New website ‘plays the role of a travel agent’
A new price comparison website which claims to completely replace the role of the travel agent has officially launched with the backing of lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman,
Travelmatch.co.uk claims to allow users to search for trips using a wider range of criteria than rival sites, so for example they can look for holidays by facilities, temperature and activities rather than simply by destination, departure date, budget and duration.
The company said in a press release: "travelmatch.co.uk plays the role of a travel agent, matching your search criteria to the best holidays for you, taking the time and hassle out of a search."
Even so, the search options available on the site are still quite limited. For example, there are only five activities listed, no ski or cruise options, and only five categories of holiday.
Hoberman is among a number of travel experts said to be backing the new venture. Investors include former Opodo chief executive David Scowsill and John Moulton, founder of Better Capital.
The site has been under development by founders Alex Francis and Jonny Marsh since 2006, who claim that research shows 70% of people who buys holidays online know what they want to do, rather than where they want to go.
Francis was the founder and director of a telecoms company which he setup in 1998. In 2000 part of the company was sold in a trade sale making a considerable return for the shareholders.
Marsh has 10 years’ experience of delivering internet products, with broad industry experience across online travel (lastminute.com), media, e-commerce, mobile and international markets (Yahoo!).
"travelmatch.co.uk enables customers to search without any of the constraints associated with current sites so they are shown new and perfectly suited destinations they may never have considered before," added the company.
"Searches can be made by “Temperature”, “Month”, “Flight Duration”, and even “Food/Drink” as well as many others, providing a level of detail that until now was not possible."
Travelmatch also includes blogs, videos, pictures and Tripadvisor reviews plus links to social networks to aid the research process.
By Linsey McNeill
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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