• Kayak

Kayak

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Overview

Kayak has a rating of 2.3 stars from 321 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Kayak most frequently mention customer service, credit card, and search engine problems. Kayak ranks 212th among Travel Search Engine sites.

  • Service
    55
  • Value
    48
  • Shipping
    17
  • Returns
    25
  • Quality
    41
Positive reviews (last 12 months): 50%
Positive
3
Neutral
0
Negative
3
15
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How would you rate Kayak?
Top Positive Review

“Good Customer Service”

Ernie John C. T.
1/16/24

Since Kayak offers discounts from other websites, I appreciate it. The fact that they don't provide discounts for Southwest Airlines—which often have cheaper prices if you don't mind delayed flights—is noteworthy. When comparing prices on several booking websites, such Expedia and Priceline, I usually use Kayak.

Top Critical Review

“Worst Travel site to use!”

Steve B.
2/20/24

I recently booked a hotel room at the Hyatt House Charlotte, N.C. Using Kayak / Traveluro using the Kayak app. I selected the 2 queen bed room but they changed it to a king room and could not get them to admit their mistake or any help what so ever, terrible customer service,

Reviews (321)

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Reviews that mention popular keywords

customer service (60) use kayak (72) credit card (20) travel sites (21)
Thumbnail of user nataostrovsky
Nevada
1 review
0 helpful votes
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October 17th, 2023

Thank you Justin,
You are providing excellent service, always available 24/7 to help or advice.
I'll contact Justin for any future reservation and refer this to my friends.
Nata

Thumbnail of user meld37
Michigan
1 review
15 helpful votes
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March 28th, 2018

This site is good for finding flights, but I am utterly disappointed in the experience I had purchasing from them. Not only is it sometimes cheaper to book directly with the site, I had a bad experience when I bought tickets for a JetStar flight. Apparently booking with Kayak sometimes directs you to a third party website, which seemed to offer a great deal for the price of the plane ticket, little did I know that it was because they took away the luggage price that is already included in standard JetStar flights. Knowing that the airline included the right to one piece of luggage included in the price I opted out of purchasing extra luggage for the flight. To my considerable surprise checking in at the airport I was told that I had to pay for my luggage and I was tremendously appalled to find out that the price of my luggage was nearly twice the price of the plane ticket! ( As you may know, paying for luggage at the check in counter is more expensive than pre-booking it). Whatever little amount of money I may have saved booking with Kayak, rather than the airline directly had all gone to waste. There was 3 other people with me that day, and we ended up paying extremely more in luggage fees than the cost of our flight tickets. Around $600 dollar just for luggage. Looking back, I dont even think that the items within my luggage amounted to the cost of the fees. I really cannot recommend booking with Kayak, nor will I ever do so again in the future.

Thumbnail of user catherinem37
Canada
1 review
4 helpful votes
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January 31st, 2016

Just to warn you that this is the worst service ever. They do not have any responsibility for nothing. My husband bought a ticket fly using this website and suddenly he ended up booking with the company directly which is American Airlines and they didn't give any confirmation of this transaction. We thought that it was not a purchase made cause we haven't been charged so we bought the same flight ticket from American Airlines to Flight Hub where it went well. Then 5 days after we found the charges that we made using Kayak and when you go through its privacy terms, there is no way to get a refund. We spoke to American Airlines cause we have double ticket flights and they say we can't get a refund cause is a non refundable ticket. We explained to them the issue and we didn't receive any notification from them but AA say that they only can give us credit for 2 years, what the heck!. Very disapointed of both Kayak and AA, they have the worst service ever and I won't buy any tickets from them even though they say they are the cheapest. Be aware!

Thumbnail of user rjcp
New York
2 reviews
3 helpful votes
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December 9th, 2022

Whenever you attempt to book a Rental Car Deal that you think is "too good to be true" well you aren't far from the truth. These bandits show you a good deal but when you try to take advantage of it their site says " NOT AVAILABLE". They just want to make an "UP SELL" to the higher priced rental. They appear to give GREAT DEALS until you click on it to find it is not available. Kayak is a scam!

