KAYAK Reviews

Misleading advertised rates and zero accountability!Rating: 1/5 stars. Do not use Kayak to book car rentals. They advertise cheap, tempting rates like $38 a day to get you to book, but the actual experience is a total trap. I used their platform and paid $370 total, including $90 for extra insurance. When I went to pick up the vehicle at Ace/Drivo on Coney Island Ave, I was hit with surprise hidden fees of $200. Worse, after returning the vehicle and getting a verbal clearance from the staff, the rental company called me an hour later claiming new damage—yet they refuse to email any photo proof. Kayak acts as a shield for shady rental operations and takes no responsibility for the scams running on their platform. Save yourself the stress and book directly with reputable companies instead.

They are thieves. I booked for July with Kayak which is affiliated with Priceline. I saw the dates and everything then when payment was done the dates were changed for August. They won’t give any refund. We had to pay for the hotel again but directly. They are inhumane and selfish. Terrible customer service. Do not book with these thieves.

I found the site to function just as well as others until booking the flight. Kayak linked to a third party agency (limited flights) that took my money and only gave me a standby status with no tickets unless I paid a large extra fee. Be extremely careful and only book from a site you trust.

05-02-26... Really poor, inaccurate advertising. Let me explain. We travel a lot, requiring us to rent a car. RECENTLY, we were trying to find reasonable priced car rental from PVD for our travel to Cape Cod. We found a rental site CAR “8” and secured a rate for $1,075. HOWEVER, we always “look for”... “a better deal” from a reliable source. Too often since we get an alert that “WE HAVE FOUND YOU A BETTER DEAL” only to discover that “YOUR DEAL” comes to OVER $2,000. Why don’t you treat your clients more fairly by offering “real valueless" for car rentals?

OMG WE just stayed here--Quality Inn & Suite I-95 (SC268) 803-854-7075. 8929 Old Number Six Highway. Santee, SC 29142-- 3/17-3/18 and on 3/18 reported the hotel to customer service with 3 complaints so you know what they did. They put a 250.00 cleaning fee on our credit card when they found out we reported them and said the towels were 'soiled.' I CLEANED the room before we left. So we spent the last 5 days CALLING HOTEL AND CS DAILY to get no where. Hotel keeps saying the manager will call us back but he never does.

Bad experience. I was directed to Underpricer from Kayak.com to buy a ticket for my daughter from Dublin to DC. Underpricer and Gurufare are technically two different companies but at least share the same customer service team. Their communications are very similar and the websites are the same but with different branding. Both companies charged me for the one ticket. I did not realize this since they only confirmed the one ticket until I saw my bank statement. When I contacted them, they passed me back and forth between the two companies and never came to a resolution. When I called their customer service the same person could handle calls for both companies. So if you are sent to one of these two companies from Kayak, confirm immediately if they do not both charge you. If you catch it in the first 24 hrs you can fix it. They do not seem interested in resolving this situation for me so I’ll avoid these companies for the foreseeable future.

I used Kayak to book a hotel and it booked me under Expedia for different dates and of course it's non refundable. What a scam. Beware when booking under Kayak and there is no customer service number. Total scam.

I bought a ticket from Airfairassist through Kayak search engine. The airline changed my ticket to next day flight. I requested refund from them since the flight was changed for 12 hours. They are refusing to refund my ticket which even airline is admitting is my legal right. I talked to Vincent in their refund department and no response. I have taken it to credit company and I have got partial refund. They are fraud. Stay away from them.

If you think that a site like Kayak just might vet the companies that fill their platform for scams you might be unpleasantly surprised. I made that erroneous assumption and it cost me a bunch. Beware: do your own research because they are not doing it for you.

Like most people say if there "were no stars" to give. 3 Dez '25 was to pick up the truck at Burbank off airport location, thinking less requirements than the airport. Fm Oxnard via train, bus was the longest to 1234 Westwood Blvd was 2 hrs+ one way. The guy said when I called him he was trying to reach me all morning but the phone number was to many numbers. Went there as I was close. Took a screenshot & phone was a bunch of 1s, 0s & 8s. No trucks. On way back to airport made a new RSVP w/ Priceline for Hertz. Got a truck cheap. By the time I got to the airport it was 1806 hrs. Informed the truck rental place closed at 1700.. Got there almost 2 a.m. to wait for them to open at 8. That's where the mess happens.

