Where to start! I booked an umrah trip for me and my family and some family friends. 7 travellers in total. I had a budget of £1700 pp. As my mum is paralysed on one side and disabled she finds it very difficult to get about and required a wheelchair. I made it clear from the beginning i was looking for this trip to be as comfortable as possible for my mum and wanted a kaaba view room so on the occasions where she did not have the energy, she could pray from the room over looking the kaaba. This was all agreed and promised over and over. Even going as far as telling me every other companys are promising me something they can't deliver and al haq are the only ones who have the kaaba room and everyone else has partial view rooms. I went ahead and booked, i was getting quotes around 17-1800 but ended up booking for approx £2150 pp with al haq based on all their promises. I wanted to pay by credit card and was charged an asditional fee for ysing a credit card whoch is against uk law/regulations but i paid the extra as i wanted protection. Thank god i did! When we arrived in makkah there was no kaaba view room, i raised this straight away with al haq and they said it was a mistake by the hotel so i should double check and request an upgrade. The hotel then provided confirmation of the booking and proved the agents had not booked the kaaba view room as promised but a partial view room. Al haq then asked me to pay the difference for the kaaba view room upfront, over another £2000! However, there was no availability. Al haq apologised and advised their supplier was looking in to the error. Our whole trip was stressful from beginning to end. They ruined the trip for my mum and she spent days crying as she felt like a burden as someone had to push her around for every salah and back again to use the bathroom/rest. It was exhausting for us all and impacted our umrah. Al haq had the nerve to say i should be patient and understand as i got all the services apart from the room type! They offered me a measely £142 refund which is laughable. I have been fobbed off for days. Still waiting for a manager call back and resolution. Beware before booking. I double checked and triple checked and got email confirmation as well as whatsapp confirmation of what was agreed but they still did us over and we had no choice but to suffer through. Even the supposed partial kaaba view room which we were told we had was laughable, it was more a haram view. I have attached pics of the view from our room. Spot the kaaba if you can?! I had put up a review previously due to bad service and was asked to remove it but i won't be removing this review until i have a satisfactory resolution. Funny how they are quick to ask for 5 star reviews but unwilling to address and respond to the genuine the bad ones. I plan on reporting this company to trading standards and urge anyone else who has had a bad experience to do the same otherwise these scam artists will get away with making such a holy experience a miserable one for many more customers To top it off when i raised a refund request with my credit card provider they have the nerve to say i availed and enjoyed all agreed services and it is unfair for me to claim back after the trip! The cheek of it after they told me to wait until i came back from my trip to find a resolution! Complete scam artists.
I strongly recommend avoiding Al Haq Travel and not being deceived by their desi staff, who lure customers in with sweet talk. Their packages are overpriced and, in reality, are booked through another company called Hotelbeds.com. Like many others, I was misled by their positive reviews, assuming I would be dealing with professionals. However, the staff at this company are far from professional and lack any understanding of how customer service works in the corporate world.
This was my first Umrah trip, and unfortunately, I learnt the hard way just how unreliable and deceptive some travel agencies can be. I wouldn't want others to go through the same experience, especially on such an important spiritual journey.
Blaming Customers Instead of Taking Responsibility
The worst part about dealing with Al Haq Travel is that instead of checking their own work when issuing flight tickets and hotel bookings, they put the responsibility on the customer. They outright tell you:
"It's your responsibility to check all paperwork. We will not be held liable."
What kind of company operates like this?! A travel agency's job is to ensure all details are correct, yet they shift the blame onto customers if anything goes wrong. Completely unprofessional and unacceptable.
Hidden Fees & Rude Customer Service
One major red flag is their 40% cancellation charge, which they apply if you try to change your hotel or cancel, effectively forcing you to stay with them. My experience dealing with their staff was appalling.
I was initially in contact with Maryam, who started off polite but soon became incredibly rude. When I expressed my dissatisfaction and requested to speak to someone else, she started screaming at me, insisting that I had to deal with her and no one else. I ended the call and rang back via their main switchboard.
I was then passed on to her supervisor, Zubair, who also started off polite but later shouted at me when I asked about my visa. His response? "I will send it when it comes." No professionalism, no courtesy.
Misleading Hotel Information – Makkah
Al Haq Travel falsely claims that their staff have extensive knowledge of Makkah, but they clearly do not. I was given a hotel, M Millennium, which was a 44-minute walk to the Haram. The shuttle bus they advertised was not even a direct route down Ibrahim Khalil Road.
Despite multiple reassurances from Maryam and Zubair that the shuttle would be a 5-10 minute drive, this was completely false. The reality was far worse. We ultimately left the hotel after just two nights as it was simply not within a commutable distance for frequent visits to the Haram.