Service
Value
Thumbnail of user davidk114
Washington
1 review
2 helpful votes
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January 17th, 2015

Use Kayak to search for flights BUT NEVER EVER BOOK THROUGH KAYAK. WHEN YOU PUSH THAT BUTTON YOU ARE HEADED FOR BOOKING HELL AND A COMPLETE RIPOFF. Just went through this. Somehow got sent to AA for UA flight one way and the return on Alaska. I discovered 30min after booking that I was overcharged $300 compared to booking directly with those airlines. And of course AA refused to cancel reservation when I called back in less than an hour. Kayak's response was that "AA must have a data feed problem".
Insult to injury is that every leg of the trip was difficult because of different locator numbers, inability to choose seats, etc.
NEVER BOOK THRU KAYAK. THEY ARE DISHONEST, UNRESPONSIVE, AND SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN.

Tip for consumers:
DON'T USE THEM

Service
Value
Thumbnail of user neverk
Florida
1 review
1 helpful vote
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September 29th, 2013

I attempted to book a room through Kayak.com. Like many travelors I was on a budget for my trip and wanted to find the best hotel. Kayak.com took my payment information, attempted to book me a room, failed at the booking, yet still put a hold for the full cost of the room on my account. I called the number on the transaction with my bank and was told that they could not help me (offshore support company), so I placed a customer service form through Kayak.com's website. I received the email below as a response. Obviously Kayak.com has put alot of time and effort into positioning themselves as the middle man with no responsibility as to the successful completion of the booking, but as they took my payment information directly, I don't see it that way. I will never use them again and I have spent the last few days making sure my social media circles are aware of this company's shady business practices.

Email from "Melissa" at Kayak.com

Hello: I see your recent reservation processed by Travelocity. To help clarify, KAYAK provides an option to complete a hotel reservation using third party providers, such as Travelocity. All service inquiries are handled directly by Travelocity and their policies apply. For assistance kindly contact Travelocity at *******849, or *******997. Kind regards, Melissa KAYAK Consumer Services Rep

Thumbnail of user eds190
Virginia
3 reviews
23 helpful votes
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February 22nd, 2017

Giving these guys a rating of just one star is being super charitable! We started at Kayak to purchase airfare to Sydney, Australia. By the time I paid for the tickets, I discovered that Kayak had pawned us off to Vayama which Ive never heard of before. Too late, monies had already been sent. Then the problems really began. TWO weeks BEFORE we were scheduled to leave, I called Vayama to see if we could upgrade our Qantas seats to premium economy. The agent politely asked if we were aware that our final segment home was cancelled. I said no and asked when were they planning on notifying us? I received no reply. They said they had to send this up to the ivory tower and would hear something within 48 then 72 hours. ONE week later, they provided us with a flight changes. We tried to obtain seats and after researching American and Qantas, we determined that Vayama had somehow obtained two different record locators for us, one being an impossible route. We called again to notify them of this and an agent confidently indicated we didnt know what we were talking about double locators were impossible. She said shed send this up to the ivory tower again. THREE days before we were to leave, Vayama emailed us to indicate that indeed we had two record locators for the same trip and that between them and American Airlines, they determined the best approach would be to leave well enough alone and to struggle through our seat assignments at the airport. Well never use either of these travel agents again.

