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by Editors of J.D. Power & Associates
This report relates travelers' overall satisfaction with seven independent travel websites when booking airline, hotel or car reservations. Hotwire.com receives the highest rating overall, performing… particularly well in the areas of competitive pricing and site navigation. Priceline.com lands in second place, with competitive pricing a strength. Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, Orbitz.com and Hotels.com earn scores just slightly lower than Priceline.com's, while CheapTickets.com ranks significantly lower in overall satisfaction. This survey does not rate travel search engines like Kayak.com, which search multiple travel sites.
by Stacy Rapacon
Kiplinger's Stacy Rapacon says, "We've personally used each of these sites to research and book travel and found them superior to others." In the airfare category, Kayak.com is rated best for time-pressed… travelers. However, other sites such as cFares.com score better with international travel. Farecast.com gets high marks for scouting out best airfare deals faster than other sites, which is helpful for flexible travelers. In the lodging category, Priceline.com offers the best deals in luxury hotels, according to editors. And LastMinute.com (formerly Site59.com) does the best job of ferreting out last-minute vacations -- even three hours before departure time.
by Michael Shapiro
by Cliff Kuang, Bree Sposato and Jennifer Welbel
The reporters assemble a list of what they consider to be the top websites of 2008, along with a brief description of their individual strengths. Sidestep.com and Kayak.com get nods as the best tool for… booking flights and hotels. They are called the "ultimate source for deals on airfare, hotels and car rentals." The best site for researching low-fare carriers in Europe is Wegolo.com. TripAdvisor.com is called the best destination for user reviews of hotels, restaurants and attractions.
by Adam Pash
by Kyle Monson
PCMag.com names the top websites in more than a dozen categories, including travel. Selections are drawn from nominations by a committee of editors and analysts. Top consideration is given to sites that are… "either regularly adding cool features, or started out so unimprovably perfect that they shouldn't ever change." Kayak.com is named the best comparison travel site for 2008, while TripAdvisor.com is called "the best way to scout out a hotel from a thousand miles away before booking your room."
by Kyle Monson
This list of top websites focuses on those "that capture the best of the trends and memes swirling around the Web." Farecast.com uses ticket-pricing trends to identify the best time to buy an airline… ticket. InsideTrip.com includes more parameters -- such as legroom and aircraft type -- to the flight searches offered on other travel search engines. TripIt.com will build a master itinerary for you from your confirmation emails.
by "Kevin"
by Janet Fullwood
This overview article moves past the well-known travel comparison and booking sites to focus on smaller sites that fill in niches in travel planning. Sites highlighted include ones that select your travel… destination for you based on a based on your personality or interests, such as BestTripChoices.com. DealBase.com brings hotel deals and offers together in one place. Compete4YourSeat.com lets you build a trip and receive bids from competing travel agents. Other examples are given, and no site is specifically recommended.
by James Martin
by Editors of the Miami Herald
This older article provides a snapshot view of the "big three" online book sites -- Expedia.com, Orbitz.com and Travelocity.com. Opinions are based on company-supplied information as well as the newspaper's… unspecified research. Details such as booking fees, fare alerts, the availability of last minute deals, customer support and more are listed. Expedia.com is called the favorite of the three because of its "appealing, easy-to-use home page and tools."
by Wing Sze Tang
by Vani Rangachar
by Carlo Dellaverson
Carlo Dellaverson lists these travel sites, favorites of NBC travel editor Peter Greenberg. None are reviewed in great detail, but they do represent an interesting cross section of the types of travel… resources available on the Web. Yapta.com and AirfareWatchdog.com are the top choices for air travelers, while BedandBreakfast.com and LuxuryLink.com cater to different niche markets. Tripit.com is named as an excellent option for organizing itinerary details.
by Amber Nolan
If you are planning a cruise -- especially a family cruise -- this article details sites that can help make the many decisions involved a lot easier. Amber Nolan details which sites do what best -- from… finding deals and discounts to picking a cabin to planning shore excursions. All of the sites are described in generally positive terms, however, and the article gives the impression that a visit to all six is a necessity.
by Contributors to Viewpoints.com
This site solicits reviews from users of dozens of travel-related websites, including major aggregators such as Orbitz.com and Expedia.com. Many of the resources listed have only a handful of reviews, but a… fair number have amassed a significant volume. A five-star rating system also allows visitors to see at a glance how well a particular site stacks up. Among sites with 20 or more ratings, TripAdvisor.com and Kayak.com receive the highest averages.
by Michelle Higgins
Many big travel sites also have offshoots in foreign countries like Mexico or Germany, and these offshoots typically charge lower airfare and car rental fees, says The New York Times' Michelle Higgins.… Because companies have multi-tiered pricing structures, the rates for cars and planes (not hotels though) can vary considerably from those published in the U.S. The upshot is that if you're traveling within a country, it makes sense to search foreign version of travel websites first before booking.
by Megan K. Scott
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