Travel Site Review

Best travel site reviews and advice

We found plenty of useful information about travel websites and travel search engines for this update. Research firm J.D. Power and Associates has published results of its survey of 7,667 people on customer satisfaction among travel websites, including Orbitz, Travelocity and Hotwire. Kiplinger Personal Finance, PCMag.com, Travel and Leisure magazine and other sources name top sites based on the experiences of its reporters and editors. Newspapers such as The Washington Post, the Miami Herald, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times give good ongoing coverage of travel websites and travel search engines.

Increasingly, hotels are undercutting travel websites by offering better deals on their own sites (as well as better cancellation policies and loyalty program awards). The same holds true for airfares. As a result, reviews often recommend checking hotel and carrier websites directly, before booking through a travel site. Some big-name booking sites are challenging this paradigm, however, by scaling back or eliminating booking fees altogether. Travelocity, Orbitz and Expedia are currently offering promotions that remove booking fees for certain reservations, while Expedia recently joined Priceline in removing booking fees on all international and domestic flights with published prices.

In reviews, experts say you should bypass sites such as Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia, at least at first. Instead, start with a meta-search site like the top-rated Kayak.com. Meta-search sites scour airline and hotel websites, smaller databases and other travel sites to find low fares. According to reviews, search engines like Kayak.com usually do a better job than booking sites in finding an abundant selection of lower fares and rates, especially for hotels. That's because search engines are better at seeking the best price. Since they also check airline and hotel websites, you can book directly, skirting the service fees sometimes charged by the large travel sites. In reviews, Kayak.com is easily the most well-rounded travel search engine, searching hundreds of different travel sites to come up with the best fares and hotel deals, so you'll be sure not to miss a potential bargain. Kayak.com also has comprehensive fare-comparison tools for checking prices at other sites and those paid by other travelers.

The most well-known travel sites are not recommended as often as Kayak.com in reviews. In the J.D. Power survey, travelers indicated being least satisfied overall with CheapTickets.com, which gets lower ratings again this year for site navigation and ease of use. When it comes to just booking hotels, the highly advertised Hotels.com earns only average scores from users. Users are happier with Hotwire.com for flight deals, and some experts say that as long as you are flexible, Priceline.com is the best travel site for nabbing deals on hotels -- particularly for deals on normally high-priced rooms in major cities.