Comparing Online Travel Sites
Planning a trip outside the United States can be hard when one does not understand flight options, lodging, and other necessities. Travel sites provide the best ways and deals in which one can achieve their travel outside the United States. Although most of the travel sites aim at presenting their customers with the best deals and services, they tend to share a vast similarity, including the searching options for the destination, price range, hotel stars and locations, and types of cars provided. However, there are factors that make other travel sites better than others. This report provides a comparison of various travel sites and factors that makes them better.
One of the travel sites in the comparison is the Booking.com, which offers various travelling services in more than 117,000 destinations in 225 countries and territories. The site offers bookings for flights, vocational rentals, hotels, and rental cars. The factors that are best in the site include the incorporation of a wide variety of options that one may require while travelling outside the United States for a period more than a month, such as hostels, homestays, and bed and breakfasts. The site also enables easy access to plans and searches by allowing the user to sync their account across their devices (Bommer, 2019). Booking.com also offers best deals through Price Match offer. However, the site is considered to lack features such as bundling hotel, car packages, and flight observed in some travel sites.
Another travel site that was analyzed in the Expedia, which offers booking services for flights, hotels, rental cars, vocational rentals, and cruises. Some of the major features of Expedia are that one can bundle flight, hotel, and car deals eliminating the necessity of having to coordinate each deal separately. The site also has a “My Trips” section which supports one’s entire itinerary in one place, eliminating the need to search endless email and accounts figuring their vacation plan (Macdonald, 2020). Expedia is considered to be best due to its feature that offers flight, hotel, and car bundles. It also helps in coordinating the customer’s whole vacation itinerary. However, the travel site lacks single bookings, which denies customers that prefer making their selections best on preference.
TripAdvisor is another travel site that was analyzed. The site provides booking services outside the United States for hotels, flights, vacation rentals, and restaurants. Some of the highlights of the TripAdvisor that makes it unique from other travel sites is that is considered as a most experience-driven travel site, offering a place to live that can be explored (Macdonald, 2020). TripAdvisor is considered to be one of the best travel sites for detailed filtering, enables comparison of deals across aggregators, and contained a strong user-generated review that supports in guiding new users in terms of customer experience. The site does not include bundling hotel, car, and flight packages.
CheapOair is another site that was considered in the comparison. It offers booking services, including flights, rental cars, and hotels. One of the unique features of CheapOair is the “Travel by Interest” section that enables senior, students, military, and last minute travel to benefit from special discount deals. The site also offers group travel options that enable individual travelling at the same destination for the function, such as a wedding, reunion, or corporate event to access all their travel needs. CheapOair was found best for special or specific travellers, such as senior citizen, students, military, large groups. It also offers flight, hotel, and car bundles. However, it was established that the site charges higher than usual fees when compared to other travel sites.
Hotwire was also compared to other travel sites. Hotwire provides bookings services for flights, rental cars, and hotels. One of the main factors of Hotwire is the extremely low prices that it offers, due to the partnership it has with other travel sites, such as Hotels.com and Expedia. Hotwire also offers a free 24-hour cancellation policy, which enables most travellers to save cash when they face unavoidable circumstances. The site is considered best for travellers with a lower budget. However, travellers with very specific preferences in terms of brands of hotels and car may find it difficult as the choice is feature is not included in the site.
The last travel site that was considered in the comparison is the Priceline, which offers flights, rental cars, hotels, and cruises booking services. Some of the features that Priceline contains that makes it different from the other travel sites include the “Express Deals” that provides up to 60% savings on hotels to flexible travellers. Another feature “Name Your Own Price” offers customers the ability to save by inputting their location, star rating, and price bid for a car or hotel (Chen & Picks, 2017). Priceline is considered best for individuals that have low loyalty in terms of hotel and car brand and are only interested in obtaining the best deal that is available. The site offers flight, hotel, and car bundles. It also has a more focus cruise search process making its sections clear and easy to navigate. However, Priceline was not found to be not best for travel inspiration, and for individuals considered low risks takers that always want to be sure and know what exactly is being offered.
Comparison Table
Travel Site Highlight Best For Not Best For
Booking.com Has a simpler app experience Contains Price Match offers. Bundling hotel, flight, and car packages
Expedia Contains “My Trips” section that cans manage the entire itinerary in one place. Offers hotel, flight, and car bundles. Single bookings.
TripAdvisor Contains user-generated reviews that enable customers to get added benefits of reading reviews before booking. Provides detailed filtering
Comparing deals across aggregators. Bundling hotel, flight, and car packages
CheapOair Conations the “Travel by Interest” section that offers special deals for senior, military, last minute travel, and students. Specific travelers like senior citizens, military, students, and large groups.
Hotel, flight, and car bundles Higher than usual service fees
Hotwire Offer extremely low prices Travelers on a budget. Travelers with very specific preferences like hotel brand or car brand
Priceline Contains the “Express Deals” option rewards flexible travelers with up to 60% savings on hotels. Travelers with low hotel and car brand loyalty who want to find a great deal
Hotel, flight, and car bundles Travel inspiration or destination guides
Low risk takers who like to know exactly what they’re getting
References
Bommer, B. (2019). Best Online Travel Sites. Top Ten Reviews. Retrieved from https://www.toptenreviews.com/best-online-travel-sites
Chen, C., & Picks, I. (2017). We compared 7 travel-booking sites to show you what each is best at. Insider. Retrieved from https://www.insider.com/expedia-tripadvisor-priceline-travel-booking-site-comparison
Macdonald, J. (2020). The 8 Best Online Travel Agencies of 2020. Tripsavvy. Retrieved from https://www.tripsavvy.com/best-online-travel-agencies-4776301
