| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 28/08/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 18 |
| Copyright: Other |
web site focus
Every fortnight FSS marketing director Ian Champness picks an Internet site and looks at how useful it is for travel agents
This week: www.holidaydiscounts.comDescription
This is one of several consumer Web sites under the control of Team Lincoln, part of the Thomson Travel Group. Team Lincoln distributes late-availability holiday information in a variety of media including Teletext, satellite and cable TV and on the Web, for fulfilment by Lincoln Travel (ABTA D5299). The site was launched as recently as December last year and already claims over 800 enquiries monthly from 10,000 users. The site’s main feature is its searchable database of 3,500 discounted holidays from major tour operators, updated hourly. Other sites operated by the group include www.lunnpoly.com, www.lincolndirect.com and www.latedeals.com.
Home page
The home page has simple, clean lines and was quick to download. Its bright orange and yellow colour combinations effectively celebrate the holiday mood while remaining surprisingly easy on the eye. The main area had 20 offers laid out in columns with each holiday price displayed as a link to further information. Over the course of several visits, we saw that these offers changed regularly. Above these hand-picked offers, the site header contains the site logo and a reservations number pleasingly animated, with a message to Call Now. To the left, a simple navigation menu includes About Us, What You Need To know and Search For A Holiday. The inclusion of the company’s ABTA logo with a link to ABTA’s official site is a confidence builder.
Ease of navigation
We had the overall impression of an easily understood and well arranged site, where the navigation menu remained in place throughout and moving between topics was straightforward. There was no reliance on third-party sites for additional content so it was impossible to stray away from the site unwittingly. Hand picked holiday details are a click away from the home page, which is extremely handy.
Ease of searching
The site’s search utility is accessed from the top item on the navigation menu and also from a banner on the home page. All input into the search utility is via pop-up menus, even including the dates requested, so search criteria are closely controlled by the system. A range of dates, or a single date, can be specified. The remaining eight fields can be left at their default value but searches can be refined by destination, departure airport, accommodation rating, budget, length of stay and specific tour operator. But it was impossible to specify a selection of airports – so for users in London, separate searches on Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton were needed.
Search results
The search results are beautifully presented in an easy-to-read table giving a price against each date for which a holiday is found. Thus a search on Athens for all accommodation types over a one-week period yields a number of prices. More details of the relevant holiday are found by clicking on the price, which yields a summary of the holiday, the name of the operator and a route to more information about the resort chosen.
Ease of booking
The site does not handle on-line bookings. There are three Next Step choices once a suitable holiday is found; telephone the number on display, complete an e-mail form or click on a Phone Me button, which promises a call back in five minutes. We tried all three options and they all reacted as the site claimed they would.
Site security
As the site does not handle on-line transactions, it has no need to operate on a secure server. Although the site didn’t display the TrustUK logo when we reviewed it, this application is under way.
Value of information
We were a little wary of the instruction (with every search result ) to ‘hurry’ with a booking as ‘these discounts go fast’. Such messages seem to compromise the point of searching for an ‘available’ discount holiday. There is also much scope for development of more information about individual hotel accommodation – there was none on any of the many searches we made. It is fair to say, however, that the site delivers well on its primary aim to offer available holidays for late bookers.
Nice touches
The site was always responsive and delivered its search results quickly. The Phone Me button was useful and friendly.
Would we return to this site?
The site is consumer-friendly with good design values and is a positive example of a Web shop front which any agent would do well to replicate.
Did you know?Internet facts and figures
n If you want to send a Web page via e-mail you can do so by clicking on File/Send Page in Netscape Navigator and File Send/Page/by e-mail in Internet Explorer. This will open a new e-mail attaching the Web page so all you need to do is enter the recipient’s e-mail address.
If you want to follow a link from a Web page but don’t want to leave the site you are visiting, then click your right mouse button and select Open in New Window, the linked page will be opened in a new browser screen.
Keyboard shortcuts allow you to perform actions on your computer without using your mouse or pull down menus. For example, alt+left arrow takes you back to the previous page and alt+right arrow takes you forward to the next page. To add a bookmark or favourite, use the keyboard shortcut, ctrl + D. To open a dialogue box into which you can type a Web page address, use the shortcut Ctrl +O.