Consumer watchdog Which? urges independent travellers to avoid booking websites and going direct to airlines and hotels “to get a good holiday deal”.
It said its research found some websites offer “poor customer service and rarely if ever find the cheapest prices”.
Which? surveyed its members about their experiences of using comparison sites and booking sites, while it undertook research to discover the cheapest booking methods for flights and hotels.
Among flight booking sites, Expedia was the highest scoring platform, with a customer score of 70%.
However, Which? also found it was the site least likely to find consumers the cheapest flights – perhaps because Expedia does not offer flights from some budget airlines, such as Ryanair and Wizz Air.
Meanwhile Opodo, which was the lowest ranking flight booking site in the survey with a customer score of 28%, returned the cheapest flights more often than any other site Which? looked at – 11 out of 30 times.
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Which said it found comparison sites can be a “useful tool” for finding the airline with the best price.
Google Flights was the best performing comparison site in this category and found the cheapest flights on six out of 30 occasions – comparable to Kayak and Cheapflights, which each found the cheapest flights on five occasions.
When Which? compared the cost of 30 overnight stays in 10 hotels across nine different websites, it found booking direct rather than using a booking site offered the cheapest price half the time.
“Comparison sites again proved useful however, returning the best, or joint best price on multiple occasions,” said Which?.
“Kayak and Trivago were most frequently successful, finding the lowest, or joint lowest price on 12 occasions, while Skyscanner was close behind with 11 times.”
Hotel booking sites on the other hand were more likely to source the highest prices.
Agoda returned the most expensive price on 14 out of 30 occasions, while Expedia and Booking.com each had the dearest prices on 13 out of 30 occasions.
Naomi Leach, deputy editor of Which? Travel, said: “If you’re looking to book a flight or hotel, our research shows comparison sites can be an excellent starting point, scouring the internet to take the hard work out of your decision-making.
“We’d advise checking a couple of different platforms so you have the best possible chance of finding the right option for you.
“Once you’ve narrowed down your selection, book directly.
“Booking with the airline will usually prove cheaper than using an online travel agent, and will mean you know exactly who is responsible should something go wrong.
“Calling a hotel directly will often secure you the best price or at the very least they’ll throw in a freebie like a bottle of wine or a room upgrade.”
Wherever possible, Which? recommends booking as a package to benefit from the consumer protections offered by the Package Travel Regulations. However if choosing to book flights and/or accommodation separately, its research illustrates that booking directly is preferable to using booking sites.
• An Opodo spokesperson commented: “This survey was based on responses from only 44 customers, which is 0.0002% of the 20 million travellers that book through our platform each year.
“We care passionately about every single Opodo customer and we are always looking at how we can make our customer service even better, but consumers also need to be aware that surveys based on such tiny sample sizes are not robust or representative.
“We get feedback from the millions of people that book through Opodo each year and nine out of ten tell us they are satisfied or very satisfied with the service they receive.
“Our Trustpilot score of 4.1 ranks meaningfully better than any other OTA and/or airline. Since the pandemic, through significant investment in technology and our customer service team, we have supported 6.4 million people who have faced travel disruption and got our average call answering time down to only 60 seconds, all while expanding the range of options available to consumers to help them keep costs down, make travel more convenient, and discover new destinations and experiences.
“Like all businesses we get it wrong sometimes, but consumers should be reassured that the overwhelming majority of people that book with us have a positive experience.”