Hovertravel Reviews 

What a truly appalling web page .... Why bother!!!!!!

Quickest way to get between Portsmouth and Ryde.
Having to take a bus from Portsmouth train station to Southsea does put people off.
But in terms of time it's still quicker than the Wight Link not so fast cat.
Wight link leave you at the end of Ryde pier so a long walk or having to take the train.
Hover Travel drop you off right on the Ryde seafront, in the town..

Great for a normal day travel. However, their Hover Days day trips are badly organised. The coach driver had no information about the tickets needed for the show. The venue couldn’t find the booking and we almost didn’t get to see the show in London, which was the whole purpose of the trip. The staff at Southsea terminal didn’t even know about the coach trip booking and were rude to some of the people on our trip.

I’ve been a loyal Hovertravel customer for years and have always appreciated the reliable service.

However, following the recent restructuring and the publicised £780,000 financial loss and staff redundancies there is a noticeable shift from a customer-focused approach to one driven by cost-cutting.

Unfortunately, this change has significantly impacted my recent experience with a noticeable lack of customer care, it seems the emphasis on efficiency is now affecting the overall quality of service.

I prebooked an experience flight, which was later cancelled and rescheduled by Hovertravel. On the new date, I was surprised to see the same experience being sold at half the original price, alongside newly introduced discounts for senior citizens and students, all of which applied to our entire group.

I reached out to Hovertravel to politely request a review of the pricing I had paid, given the circumstances.
Sadly, I was met with indifference and a complete lack of empathy. I felt dismissed and undervalued as a long-standing customer, which was genuinely upsetting. It was crystal clear that profit had taken precedence over customer experience and fair treatment.

This experience has not only left me disappointed but completely let down by a company I’ve supported for years.
Hovertravel has lost a family of loyal customers who will not be using them again or recommending them to others.

While the flight itself was enjoyable, the way I was treated was inexcusable. I expect better from a public facing company.

As always, very quick and easy service PLUS every single member of staff I interacted with were super helpful and friendly especially those who helped me before the 06:50 this morning from Portsmouth and the crew on board that crossing. Thanks all!!

I take as I find and our trip yesterday was great. Friendly staff, on time, no problems at all. We gave the staff a laugh as we were dressed up to see Abba Voyage, they took it in good part.

Experience the behind the scenes tour which was fascinating. Our guide, Mike, was happy to answer all of our questions and was really friendly and attentive. Would highly recommend a behind the scenes tour!

Shout out to Josh at Southsea Hovercraft Reception!! What a lovely helpful guy. All the staff were so nice and cheerful and the lady at Reception made me laugh. Myself and 3 other friends took the Hovercraft over to Ryde on a day trip - it was a great experience and so quick. I would definitely go that way again.

I had booked a return ticket online to experience the Hovercraft from Ryde to Portsmouth and back as I’ve never been on one.

When I arrived at the terminal I was told that I could not travel due to a technical fault with the craft and that I had to take a normal ferry from Ryde with my hovercraft tickets whereby I was super disappointed!! But the lovely front desk staff contacted me back as I was walking back to the train station, that they have upgraded me to a full hovercraft tour which was absolutely a dream come true !!

I was able to spend a lot of time in the craft, took pictures inside and outside of it ,made friends with the lovely crew and was able to experience it’s manoeuvring abilities plus given a 20% discounts on its souvenirs which was 100% more than what I expected !!

Hats off to the customer service team for going above and beyond to make my dream come true, shall definitely return !!

Although very busy due to the fantastic weather, staff did all they could to give a fast efficient service. I use the hovercraft quite frequently and it is always lovely to see the kids (and some adults too!) excited about their hovercraft ride.
Yes, in the warmer weather there was a stand-by queue for people who hadn’t booked; it is always best to book. However, the staff handled this calmly, despite barking dogs and rudeness from one or two people!
All in all, a great trip. Thank you Hovertravel.

This morning I had most devastating experiences with the service at Southsea Hoverport. I booked my ticket from London to Shanklin via Trip.uk website, the journey schedule was received via email with the time of boarding on Hover as 9.40am. I was there on time. When I arrived to the check in point I been rudely told that I am not booked for that time and have to stand aside waiting if they have any places left. I was showing the time of the booking on my phone, however they said it is not acceptable. At some point, I wanted to call the police, as the service team was so rude. I had to leave, as the whole experience of just getting on the ferry was unbelievable. When I was leaving, they had accepted all passengers to the ferry by the way , and they told me that I can't use their service. I would really appreciate if the management team will look at the customer service manners of the team to review.

Nearly 2 hour delay and you're expected to stay queuing, not come back when the delayed journey is rescheduled to.
Instead of the planned family trip to Southsea and immediately back, myself and children took the Wightlink back (one way) and changed the 2 Family return tickets to 4 adult tickets (obviously far less £s) but they charged the original £60 AS WELL AS admin fee for changing to much cheaper tickets.
I don't care what the T&Cs nobody reads say, that's just wrong AND WASN'T EXPLAINED WHEN I CHANGED BY PHONE.

