TravelWifi Review: Is it a reliable portable WiFi Provider?

TravelWiFi promises a seamless portable WiFi experience for global travelers, with coverage in over 130 countries. While the pickup and dropoff options are limited, the potential benefits of their services are worth considering.

Considering the vital role of a fast and reliable data connection for travelers, we’ll try to provide an objective assessment of TravelWiFi’s suitability in meeting this need.

Summary

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• TL;DR: TravelWiFi at a Glance
• About the Company
• Plans and Coverage
• Pick Up & Delivery
• Set Up and Ease of Use
• Honest Reviews
• Why HippocketWiFi is a Better Alternative

TL;DR: TravelWiFi at a Glance

TravelWiFi’s reviews on TrustPilot are overwhelmingly negative. At the time of writing, 83% of the company’s reviews are 1-star. 10% were completely happy with the service, giving it a perfect score. However, the remaining reviews brought it to a disappointing average of 1.8 stars.

If you’ve owned or operated a business before, though, you’ll also know an unhappy customer is far more likely to post a review than a happy one. However, less than 2 stars is not a strong look for the company.

The main complaints regularly report poor device performance, delivery issues, and unreliable customer support. These are objective complaints rather than simply not liking a dish at a restaurant, for example.

The price was also mentioned regularly, but if you’re unhappy with any service, you will also be unhappy with the price. We doubt the price itself is much of a pain point for customers, but it will be when they’re not getting the service they expected to be paying for.

About the Company

TravelWiFi, a part of DHI Telecom, was initially dedicated to providing connectivity to U.S. Military personnel and Department of Defense Contractors, a commendable initiative that would instill trust in the company’s values at least.

From there, TravelWiFI expanded into the commercial space, offering internet connectivity solutions to both leisure and business travelers. It covers an impressive number of countries.

In total, TravelWIFi’s coverage expands to over 130 different countries. However, as we’ve seen, it’s one thing to say that coverage is provided in a certain place. It’s another to actually provide it.

It would be nice to see a third-party report on the effectiveness of the coverage in the countries that TravelWiFi claims to service to get a better idea of how truthful the reviews are.

Plans and Coverage

TravelWIFi offers a range of internet connectivity products, including portable hotspots (pocket WiFi), SIM cards, and eSIM solutions.

The services offer 4G LTE speeds, and devices can be rented for a daily rate. For example, the pocket WiFI solution costs approximately €8.50 per day when rented over more extended periods but rises to closer to €12 per day on shorter trips. For exact pricing, you’ll need to choose where you’re renting the device, how you’re collecting it, and the rental period.

European eSIM cards start at €1.80, with plans in Mexico and the U.S. Closer to €3.50 and €4.50.

TravelWiFi also offers a service called “Flex”. This allows users can choose their data speeds (including unlimited data), the number of days, and whether they’d prefer an eSIM or a physical SIM card (not every smartphone is eSIM-compatible).

It’s an impressive range of products and services. We can see why someone traveling to one of the many countries covered would be interested in the flexibility and choice of connection options available.

Users have experienced slow connection speeds and even unexpected data throttling when the speed of pocket WiFi is usually one of its strengths.

One user even said, “This device was completely useless for three-quarters of Costa Rica.” but did go on to add, “Although they were quick to respond to email, they were unable to improve the service, and I spent a week in a foreign country with no internet to assist in getting around and communicating.”

Not ideal.

Pick Up & Delivery

While TravelWifi claims coverage in over 130 countries, the dropoff and pickup options are much more limited. You can only use that service if your departure point or destination is in the United States, France, Spain, or Mexico.

If you’ve already left for your destination or delivery is late, you have little other option. You’ll have departed without your device. According to the reviews, travelers have complained about this, mentioning that devices have either arrived late or not at all, which you don’t want to have to worry about before traveling.

“No refund even though the device never arrived.” – Dr Laura Woodward, Trustpilot

If you have to leave before your TravelWiFi device reaches you, you could use data roaming through your everyday mobile data provider. However, this can be very expensive, especially if you choose it at the last minute.

“It arrived a week late after contacting the company over 10 times.” – Nelson Ross Laguna, Trustpilot.

When choosing a pocket WiFi solution, you want peace of mind before you go on your trip. You don’t want to worry about whether you’ll have a data connection, especially if it will also cost you more money to find an alternative roaming solution to fix the problem.

Country	Coverage Country	Pickup Points	Dropoff Points	Retail Stores
United States	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
France	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Spain	Yes	No	No	Yes
Mexico	Yes	No	Yes	No
United Kingdom	Yes	No	No	No
Canada	Yes	No	Yes	No
Australia	Yes	No	Yes	No
Germany	Yes	No	No	No
Brazil	Yes	No	Yes	No
Argentina	Yes	No	No	No
Italy	Yes	No	No	No
Japan	Yes	No	No	No
India	Yes	No	No	No
South Africa	Yes	No	No	No

Set Up and Ease of Use

Pocket WiFi is typically very easy to use. Most quality hotspots simply turn on and connect to the mobile data connection before providing users with a private WiFi network through which they can connect to the Internet.

Setup was another area where TravelWiFi reviews seem to indicate it’s not as easy as you’d think (whereas HippocketWifi’s setup is simple). Users like Charlie on Trustpilot complained about having connectivity issues. In many cases, customer service could not help fix the problem. Many complained of rejected refunds for unusable data packages they could no longer use.

Ultimately, it results in an angry review. However, they’d used the company before (this was their second time) and were seemingly happy with the product and service the first time.

Another Trustpilot reviewer, Joseph Yin, mentioned they could not get service in Greece and spent a day and a half dealing with customer service, who were working on a fix. This fix never materialized, and customer service had to admit it was a Europe-wide network issue. They refunded the service plan but not the device, forcing the customer to take it back home to continue troubleshooting their pocket WiFi, which they no longer needed and didn’t work as promised.

Honest Reviews

We’ve seen frustrated customers ultimately disappointed with their experience with TravelWiFi.

A rating of 1.8 on Trustpilot places TravelWiFi in the “Poor” category, with Trustpilot classifying 1.7 and below as “bad.” An “average” score starts at 2.8, an entire star below TravelWiFi’s current rating.

The same complaints keep recurring, targeting the speed and reliability of the connection, devices not working, and customer service being unable to help with issues.

Why HippocketWiFi is a Better Alternative

Compared to TravelWiFi, HippocketWiFi’s reviews are glowing.

That is different from saying HippocketWiFi has never had a bad review. Every company gets them occasionally, but on ekomi.co.uk, HippocketWiFi has 4.7 stars out of 5. This breaks down to 92% positive reviews, around 5% neutral reviews, and just 3% negative reviews.

The score on Google reviews is 4.8 out of 5, with nearly 1,000 reviews (980 at the time of writing).