Oxfordwalkingtoursofoxford Reviews 

Avoid this Tour. Matthew is the " tour guìde". He speaks a lot , makes jokes, but very little tour. Half way through the tour there is a 10 minute break where he pressures everyone to pay at least seven pound by card or cash. On questioning him, he becomes demanding and says nothing is for free and says he needs to charge now because people leave the "tour" without paying. The website looks convincing but the actual "free tour" is questionable as is the money he tries to charge.

The tour is a scam.
Advertised as free, on the website it's written multiple times and accentuated that it's a free tour with only optional donations at the end. A guy (likely indian descent) with likely fake name told us some bullshit stories and a couple lame jokes. Basically, showed us to a nearby pub and asked us to pay or leave. Even though the tour is advertised as absolutely free everywhere on their website, multiple times in multiple places. They even stressed it as free during the phone call.

When we arrived at the spot, i noticed a group of people, all of similar ethnicities, likely indians, with fake smiles and enthusiasm. I suspect our group was the only tourist group there. It's a typical scam scheme you see a lot of on the London bridge, for example.

Had same experience as Mae Wong.

Website advertising FREE tour with a choice of donation. I don't mind donating if it's worthwhile however, after 30mins of tour and 'joking around' Matthew (if that is his real name btw) insisted us paying 7 ppp, otherwise we can leave. We have left purely due to uncomfortable insisting on paying.

Not trying to be racist or anything but the rest of the people on the tour were all Indian-background and were 'over the top' of the excitement of this. Not to mention everyone was eyeing us over when Matthew was asking for a payment. This seemed a lot like a 'cup and ball' scam popular in London where every single person around are involved.

It’s a scam. We have made a formal complaint to Oxfordshire Trading Standards and reported the matter to the relevant authorities.

This is not a free tour it is a scam. An Indian guy dressed casually who calls himself Matthew will suddenly turn up late and talk alot of nonsense. He will first make you walk past buildings then take your money and then continues to make you walk past buildings and talk nonsense. You will not go inside any of the colleges, the only building you will go inside is some church. If you complain he will just dismiss you. Do not use this company.

I joined this “free” walking tour in Oxford today. I expected a genuine free walking tour, perhaps led by a local Oxford student or someone with a connection to the city, where you tip voluntarily at the end.

Instead, the guide, a South-East Asian man called Matthew, with strong accent, arrived about 15 minutes late. After visiting only two places, he started going around with a card machine asking everyone to pay. He repeatedly said the tour was “worth £30” and that the minimum payment was £7.

When several of us said we preferred to pay at the end, he insisted that we pay immediately or leave. When we mentioned that the website advertised it as free, his response was: “I’m not the website.”
Several of us therefore left.

I have joined free walking tours in many countries, and normally you decide yourself how much to tip at the end. I have never experienced this kind of pressure to pay almost immediately.

The guide also did not appear to have any obvious local Oxford connection, which was not what I expected from an Oxford walking tour.
In my opinion, the advertising is very misleading. Please be aware of this before joining and don’t waste your time. We had no chance to get into any building, he just talk a lot from the outside.

Scam! Not free, and not as advertised. Normally you pay what you wish after the tour, but this man nearly forced you to pay after only 20 minutes. You do not get to enter any buildings, other than a church. Total scam.

The tour is a scam as many reviews say. It’s not free, the guide, named ”Matthew”, talked about the payment and showed us suggested prices right in the beginning, saying that ”other companies charge 30£ for the same tour”. He said that we could pay according to our happiness, but then he started collecting the money from each person just 30 minutes in to the tour. A couple (wise) participants really had to insist that they will pay at the end of the tour and the guide was very persuasive saying that ”everyone just leaves so fast without paying”. Of course it’s customary to tip the guide on a free tour, but normally at the end and the guides aren’t persisting you to pay.

The guide also didn’t seem like an Oxford student/alumni, he just told us jokes and random facts that you could probably read online if they are even true. We didn’t go inside any buildings, as promised on the tour description, except a free cathedral. At the end we could go see a cathedral and a dining hall in a small college if we went inside a couple people at a time, so that we didn’t seem like a tour group. He just told us that we could go see the buildings with entrance fees after the tour. There also seems to be at least two different webpages for the same tour.

This is *not* a free tour. I've done many free walking tours in the past, and always tip something at the end.

This is advertised as a free walking tour, but the tour guide demanded I "tip" mid way through the tour, otherwise I couldn't continue. He had a bullying nature and said "everyone else has paid other than you".

When I questioned why it is advertised as a free tour if they demand payment, he referenced all other tour companies charging for a tour.

The tour itself was ok, but I left (after tipping) part way through because I felt bullied by the tour guide and didn't want to be part of that anymore.

There are other options for free walking tours of Oxford, try those first!

Absolute scam!!! We left the tour after 20 minutes. It was suspicious. I searched for reviews afterwards and unfortunately many many tourists are affected. Next day we saw again another group with more than 40 people. I do not understand this scam at this scale is even possible in a historical city such as Oxford. The city has also responsibility to protect tourists who pay to see the city.

AVOID AVOID AVOID!

Avoid at all costs! Matthew is not a bad tour guide…. He is a scammer.

The temptation was to laugh at him for being bad at his job. But we soon realised it was us who were being foolish, not him. Matthew is a sinister character who knows exactly what he’s doing. By constantly using classic tactics of delay, confusion and repetition, he stumbles through a 90min tour of nothingness whilst fleecing people out of A LOT of money.

