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Description
Since its launch in March 1996, Travelocity has registered more than 8m members and logs more than 105m page views in every month.
The UK version, launched in November 1998, is one of the most powerful one-stop travel sites on the Internet claiming secure on-line reservation capabilities for air, car and hotel reservations, plus access to a vast database of destination and other travel information.
Home page
Although the home page is filled with numerous subject headings the eye is actually drawn to the six icons at the top of the page.
These provide links to find and book a flight, a car, hotel or holiday as well as search for weekend deals or view the destination guide.
The home page allows the user to get stuck in straight away with a short and simple form to complete to ‘find the best fare for your return flight now’ – clearly the main focus of the site is to sell air fares.
Ease of searching
Flights – simply enter minimal information – leaving from, going to, number of adults, departure and return dates – and the next page appears to say that you need to log in.
The speed at which the flight list is produced questions whether the computer reservation system has been interrogated for the latest filed fare and availability checked!
Once done, a clear, easy to read listing of published fares appears in price order. For each option, a buy, hold (if offered), express buy (if possible) and more info button appears.
Details such as preferred airlines and ticket types can be input, as well as having the ability to search for the nine best itineraries (as above this selects the cheapest fares for the route for the specified dates) or to schedule (where the flight times are important). Using the schedule option meant that the outward and return flights needed to be selected separately.
Scour the home page and link to consolidator fares that can be found in a pop-up menu. This section, supplied by Tiss.com and Seaforths Travel, requires re-registration and on searching we were initially quoted prices in US dollars!
Hotels and car hire – essential information must be entered with the option of specifying further details. The search can then be made for all companies or those that can confirm immediately. Results are presented in a listing – sorted by price for car hire.
Holidays/ Weekend deals – Bargainholidays.com supply the holiday section of Travelocity which does not provide real-time availability nor on-line booking.
Ease of booking
Flights, car hire and hotels can be booked on-line. The process is straightforward, especially as some information has already been completed in registration.
Instructions seemed reasonably clear to follow, although the flights hold facility follows the same process as buying, which unsettled us.
Nice features
Express buy – this feature allows all of the booking steps to be executed behind the scenes and the user to go directly to the last page in the booking process, provided a personal profile has been completed.
Interactive calendar – this is a useful feature.
Ease of use
The site relies mainly on the browser’s navigation buttons as links often appear at the bottom of a page. Speed of response times were very good with the option of a reduced graphics version for faster response. Slight confusion is caused by the switching between the US site – Travelocity.com – and the UK site.
We also found the scrolling on some search form pages irritating – a quick search button after the compulsory section could speed up the searching process for those not wanting to specify more detailed requirements.
Value of information
Information provided on flight rules, car and hotel policies is comprehensive and reassuring for the on-line booker.
Details on the travel products themselves are good and there is also lots of extra travel information. Travel tools include ticket delivery status, active reservations, UK airport arrivals and weather (although this is only the current weather forecast).
Travel tips include a theatre guide, resort guide, baggage guidelines and a currency converter. Further destination information is provided by Lonely Planet.
Would you come back?
Yes, although the site could be more user friendly, it proves how key travel products – flights, car hire, hotels (but not holidays) – can be booked on-line.
Flights seem to be the main focus of the site, but we were unsure and concerned as to whether these flights were available when booking on-line.