TUI: most-reported complaints
Automated analysis of 3,613 public Trustpilot reviews published 2026-05-24 to 2026-09-27. TrustScore 4.6 from 206,265 total reviews — see the Trustpilot page. Quick answer: is TUI legit? Issues below reflect what reviewers reported, not findings of wrongdoing.
Reviewers most often report that customer support is unhelpful, accounting for 29% of the 852 complaints identified in the analysis period. The second most common issue is that services were not as described, cited in 21% of complaints, followed by misleading pricing at 16%. Other issues, such as missed transportation, made up the remaining 14% of reported complaints. Trends for the top three issues remain flat, while the 'Other' category shows a falling trend.
The company claimed its Trustpilot profile on 2017-04-28, 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 104 of 145 in Tour Operator. 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: 21 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: “A: 24/12 TUI holidays advent calendar”, “Tui holidays”, “Moved: Tui Holidays”.
Elsewhere: 2.4★ on Google (247 reviews) · 4.7★ App Store (508,168) · 4.6★ Google Play (101,384) · 1.76★ Reviews.io (152) — a 2.2-star gap between its Trustpilot and Google scores.
TrustScore over time
4.6 → 4.6 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 (99%, 0.4d) · 2026-08-18 (99%, 0.4d) · 2026-08-21 (99%, 0.4d) · 2026-08-24 (99%, 0.4d) · 2026-08-27 (99%, 0.4d) · 2026-09-01 (99%, 0.4d) · 2026-09-04 (99%, 0.4d) · 2026-09-07 (99%, 0.4d) · 2026-09-10 (99%, 0.4d) · 2026-09-13 (99%, 0.4d) · 2026-09-16 (99%, 0.4d) · 2026-09-20 (99%, 0.4d) · 2026-09-23 (99%, 0.4d) · 2026-09-27 (99%, 0.4d).
Severity: 30% of this company’s 852 graded complaints were classified as severe (money lost, an essential service cut off, or a problem unresolved for months). See the harm index.
Reviewers here waited a median of 7.7 days between the experience and publishing their negative review (1102 reviews record both dates).
TUI operates in 6 markets we track — compare its complaint mix by country.
Independent findings
The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint about this company’s advertising:
- 2026-01-28 (Website (own site)) — A holiday listing featured on the TUI website misleadingly advertised prices that weren’t available to the public.
These are the findings of the named independent body, reported here with attribution — they are not our conclusions and are separate from the review analysis above.
Measured reply time: across 1016 negative reviews that received a public reply, the median wait was 0.8 days — the company profile reports an average of under a day.
Reply quality: of 1016 company replies to negative reviews analysed, 31% engaged with the specific problem and 37% were generic templates.
What employees say
Employees rate TUI 3.6★ overall from 2,004 reviews on Glassdoor — the inside view, kept separate from customer complaint statistics. Read the reviews there.
Review provenance: 2760 company-invited reviews in the recent window average 4.74★, while 235 organic (uninvited) reviews average 2.17★.
10% of its 2389 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 29% of this company’s complaints vs a 31% median across 122 ranked companies in its sector.
Review velocity: 47,640 of this company’s 206,265 Trustpilot reviews (23%) were written in the last 12 months.
What are the most common complaints about TUI?
Support unhelpful
246 reports · 29% of complaintssteady“I spent around two hours on hold and contacted TUI by phone, Live Chat, email and social media.”
The company replied on 2026-09-16: “Hi Tom, Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. We're very sorry to hear how stressful and frustrating this situation was for you and your partner, particularly being left away from…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“What we received was nowhere near the premium experience we had paid for”
The company replied on 2026-07-31: “Hi Dulcie, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. We're always aiming to improve our service so it's great to get your feedback so we can monitor our customer satisfaction. We're sorry…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“We booked a junior suite however after having a shower the bathroom floor was awash with water”
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Not as described
180 reports · 21% of complaintssteady“What we received was nowhere near the premium experience we had paid for”
The company replied on 2026-07-31: “Hi Dulcie, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. We're always aiming to improve our service so it's great to get your feedback so we can monitor our customer satisfaction. We're sorry…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“We booked a junior suite however after having a shower the bathroom floor was awash with water”
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“this itinerary isn’t possible”
The company replied on 2026-07-30: “Hi John, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. We are monitoring water levels on sections of the Danube and working closely with our river cruise partners to minimise impact on…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Misleading pricing
132 reports · 16% of complaintssteady“this itinerary isn’t possible”
The company replied on 2026-07-30: “Hi John, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. We are monitoring water levels on sections of the Danube and working closely with our river cruise partners to minimise impact on…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“totally misrepresented the hotel. We had to move at a cost of £3K”
The company replied on 2026-07-28: “Hello Sarah, Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We're very sorry to hear that your holiday experience did not meet your expectations and that you felt the need to move to…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“feeling deceived and cheated. Contact customer service, no that is not possible”
The company replied on 2026-08-29: “Hello Julie, Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We're very sorry to hear about your experience with us to date and for the confusion and frustration caused during the booking…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Other
120 reports · 14% of complaintsfalling“Said bus never arrived”
The company replied on 2026-07-31: “Hi there, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. We're always aiming to improve our service so it's great to get your feedback so we can monitor our customer satisfaction. We're sorry to…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“received no further help as they themselves didn't seem to have any information”
The company replied on 2026-08-01: “Hi Tracey, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. We're always aiming to improve our service so it's great to get your feedback so we can monitor our customer satisfaction. We're sorry…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Why are you still taking bookings?”
The company replied on 2026-08-07: “Hi Mr Taylor, Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We're sorry to hear that low water levels on the Danube have caused uncertainty in your upcoming holiday. River conditions can…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Poor core service
84 reports · 10% of complaintsrising since 2026-09“TUI arranged transport for only three people rather than the full group”
The company replied on 2026-07-30: “Hi Rachel, Thank you for taking the time to leave such a detailed review. We're very sorry to read about your experience and appreciate how stressful this must have been, particularly so close to…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“no organisation at all”
The company replied on 2026-08-02: “Hi Mirona, We're very sorry to read about your experience and to hear how this made you and your family feel during your holiday. Travelling should be an enjoyable experience from the very beginning,…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“staff become quire rude and even nasty”
The company replied on 2026-06-10: “Hi Phillippa, Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. I'm pleased to hear that your experiences with our travel agents have consistently been positive, and that you’ve found…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Support unreachable
82 reports · 10% of complaintsrising since 2026-09“I spent around two hours on hold and contacted TUI by phone, Live Chat, email and social media.”
The company replied on 2026-09-16: “Hi Tom, Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. We're very sorry to hear how stressful and frustrating this situation was for you and your partner, particularly being left away from…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“not having one member of staff here to let us know what’s going on.”
The company replied on 2026-08-28: “Hello Gary, Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We're very sorry to hear about the delay to your flight from Cape Verde and appreciate that this was not how you were hoping your…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“called 5 times about assisted travel and gave up after 25 minutes still can’t get through”
The company replied on 2026-07-28: “Hello Mrs. Oliver Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We're very sorry to hear about the length of time you experienced when trying to speak with our Assisted Travel Team. We…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Compare TUI 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 2026-09-27.