Tip: Always check distances on Google Maps—it does not lie! Al Haq Travel, on the other hand, will try to deceive you into believing they know Makkah better than they actually do.
Poor Hotel Experience – Madinah
The Madinah hotel, Zowar International, was below average, with the only positive being its proximity to Masjid Al-Nabawi. However, the experience inside the hotel was disappointing:
The first room we were given was on a floor where every single room had a "No Smoking" sign, yet every room reeked of smoke.
A horrible sewage smell was coming from the bathroom. After complaining, we were moved to another floor, but the smell and smoking issue were just as bad.
No room turnover or housekeeping service. No replenishment of basic amenities.
Breakfast was included, but we didn't bother with it.
Final Verdict – Book Everything Yourself!
This was my first Umrah trip, and I had hoped for a smooth and hassle-free experience. Instead, I had to learn the hard way that relying on the wrong travel agency can ruin your trip.
Save yourself the stress, frustration, and extra costs—you are far better off booking your own flights, hotels, and visa instead of relying on a travel agency like Al Haq Travel, which is only interested in ripping people off. When you book independently, you have full control over your trip rather than being at the mercy of an agency that overcharges and underdelivers.
Bottom Line: Do your own research, use Google Maps for accurate travel times, and avoid Al Haq Travel at all costs! I wouldn't want anyone else to go through what I did.
These Guys are COWBOYS!
Absolutely worst company. Avoid at all costs!
Absolutely worst company I've ever dealt with. Firstly numerous times they charged us extra money once we had paid for flights. The hotels were changed numerous times and we were promised 4star hotels and given 3stars. By the end of the process they had charged us nearly £300 extra per person. We were blackmailed into writing false reviews of how good their service was and name the person who we dealt with MUSTAFA before our visas were released to us. We got picked up by our transport that was arranged in Jeddah and dropped off to a closed hotel and the driver ran off and left us. We were stranded as a family of 4 and numerous pieces of luggage. After struggling to figure out what had happned, we found out the hotel was under maintenance and were told to try their other branch. We had to pay for our own taxi to get to the other branch with no money on us, had to go to a bank and get the money out. Then once we got to this other branch we once again struggled for hours trying to figure out what had happened to our reservation. All the meanwhile we were trying to get hold of AlHaq and failing miserably with their absolutely terrible service. Once we finally managed to get them to understand what was happening we got told to pay for the night ourselves and they would sort it out. Thankfully the hotel staff managed to sort us out a room and transfer the reservation. However once again these agents said to us we have transferred you to another hotel branch you have to go there. At our wits end having not even done umrah at this point we were told to do umrah and go to the other branch. Once we got back from umrah we enquired at reception about having been told to go to the other branch and were told that branch was also CLOSED! The transport they booked was useless, our transport that was booked to go to medinah was over an hour late becaue the driver was asleep in his bed. This agency is an absolute joke, they have no idea what they're doing, blackmailing people for these false reviews and misleading people, and we were adamant we needed to let other people know once we were back as we booked this agency based on these reviews. Most of all is the terrible customer service, conning people out of money. Please save yourself stress and hassle and money and do not book with them.
AN ABSOLUTE HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE. Sold the world, delivered 0. Nimra- lied about all the ziarets- Ahmad Latif (manager) - lied about hotel/vouchers/ payments. CEO Mr Ghilani syed- did not give a monkeys. My dates were changed (no problem) but they changed my hotel without any notice or without my consent. Got to Madina hotel with my 2children (4 & 5) my wife and elderly parents and were refused entry to the hotel as they hadn't received any confirmation from my travel agent. Managed to sort it out 3hours later, then was asked to check out the next day at 2, as the agent only booked us in for 24hours. Absolutely horrible experience- Mr Ahmad Latif (compulsive liar) (the manager) did not care quoting " it's not my fault they haven't received payment". Wait a sec I paid the agent, who's responsibility is it to pay the hotel?. All of the ziarets- got told at point of sale we will have someone with us giving us the history of each ziaret- no body was with us and no information from the driver.
Would I recommend this company- STAY AWAY EVERYONE- DO NOT HAVE THE SAME EXPERIENCE AS WE DID. If you choose to go with them- DON'T SAY NOBODY WARNED YOU.! London- ILFORD
The hotels were very very nice, so I thank Uswa and Al-Haram Travel for all their efforts and I will definitely recommend AlHaq travel.
Alhamdulillah by the grace of Allah I have completed my Umrah with Al Haq travels and their services are awesome
Nimra shahezade your services is very good. I hope you keep continue to good work.
Thanks
Monwara
I was initially dealing with brother Ahsan, and felt he had provided me with tremendous services and assistance when I was originally booking an Umrah package with Alhaq Travel for myself and my brother.