99% of people that work there look like they're being held hostage.

The impatient, rude and completely incompetent, lying lady on the front desk split our family group up onto different times without telling us! I will reiterate - WITHOUT telling us - and then tried to say she had told us. What a waste of our time and money. We got to the island for a total of an hour, and wasted £69.00. Poor, poor service with each member of staff giving conflicting information. The bumbling team left travellers turning to each other for help and advice.

Booked HoverCare for vulnerable daughter and once again let down by Staff at Ryde terminal, no understanding of request and lack of communication between various parties, they really need some training especially as the cost of travelling is expensive !! You would think they would CARE especially using their HoverCare forms, but makes no difference they just want your money !!!

One Star - Rude Staff, Incorrect Charges, and No Accountability

My recent experience with Hovertravel was absolutely appalling. I was incorrectly charged by their own system, and when I flagged it, the staff on site shrugged and told me there was nothing they could do since I had already tapped my card—despite the fact that I had no idea I’d been charged wrongly at the time.

The employee showed zero sympathy or willingness to help. I was then told to email their customer service team, which only made things worse. The tone of the response was just as dismissive, offering no solution or apology. After that, I was completely ignored. No follow-up, no refund, no ownership of the mistake.

It’s outrageous that a company can make an error, show no interest in fixing it, and then go silent. This kind of treatment shows a total lack of customer care. I strongly urge others to be cautious—because if something goes wrong, you’ll be left to deal with it alone.

This company has stolen my money; paid £65, got no confirmation email. Contacted via email -can’t speak to anyone - & they wanted a reference number. With no email, didn’t have one. They basically said tough luck, no chance of a refund or even a voucher. I sent a screenshot of the payment to them, heard nothing since, despite emails from me, which went unanswered. We are seniors & really can’t afford this loss. If we had turned up on the day, they would have said we have no booking. So have booked with Wight link and had confirmation straight away. Bunch of thieves

Extremely poor customer service. No wonder they have financial problems.

I am a resident of the island and thinking I was doing the right thing, I booked three seniors tickets months in advance. Sadly one of our group has got seriously ill and won't be able to travel. I was expecting a refund of this one ticket (even if it came with a charge fee). But no. Hovertravel have refused to consider canceling and credit me for the cancelled ticket. Every other island ferry offers a cancel facility - but not Hovertravel. I tried to reason with them, but no...... Disgusting service and we will never use Hovertravel again.

Hovercraft was over 20 mins late. I was single female traveller with my two small dogs. They wouldn’t settle because they were waiting so long. I actually got asked to wait outside with my dogs. In front of everyone which was humiliating. Having paid almost £50 for my return ticket I refused and said I had as much right to be here as anyone else and would they make a parent and screaming child wait outside. No they wouldn’t so how is it any different. They were incredibly rude and seemed to enjoy humiliating me. The lad on the till was also rude when I checked in and the dogs barked and he said “‘my tinnitus is back”
Incredibly rude service and now raising a formal complaint

Out of Wightlink , red funnel and hover travel I opted for hovertavel for a change just because of location of work being Southsea, I regret doing so for the following reasons :

Turn up with ample time to get to work but hovertavel cancel flights to Southsea last minute making me late for work which meant this was one of the reasons I could not keep my new job, so unreliable services and job affected due to it being unreliable

No refund issued due to their T&C's despite T&C's should also be a case by case basis and situation was explained that I purchased a flyer ticket for Blue light services 40 singles only used approximately less than 6 and yet they won't refund me even though I have spent hundreds for this pass and no longer need it as never go to Southsea and now have no reason to use it. There has been notl help with this and they simply say in T&C's states no refund applicable and had very bad customer service from the refund team. Spoke to a gentleman on the 16th February called Sam who said he would sort a refund and be in touch he was very nice , although I've not heard a thing, and now the refund team state We responded to your original email on the 28th December and advised that the ticket that you purchased is non refundable. This is stated in our terms and conditions. No refund can be offered on your ticket for the reason stated in our original email response and in our reply today. Refunds are only offered to customers where the option of a refund, is stated in the terms of the ticket purchased.



Our staff member did refer your enquiry to us recently, however, we must further advise that our ticket office staff and call centre staff can only provide customers with the information to contact us at the refunds team regarding their tickets or indicate that they will forward enquiries to us, as they are not authorised to issue refunds to customers. All enquiries are investigated and responded to in accordance with the terms of the ticketing option purchased.



As no refund can be offered, your ticket remains active for your use until the expiry date, after which all remaining trips become void and cannot be used for travel.

I should be able to sell my tickets to someone if you will not refund me instead of hovercraft taking money and no one receiving a service for 280 odd pound may I add. Safe to say I won't be using hovercraft again using this method and will stick to red funnel and Wightlink, they are also expensive but at least they have decent customer service when I raise issues.

Very bad service and very greedy , do not travel with hovertravel especially for business reliability as 1 you will rarely be on time for work, sometimes won't be able to travel using them at all and you get bad service, they also will not give you money back on tickets not used , disgraceful treatment of iow blue light workers!