He requests payment for his ‘free’ walking tour close to the beginning. If you refuse to pay anything, he kicks up a fuss. Whilst some sensibly pay the minimum amount of £7, others pay £30, clinging onto the idea that amazing times lie ahead…

But before and after paying, all Matthew does is take you pointlessly up and down streets. He jokes and waffles his way through useless information whilst making false promises and announcing unnecessary ‘comfort breaks’. His promises revolve around ‘inside’ access to buildings which does not exist. But he strings along an enormous group of people by continuing to confuse and delay.

My personal favourite moment came when he told us to look around the public gift shop in the Bodleian Old School Quad (anyone can do this, it’s completely free)… afterwards, he then said the gift shop visit was in fact the lecture theatre visit he promised at the start… Claiming the gift shop was ‘inside a lecture theatre building’. When I challenged him on this, he got angry.

Beneath the shamelessness and ridiculous nature of it all, the reality is that Matthew is a successful con artist, making lots of money by praying on people’s vulnerabilities. Because we’re English and paid just £10 each, we were able to stomach it and laugh it off. We can always go back another time. But for other foreign tourists visiting for the first and last time, it’s much more upsetting. Some likely went up to the £30 payment, meaning he stole massive sums of money for nothing.

Ultimately, people come to our famous towns and cities for a great experience. They don’t expect to be conned on a ridiculous scale and made a fool of. The likes of Matthew are giving our tourist hotspots a bad name and that’s really upsetting. He’s an awful person and you should never book with him.

This is a scam. We will be calling the police. We wasted over two hours with literally no useful information. The website advertises walks into many of the university buildings. We were only allowed into a chapel and… a gift shop.
What the website advertises is NOTHING like what we experienced. At some point he asked us not enter the chapel all together as otherwise they’d think we were a tourist group, which is exactly what we were. That’s when we realised he was not a legitimate tour guide. It was too late as we paid him already.
We will report this scammer immediately.

It's a scam
The guide will request money for about nothings
If you don't at least 8£ you don't walk

If I could give this conman 0 stars, I would. Avoid this tour at all costs. He goes by "Matthew", and he's not a student or former student of Oxford. Unfortunately, I only had a short time in Oxford and the walking tour I had booked with him was a scam, and it was too late to sign up for another tour. If you want to book a legitimate free walking tour, contact the Oxford Tourist Information. Fortunately, I left within 5 min of the tour because he wasn't providing any historical information - only sprinkled a fact here and there, and then masked his lack of knowledge with jokes and Harry Potter references. I'm appalled at Oxford for not kicking this man out of their community. He forces people to pay their gratuity around 15 min in.

This guy Matthew is an absolute, dispicable scam artist. He took £34 off us today, a family of four, one of which is under 5 years old! He can't speak English properly, he did not give us many facts. Made the tour longer by going round in circles. Pressurised us immensely, in front of the rest of the group, that we should pay him more than £20. No scruples. After 15 minutes of the tour, he started asking for money. This guys should not be allowed to be there. AVOID HIM. We didn't get to go in ANY buildings with him and he has rubbish jokes. Scam artist. My kids wanted to see thr Harry Potter locations that's why we booked him, he did not show us any or direct us there. When we asked him a question, he was talking back in a rude way as if we were bothering him. SAVE YOUR MONEY!! I've also let the university know. Report him to Oxfordshire Trading Standards and Oxford Tourism Board.

Unfortunately it’s really a scam and the so called tour guide/operator, Matthew, a scary figure. We were warned at the meeting point by a lady that this tour is a scam and when we decided to still try it, Matthew quickly told us that he needed to be paid because this tour could never be for free or pay as you like. He became rude when we said that then the lady was right and this tour is in fact a scam.
We went our own way and found out that the Divinity college was closed for the day. Avoid and don’t pay.

Recently, I embarked on a magical journey through the enchanting world of Harry Potter in Oxford, and what unfolded over the course of tour in Oxford.

25th May
We were led by Matthew who I found to be very menacing and threatening. A free tour one normally expects to pay at end - but Matthew demanded we pay part way through the tour. When I said I would pay at the end of the tour - he said we could not continue unless we paid immediately. There was at least 60 people on our tour so too many people. He never counted people in the group. Other people on tour also found him aggressive. I discussed my experiences with one of the ticket agents at Weston library when buying tickets for a tour today - she asked me if the tour guide was Matthew - when I said yes - she said they had been complaining about Matthew for years and had tried to get council to remove him. So beware of tours led by Matthew

The tour was a scam. Matthew, the guide, demanded payment halfway through the tour, and presented as slightly threatening and aggressive while doing so. We didn't go inside a single building. A member of the tour was asked by M to use his own phone to call one of the colleges to find out when it was open. We decided that the college wouldn't respond to his number. A guide should know all these things at the start. We were informed that entry to any of the Harry Potter sites or the colleges was not included in the tour and was at our own expense. Misleading advertising at the very least. I was personally very upset because I had booked the tour and felt I had let my friends down. As to his knowledge, a couple of people mentioned they felt they couldn't trust it given his general attitude and behaviour. I would advise anyone to pay a bit more and use a proper tour company.

It's a scam. Don't waste your time and money. If you looking for a good tour just find a different one.This one will scam you and will take your money. This tour is not worth a penny. They force you to pay. The Tour guide name is Matthew but in reality he hardly speak in English. First of all he took 1 hour, half the time of the tour, just to talk about nonsense and jokes. It's not free and if it was it is not worth wasting your time. I am travel four hours to Oxford and theses scamers waisted my family's time for nothing.