I reserved tickets to and from Orlando FL. Kayak has a drop box with other choices to choose from. I made reservations through Flight Masters. Supposedly, Great prices and great itinerary. Got a call the next day with many restrictions and upgrades, wanting more money to bring luggage onto the aircraft, moneys for seating, stating I was on standby and my itinerary wasn't confirmed. I called SW Airlines and they stated they didn't even have any flights on what they confirmed to me. Had to cancel my credit card and will now go on Flight Masters for complaint. Wasted days and my time on this scam. When I did a 3-way call with SW Airlines and scammers they called him out. STAY AWAY FROM THIS SITE.

I have informed Kayak that some airlines show carry-on luggage included in the search results but in reality it is not included. I sent Kayak supportive information and they responded by affirming my complaints and saying that the appropriate department was notified. Months later I still get inaccurate information when I do certain flight searches. Seams Kayak benefits from these false entries in the flight results or they don't care to provide accurate information.

Booked a flight with them. The flight was confirmed and days later they had a third party email to say flight could not be approved. They then wanted 35% more for the same flight. Is it not Fraud when a company offers a service, confirms price and service and then days later decides that it no longer can offer that "confirmed" service at the original price?

Let me start by saying I am an experienced International traveler and have used several of the other online travel sites such as Orbitz, Expedia, Booking.com Priceline etc., without issue. Booking flights with Kayak are no less expensive than booking direct with the airline! If there are cheaper flights they usually involve long layovers or a change of carrier. This means you would have to exit the security area collect your baggage and go through security again. All to save $20?! Not worth the hassle! If you need to change tickets/routes/dates/destination, Kayak are very inflexible. They cannot simply change a portion of your selected route but will change all the flights, maybe even to a different carrier!

BUYER BEWARE! This is a classic example of bait and switch. Reserve a car for a specific price, but agent tells you they are out and the only thing available requires an upgrade fee. Vicente, the agent, was arrogant and rude. Hopefully someone will teach him that manners are appropriate for any occasion. I will never rent from these thieves again!

After having dinner and going to the Magic Show at the Stanley, the battery on our room door was dead at 9:45 pm, we were locked out! My husband needed his heart medication. No one was on site to open door. He could have thrown a clot and died. When help showed up nearly 3 hours later, he had the wrong tools and had to leave to get the right ones, came back and had the wrong battery, had to leave again. We are repeat customers for 16 years. This time we stayed 3 nights; management refused to comp that night's room. A hotel of this size should have personnel on site and someone who is competent. No one seemed to understand or care about the severity of the medical situation. It was clear they do not care if we ever return. Which we won't!

Reserved a minivan through Kayak, needed to transport 6 people to an event, and when I arrived to Enterprise to pick it up, they had given it to someone else. They said there was a follow-up call, but no missed calls on my cell. We had our own transportation, but not enough room, so we had to take 2 vehicles, which is what we were trying to avoid. Found out an hour before we were supposed to leave that the vehicle was given to someone else.

They allow scam website that belong to the same company to show up on their search results. Taking advantage of the most vulnerable demographics. They know exactly what they're doing. I don't know how these people sleep at night.

I typed in the hotel and the exact location of the event I was attending. Looked at the rooms, prices and ordered. The confirmation came back with a different hotel. Called immediately, told no changes!

Kayak is one of "unwanted middle man" that drives prices of airlines tickets, and hotel stays upwards. Kayaks' web page will waste lot of your time, and then you find out, that the price is higher than if you book the flights on your own directly with airlines. So who need them?

How are you supposed to fix a mistake your booking company makes if you can’t get a customer support on the line. Found myself regretting my vacation while trying to track down somebody to correct it. Kayak.com isn’t even needed. SHUT IT DOWN!!!

