We have just returned from three weeks in Greece and, after six separate bookings with Welcome Pickups, we won’t use them again.
To be fair, several of our drivers were good and our final driver was excellent — professional, communicative, courteous, clean car and exactly the experience we thought we were paying for.
Unfortunately, the service was simply too inconsistent.
The experience that finally lost us as customers was our second-last airport pickup in Athens.
We had paid a premium for what we understood to be a meet-and-greet airport transfer. Instead, there was nobody waiting for us in arrivals with our name.
After collecting our luggage, we ended up outside the terminal trying to locate our driver at the kerb. At one point, another person even attempted to take the vehicle we believed was ours.
We eventually completed the transfer, but it left us asking a pretty simple question:
What exactly had we paid the premium for?
If we have to collect our luggage, walk outside the terminal and locate a car ourselves, we can simply use the official taxi rank or Uber.
What really disappointed us was Welcome Pickups’ response afterwards.
I contacted them and asked for a refund for the meet-and-greet service that hadn’t been delivered as expected. Instead, we were offered a €10 credit toward a future Welcome Pickups booking.
We explained that we live in Australia, this was our first trip to Greece and we are unlikely to return for at least 12 months. A €10 future credit wasn’t a meaningful resolution for us.
Ironically, our sixth and final transfer was excellent. That driver delivered exactly the service we had expected from Welcome Pickups from the outset.
And that’s really our issue: consistency.
After six bookings, this isn’t a conclusion we’ve reached based on one driver or one bad day. We gave the service a fair run during our trip.
For future airport transfers, we’ll use the official taxi rank or Uber where available rather than paying a premium for a meet-and-greet service that, in our experience, isn’t consistently delivered.
Six bookings were enough for us.