Hoverspeed.com

Review by Adrian Mann, owner of Adrian Mann Design, providing independent reviews and analysis of travel web sites in the UK.

Hoverspeed is a cross channel ferry operator, operating fast crossing services between the UK and France and Belgium. Despite the name, they no longer use hovercraft, but instead have a fleet of fast single and twin-hull ferries. The site also caters for users in French, Dutch and German as well as English.

Overall
First impressions are that it looks more like an airline site than a ferry operator site. Predominantly red, white and blue, access to the different areas of the site is from tabs and drop down menus across the top of the page. The site offers five areas – Fares & Booking, Schedules, Special Offers, Travel Extras and News & Info, and a number of links to competitions and special offers.

Content
The greatest appeal of the site for most will be the opportunity to book travel online, or check schedules. Online booking employs a 6-step process, and if you’re used to low cost flight sites you’ll feel at home here. Online booking opens a new window for the booking process, the first step of which is to select the route, type of journey (single or return), date and time of travel. There’s also a currency selector, but its function seems to be redundant. English users can only select Sterling, while the other language versions only offer Euro. Date and time are selected by either drop-downs or a calendar. Next is passenger and vehicle details, followed by outward and return journeys, a price check which shows the full price and all the options selected, and then on to payment and confirmation. A ‘Call Me Back’ service is offered throughout, and overall its well laid out and easy to understand.

If you’re just checking schedules and fares, there’s a comprehensive section for that, and there’s also a downloadable PDF of the schedules, and the option to order a brochure.

‘Travel Extras’ includes a frequent user scheme, information on pet travel, a guide to motoring on the continent that includes a checklist of required items. There’s some valuable advice here – for instance, if your headlamps are not adjusted or adapted, your vehicle will be rendered unfit for the road, your insurance will be invalidated and you could also be subject to a spot fine. There’s a page for those importing cars from the continent, a selection of travel insurance products and first class upgrades. Hoverspeed also offer short breaks, holidays and cottage holidays in France and Belgium, via separate sites.

There’s also the ‘Hoverstore’, where you can pre-order beers, wines, spirits and fragrances from an online store, and have them delivered to your home at a considerable saving – provided you travel with Hoverspeed, of course. Tobacco products are not available online, but if you spend over £1,000, you get to travel free!

‘News and Info’ has the usual corporate information, news items and contact details, and some destination information with town maps and details of local attractions, and links to other relevant sites. There are also details of the Hoverspeed fleet and the ships they operate.

Summary
This is a splendid site. They’ve made it as easy to use as possible, and everything is spelt out clearly in plain English. Initially it looks a bit limited, but exploring all the links reveals a lot of useful information. There were a few minor problems – some images were missing in the Hoverstore, and the online booking section was occasionally slow while checking availability, but overall it worked well. The information on offer is relevant and useful, and easy to find.

There are many options for cross-channel travel, from low-cost airlines, the channel tunnel and other ferry operators, but Hoverspeed compares well with all of them and deserves a strong recommendation. It’s just a shame they no longer have the curiously British, eccentric and unique hovercraft!