Last Updated on August 22, 2026
Hays Travel has the best marketing of the five big UK travel agents compared, scoring 8.6 out of 10 on the Whito leaderboard.
Opinion and analysis. Every brand below was reviewed manually across seven marketing channels in August 2026, using publicly visible marketing activity. Scores are relative to the other brands in this comparison. Where a figure is not published, we say so.
One of the most profitable travel businesses in the UK will not let you book online. Not because its website is broken. Because it refuses to.
Trailfinders finishes last on our leaderboard of visible marketing channels. It is also consistently one of the most profitable travel businesses in the country, filing full accounts at Companies House every year that anyone can check. Quiet social feeds, modest email, no booking button, and a business that keeps making money.
Now remember the loudest travel marketer of the 2010s. Thomas Cook was everywhere, on telly, in your inbox, across every high street. It collapsed in September 2019 and stranded around 150,000 people abroad.
In most industries, marketing channels build trust. In travel, trust is the channel. This leaderboard shows exactly how that plays out.
The leaderboard
| Rank | Brand | Social | Website | SEO | Paid | Reviews | Brand | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hays Travel | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 8.6 |
| 2 | Kuoni | 7 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7.7 |
| 3 | Audley Travel | 7 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7.6 |
| 4 | Riviera Travel | 6 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7.3 |
| 5 | Trailfinders | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 6.7 |
Company verdicts
Hays Travel, 8.6
The UK’s largest independent travel agent, with more than 530 branches, reported turnover of £506.6m and pre tax profit of £80.4m for the year to April 2025, both up around 10%. Its review engine is the best in the set: roughly 4.9 on Trustpilot on enormous volume, and each branch has its own Trustpilot location page, most of those also sitting at 4.9. The same structure runs through social, with national accounts backed by hundreds of local branch Facebook and TikTok pages. No deposit and weekly payment offers remove the biggest booking objection, and it was named High Street Agency of the Year in July 2026. This is the business that bought all 555 former Thomas Cook shops in 2019, and it has spent the years since proving the high street still converts.
Kuoni, 7.7
Kuoni is closing its 9 John Lewis concessions by the end of September 2026, ending a 14 year partnership, while keeping 14 standalone stores and shifting spend to call centres, digital and agent partnerships. It is the best conversion hybrid in this comparison: you can book fully online, or book an in store, video or phone appointment, so no buyer is forced down a path they do not want. It displays a Feefo rating of around 4.9, though Trustpilot sits around 4.6 on low volume, roughly 500 to 600 reviews as of August 2026. Email capture is done properly, promising offers, inspiration and event invites rather than a vague newsletter. The retail retreat looks like a repricing of channels, not a retreat from the market.
Audley Travel, 7.6
Founded in 1996, covering 100 plus destinations from offices in London and Boston, Audley has the deepest SEO in the set. Exhaustive country guides and trip finders pull high intent organic traffic long before anyone types a competitor’s name. There is no online booking; everything funnels to a request a quote form and a named specialist, which suits trips at this price point. Trust badges are stacked deliberately: B Corp, Which? Recommended Provider and AITO. Owner 3i explored a sale reportedly valuing the business at around £600m before postponing in 2025, which tells you what a quote led model can be worth.
Riviera Travel, 7.3
Riviera sells escorted tours and river cruises, and its numbers are moving fast: H1 2026 revenue up 33% year on year, trade sales up 27% and river cruise revenue up 35%, as reported in June 2026. Reviews are solid at around 4.7 on Trustpilot from roughly 6,000 reviews. Its DNA is direct response, built on brochure requests, solo departures, press reader offers and heavy reliance on travel agents. Social is its quietest channel, and given the growth figures, it clearly does not need it yet.
Trailfinders, 6.7
Founded in 1970 by an ex SAS officer, Trailfinders runs around 50 travel centres with 1,000 plus staff, and it files full accounts at Companies House each year rather than publishing headline figures, so the numbers are on the public register for anyone who wants them. It publishes an FAQ explaining why it does not offer online booking: every trip is built by a consultant, full stop. Client money is held in an ATOL approved trust account until customers return home, a differentiator it markets hard and one that lands post Thomas Cook. The proof it works sits in the reviews, around 4.9 on Trustpilot from roughly 50,000 of them. Social and email are modest because they do not need to be anything else; Trailfinders wins on trust and brand, not channels.