Thumbnail of user rashidk5
Pakistan
2 reviews
11 helpful votes
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May 24th, 2019

And 21st and shipping containers to Pakistan for patient with him in his life to be the best in his new role as I love u anibah is a bit more about that the sale price and shipping costs to Pakistan for patient with the sale and shipping costs to Pakistan for patient with the sale and shipping

Thumbnail of user josep758
Connecticut
1 review
2 helpful votes
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May 28th, 2022

Kayak works through chatdeal.com to process all ticket purchases. If anything goes wrong, you will not be taken care of at all. You end up dealing with a bunch of crafty indian people. I had to cancel my flight because I got Covid. After waiting forever over the phone, they asked me 400usd of penalty in order to get my 2 tickets refunded. When I realized I was scammed, I called them back, and of course the played dumb and denied everything, stating my tickets were not refundable. I contacted the airline, but they couldn't do anything, since I didn't buy the ticket directly from them. AVOID BUYING TICKETS VIA KAYAK!

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
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Thumbnail of user sheilar2
California
1 review
2 helpful votes
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March 4th, 2013

I booked a hotel room from kayak.com, the pictures did NOT reflect what the hotel looked like in real life.

I cancelled my reservation as soon as i saw the rooms.

I had booked my room on saturday and was unable to contact a person, as opposed to an automated machine, until today (monday).

The first customer service rep i talked to said he wasn't able to refund my money. I called the hotel to confirm the information, then called customer service back.

The next rep i spoke with was extremely helpful, he called the hotel to verify the information i gave him and proceeded to refund my money. I was informed that processing of my refund may take up to 7 days. However, that is not my main concern.

Aside from having to make multiple phone calls, the process went well over all. It should be noted that the wait time was next to nothing when trying to get a hold of a rep during normal business hours. I'm glad I got my money back and I will be sure review the hotel's i find on Kayak next time.

Thumbnail of user joec111
France
5 reviews
14 helpful votes
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July 6th, 2015

Kayak is the first site I go to for air travel. If you have time, go to as many search sites as you can. If not, Kayak is your best bet. Great interface on both computer and phone. Great results.

Thumbnail of user hildat
Netherlands
1 review
9 helpful votes
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September 4th, 2013

The last day of our holiday in the U.S.A. we needed a car to get back to the airport, to travel back to the Netherlands.
I found one via the kayak website, made a reservation, and got a confirmation by email that we could pick it up at Avis, 1092 S Ponce de Leon Blvd.
So far, so very good.
Until we got to this address. No Avis! So we called the toll-free phonenumber that was in the confirmation. It is just a computer, reading 35 different non applicable options, there is no real person on the Phone.
So this was no solution.
We asked the other companies at the Ponce de Leon Blvd.
They told us that Avis had moved more than a year ago (!). So Kayak used an address that is outdated for more than a year.

Saint Augustine is not a very big place with lots of rental car locations. So we asked a lot of people, and drove around for almost two hours until we found Avis at the Wallmart. There was no reservation on my name off course, because the reservation was made for the non existing location.
You can understand that this procedure causes a lot of stress. We took some extra time for the procedure, but we had more than 2,5 hours delay in getting the car at that moment.
Pat of Avis helped us out. He found us a dirty car we could use, it was the only car he had available. We were relieved to finally have a car, so we cleaned it ourselves.
We were on time at the airport, but the last day of our holiday was ruined because of the stress.

Thumbnail of user melbah
Wyoming
1 review
3 helpful votes
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November 17th, 2015

I had a problem with my order, but they worked with me and now i am a happy customer, thank you adam!,, you are awesome!. Wonderful customer service! D now recommend them to everyone!

Thumbnail of user tylerc
Illinois
43 reviews
344 helpful votes
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February 7th, 2011

Makes it extremely easy to price shop between all of the standard travel sites. It does what it claims and does it well!

However, it will soon be joined by others!

Thumbnail of user mbm1
California
1 review
2 helpful votes
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July 31st, 2012

DO NOT BOOK HOTEL ROOMS THROUGH KAYAK! We booked a room in Laughlin Nevada for one night and "upgraded" to the "Deluxe Tower" which is adults only and non-smoking. The room we were given was a dump - looked out over the trash cans, not in the Deluxe Tower and, it was a smoking room. We marched back down to the front desk where we were told that the rooms booked on a 3rd party site were not guaranteed and there was nothing they could (or would) do about it. We left and went to a Hilton 20 miles down the road. Guess it could have been worse. We could have booked and paid for a penthouse suite and ended up with this dumpy room...

