Village Boat Rentals

If I could give this establishment «0» Stars, I would. I purchased a Living Social Deal for a 2 hour Duffy Boat rental from Village Boat Rentals. I left multiple messages daily on their voicemail while I was trying to schedule a day to use my voucher, and it took about a week before anyone called me back. I believe it was Allie who I finally spoke with, and she was very sweet over the phone and informed me that even if I didn’t use my voucher by its expiration date, that I would still have a $ 90 credit with the company towards a boat rental.
I finally decided to use my credit with the company, but the only phone number that is listed for them is either out of service or is not set up for voicemail. After multiple attempts at calling them, I physically went to their location only to find them no longer there, and no forwarding address provided. They have either gone out of business or they don’t want people to know where they are located. Their website has not been updated, and even Unilocal is showing them open with their current hours. I ended up contacting Living Social who provided me with a full refund due to similar issues that other customers have recently experienced with Village Boat Rentals. I would highly recommend using another company to rent a Duffy Boat from. It’s a shame that this company is so poorly run and is so difficult to contact. Stay away from these guys!!!

Unilocal might need to install a zero or negative stars for weenies like these guys!
Must be a mafia front or something because they have absolutely nothing to offer. They offer coupons and groupons and vouchers and savings and sales for really great prices but after you get all excited and load the car and kiddies and arrive to find… Nothing.
Like everyone else here you call and call and call and call. Voicemail is always full and can’t leave a message. Leaving callback numbers is a wasteful button press.
Do yourself a favor and run. Run as far and as fast as possible.

I wish I could say I actually was able to rent a boat from them, but I have a two hour rental someone bought for me as a gift and I’ve tried to call them for almost two weeks now, and no one ever answers the phone. The phone goes to voicemail, and I get a message that the voicemail is full. When I enter my number for a callback, I get nothing of course.
what a joke.

I dont think they are in business anymore. Got a groupon for a boat rental and went to the address in New port, only to see a board saying Village Boat Rentals. But no one was around to rent us the boat. Calling them is useless as it directly goes to the voice mail which is full.
Get a refund back.

Karma to the owners for leaving customers stranded with no respect for their time… and shame on Groupon for not informing customers that the company was out of business… no wonder good companies no longer use Groupon… they don’t want to refund $ 69.00 so that’s why they just hope you drift off into the sunset… I’m done with Groupon and crap business like this… should have read the more current Unilocal review before wasting my time driving down to Newport… middle finger to the owners but they don’t care anyways but Karma will get them

We booked a reservation a week in advance and had a party of 6 people. On the day of our reservation (our reservation was for 5:30) they called at 1:00 saying they are going out of business and need to cancel our reservation. We we’re so baffled and tried to reach them over the phone to see if we would be able to get a refund or just more information on what was going on and they have not gotten back to us. This was a horrible experience!!! We still have not received our refund.

Definitely no stars for this place! I bought this off groupon and had a reservation this last Saturday and was SO disappointed! I had the whole night planned for my mom’s birthday. Drove all the way to Newport, packed our coolers with food and drinks, and showed up to nobody there. I called their phone only to hear a voicemail saying they were closed for the weekend. I never received a call or anything. I showed up with all my guests and it was so disappointing. My mother’s birthday was ruined. I’ve been calling ever since and they don’t answer their phone, nor do they return phone calls if you leave a voicemail. HORRIBLE service! Stay far away from this place.

Just showed up for a reservation and the place apparently has been closed for a couple of weeks. A few other groups were in the same predicament. I’m shocked that they could not even bother to call their reservations and now it seems as though they were taking reservations knowing full well that their place was closing. Shady! If you’re in a similar situation here’s the owner of the company’s number Sean Acosta 310−906−6122.

No stars! Called this place on Monday to make a reservation for Friday and the lady was nice and said she’ll see us then. This trip was organized for my dad’s birthday today and we get there 10 mins before the reservation time and we walk down to the docks where there is major construction going on. The workers seemed confused as to why there’s regular people like me walking through. They direct us to where village boat rentals had a booth and discovered no one around. Two other people who had purchased the groupon left nasty letters expressing thier anger as well. We tried calling the business several times but the voice mail box was too fill to accept anymore messages. I then called groupon to get a refund. Groupon knew nothing as to why they weren’t there.
Bad service
No communication
Will never come back

I went here for a 2 hr boat rental. Location was a bit hard to find due to construction but once we found it their staff was very chill and gave us a discount for the second hour. If you use the groupon deal, this place is great. We went on a holiday so no groupon deals allowed.

Went for my anniversary had a very pleasant time, I bought it off groupon and the check in went very smooth I wasn’t waiting more than 5 minutes, the boat had a radio and you can bring your own things .it was a good experience and Newport Beach is beautiful !