The trip insurance is a rip off. Although, it was stated "if you just decide you don't want to go." I had to submit claim documents. My mother was placed in hospice and I didn't want to leave her. My claim was denied because I was given a credit by the airline. I bought the insurance because I didn't want a credit.

Last night I made flight reservations and paid for them through the Kayak site. This morning (less than 12 hours after I made reservations) I learned the funeral date had been changed, so I needed to cancel and change the reservation. I tried calling but the system did not recognize my phone number or email so the automated system would not let me proceed. I tried the site and was finally able to open a chat.

We rented a vehicle for a vacation in LA. We found a minivan on Kayak from a company called Priceless. The office turned out to be miles from LAX, there was no easy or even workable way to get there, and it was closed when we arrived at 4 pm on a Saturday. Btw, Kayak apparently allowed us the rent and pay knowing that the place was closed when our flight arrived. I called the help number about 20 times. Left many messages. Nobody picked up. Nobody called back. That was $300!! I’m trying to get my money back, but I would safely say that you should NEVER rent from Priceless. You will pay but probably never get a car!! And Kayak!! What a great cover company for a scammer. I’ll never use Kayak again.

I purchased a ticket. I was originally on the Canadian Kayak site. They flashed a flight deal and I purchased it. It never said in USD but when I got my receipt it said I purchased in USD. When complained they gave me a AI-generated response.

DO NOT USE! I prepaid my car, was left stranded at airport. They gave me 6 different numbers to call for pick up. All were disconnected or Insurance sales numbers. Had to get rental car at ACE in airport. They emailed me Nov 1, I would get FULL refund in 7-10 business days. I have 4 emails from them telling me "refund was processed". Kept telling me 7-10 days, as we're now 14 business days in. Still no refund. Noelle told me another 3-5 days. She refused to let me speak to supervisor & give me their name until I pressed. She finally gave me a name she couldn't tell me spelling. Said to call after 7pm, however the site shows them closing at 6:30. They are trying to skirt giving me my money, they are a fraudulent fly by night company. I'm pressing charges in Florida, I've contacted my bank. Do NOT use them. They are cheap for a reason. Shame on Kayak for allowing them on their site. This is flat out FRAUD & THEFT!

Kayak is a complete joke! They hold no accountability. 6+ months after tickets were purchased the cancellations and changes started. At one point I was given the choice of either taking the only flight option they said was available (leaving a day earlier meaning we would miss the actual event we were traveling for) or cancel for a refund. Because of timing, the only option we could take was to cancel. Received an email stating our refund request was approved. After 4 weeks not seeing the refund, I sent a follow-up email. Their response was that the initial email was sent in error and our refund was denied. No further explanation.

Purchased an airline ticket from Orange County (John Wayne) to Edmonton Alberta. Oct19 2023. The departure date was November 01 2023. Kayak was used as a search. I purchased a ticket and was billed immediately. Upon enquiring with a Kayak rep about my reference and flight details which I had not received. I was informed that I would have to pay an extra $120. US to receive the ticket reference. A price increase after the fact that I had paid their asking price. I have never been billed extra after making a purchase. In short I will never use Kayak again. A scam is the best way I see it. Wayne **

Terrible customer service, Kayak forwarded us to a India website INDIAN EAGLE, which hasn't confirmed our itinerary change in 10 days whereas AMEX did it the same day. Really bad, will never recommend.

Advertised a no young rental fee through Dollar for a car rental. Paid 2/3 of the fee up front. When we picked up the vehicle, Dollar added on a $405 young renter fee despite us showing them the ad and total that Kayak promised. Tried calling Kayak 5 times. Hung up on every time on their voice system. Horrible bait and switch tactics, and atrocious customer service.

The do not provide good info, they route you to other unknown sites that has bad reservations -- missing important information. I will go back to booking to my other site. They routed me to Prestigia which was not good.

