Hays Travel: most-reported complaints
Automated analysis of 3,402 public Trustpilot reviews published 2025-02-13 to 2026-09-23. TrustScore 4.9 from 438,001 total reviews — see the Trustpilot page. Quick answer: is Hays Travel legit? Issues below reflect what reviewers reported, not findings of wrongdoing.
Reviewers most often report that support is unhelpful, with 178 complaints identified out of 530 total issues. Misleading pricing is the second most common concern, accounting for 102 reports. Other frequent issues include services not matching descriptions (75 reports) and miscellaneous problems (87 reports). Trends indicate that misleading pricing complaints are rising, while issues regarding service description and other matters are falling.
The company claimed its Trustpilot profile on 2020-04-20, uses Trustpilot’s paid features, uses Trustpilot’s AI-assisted replies, and last replied to a negative review on 2026-09-26. Trustpilot ranks it 20 of 203 in Travel Agency. We last checked this profile on 2026-09-27 and found 200 new reviews. These are facts Trustpilot publishes about the profile, as of our last harvest.
Forum footprint: 109 MoneySavingExpert forum discussions mention this company (browse). Roughly 0 of the top, relevance-sorted search results were posted in the last 90 days — an approximate figure by construction, not a true recency count. Recent thread titles: “Hays Travel and Jet 2”, “August holiday Hays Travel”, “Hays Travel”.
Elsewhere: 4.4★ on Google (127 reviews) · 4.7★ App Store (8,616) · 4.9★ Google Play (2,833) · 1.71★ Reviews.io (113)
TrustScore over time
4.9 → 4.9 across 15 census measurements since 2026-08-12. Our own record, independent of Trustpilot’s display.
Reply behaviour over time
Solid: % of negative reviews replied to. Dashed: typical days to reply. Both as reported on this company’s Trustpilot profile, recorded whenever our census re-checked it and a figure had changed — the gaps between points are not equal: 2026-08-15 (90%, 1.1d) · 2026-08-18 (90%, 1.1d) · 2026-08-21 (90%, 1.1d) · 2026-08-24 (90%, 1.1d) · 2026-08-27 (89%, 1.1d) · 2026-09-01 (88%, 1.1d) · 2026-09-04 (89%, 1.2d) · 2026-09-07 (88%, 1.1d) · 2026-09-10 (89%, 1.1d) · 2026-09-13 (89%, 1.2d) · 2026-09-16 (90%, 1.2d) · 2026-09-20 (89%, 1.2d) · 2026-09-23 (89%, 1.2d) · 2026-09-27 (90%, 1.2d).
Severity: 18% of this company’s 530 graded complaints were classified as severe (money lost, an essential service cut off, or a problem unresolved for months). See the harm index.
1★ share of negative reviews over time
Share of 1–3★ Trustpilot reviews that were 1★
In March 2026, 55% of 69 one-to-three-star reviews were 1★; in September 2026, 82% of 11.
Counted from March 2026 onward — the period for which our capture of 1★, 2★ and 3★ reviews is complete for all three. Months with fewer than 10 such reviews are omitted.
Reviewers here waited a median of 4.7 days between the experience and publishing their negative review (668 reviews record both dates).
Measured reply time: across 609 negative reviews that received a public reply, the median wait was 0.9 days — the company profile reports an average of 1 days.
Reply quality: of 609 company replies to negative reviews analysed, 40% engaged with the specific problem and 43% were generic templates.
What employees say
Employees rate Hays Travel 2.7★ overall from 357 reviews on Glassdoor — the inside view, kept separate from customer complaint statistics. Read the reviews there.
Review provenance: 2948 company-invited reviews in the recent window average 4.95★, while 48 organic (uninvited) reviews average 4.19★.
10% of its 2886 recent 5★ reviews came from accounts that had written only that one review when we captured it (the median across companies is about 39%). A high share is a reason to look closer, not evidence of fake reviews.
Sector benchmark: support unhelpful makes up 34% of this company’s complaints vs a 31% median across 122 ranked companies in its sector.
Review velocity: 125,722 of this company’s 438,001 Trustpilot reviews (29%) were written in the last 12 months.
What are the most common complaints about Hays Travel?
