An innovative international investigation into cross-border shopping for online airfares has revealed that European travel sites are better at providing lower fares…
An innovative international investigation into cross-border shopping for online airfares has revealed that European travel sites are better at providing lower fares than US-based sites, and that sister travel sites – such as Expedia, Opodo and Travelocity – vary widely from country to country.
The testing, the first of its kind, was carried out by Consumer Reports Webwatch, a US organisation, together with Consumers International and consumer groups in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. Complete survey findings from the report, `A Cross-Border Examination of 20 Travel Web Sites Selling International Airline Tickets in the United States and Six Western European Countries’, can be found at Consumer Reports Webwatch`s website.
A little-known Belgian site, TravelPrice, dramatically outperformed US-based sites such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz, despite intense competition and million-dollar advertising campaigns in the US market. An English-language site in the UK, Opodo, also offered better deals than its American rivals. Testers of all three US sites found continuing problems with `fare-jumping’, when sites display flights with prices that suddenly change in the middle of a transaction.
Unfortunately, we continue to find that some of the best travel deals online are, in fact, not always available, said William J McGee, a travel industry expert who oversaw the project and authored the report. It’s clear consumers need to be vigilant when looking for and booking travel online.
Anna Fielder, Director of Consumers International’s Office of Developed and Transitional Economies, says: The EU is supposed to be a single market. That is clearly not the case for the travel websites that operate in several countries where consumers in some countries clearly get a better deal than in others. The moral is that online consumers must shop around , including internationally.
Key findings:
- Of the 19 travel websites tested, Travelprice of Belgium, tested best for the cheapest airprices. Of 108 valid test queries, Travelprice provided the lowest fare 53 times, a rate of 49%. The second best site was Opodo of Germany with 25%, followed by Airstop of Belgium and Expedia of Germany
- On the whole, English-language American and British sites did not perform as well as sites based in Belgium and Germany. When the sites were ranked by country, the US trailed both countries
- The flight and fare data provided by sister travel sites – such as the Expedia, Opodo and Travelocity brands – varied widely from country to country, dispelling the belief that these sites are identical except for home pages and translations. Each sister site clearly obtained its own inventory of airfares
- Nearly all the travel sites were twice as likely to provide a lowest fare on a route that originated in the site’s home country, as they were for all routes from all countries. For example, Americans traveling from the UK to Western European destinations should consider using a British site
- In both Europe and the US, many of the most viable low-fare airline choices are not always available in the leading third-party travel sites
- Despite language and currency issues, several European travel sites could be viable alternatives for American consumers
Methodology:
In collaboration with Consumers International in London, Consumer Reports WebWatch employed proven methodologies it used in six previous tests of travel websites. WebWatch staff trained and oversaw participants from six European consumer organisations, conducting 144 tests each of 20 travel sites in the US and Europe.
The European organisations were:
- Test-Achats/Test-Aankoop, Belgium
- The Danish Consumer Council, Denmark
- UFC-Que Choisir?, France
- Stiftung-Warentest, Germany
- Consumentenbond, The Netherlands
- Consumers’ Association, UK
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