Thumbnail of user scottd34
Florida
1 review
1 helpful vote
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August 9th, 2013

I was very disappointed when I recieved a bill under the door of my hotel room that showed what I would have been billed if I would have went direct to the hotel for booking the room. It was 41 dollars less for the stay then what I had already paid with KAYAK.

Thumbnail of user richardd19
New York
2 reviews
9 helpful votes
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March 25th, 2012

I prefer this site over hotwire.com. I had to make a recent trip to Broward, Florida for the purchase of a real estate; Kayak provided better results.

Thumbnail of user miket113
Luxembourg
42 reviews
534 helpful votes
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January 18th, 2016

Sometimes I find the lowest prices here and sometimes I do not. I use it as one of many sources to check for travel prices. Do not limit yourself to just using Kayak.

Thumbnail of user afifk2
Illinois
1 review
1 helpful vote
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February 24th, 2022

Bad experience. Pickup time was 6 PM. Enterprise was closed at 6 PM when I arrived. I had to go all the way to the airport and get a different rental car from a different Enterprise store.

Tip for consumers:
Go straight to car rental website. Third party not reliable

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
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Thumbnail of user richards385
Germany
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 11th, 2017

Not sure where on the earth would I have been had the Kayak not guided me. I recommend it to all the ones who have been looking to find places for tour

Thumbnail of user ts57
South Dakota
1 review
3 helpful votes
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September 21st, 2014

I can get the same price quotes from the airlines websites as I can from the worthless Kayak and Cheapoair etc. No discount from them. What a f##king waste of time.

Thumbnail of user mirnaderg
Canada
1 review
16 helpful votes
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April 16th, 2020

I rented the car for my trip and when I got there, there was no car and I had to pay hihher price to rent a car from another rental company. Kayak charged me for insurance and didn't refund me the money. Don't recommend kayak for anything.
If there was less than one star I would give that.
BAD SERVER CE AND OVERCHARGE!

Thumbnail of user eileenm9
New Jersey
1 review
2 helpful votes
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July 31st, 2014

Don't book through kayak. I was scammed and they took no accountability and didn't even respond. I booked a hotel for 6 nights through them. I showed up at the address and it was not a hotel! It was an apt. Building and the woman in the kiosk at the entrance said they were not a hotel and they had had other people show up with the same scam and they had also booked through kayak.com. I called the phone number for kayak and first I was disconnected 3 times (or hung up on?) and then left on hold for one hour and 7 minutes. I literally left the phone on hold for one hour and 7 min. After "James" had said "I would like to help you with this, let me put you on hold for a minute while I look into this." He came back one time and just repeated what I had already said and said again, "let me put you on hold while I look into this.". After one hour and 7 min. I hung up. I also emailed the company and got no reply. Meanwhile, I had to call my credit card company to cancel the credit card because the hacker had my card info. And I called my neighbors to alert them that some hackers may have been searching for addresses of people who were out of town to rob the house. I am wondering if kayak is run by scammers they way they responded!

Thumbnail of user kevinc51
Georgia
4 reviews
8 helpful votes
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July 18th, 2013

Double charged CC for hotel room, will not respond to emails. Do not use Kayak to book a hotel, they book via getaroom. And they do not respond to emails. Getaroom does not respond to emails either.

Thumbnail of user meganb161
France
3 reviews
11 helpful votes
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November 11th, 2018

Its a great service because you can look up everything about travelling conveniently in one website and that really simplifies the travel process for me.

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Kayak is a large price comparison search engine for travel. It has prices for plane tickets, hotels, car rentals, and vacation packages. Kayak doesn't sell any of these services directly, but instead directs you to another site where you can make a purchase.

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