Consumer watchdog names best and worst travel comparison sites
GoCompare has been rated the worst travel comparison site, with users panning it for poor functionality and high prices in a new Which? survey.
Which? asked more than 2,200 holidaymakers to rate their experiences using holiday comparison sites over the last two years in a range of categories, including user-friendliness, price and market coverage.
GoCompare – which uses third parties for its flight and hotel searches – came bottom of the survey with a customer score of 45%.
Users criticised the site for its poor market coverage and whether users were shown prices for all major booking sites.
Skyscanner was rated the best comparison site for flights, with a score of 69%. It was also the only site to score four stars for value for money.
Tripadvisor came second overall and was top of the list for hotel comparison. It received a consistent three stars across all categories in the survey.
Customers said they liked being able to compare prices for a hotel and read customer reviews side by side.
However, earlier this year Which? Travel warned holidaymakers to take these reviews with a pinch of salt after finding evidence that suspicious reviews were artificially raising the profile of some of the highest-rated hotels on the site.
In a separate snapshot investigation, Which? Travel also pitted the seven most used flight comparison sites against each other to see which consistently found the best price.
Skyscanner produced the cheapest price six out of 10 times. Google Flights, however, found the cheapest fare just once. It also found the most expensive fare three times.
For a last-minute return flight to Krakow – voted Which? Travel’s best destination for a city break – Skyscanner was at least £60 cheaper than any of the competitors Which? checked.
When it came to hotel comparison sites, Kayak sourced the cheapest deal in six out of 10 hotel searches, although the savings were relatively small in most cases.
TravelSupermaket came second, finding the cheapest price on four out of 10 occasions – although it also had the most expensive rates on four occasions.
Which? Travel editor Rory Boland said: "Holidaymakers are known to spend hours and sometimes days looking for the best hotel rates and the best airfares, so for many of us travel comparison sites are the first port of call.
There are really only one or two sites you should consider using though if you want to save yourself both money and time."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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