If you’ve never been on a Duffy boat boozy cruise, it’s time to call this company. Grab a couple friend and a bottle or two of champagne (per person) and make a reservation for a boat. Their manager Ally is awesome, she does what she can to help and make your experience as good as possible.
The village… make the call.
— Eat Well, Drink Much
Follow on insta :
Eat_​well_​drink_​much

I called this «business» before I bought a Groupon to be sure they had availability and were able to accommodate us the next day. I was told that there was one spot left from 10:00 a.m. — noon, so I went ahead and bought the Groupon then made the reservation. Be aware, the office where you book reservations is in LA and there is no office on site, so if there is a problem such as NO ONE SHOWS UP TO MEET YOU, you’ll be on the phone trying to find out what the heck is going on.
We loaded a cooler and six of us headed to the location. First of all, that area has a ton of construction going on and knowing where to park is not easy at all. Once you are parked, it’s difficult to know exactly where to walk to get to where you’re supposed to be. I took a few pics of the blue gazebo which is sandwiched in the center of all the duffy boats, but there is no clear signage telling you that that is where you’re supposed to go.
When I got a hold of the office gal at 10:05 and told her no one was her to meet us, she wanted me to call back and leave that information on their answering machine so that the owners could hear that the employee who was supposed to meet us didn’t show up. Maybe they didn’t trust her word for it — I don’t know. I thought it was unprofessional to ask a customer who’s already unhappy to be waiting to do that, but whatever… I guess if it could help them get their business in order, I’d do it. Two more calls into the LA office later, our guy FINALLY shows up at 10:45 to put us in our 10:00 boat. They gave us a bigger boat for our trouble, and we ended up having a good time once we got going. It just left a sour taste in our mouths and we definitely would not use this company again.
Note to the owners: You might want to add some information perhaps with photos about where to park and where EXACTLY to go to get on the boat. A confirmation email with this information would be great, but at minimum I think it should be on your website.
Also, knowing that your employee «had a rough night and overslept» making us embark an hour late, it sure would have been nice to receive some sort of follow up apology via phone call or email. If you had a teensy customer service bone in your process, you’d at least have contacted me to see if we enjoyed the experience once it going. Your lack of follow up leaves me thinking that you really don’t care about your business, so why should your potential customers?

We were lucky enough to get in touch with someone for a reservation after calling several times and the location is very difficult to find. Wish someone would have told us exactly where to go since there was construction going on with detour walking paths. It took us 30 minutes to find someone! Thus the reason for only four stars instead of five.
Once we found the guy who was on the dock and were handed our boat we ended up having a wonderful time. We docked at Balboa Island for lunch and enjoyed our boat for two hours. We used a groupon and had a great time

Answer. Your. Phone.
Return. Voicemails.
Clear. Your. Voicemail.

I made reservations 2 months ahead of time for my mom’s bday. Before buying the deal on Groupon, I called to make sure they have a morning boat available on her bday. They did, and instead of buying the Groupon, I purchased it directly from them. Allie was the one that helped me book and set up. Price was matched on Groupon.
What I really like about this place is the location. It’s not at busy Balboa Island. It’s near Lido Island. Less crowds. Street parking is not a pain.
Another thing to really love… is how CLEAN the boat is!!! I’ve rented from other places, and this one is the cleanest. Before they were Village Boat Rental, they were Adventure Boat Rentals… and they were very clean too. & that’s the reason why I am a repeat customer.
Jeff was the one that helped us in and out of the boat. We got to meet the owner too. He was very friendly.
I highly recommend this place… If ur planning to have the boat on a specific day, call ahead of time to get it reserved. ;)
Thanks for making mom’s bday celebration a wonderful Village Boat Rentals!

Bought a groupon for 2 hours and it expired before I could use it as no one every answers the phone or returns call. I placed so many calls and never got a return call
How do these people stay in business?

I had the BEST time on this Duffy ride! My group purchased a groupon and we arrived to two gentleman who were so excited to get us on the Duffy boat. We sailed around Newport for 2 hours, enjoyed a picnic and saw some awesome sea lions. On our return the men were so kind and told us to take our time collecting our things. They were so happy we were so happy! We shared what was left of our picnic with them and did a cheers as we left.
Just to add, we chose to tip the gentleman. We are a group that understands having a small business isn’t always easy. We thought pitching in to tip was a kind gesture. And I know these men are extremely appreciative of this!
Can’t wait to go back! They’re the best! Their boats also go a good speed!

I bought a 2 hr groupon for this place. On rules and regulation there is no place that says no holidays. and when you call this place to make reservations, it’s an answering machine. And no one answers the phone. I would not recommend this place because they are not helpful and take for ever to return your phone call…

The boats looked cool but there was no one there to help us and no one answered their phone. Wouldn’t recommend.