Support unhelpful
178 reports · 34% of complaintssteady“they also tried to charge over £100 more than the online price”
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Poor customer service, would not use currency exchange again.”
The company replied on 2026-05-18: “Good Afternoon, I am very sorry to hear you found the service provided as not up to our usual standard. Please can you email further information into [email protected] so we can look…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“The hotel and location we discussed with the instore staff turned out to be nothing like the reality when we arrived.”
The company replied on 2026-05-15: “Good Afternoon Jordan, Thank you for your review. We are sorry to hear you were dissapointed with your holiday when you arrived in resort and we can understand this may have been frustrating for you.…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Misleading pricing
102 reports · 19% of complaintsrising since 2026-04“they also tried to charge over £100 more than the online price”
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“there was no swim up pool included and they have been allocated a double bed”
The company replied on 2026-04-17: “Hello, thank you for taking the time to leave this feedback. I'm sorry for any dissatisfaction regarding this holiday booking. As you are not a passenger on this booking, I cannot discuss any…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I was very disappointed as my holiday had gone up £120, which I wouldn't have been paying if I had the opportunity to book when I first visit”
The company replied on 2026-05-16: “Thank you very much for taking the time to send us this feedback and to speak with me today on the telephone to discuss it further. We do appreciate any feedback we receive and strive to take onboard…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Other
87 reports · 16% of complaintsfalling“got abandoned by Hays there left to arrange hotel beg airline”
The company replied on 2026-05-27: “Hello Elaine, Thank you for your review and we are very sorry to hear about your difficulties in resort. We have raised your concerns with the branch and as I understand they have spoken to you in…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“very dissatisfied I’m retired as I have a bad back it’s horrendous here”
The company replied on 2026-05-19: “Thank-you for your feedback, We are very sorry to hear that the accommodation booked has not met your expectations, especially considering your back issues and mobility concerns. As an independent…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Several things went wrong”
The company replied on 2026-04-07: “Good Afternoon Sarah, Thank you for your review. We are very sorry to hear you have encountered issues within your booking with Hays Travel which has prompted your review. Please can you email into…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Not as described
75 reports · 14% of complaintsfalling“The hotel and location we discussed with the instore staff turned out to be nothing like the reality when we arrived.”
The company replied on 2026-05-15: “Good Afternoon Jordan, Thank you for your review. We are sorry to hear you were dissapointed with your holiday when you arrived in resort and we can understand this may have been frustrating for you.…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“It stated there was a hotel bus free of charge that would take us to Bugiba”
The company replied on 2026-04-13: “Hello Mr Raine, We’re really sorry to read how disappointed you and your family felt about your recent holiday, especially given how important a trip like this was for you. This certainly isn’t the…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“it actually showed all pools were saltwater”
The company replied on 2026-04-01: “Hi Emily, We’re really sorry to hear that your experience didn’t meet your expectations, and we genuinely appreciate you taking the time to share such detailed feedback. We never want any customer to…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Overcharging
53 reports · 10% of complaintssteady“the young member of your staff had put the second hotel down instead of the first one we chosen”
“Although it was the incompetence of the agent they charged me £200 admin fees”
“it had went up in price from what I was told on the phone”
Support unreachable
35 reports · 7% of complaintssteady“However I have had no reply.”
The company replied on 2026-07-27: “Good Morning, Im so sorry for the seating issues you have experienced on your outbound flight. I will give you a call to discuss as this is the first i have heard about the issues you have…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“There were problems contacting Saga with internet and phone issues.”
The company replied on 2025-10-27: “Thank you for your feedback and I am sorry on the day you came into store we were experiencing internet issues unfortunately these things do happen from time to time and whilst we try everything in…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Communicate was very lacking”
The company replied on 2025-10-11: “Good Morning Robert, Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. We are very sorry to hear of the issues mentioned within your review and we can understand the frustrations they may have caused…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Compare Hays Travel with…
Method: reviews are classified into a fixed complaint taxonomy by an automated reader; every category shown is backed by at least two verbatim quotes from distinct reviews. Trends are computed from dated review counts only. Negative reviews are deliberately over-sampled for evidence depth; headline percentages use an unbiased recent sample only. Report updated 2026-09-23.