Travel comparison sites ranked best to worst

The boss of a popular travel comparison website has put the site “under review” after its poor performance in a consumer group report.

Of all the sites travellers use to compare prices of flights and hotels, GoCompare is the worst, the consumer group Which? has found.

In a survey of the most popular travel comparison websites, Which? found GoCompare’s poor functionality and high prices let it down.

The group asked more than 2200 holiday-makers to rate their experiences when using sites to book travel. Nine websites were rated on a range of criteria, including user-friendliness, price and market coverage, the New Zealand Herald reported.

GoCompare, which knitted together offers on flights and hotels from third parties, landed at the very bottom of users’ recommendations. It was awarded a user satisfaction of only 45 per cent.

Which? compared popular travel comparison websites. Picture: Which?

The Edinburgh-based and Chinese-owned flight-search website Skyscanner landed at the top of the rankings, with almost 70 per cent satisfaction.

Cheapflights also performed badly. With only one star out of five for functionality, the travel website proved too difficult to navigate.

Travel Supermarket fared slightly better. With two out of five for all categories, the website for holiday deals was very much middle of the road.

However, Skyscanner and TripAdvisor landed in the top end of the travel rankings. Consistency in all areas helped the sites win approval from the most holiday-bookers, with three stars across the board.

At the end of the survey, Skyscanner clinched the top result in users’ perceived “value for money” for which the site was awarded four out of five stars.

Which? asked more than 2200 holiday-makers about their experiences with travel comparison sites.

In a separate study by Which?, the travel search engine was able to find the cheapest flight 60 per cent of the time. A good performance when compared against Google Flights, which returned the most expensive fares almost 30 per cent of the time.

On the test case of arranging a trip to Krakow from London, Skyscanner was able to provide a quote that was $115 cheaper than its nearest competitor.

“Holiday-makers are known to spend hours and sometimes days looking for the best hotel rates and the best airfares,” Which? travel editor Rory Boland said.

“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.”

When given its disappointing results, GoCompare’s CEO and founder Lee Griffin said he had placed the site “under review”.

“Following the recent Which? survey of travel comparison services, we have taken the decision to bring the review forward and have terminated the relationship with the (implicated) third-party supplier,” Mr Griffin told the Daily Mail.

GoCompare already works in partnership with Skyscanner to compare flight price data.

This article originally appeared on the New Zealand Herald and was reproduced with permission