I honestly could not complain whatsoever in the beginning prior to me paying for the so called 'Umrah Package'.
Moreover, due to the friendliness of Ahsan, who had sold a group Umrah package to me, and had from the start promised that a religious guide would accompany me and my brother, he was the only person I wished to deal with whenever I would call Alhaq Travel.
The crux of the matter is, despite all of this, myself and my brother have had a horrible experience, I had paid £430.00 as a fee because I previously went to Umrah (which was the only money myself and my brother had collected intending to use as pocket money to buy food and etc while abroad), however this fee was waived by the Saudi Embassy as I was told by Ahsan, and was promised numerous occasions upon calling Ahsan and Alhaq Travel that I would receive this money back, unfortunately I never received this money back.
In fact, I understand there were visa delays at the Saudi Embassy, of which myself, my brother and my family were extremely concerned whether we would still even travel for Umrah. I was not being informed anything and equally so nobody from Alhaq Travel was bothering to go out of their way to reach me and inform me on what exactly was going on. I was having to chase up and call everyday to find an update from Ahmad Latif, Jamal, Hafiz Saad, which is clearly not right, communication is key, Alhaq Travel should have communicated and gone out of there way to update me regarding everything that was going on.
As a result, myself and my brother could not aboard the flight for our initial booking dates, and while myself and my brother had neither of our passports or visas, we were told that I should aboard the flight without my brother(who is ill and had never travelled for Umrah previously) and informed that my passport was ready while no visa was produced nor was my passport returned to me so that it would be rightfully so in my possession.
When the visas finally came through, myself and my brother were not given the customer service we expected Alhaq Travel to provide us with.
Furthermore, instead of Alhaq Travel taking care of us as customers, when surely we were not at fault for the visa delays, we were ridiculously told by Ahmad Latif to pay extra for an expensive package with Saudi Airlines which we had never embarked on purchasing in the first place.
The fact of the matter is, we were bamboozled and deceived, as the £430.00 I had initially paid as a visa fee which was waived, was used towards this new booking, when this should not have been the case.
Thus, myself and my brother had already booked time off work for the dates that were associated with the Umrah package, therefore we were deeply affected by these events that transpired.
Nevertheless, it was agreed that we would continue with this new booking, we were expected by Ahmad Latif to be able to find our way in a foreign land we were not residents of, it was only after we pressured Ahmad to be reasonable and provide us transportation that Ahmad agreed and promised to provide transportation and a contact of the people who would be transporting us and our baggage to the hotels.
We were promised by Ahmad Latif on more than one occasion over the phone that transport would be covered throughout the trip (Madinah Airport to Madinah Hotel, Madinah Hotel to Makkah Hotel and Makkah Hotel to Jeddah Airport) and that the hotel bookings were confirmed, however on countless occasions I had to urge and pressure Ahmad Latif to send their confirmations to me after he had constantly delayed in sending them.
Alhamdulillah we had finally boarded the flight! I must say that the service of the plane was professional, however as soon as we reached Madinah hotel, we were stranded as the people who we were informed would be responsible for our transport had no booking confirmation or knowledge about us. This was extremely disappointing and frustrating, I had to go out of my way to contact these individuals and urge them that our transport booking was arranged, after a substantial amount of time we were picked up by this company and were taken to our hotel in Madinah.
When the time had come to leave Makkah, we were left stunned, gobsmacked, that there was no transport booking reservation covered for us to be transported from Madinah hotel to Jeddah airport, I had constantly emphasised to the people responsible for our transport that Ahmad had certainly agreed and promised to provide transport throughout the trip (Madinah Airport to Madinah Hotel, Madinah Hotel to Makkah Hotel and Makkah Hotel to Jeddah Airport).
Unfortunately, this was completely denied by Ahmad, so reluctantly I was forced to pay 250 SAR (almost £52) out of my pocket to this company for a service that should have already been provided, otherwise myself and my brother would have missed our flight back to London.
In total myself and my brother were supposed to only pay £1,590.00 for a group package that was initially advertised and sold to us. Unfortunately, we were made to pay £2,020.00 (£430 extra which could have made more use going to charity) to travel by ourselves, without a group or a tour guide as promised in the beginning. This amount we actually paid does not even cover any ziyaarat in Makkah or Madinah, as well as no breakfast in Madinah hotel and what is worst, transportation from Makkah hotel to travel in one peace to Jeddah airport and await our flight to London.
In conclusion, I feel it is incumbent upon me to as a muslim believer to warn other potential customers of the traumatising experience I suffered first-hand at the hands of Alhaq Travel to prevent similar mishaps and incidents occurring in the future.