Which website can really provide you with the cheapest ticket? Photo / Amir Hanna
Which website can really provide you with the cheapest ticket? Photo / Amir Hanna
In a survey of the most popular travel comparison websites, Which? has found that GoCompare's poor functionality and high prices has let it down. As the worst rated of the websites, you might as well 'go compare' elsewhere online.
Asking more than 2200 holidaymakers to rate their experiences whenusing the sites to book travel, the nine websites were rated on a range of criteria including 'user-friendliness', 'price' and 'market coverage'.
GoCompare, which knits 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. The Edinburgh-based and Chinese owned flight-search website Skyscanner landed at the top of the rankings, with almost 70 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.
Skyscanner was able to provide a quote to Krakow that was $120 cheaper than its nearest competitor. Photo / Ostap Senyuk
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 $120 (£60) cheaper than its nearest competitor.
"Holidaymakers are known to spend hours and sometimes days looking for the best hotel rates and the best airfares," said Which? Travel editor Rory Boland. "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."
Speaking to the Daily Mail Griffin said, "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."
GoCompare already works in partnership with Skyscanner to compare flight price data.
