Compare travel agents in New Zealand at Canstar Blue. House of Travel, Flight Centre, Helloworld Travel and Webjet were compared on Overall Satisfaction, Communication & Advice, Level of Knowledge, Friendliness of Agent and Price of Trip.
See our Ratings Methodology.
Kiwi travellers rate House of Travel New Zealand’s No.1 travel agency, and the winner of Canstar Blue’s 2025 Travel Agents Award.
Our review compares travel agents on customer satisfaction, so you can discover what other Kiwis think about our compared travel agents before you go ahead and book a holiday or trip. Think of it like asking hundreds of your friends and family which travel agents they recommend!
Canstar Blue surveyed 676 Kiwis who had used a travel agent/agency to book a trip within the last two years and asked for their feedback on the travel agent/agency they used.
Respondents rate their satisfaction with their travel agent from zero to ten, where zero is extremely dissatisfied and ten is extremely satisfied. Brand satisfaction was rated by respondents on the following criteria:
The winning brand is the one that receives the highest Overall Satisfaction rating once all the scores from the Overall Satisfaction criteria are combined and averaged.
Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included, so not all brands available in the market have been compared in this survey. The brands rated in this survey are listed below in order of best overall satisfaction.
Find more information on our Most Satisfied Customer methodology.
House of Travel is no stranger to Canstar Blue’s Travel Agents Award. This year marks three wins from four for the travel agency, which also won our award in 2020 and 2023. (Note the award was suspended during the pandemic, in 2021 and ’22.)
And, once again, House of Travel takes home our award on the back of an amazing set of ratings: top 5-Star ratings across all our award categories. It’s a stellar performance, made even more exceptional when you take into consideration the other top travel agencies in our award only have one 5-Star ratings between them.
House of Travel is one of the country’s most recognisable travel agency brands. It combines a comprehensive online presence with over 60 owner-operated offices and hundreds of specialist consultants across the country.
House of Travel offers travel services from cheap flights through to package deals and cruises. It also offers a free video service, Face2Face, allowing you to talk to a travel consultant and plan your next holiday via a video call, from the comfort of your home.
Second on our award table, Flight Centre earns a great set of ratings from its many very happy customers. It achieves top 4-Star ratings across every category except, one: Level of Knowledge, for which it earns a top 5-Star score.
Flight Centre is an Australian travel agency that has grown into a global brand. In New Zealand it operates over 25 stores nationwide. Through its website and high-street locations, Flight Centre sells a complete range of holiday products, including cheap flights and hotel deals, package holidays, tours and cruises.
It’s clear that Helloworld Travel’s customers are very happy with the levels of value and customer service delivered by their choice travel agency brand. Helloworld Travel earns 4-Star ratings for Overall Satisfaction, Communication & Advice, Level of Knowledge and Friendliness of Agent. Helloworld Travel earns its lowest score, 3 Stars, for Price of Trip.
Helloworld Travel is an Australian-based travel company that operates over 30 stores across New Zealand. Helloworld Travel offers flights, hotels and accommodation, as well as cruises and holiday packages. Its expert travel professionals are available either online or instore to help you organise and book your travel and holiday plans.
Webjet rounds out this year’s award table with a set of 3-Star ratings across all categories. While not a top rating, 3 Stars is by no means a measure of dissatisfaction. Rather a 3-Star rating reveals our consumers are happy with the level of satisfaction delivered by their choice of travel agent in that category.
Webjet’s NZ site is designed specifically for New Zealand travellers, and although Webjet doesn’t operate bricks-and-mortar stores, it has a 24/7 helpline manned by experienced travel professionals to help with any problems and to answer queries.
Not all travel agencies in the market qualify for our ratings (based on minimum survey sample size), but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth considering. Here are some more travel agencies to check out before booking a trip.
Eco Travel has been providing New Zealanders with great overseas experiences for over 15 years, and offers a seamless and convenient platform to book flights, hotels and other travel services.
Eco Travels allows customers to personalise their travel plans, by allowing them to book hotels, cabs and flights individually.
MANN Travel is an Auckland-based travel agency that offers deals on flights, hotels and accommodation domestically and internationally. MANN Travel focuses on delivering great customer service and provides 24/7 support for travellers.
