Welcome Pickups

I have used Welcome Pickups twice. Both in Athens.

They were taxi drivers that also drove for Welcome Pickups. Both were on time, spoke excellent English, had nice cars, one offered me a bottle of water and the use of wifi, and it was a fixed price paid online. (And since it's a fixed price, you're not going to get an expensive "detour".)

I would not hesitate to book through them again anywhere I needed a ride from the airport and they offered the service.

If I was arriving late at night, I would definitely book a car service over a taxi. Especially in country where you don't know the taxi regulations.

Unfortunately we booked Welcome Pickups and paid in advance. A requirement. We were flying into Paris from NY. Our flight was delayed one hour, we texted the driver from the airport in NY, no problem. The company then texted us that they were canceling the pickup cause of the delay and didn’t have another driver. We texted the driver, no answer. And no refund, only a credit. We ended up using the credit for a ride from our hotel to the train station and ate the remaining credit.
We always book a pickup and have never prepaid. This was the first and last with Welcome Pickups. We just felt that if one hour throws them off they aren’t the company for us. This was April 2023,
We previously used booking.com for pickups and will go back to using them in the future.

I have used Welcome Pickups at least a half dozen times in various countries. Fortunately, I have not had any issues like Barbara and my experiences have been more in line with Frank. All were on time, courteous and spoke excellent English. Some were more outgoing and friendly than others, but that does not bother me either way. I like having a pre-arranged transfer to my hotel when arriving in a new city, especially from my initial flight from the US.

I find their prices are in line or slightly higher than taxis, but you do need to research this. In Copenhagen they were significantly more, so we ended up using public transportation which was very easy.

With so many random locations Welcome Pickups must be more like a "platform" than an organized "company". For such a late arrival I would ask the hotel for best suggestion. If there is a flight like that regularly, the hotel will likely know the best plan. Transfers arranged by a hotel can be more expensive than what you might arrange yourself but for peace of mind it seems like a worthwhile cost. You could at least ask and then compare and decide.

I used Welcome Pickups in Turkey for Istanbul airport arrival and Izmir airport departure. Same experience as Frank - I had a great driver in Istanbul (very communicative) and a perfectly adequate driver to Izmir. When I had a similar arrival time in Quito, Ecuador, I took a taxi from the airport to my centrally located hotel because they had a fixed rate taxi stand. It was very dark and the cab driver was a bit concerned about me getting dropped off in that area and time of night, but it all worked out ok once I found the doorbell for the guest house. You might check TripAdvisor forums for Bogotá to see if anyone has commented on them as well as checking with hotel.

@Barbara, do you have a company you've used that doesn't require prepayment? I was getting ready to book Welcome Pickups for Lisbon in a few weeks.

As with Frank I used Welcome Pickups in Athens and actually had a delightful driver -- was well worth the money.

When we’re coming into a European location after an international flight, we ask our hotel in advance about pick up and transfer service. They generally have someone they recommend with a fixed price. It’s always worked out great even with delayed flights. The only city so far where we’ve been told that the taxi stand is the best option has been Dublin which is right outside the airport arrival doors and very efficient. If you’re thinking about using a company that has problems with delayed flights but wants payment up front, that’s a red flag to go elsewhere. We've been on way too many international flights where our arrival time is not what it was suppose to be especially over the last couple of years.

Correction - I went back to check my travel notes and the transfer companies we used with no prepayment was pre-Covid. Specifically Rome and Amsterdam.
Since then we have used booking.com for airport transfers and zonetransfers.com from Cordoba to Toledo, both in Spain. We had to pre-pay those.

For us, with regard to Welcome Pickups, we were ticked off that something like an hour delay and they cancelled. The driver was willing to change the time. It’s not like they were at the airport already waiting. We texted them from the airport before we even left. We felt they had plenty of time to have a driver for us. And of course, the credit was annoying too. our flight was not early in the morning, it was midday. So we had to take a taxi which was fine.

We have decided that unless we are arriving very, very early, or very, very late, we’ll just take taxis from now on.

Don't waste your money. I booked and paid online. My flight was delayed and I sent messages to let the driver know, and even received an email to say 'don't worry, the driver will monitor flight arrival time'. When I did arrive, I received a message to say driver had cancelled the booking and left. No refund. No nothing. Appalling service.