Venice Link: what it actually sells and what it costs

Venice Link is a reseller, not an operator: venicelink.com sells Alilaguna and ACTV tickets, city passes, island tours, gondola rides and both shared and private water taxi transfers, but it neither owns nor drives the boats. The verdict in one line: for a scheduled-service ticket it is one channel among many, on prepaid water taxis it has the weakest reputational profile of any company we have examined, and the price should always be checked against the direct channel before you pay.

Who is behind venicelink.com

The site is run by Bucintoro Viaggi S.r.l., VAT number 02586910271, based at San Marco 4267/a, 30124 Venice. The footer and the contacts page of the site say so, and it is confirmed by the fact that replies to online reviews are signed Bucintoro Viaggi.

Bucintoro is a Venetian incoming agency, the same one that supplies the shared water taxi transfers sold on the big platforms. On its supplier profile it states that it is owned by Alilaguna Lines and that it has no taxi fleet of its own: the boats come from the group partner Venezia Turismo, a third water taxi consortium based at Tronchetto. The Alilaguna connection is confirmed by a primary source: the terms of use on venicelink.com state that “Venicelink” is a brand of Alilaguna S.p.A.

That is the piece of information the traveller is missing: the same group is selling them both the cheap scheduled boat and the expensive taxi alternative. None of the public-facing pages discloses the link. It is not illegal, but it is useful context when you read a comparison between Alilaguna and a water taxi on a site that sells both. Our reviews of the agency that operates the transfers and of Alilaguna fill in the rest of the picture.

What it sells and what it costs

The prices below are the ones shown on the site at the time of checking. They are entry points, that is the lowest fare available, not the price of your particular trip.

Watch one detail that justifies the comparison on its own: the “from €25” on the home page is not the price of the airport shuttle. On the product page, the Venice Shuttle IN/OUT (Airport link) was €39.00 discounted to €36.00. The lower figure applies to a different routing.

For the same shared transfer — the same boat, the same supplier — the figures we found across the various channels ranged from about €36 direct on the site to higher prices on the international platforms. The comparison is indicative: we could not verify that route, capacity and inclusions match line for line.

The price transparency complaint

It is documented on the Rick Steves forum, in the thread “Venice Water Taxi Price”. A user posting as Sasha describes setting up an airport-to-centre transfer on the VeniceLink site and finding that the advertised amount jumped sharply at the booking step:

“the price jumps 50 euros, to 109. Same as at the dock, no bargain” — Sasha, Rick Steves Travel Forum

The point of the complaint is not the absolute figure: it is that the “discounted” prepaid price ended up matching what you would have paid by turning up at the dock. No advantage to paying in advance. In fairness, that discussion is several years old, and we found no post using the €115 figure that circulates online: the actual report describes a jump of 50 euros to 109.

In a second thread, comparing VeniceLink with a rival reseller, users explain that the rival in turn resells VeniceLink products with a mark-up — one traveller reports finding a return trip at 180 dollars on the first against 245 dollars for one way on the second. In the same thread another user describes a private transfer that never showed up, walking down to the waterfront and finding no boat at all, and getting a reply only after disputing the charge with the credit card company. As an alternative he recommends Consorzio Motoscafi.

Strengths

• A wide range in a single checkout: scheduled-service tickets, passes, tours and transfers, without hopping between sites.
• The supplier’s direct channel: on the shared transfer, the price shown on the site was lower than that of the international platforms for the same service.
• Support in Italian and English, with a dedicated number for last-minute transfers and tours.
• Positive reviews of the airport transfers do exist, and are not rare: they describe a fast, professional and punctual service.

Weaknesses

• An unrepresentative entry price: the “from €25” on the home page does not match the airport product, which cost €36–39.
• No disclosure of the corporate link with the agency that operates the transfers and with the scheduled boat company.
• A heavily polarised reputation on prepaid bookings, with a recurring theme of reservations not honoured.
• Slow refunds, reported on several platforms and across several years.
• Refunds only if the service fails. That is the only rule the site publishes, in its FAQ: a refund is given solely in the event of a service problem or a transfer that did not take place, and “under no circumstances” for a customer error or a change of mind. The credit to your card is stated as taking about two weeks. There is no free cancellation window, no deadline by which you can cancel and no general terms of sale: the site’s terms of use talk about liability and pricing errors, not cancellations. In practice, once you have paid for the voucher you have no stated right to change your mind.

What travellers say

On Tripadvisor the listing stops at 3.0 out of 5 with 257 reviews, and the distribution is the most telling figure: 92 excellent, 36 good, 15 average, 20 poor and 94 terrible. There are more one-star ratings than five-star ones. On Trustpilot the profile is unclaimed and has just three reviews: a sample to read as a flag about problems, never as an average score.

Four themes recur.

• Prepaid transfers that do not show up. One review describes a 02:00 pickup from the airport, paid €170 in advance, that never arrived, leaving two small children stranded and the police getting involved; the company’s reply states that a refund was issued.
• Refunds not processed. On Trustpilot, more than two months after an agreed cancellation and many emails, one user writes that they still have not processed the refund (Gary M Christman, Trustpilot).
• Vouchers and QR codes that do not work. Several reviewers describe 24- and 48-hour transport passes whose code was rejected by ACTV machines and by staff at the official ticket office, with no way to swap the voucher.
• Island tours that are mostly sailing. One reviewer breaks down the day: about an hour and a half outbound, 55 minutes on Murano, two hours on Burano, 50 minutes on Torcello and two hours back.

The counterweight is genuine: on the airport transfers there is a good number of satisfied reviews, and one traveller reports booking three boats for a group and being very happy with it, at €89 per boat for eight people with luggage. That last report could not be traced with certainty to a specific thread: treat it as an anecdote.

When it makes sense, and when it does not

It makes sense for an Alilaguna ticket or an ACTV pass if the price is in line and a single checkout suits you, and for the shared shuttle if you book with time to spare and have a phone number to call.

It does not make sense for a night pickup or a flight with a tight connection: for that kind of service the documented risk of a no-show, combined with the reported refund times, is out of proportion to the saving. In that case book directly with a consortium, which monitors flight delays and has a control room staffed day and night, or choose a channel with free cancellation stated on the product and support you can actually reach. See our guide on how to book, our page on the shared transfer and the one on the reseller that rebrands it; for the whole journey, see from the airport to Venice.

The rule that applies to Venice Link applies to every Venetian intermediary: before you pay, open the direct channel too and compare the same route, the same date and the same number of passengers. If the prepaid option saves you nothing, all you are buying is one more voucher standing between you and the boat.