Vacations: Best and Worst Skyscanner to Airbnb Travel Booking Sites Revealed by Which? | Travel News | To travel
Travel booking websites can be very helpful when booking vacations. But with so many choices and so many services, it’s hard to know which one to use. Who? made it easy for you – the consumer champion revealed the best and worst travel booking sites.
Who? surveyed nearly 5,000 members over the summer about their experiences with various travel booking sites, broken down into flight booking sites, accommodation booking sites and travel comparison sites.
Many problems were highlighted in the research, with respondents rating sites on various criteria.
These included site functionality, pricing, and fee transparency.
Interestingly, many sites scored lower overall than last year, no doubt due to the chaos caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
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Best flight comparator
Netflights was identified as the best flight comparison site out of the seven reviewed.
It received the highest customer score in the category, even though it was still only 65%.
It was the only flight booking site to get four stars for price, and less than one in 10 customers reported a problem with the website.
However, the site only got three stars for customer service.
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When refunds were requested, Netflights said they would “normally” take 45 days to process – far longer than the seven-day window in which refunds would legally have to be processed by airlines for canceled flights – and that the pandemic was making wait times even longer.
Expedia comes in second, followed by ebookers in third place.
Opodo came at the bottom of the table for the second year in a row.
It scored 41% and only got two stars for customer service.
According to which? the consumer site recently recommended that passengers avoid booking with Opodo after leaving the ATOL program.
Opodo refuted the findings. An Opodo spokesperson told Express.co.uk: “While each of our customers is important to us and we strive for 100% customer satisfaction, the number of responses to the question Which? the survey of Opodo customers (93) is very limited. This small sample size does not reflect the 17 million customers we have worldwide.
“Our priority this year has been to manage all cancellations produced as a result of COVID, and we have already refunded over a million tickets and 100% of the package vacations. However, airlines continue to withhold refunds that belong to consumers. The carriers are responsible for authorizing reimbursement requests and for effecting the transfer of funds.
“We are unable to reimburse our customers until this step is completed by the airlines, and their delays contribute significantly to the time our customers have to wait. We appreciate that the current travel environment is frustrating for our customers; our teams across the company are working to mitigate this problem as much as possible.
Accommodation booking sites
Airbnb, with a customer score of 75 percent, led the way in accommodation bookings. It was the only booking site to impress customers and the consumer champion enough to receive Which? Recommended supplier status.
Despite the large number of cancellations handled by Airbnb during the UK lockdown, it has consistently received five stars for customer service, and customers have also given it five stars for its awards.
Its free cancellation filter and transparent, up-front refund policies – set by owners – also impressed Which? with flexible rebooking and refund options that have proven invaluable to many in recent months.
Airbnb was followed by Booking.com and Homeaway.
Lastminute.com climbed to the bottom of the table in this category for the third year in a row, with just 55% and just three stars in each category.
Express.co.uk has contacted Travelocity and lastminute.com for comment.