Kiwi-owned Orbit Travel markets itself as a travel company for businesses, and is best suited to those making group bookings. Orbit Travel is an All-of-Government (AoG) travel management supplier. The brand has a strong commitment to sustainability, and it works in partnership with its AoG clients to achieve economic, social and environmental sustainability.
Orbit Travel features an online booking platform, Orbit Online, which is designed to simplify business travel. Orbit Online is also available as an app.
Based in Central Otago, XTravel has been operating since 2016. XTravel provides travel services for both business and pleasure, with an emphasis on snow and cruise options. For extra peace of mind, the travel agency offers a full 24-hour support service.
Travel Associates has six boutique agencies across the country. It provides bespoke travel plans, tailoring trips to customers’ needs.
YOU Travel & Cruise is part of the First Travel Group, and one of the country’s oldest retail travel brands.
It has over 20 Kiwi owned and operated stores across the country and specialises in premium travel packages and luxury cruises.
A holiday is often a trip into the unknown. Indeed, two-thirds of travellers in our survey (66%) say they always prefer to explore a new holiday destination.
But even if you know where you’re going, there should be no unknowns about your flight and accommodation details.
That’s why great communication and advice from a travel expert is the most important aspect of booking any trip, whether to a domestic destination or abroad.
In this year’s award ratings, over a third of travellers (38%) cite Communication & Advice as the biggest factor influencing their satisfaction with the travel agency they used. This places well above Price of Trip, which was the biggest factor for around a quarter of respondents (26%).
Here’s how the Kiwi travellers in our research rate the different factors affecting their choice of travel agents:
Bruce Pitchers is Canstar NZ’s Content Manager. An experienced finance reporter, he has three decades’ experience as a journalist and has worked for major media companies in Australia, the UK and NZ, including ACP, Are Media, Bauer Media Group, Fairfax, Pacific Magazines, News Corp and TVNZ. As a freelancer, he has worked for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority and major banks and investment companies on both sides of the Tasman.
In his role at Canstar, he has been a regular commentator in the NZ media, including on the Driven, Stuff and One Roof websites, the NZ Herald, Radio NZ, and Newstalk ZB.
Away from Canstar, Bruce creates puzzles for magazines and newspapers, including Woman’s Day and New Idea. He is also the co-author of the murder-mystery puzzle book 5 Minute Murder.
| International | 78% |
| Domestic | 22% |
| Online | 45% |
| In person | 38% |
| Over the phone | 15% |
| Some trips | 74% |
| All trips | 26% |
| Once a year | 35% |
| Every two years | 26% |
| Every three to five years | 15% |
| More than once a year | 14% |
| Less often than every five years | 9% |
| Hotel | 58% |
| Stay with friends/family | 18% |
| Airbnb | 13% |
| Bed and breakfast | 4% |
| Camping | 1% |
| Europe/UK | 26% |
| Asia | 22% |
| Australia | 17% |
| Pacific Islands | 12% |
| USA/Canada | 11% |
| NZ (domestic) | 6% |
| Africa | 2% |
| South America | 2% |
| Sightsee | 39% |
| To relax | 33% |
| Visit family | 22% |
| Visit friends | 5% |
| Business | 1% |
| Winter | 43% |
| Summer | 30% |
| Spring | 11% |
| Autumn | 16% |
Knowledge of destination: 46%
Better price: 44%
Package deals: 41%
Travel inspiration/ideas: 40%
It feels safer: 38%
Prefer to deal with ‘real people’: 28%
Too busy/cannot be bothered doing it themselves: 17%
Relaxing on an island or at a resort: 32%
Eating and drinking new things: 25%
Exploring museums and heritage sites: 22%
Outdoor adventure activities: 10%
Prefer to travel somewhere never been before: 66%
Prefer to return to somewhere visited before: 34%
Canstar Blue surveyed 2508 New Zealand consumers across a range of categories to measure and track customer satisfaction, via ISO 26362 accredited research panels managed by Pureprofile. The outcomes reported are the results from customers who used a travel agent/agency to book a trip within the last two years, in this case, 676 New Zealanders. Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included. Results are comparative and it should be noted that brands receiving three stars have still achieved a satisfaction measure of at least six out of 10. Not all brands available in the market have been compared in this survey. The ratings table is first sorted by star ratings and then by mean overall satisfaction. A rated brand may receive a ‘N/A’ (Not Applicable) rating if it does not receive the minimum number of responses for that criterion.
The past winners from Canstar Blue’s Travel Agents ratings:
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