travel, hotel and booking Information

CRTL Research Says Expedia and Travelocity Lead the Way

Hotel Booking Expedia and Travelocity have been ranked as top travel web sites according to The Consumer Reports Travel Letter (CRTL) and Consumer Webwatch that closely evaluated the six largest independent travel web sites.

Groople In the News Travelocity Teams with Groople to Offer Group Hotel Bookings New shopping tools added to Travelocity's hotel booking engine let travelers book 5+ rooms in a single reservation SOUTHLAKE, Texas and DENVER (February 1, 2005) Planning this summer's faraway family reunion Or maybe you're a coach needing a bunch of rooms for that upcoming youth tournament If so, you'll want to check out new functionality on Travelocity that makes planning and booking group travel a snap. Today, Travelocity announced an agreement with Groople Inc., a leading provider of online group travel bookings that gives Travelocity customers a specialized groups section with discounted hotel rates, group content and new planning features that are unavailable on other travel sites.

Travel Agency CRTL assessed Cheap Tickets, Expedia, OneTravel, Orbitz, TravelNow, and Travelocity. Airline sites were not tested as part of this study.

"Combining Groople's expertise into Travelocity's hotel offerings is another commitment we are making to our customers' varying needs as they research and plan their trips on Travelocity, regardless of the size, " said Josh Feuerstein Travelocity's vice president hotels. "We know that coordinating an event, family trip, reunion, wedding or other group is more complex than a single hotel booking and we are very pleased to now offer such a compelling product to our customers."

Cheap Hotel CRTL compared the sites by considering five key factors: ability to provide lowest fares, ability to provide viable flight itineraries that make sense for most travelers, ease of use, customer service, and privacy and security policies.

Travel agents obtain some of their information from the same sources as online booking sites such as Orbitz and Travelocity. They also receive daily emails and faxes with new specials from resorts and hotels that may not be published on the internet. Travel agents can also call a place directly to see if they can work out other kinds of special deals for you, something an online site can’t do.

Flight Booking "To get the best fares, you have to comparison shop," said CRTL Editor Bill McGee. "None of the independent travel web sites we examined outshone the others in all aspects of booking. And the nation`s leading low-fare carrier, Southwest Airlines, refuses to display its flight times and prices on any of the independent travel sites."

'Split Payment' On Holidays Launched For The First time Online Expedia.co.uk today becomes the first online travel agent to allow customers to split the payment on their holiday bookings in a move to give greater flexibility and choice for travellers and enabling people to travel at an affordable price. Customers booking an Expedia flight and hotel or flight, hotel and car package will be given an option to pay a deposit rather than having to find the full cost of the holiday at the time of booking, making it easier and more affordable than ever for people to let themselves go on holiday in 2006.

Travel Agent The CRTL study found that Expedia beat its competitors in providing the greatest number of lowest fares but that Travelocity offered the best array of low fares coupled with viable flight choices. Travelocity also had the best booking tools. Expedia and Travelocity offered the best customer service among the six sites that were examined in the study.

In addition to more than 60, 000 hotels and six top cruise lines, Groople offers group bookings for air, car, bus and rail. In February, Groople partnered with Travelocity, allowing broader distribution of Groople group rates and inventory on Travelocity.com when users select more than 5 hotel rooms. The past year has also brought partnerships with Choice Hotels International, Cendant Hotels, Best Western and La Quinta Hotels, increasing Groople inventory and thus providing even more hotel options for groups booking through the Groople website and call center.

Hotel Chicago Overall, McGee commented that Expedia and Travelocity emerged as the "clear winners"

Online Booking Orbitz , which is owned by five major airlines, performed well at providing lowest fares and viable flights, but it was edged out in most tests by either Expedia or Travelocity.

Travel Health Insurance The technological divide between these three sites and the others - Cheap Tickets , OneTravel , and TravelNow- is so considerable that CRTL cannot recommend the smaller sites at all, unless the consumer is looking for deeply discounted and nonrefundable fares.

Hotel Reservation The CRTL study also found that it is getting harder to find the best fares through a travel agent. Between 24 and 78 percent of the time, each of the six sites offered prices equal to or lower than those posted in the largest computer reservations system used by travel agents. That`s a big change from when CRTL tested travel web sites in October 2000, when the range was between 6 percent and 22 percent.

London Hotel Booking The study, which will appear in the June edition of the Consumer Reports Travel Letter and the Consumer Reports magazine in July, was funded by Consumer WebWatch (CWW)

[ Comment, Edit or Article Submission ]