What users complain about in airline, rail, hotel and car rental apps
2,307 English-language one-star reviews of 24 App Store and Google Play listings in this sector, posted between 2025-10-25 and 2026-10-24. Part of the Revunda study of 29,785 one-star app reviews.
Key findings
- Charges, fees & refunds is the top complaint: 10.8% of one-star reviews (all apps: 8.4%), then customer service (10.7%) and login & account access (8.6%).
- 41.5% of all reviews of these apps in the period are one-star (all apps: 41.3%), rank 8 of 15 sectors.
- Biggest gap vs all apps: charges, fees & refunds, 10.8% vs 8.4%.
- Highest one-star share among listings with ≥30 one-star reviews: Aer Lingus (iOS), 82.5% of its reviews; lowest: Turo (iOS), 10.7%.
- Most charges, fees & refunds complaints: Priceline (iOS), 44.4% of its one-star reviews.
Complaint themes
Share of 2,307 one-star reviews mentioning each theme. A review can match several themes; 60.8% match none.
| Theme | This sector, % | All apps, % | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charges, fees & refunds | 10.8 | 8.4 | 250 |
| Customer service | 10.7 | 9.1 | 247 |
| Login & account access | 8.6 | 9.5 | 199 |
| Slow, loading & lag | 4.4 | 4.9 | 101 |
| Crashes & won’t open | 4.1 | 4.6 | 95 |
| Redesign & confusing UI | 2.9 | 3.2 | 67 |
| Broke after an update | 2.5 | 3.3 | 57 |
| Notifications & alerts | 1.4 | 2.0 | 33 |
| Payment or checkout fails | 1.2 | 1.0 | 28 |
| Ads | 1.2 | 3.6 | 28 |
By app
22 listings with at least 30 one-star reviews in the period, sorted by one-star share of all their reviews. Top theme = the theme most of that app’s one-star reviews mention.
| App | Store | 1★ reviews (EN) | 1★ share, all reviews | Top theme |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aer Lingus | iOS | 47 | 82.5% | Login & account access (14.9%) |
| National Rail | iOS | 95 | 75.2% | Redesign & confusing UI (27.4%) |
| JetBlue | iOS | 105 | 67.3% | Login & account access (20.0%) |
| WestJet | iOS | 100 | 64.9% | Login & account access (14.0%) |
| MakeMyTrip Flight, Hotel, Bus | iOS | 190 | 63.3% | Customer service (44.2%) |
| Frontier Airlines | iOS | 189 | 63.0% | Login & account access (13.8%) |
| IRCTC Rail Connect | iOS | 185 | 61.7% | Slow, loading & lag (11.4%) |
| Qantas Airways | iOS | 50 | 60.2% | Slow, loading & lag (10.0%) |
| Avis | iOS | 160 | 53.7% | Charges, fees & refunds (28.1%) |
| Hertz Rental Car, SUV, Van | iOS | 133 | 49.7% | Login & account access (11.3%) |
| Amtrak | iOS | 116 | 46.4% | Customer service (10.3%) |
| JetBlue | Google Play | 122 | 43.3% | Login & account access (13.1%) |
| Air Canada + Aeroplan | iOS | 121 | 40.3% | Crashes & won’t open (13.2%) |
| Alaska Hawaiian | iOS | 117 | 39.3% | Login & account access (24.8%) |
| Railcard | iOS | 116 | 38.7% | Redesign & confusing UI (4.3%) |
| Virgin Australia | iOS | 76 | 38.2% | Login & account access (10.5%) |
| Priceline | iOS | 99 | 33.0% | Charges, fees & refunds (44.4%) |
| Hilton Honors | iOS | 60 | 21.0% | Customer service (8.3%) |
| Enterprise Rent-A-Car | iOS | 58 | 20.3% | Customer service (13.8%) |
| IRCTC Rail Connect | Google Play | 60 | 20.0% | Slow, loading & lag (6.7%) |
| Marriott Bonvoy | iOS | 48 | 18.0% | Login & account access (18.8%) |
| Turo | iOS | 31 | 10.7% | Customer service (41.9%) |
Not ranked (fewer than 30 one-star reviews): LNER, Premier Inn Hotels.
Most similar complaint mix: Food delivery apps · Shopping apps · Telecom apps.
Method
Newest ~300 public reviews per listing from Apple’s customer-reviews RSS feed and Google Play, fetched 2026-10-24. Theme shares use one-star reviews from English-language storefronts, matched by one keyword pattern per theme (patterns and limitations on the study page). Keyword matching misses paraphrases, so treat shares as lower bounds; public reviews over-represent unhappy users.
Download the data
travel-app-complaints-2026.csv (CSV): the sector row, the all-apps row and every listing above, with counts and shares per theme. Licence: CC BY 4.0; please credit Revunda with a link to this page.
The free app check shows the top complaint themes in your latest reviews in a minute. The full report (€19 (launch price, €49 from 1 Dec 2026)) groups up to 300 reviews into issues with quotes and 10 ranked fixes.
Related
- Full study: all sectors, countries and apps
- Guide: why users complain about airline, rail, hotel and car rental apps
- Shopping & grocery app complaints
- Banking app complaints
- Telecom & TV provider app complaints
- Streaming & ticket app complaints
- Food delivery app complaints
- Taxi & transit app complaints
- Parcel & postal app complaints
- Smart home app complaints
- News & weather app complaints
FAQ
What do users complain about most in airline, rail, hotel and car rental apps?
In 2,307 one-star reviews (2025-10-25 – 2026-10-24), the top themes are charges, fees & refunds (10.8%), customer service (10.7%) and login & account access (8.6%).
Which airline & travel app has the highest share of one-star reviews?
Aer Lingus (iOS): 82.5% of its reviews in the period were one-star, among 22 listings with at least 30 one-star reviews.