What the channels show
Reviews are the industry’s real currency
The two best businesses in this set both sit at 4.9 on enormous review volume. In a category whose most famous failure stranded 150,000 people abroad, visible proof of trust outperforms any advert. A traveller handing over £5,000 does not want a slogan, they want 50,000 people saying the money was safe.
Nobody is winning on social
No brand here scores above 9, and most sit well below it. Hays wins the channel with structure, not content: hundreds of local branch pages, each posting real customers and real send offs, which is something a single national account cannot replicate. The lesson is that in travel, social works as local proof, not as broadcast.
No online booking is a positioning choice, not a weakness
Trailfinders and Audley both refuse online checkout, and both are thriving. For high value, complex trips, the consultation is the conversion mechanism. Removing the booking button raises average order value and cuts refund chaos, because a human has shaped the trip before money moves.
Physical retail is being repriced, not abandoned
Kuoni is closing concessions but keeping standalone stores. Hays keeps opening branches. Shops now exist to serve trust and consultation, not footfall. The window display is no longer the marketing; the person behind the desk is.
Key lessons for any local travel agent
Build your review engine before anything else
One Google Business Profile, kept accurate, and one review habit: ask after every single booking, ideally at the happy moment when documents arrive. Volume at 4.8 plus is the cheapest marketing asset in travel.
Sell the consultation, not the price
You will never out discount an online travel agent. Make book a chat your main call to action and let the conversation do the converting. A 20 minute call closes trips a price banner never will.
Make financial protection a marketing message
Post Thomas Cook, customers quietly worry about where their money goes. Say clearly on your homepage where the customer’s money sits and how it is protected. It feels like admin, it works like sales copy.
Local beats national on social
A named agent posting real customer send offs, airport photos and returning traveller stories beats polished head office content every time. Hays proves this at scale with hundreds of branch pages. You only need one.
Capture emails with a brochure or guide, not join our newsletter
Nobody wants another newsletter. Everyone planning a trip wants a destination guide or a brochure. Swap the wording, keep the same form, and watch the sign up rate change.
Steal this playbook
Five moves any travel agent can make this month, in order.
- Set up a review request that goes out within 48 hours of every booking confirmation, and again when the customer returns home.
- Change your website’s main button from Enquire or Book to Book a free planning chat, and link it to a calendar.
- Add one plain sentence above the fold explaining how customer money is protected, with the scheme named.
- Post one real customer moment a week on your local page: a send off, a returning family, a booking milestone. Faces, not stock photos.
- Replace your newsletter sign up with a downloadable destination guide for the one region you sell most.
Common questions
Who is the biggest travel agent in the UK in 2026?
Hays Travel. It has more than 530 branches and reported turnover of £506.6m with pre tax profit of £80.4m in the year to April 2025.
Can you book Trailfinders holidays online?
No, and that is deliberate. Every trip is arranged through a consultant by phone or in one of its roughly 50 travel centres, and client money sits in an ATOL approved trust account until you return home.
Is Kuoni closing down?
No. It is closing its 9 John Lewis concessions by the end of September 2026, but it keeps 14 standalone stores and is investing in call centres, digital and agent partnerships.
What happened when Thomas Cook collapsed?
It failed on 23 September 2019 after 178 years of trading. Around 150,000 UK holidaymakers were repatriated on 746 flights, about 9,000 staff lost their jobs, and the taxpayer bill reached at least £156m. Hays Travel then bought its 555 shops.
Which UK travel companies have the best reviews?
Hays Travel and Trailfinders both hold around 4.9 Trustpilot ratings on very large volumes, and Riviera Travel sits around 4.7. Figures checked August 2026 and approximate.
Wondering how your own agency would score? Read Will AI recommend your travel agency? for the self check and the fixes, in order.
How does your business score?
The free Whito AI Visibility Scorecard checks how findable and trusted your business looks to customers and AI search in about two minutes, and tells you the one thing to fix first.
- Hays Travel Limited (01990682), filing history, Companies House
- Hays Travel, statement on its latest accounts (profit before tax £80.4m, year to 30 April 2025)
- Trailfinders Limited (01004502), filing history, Companies House
- National Audit Office, investigation into the government response to the collapse of Thomas Cook
- 3i, Audley Travel portfolio page
Financial figures are taken from filed accounts, company announcements and regulators’ own notices, and were checked on the date shown on this page. Marketing channel scores are our own assessment.
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