n There are millions of pages of information on the Internet but searching for that information can be bewildering as there is no central structure. Travel continues to dominate what consumers research on-line and it is reported that around two-thirds of people who research travel initially find a site from a portal or a search engine. Portals can be defined broadly as gateways to on-line content. They offer a variety of information from weather and news to entertainment and travel. Many are specialised but essentially they are designed to be your home page – the place where you start your search on the Internet. A search engine is a searchable database of information. Most allow the user to enter one or more words to search the contents of every Web page stored in their databases and display the results. Some examples of portals and search engines include:-MSN’s www.msn.co.uk, Yahoo’s www.yahoo.co.uk, Excite’s www.excite.co.uk, Lycos’ www.lycos.co.uk and Go2Net/Metacrawler’s www.go2net.com.
are intuitive. However, some frustrations creep in when there is no availability – the system does not suggest nearby dates or alternative airlines.
Is the site secure?
The site has a prominent link on the home page to general information about Web site security. The booking process is handled on a secure Web server which is made clear as you progress the booking.
Special functions
Bid and Fly allows users to bid a price for a destination and dates and ebookers then promises to make every effort to find a seat at that price.
A similar service operates on 10 European City Breaks. Flight Alert notifies users when fares for a destination on a particular airline fall below a given rate. Flight Watch sends you updated text messages to a mobile phone, giving the status of any particular flight arrival or departure. This is a useful function to help you avoid wasting time when flights are delayed.
Value ofinformation
The partnership content – including a weather facility and Time Out listings – is excellent. However, there was one major omission on the site – a definition of the rules governing any individual fare listed after a fare search. Against each fare is a link but instead of fare rules, it simply goes to the Lonely Planet listing for that destination. In fact it was hard to know what the fare conditions were at that important stage in the booking process.
Would you come back?
Yes we would because we think ebookers is working hard with its special features.
Fierce competition for Web loyalty is making these ideas an imperative but even without these, ebookers had plenty of content and site activity to make us return.
Although we would return to the site, it is obvious the bottom line is that the site is not ready to book more than straightforward flight itineraries with basic add-on services such as car hire and insurance.
Description
The ebookers travel site was revamped from the established Flightbookers site. Launched in September this year, ebookers was promoted in a major advertisement campaign promising the destination for your information.
Home page
There was just a brief pause after we entered the site address and then an excellent layout for a home page greeted us. Just one glance told us that this site has plenty of avenues to check out and yet the screen was uncluttered. We could not miss the focus of the site, a search form to use to look for flights, hotels, car hire and insurance. A side menu included site map and an array of topics, including special offers, a destination of the month and some eye-catching icons.
Ease of use
The presence of navigation menus made the site’s wealth of information easy to find.
Even where the content was provided by third parties, it was always easy to backtrack, to make sideways leaps and still find our way around comfortably.
Ease of booking
The site allows booking for flights, car hire, hotels and insurance.
We were disappointed by the narrow choice of destinations and of hotels as well as the fact that no on-line hotel availability check or booking was possible. It was simply ‘strongly suggested’ to leave credit-card details as part of an on-line form to fill in and submit if you had an accommodation request.
It was a similar story with insurance. Although a comprehensive set of rates was given, the on-line form did not tailor a calculation for us but simply provided an e-mail form with credit-card fields to submit.
Car-hire rates were straightforward but the step to booking was a disappointment. The range of fares and airlines listed for a set of destinations we tried at various times and for various dates was impressive. A booking map at the top of the page gives an at-a-glance view of the steps towards a confirmed booking. We chose several destinations – Malaga, Athens, Hong Kong and Sydney. In each case we were prompted to select three preferred airlines for availability. Annoyingly, these were not all in alphabetical order.
After displaying the list of available fares, we were able to select one and proceed to booking. At this stage, ebookers asks for a registration, which was a simple form and easy to do, before going on to check availability.
When availability shows, the flight selection, price confirmation and final booking procedures are intuitive. However, some frustrations creep in when there is no availability – the system does not suggest nearby dates or alternative airlines.
Is the site secure?
The site has a prominent link on the home page to general information about Web site security. The booking process is handled on a secure Web server which is made clear as you progress the booking.
Special functions
Bid and Fly allows users to bid a price for a destination and dates and ebookers then promises to make every effort to find a seat at that price.
A similar service operates on 10 European City Breaks. Flight Alert notifies users when fares for a destination on a particular airline fall below a given rate. Flight Watch sends you updated text messages to a mobile phone, giving the status of any particular flight arrival or departure. This is a useful function to help you avoid wasting time when flights are delayed.
Value ofinformation
The partnership content – including a weather facility and Time Out listings – is excellent. However, there was one major omission on the site – a definition of the rules governing any individual fare listed after a fare search. Against each fare is a link but instead of fare rules, it simply goes to the Lonely Planet listing for that destination. In fact it was hard to know what the fare conditions were at that important stage in the booking process.
Would you come back?
Yes we would because we think ebookers is working hard with its special features.
Fierce competition for Web loyalty is making these ideas an imperative but even without these, ebookers had plenty of content and site activity to make us return.
Although we would return to the site, it is obvious the bottom line is that the site is not ready to book more than straightforward flight itineraries with basic add-on services such as car hire and insurance.