Ebookers

INTRODUCTION
My boyfriend and I decided it was time to sort our summer holiday out and after a few days deciding on what to do we opted to go to Orlando and stop off in Las Vegas. As usual the booking arrangements were left to me to stress over.
I searched the net for a good deal and soon realised it would be most cost affective to book our flights and accommodation all separate. I trawled the net for over 2 weeks checking on price changes and debating on what dates to travel. I was very close to using a company that was recommended to me but I had to book over the phone, which was fine, but it would mean no cashback and I am much more easily persuaded to buy extras on the phone.

FLIGHT BOOKING
I then found Ebookers who were offering the most competitive prices and offering the best cashback at the time. I didn't like to book straight away in case prices went down a bit so after they steadied out I snapped the flights up. I booked 2 seats from London Gatwick to Las Vegas then to Orlando returning into Gatwick for £652.90 per person mid august for 15 days. At the time this seemed a real bargain because you the problem I came across was that you couldn't book multi centre trips online on most websites. However from the ones I did find online they were at least £100 more expensive.
On the website you can purchase a flight only, a hotel and flight or a hotel, flight and car hire. It is really easy to get a price you type in your date spans, airports and locations and you are then given a list of flights direct and non direct with all the times etc. If you are then going on to book a hotel your flight booking is held and you are shown a list of hotels with good pictures and descriptions to choose from, you are then taken to the car hire screen where you can make your choices. This is then all calculated together into one cost which you is either payable in full.

HOTEL BOOKING
I am staying in two hotels throughout my stay a hotel in Las Vegas for 4 nights and a hotel in Orlando for 10 nights. The hotel in Orlando was sold out on the Ebookers website and I found it not to be as competitive as travel republic in this instance so I booked that hotel with them.
The hotel in Las Vegas I booked through Ebookers because they were cheapest by far coming in at £133.56. Alpha rooms came in at £161.05 and Travel Republic came in at
£173.36 each hotel comes up with photos and a lengthy description on the hotel its features and facilities. A lot of the hotels also have customer ratings and mini reviews on each one.

CAR HIRE
We decided against car hire but if this is something you would want to book then it is also possible through Ebookers the prices seemed reasonable but we didn't shop around because we decided against the idea quite early on. To get the prices of the car hire is so easy you just type in the dates you arrive and leave and where you want to pick the car up and leave it. When the results come up they are very comprehensive advising the style of car you are renting, what it will look like, its features and even how many suitcases it will hold.

INSURANCE
I didn't purchase our holiday insurance through Ebookers because I had already purchased an annual policy however I have entered the details of a weeks holiday I am taking in Europe next year and it came up with £8 which I thought was excellent value for money it was only for a silver policy but to upgrade to a gold cover which covers £2000 personal belongings cover and £5million in medical costs amongst other things for £10.34 which I am definitely going to go ahead and book. The site is good because if your anything like me you wont have a clue about all this legal jargon to do with insurance but Ebookers have created an easy to follow table with all money amounts you get if you have any problems and also a list of what is covered and what isn't which is helpful.

ABOUT EBOOKERS
Ebookers was established in 1998, which doesn't seem that long ago for a travel company as the web holiday industry boomed way before then. However since then they have formed then reformed and formed again with lots of different companies sadly like most travel companies these days.
Ebookers does now seem stronger than ever because they deal with 65,000 hotels, arrange flights with all the well known airlines and use all the famous car hire companies. Ebookers is very much an online business you cant find an address anywhere on there website but you can call them or email them. However most questions you do have are answered in the customer service screen or in your booking screens.

WEBSITE
The website is colourful with pictures that you could indulge in all day of beautiful destinations. It loads quickly, has minimal adverts and is easy peasy to navigate which is ideal for us independent holidaymakers.
There are 10 tabs across the top of the website which are clear and concise Flights, Hotel, Flight + Hotel, Car Hire, Insurance, Deals, Customer Service, My Bookings and My Account.
You then have an area to start your reservation search, a link to Smart Bookers, Top Flight destinations, car hire deals, hotel deals, holiday deals and traveller tools.
I really like to use the website because it is helpful for some really good tips you don't have to surf around looking for hours on end for something. The website isn't bulked up with things that aren't necessary which is a real luxury for a website these days.
The area I liked the most was Smart bookers because it contained some ideas other websites just do not have. There is a section you can read of what areas the travel editors recommending visiting and why, then there is the Smart travel deals which gives you the best deals that are on at the time and which have discounted upgrades on them, there is then Staff recommendations which is what it says really Ebookers staff share their travel experiences and make recommendations on what to do on your jollies. Then last but not least there is the latest travel and airline news, which I found really interesting it was articles on where low cost carriers were flying to now and what improvements were going to made in the near future.
I also hung my nose over the Traveller tools section but didn't or should I say haven't made use of this facility yet. It is an area where you can get quotes and go on to purchase holiday extras such as Airport parking, Airport lounges, Travel advice, Australian Visas and Airport transfers.

NOW I AM ALL BOOKED UP
Once you have confirmed and paid for your holiday you are emailed a confirmation and then a voucher or e ticket which ever you require to travel. You are then advised to register your details so you can check your booking online and also make amendments, which is really handy. Of course it is an opportunity for Ebookers to send you adverts and newsletters etc but it is handy for the consumer as well because you can add a hotel to your booking without even adding the dates, as the system already knows where you will be. It is a clever system and nice to have because you can also track old bookings if you need any information from them.

CUSTOMER SERVICE
After much agonising I finally booked my flights, I then left it about a week and booked my first hotel in Las Vegas and then after about another week I booked my hotel in Orlando.
The next day I wake up to an email in my inbox saying they had tried to call me to no avail, well they had my correct number and I can assure you they never tried to call me once.
I was to urgently call Ebookers, because there had been major changes to my flight arrangements trying not to panic I went detective to find out what had changed. I tried to book the flights again online and soon realised the change had been the internal flight it had been brought forward by 2 hours which wasn't a big deal phew! I decided to call Ebookers anyway just to confirm. Once I got through I pretty much instantly realised I was dealing with a foreign call centre as the advisor couldn't understand me and I couldn't understand him. In the end we both seemed to click on and he said he had confirmed everything on the system and to confirm my booking arrangements (thank god I did ring or something tells me them flights would have vanished)
I then requested a confirmation by email and for the advisor to confirm everything else I had booked via Ebookers well you can imagine this took the best of 10 minutes to get any sort of sense out of the advisor which was very frustrating. I then got my email confirmation 2 days later!

CONCLUSION
So far so good for me, ok I haven't been on my holiday yet but I can't say I am not happy with everything so far. I chose Ebookers to book my holiday through because they came out cheapest, I could earn cashback from the transaction, the website was very easy to navigate and the main reason being the fact you can actually book a multi centred trip online. Most sites that sell reasonable flights cant be booked online if you want to add a stop over.
I would certainly recommend if you are confident in making independent travel arrangements and not having to consult anyone for advise. If you like to talk to someone about your booking don't bother because you will be seriously annoyed. If you are looking for a good deal then deal with Ebookers.
I am off on my holiday in August so will let you know if all goes well with Ebookers, I just hope I don't have any problems and have to call the call centre!