Kayak routed me to one of their hotel partner companies, Algotels. I found a hotel that fit my travel needs. When I was booking my room, Algotels added a $29 "Taxes and fees" charge on my $99.00 booking rate. I phoned Algotels and questioned the fee. I was told by their customer service representative that the $29 was, in fact, for the taxes on the booking. This would make the local taxes on a hotel room to be at a rate of 29.3%.

Kayak routed me to Chatdeal which is a company that they own. While Kayak is good as a search engine, they are greedy because they are making their money by scamming users if you want to make any changes on a reservation. They booked me on Finnair. When I asked to make a change, I either had to pay $8000 more for a one-way business ticket or absorb a $500 cancelation fee. That’s when I found out major carriers were literally less than half the price of Finnair. I spoke to customer service at ChatDeal and they said, "You have to talk to Finnair." I tried to talk to Finnair and they said, "You have to talk to ChatDeal." So, got nowhere but had to absorb a $500 cancellation fee. It’s a scam and it seems like there is nothing I can do about it other than advise whoever reads this not to deal with ChatDeal. When you get the prices from Kayak, then just deal book the airline directly.

I was looking for a ticket for my wife from MSP to LGA. I choose her date of departure and return. They quoted me my fare, I went to the next page, it was something different. I cannot go further and I show a view a deal. Something like that. I clicked on it. The price was the same and my traveling dates were changed without my knowledge. If I didn't double check I may be stuck with that date. Don't go with them. Otherwise you will be stuck with a wrong travel date.

These guys no checks add hold no liability. Half the offers are just gathered scams found anywhere on the internet. Yeah they will boast best rate, until you show up and the cost doubles, just a scam search engine, nothing more.

Booked a flight searching Kayak that sent me to chatdeal.com. Went to the airport and the airlines said the flight information was incorrect on the booking and my reservation was listed as "restricted". I called chatdeal and they said they would fix it but did not do anything and I missed the check-in time for the flight. I asked them to put me on another flight and they said they would but blamed the airline for not responding to their request. I called numerous times to try and get on the flight but they kept delaying and blaming the airline.

Everyone deserves honesty and full transparency in all of their business transaction. Mislead to increase bookings ie. said we could walk to the car pickup in d/t Vanc. from the Vanc. airport but it is a four hour walk. As well mislead via the price we booked thinking the booking was in Cdn dollars as the site provides no currency, but we booked in Canada at a Canadian car rental location. But it was in US. Hence they know when people pick up they likely won't cancel as it costs more to book on the day of a booking better to book a few days in advance or weeks etc.. to get the best price. This puts people at risk ie. if they don't have enough money in their budget to pay for the car or a shuttle bus from the airport as they think they can walk to their lodging from whichever airport they landed in.

I thought that I had booked a flight to Tel Aviv via Kayak which took me to FARESCAN (scammer emailed and called me via FARESCAN) saying my coming flight was not accepted by airline and that I needed to pay a difference, thankfully I didn’t but I now don’t have a fight. Scammer was willing to stay 15-20 mins on the phone until I had my credit card. He thought he had me. He even sounded upset.

I booked a ticket through KAYAK on 16th September 2022. Booking confirmation received the same time and it shows there is a problem in my booking. I clicked the link and, it shows, my booking has cancelled. I was so nervous and the seeing a mail from GOTOGATE agency located in Abu Dhabi, saying will be refunding my money back within 5 working days. It doesn't shows any reason to cancelled my booking. Reviews for GOTOGATE are so weird, they are doing the same for lot of people. KAYAK is entertaining scammers. If you wanna use KAYAK, check reviews for the sub agencies. Otherwise you gonna be scammed by people who born from **.

Kayak used to be a trustworthy site but not anymore! I found a ticket their website and they sent me to a partner site for the transaction and I ended up buying from Travelgenio and spent 3 months trying to get them to respond to my emails, cancel the ticket, give me a refund or voucher (which the airline said the tickets were eligible for) and ended up losing a lot of money because they have poor customer service and bad business practices. Kayak should be held accountable for pushing customers to untrustworthy, unscrupulous partners. Don't trust Kayak, go directly to the airlines instead.