It's now 2022 and the Bait and Switch scam continues. I would recommend only booking through Expedia, Agoda, Booking.com etc and staying clear of booking through TripAdvisor.I used to trust TripAdvisor. Never again; and I advise the same to you.
