Oxford Walking Tours of Oxford — Local services in Oxford

This is NOT a FREE walking tour as it is falsely advertised all over the website.

You can not advertise something as FREE online and then demand payment before you've started the tour.

We have done many 'free' walking tours all over the world and whilst they are advertised as free, there is the mutual understanding that you 'tip' or make a 'donation' at the end of the tour dependant on how good you thought the tour was. This is what we were expecting from this tour, to tip at the end.

Anyway, we booked this thinking it would be a great way to introduce us to Oxford and learn more about its history and university. Immediately upon arrive, before even so much as a 'Welcome', Matthew, who we assume is in actual fact, the owner and only 'tour guide' of this fraudulent company walks over to us and asks if we were there for the walking tour to which we replied 'yes'. He immediately showed us the back page of the leaflet he gave us, which showed 'reccomended donation amounts' and told us that whilst other tour groups charge £30 for 'the same tour' we in fact need to donate 'what we think the tour is worth' and we can either pay by cash or card and he would come around later in the tour to collect payment, we expected that this would be somewhere near the end.

Within 20 minutes of the tour starting (before you actually see anything of interest), he takes you into the library for a 'break', whilst on this break Matthew comes up to you with a cars reader and asks how much you want to pay and points to the suggested prices which state 'pay how much you think the tour is worth and how good it was'. We explained to Matthew that whilst we are willing to 'tip' for the tour, we usually do this at the end, once we know how good it was and based upon what we thought it was worth. Matthew stated that sometimes people run away at the end of the tour and don't pay, and that's why we had to pay at the start. We again explained that we would not be running away and would like to pay nearer the end when we know how good the tour is. Matthew stated that if we did not wish to pay, we could not continue with the tour (which hadn't even really started). Not once did we refuse to pay, we just didn't expect to be pounced upon so suddenly before the tour had even started. This was a massive red flag for us so we discussed as with each other and thought we would give the minimum reccomended (£8 per person) but we saw Matthew then go on to harass and pressure every in the group in to making payment. We actually found it quite rude when we said,'If you don't pay, you don't continue with the tour,' which, in actual fact, if you are advertising it as FREE then, yes, whilst you can hope for tips and donations you cannot force people into paying for your services. Due to this, we decided to leave before making any payment. We were shocked and decided to check out the reviews and as expected, this happens to pretty much everyone.

There were approximately 30 people in the group, if everyone paid the minimum £8 recommended donation, that's a minimum of £240 per tour. Matthew runs these tours 3 times a day, so he is potentially getting a minimum of £720 per day. Given how false the advertising is on the website, which in actual fact is just a plain lie, I do wonder how factual and truthful his tour would have been. In our eyes and from reading the reviews of people who continued on the tour saying how bad it was, this whole company and tour just appears to be one big and quite successful scam.

It is actually bad for Oxford tourism and has given us a bad taste of the place.

We have seen some of Matthews rude replies to the bad reviews he gets on here, essentially blaming everyone and anyone but himself, but having experienced the same treatment ourselves, we absolutely know that all the 1* reviews are telling the truth. No doubt we will get a rude response this this review aswell, stating that we were 'stingy and didn't want to pay, or expected the tour for free' or something along those lines - which is absolutely...

PLEASE READ BEFORE BOOKING! We have taken several free walking tours all over Europe and they all have the same system: You experience the tour and in the end you tip the tour guide. Sometimes they do tell you what amount they recommend but you get to choose what you actually pay. We like to take those tours and we are willing to pay good tours with a generous amount of money in the end. BUT THIS IS NOT THE WAY THIS TOUR WORKS. We should have read the reviews here on google before booking the tour because the website does not tell you what it is like. It is all true, we experienced the same as the other reviewers: In the beginning you receive a leaflet with a list of acceptable tip (see other review for a photo). Then the tour guide Matthew (who seems to be the only tour guide since no one in the reviews ever mentions someone else) tells you within 20 minutes some basic things (not comparable with all the other tours we have taken - just read Wikipedia, you’ll get to know more that way), does a lot of “funny” jokes and tells you what you will see later (according to other reviewers you will never see that). You then end up at Weston library to take a break after that short period of time in which Matthew urges everyone to pay. He intentionally goes to everyone and demands them to pay. We told him that we would tip him later (just as we did so many times). He responded that we have to pay and he would come back in 60 seconds to collect the money. He did that in a very rude and intimidating manner so that we decided to just leave the tour right away. After having read the other reviews we are happy about leaving because everything else would have been an even bigger waste of time (and then money!). Feels like a huge scam.

PS: After my negative review and a second one were put online (which reduced the average rating from 1.8 to 1.7), suddenly a lot of similar-sounding highly positive reviews popped up on the same...

We would not recommend this tour; I've never experienced a walking tour like it! We have been on lots of free walking tours in many cities, where you always give your tour guide money at the end of the tour. Unfortunately this tour is not one of these.

We visited Oxford for my nephews Birthday and decided to do a walking tour as he likes history, so thought it would be a good way to learn about the history of Oxford. We met our guide Matthew at the meeting point and were handed a leaflet which told you have much you should pay him depending on how much you liked the tour. After only about 10 minutes into the tour, we took a break at the Weston Library which seemed strange as the tour had only just started. It turns out this "break" is for Matthew to come round and take payment from each group. If you ask to pay him at the end of the tour instead, he tells you to leave. The website clearly states "Our donation based tour offers visitors fair pricing in which visitors can Pay As They Like. This is fair pricing for visitors, where you pay the price that you are confident in and at the end of the tour according to your happiness." This is clearly a lie, as it was either pay me now or leave! We have never experienced being made to make payment on a walking tour 10 minutes in when you are not sure how good the tour is going to be. As we were in Oxford for my nephews Birthday, we stayed on the tour and paid some money as I didnt want my nephew to be disappointed we weren't doing the tour.

Unfortunately the tour was not very good. There didn't seem to much information being given and Matthew wasn't very good at making sure all the group was assembled at the next location before starting to talk about it, so we missed the start of his explanations in several locations. As Matthew has already been paid for the tour by this point, I suppose he doesn't feel the need to provide much...