bargainholidays.com > Reviews > It's time to boycott the travel agents

Author's product rating:   

Layout & Design	Poor
Navigation	Hard
How fast is this website?	Very fast
Search Facility	Excellent
Range of Services / Products	Very complete
Products & Services Pricing	Excellent value

Advantages:	Great products, Fantastic prices and extras, customer support and aftersales .
Disadvantages:	complicated homepage and site navigation

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

As some of you may know I have recently had a long weekend in Paris, the holiday was booked through Bargainholidays.com mainly after reading a very complimentary opinion on Dooyoo which was the first time I had used something which I wouldn't otherwise had used. I had used on-line travel companies before namely Expedia.co.uk which is probably the best known on-line travel company but this is a review of Bargainholidays.com and it's services I experienced that weekend.

Bargainholidays.com is operated by Online Travel Corporation ( OTC ) and was founded in 1998. It was listed on the stock exchange two years later and has made a loss each year since although the loss has been cut year on year - very much a simular scenario to Amazon.co.uk, it is expected that Bargainholidays.com will be trading with a profit within two years. This has been helped by it's entrance into on-line partnerships with web giants such as Tiscali, Virgin.net and BT Openworld which will certainly help it's cause. It is also the second largest on-line travel company with six million customers last year. Recommendations for the site have been offered by the likes of the Sunday Telegrapth, Womans Weekly, PC Format, BBC Radio, Daily Express, Evening Standard and the Daily Mirror. I know scare stories appear daily about people who buy things over the net and didn't get what they anticipated but it's fair to say Bargainholidays.com is part of a reputable company which you can trust with your holiday and your money.

First impressions are very important so the homepage of a website is vital in this regard - it can literally mean whether you gain or lose a customer, Bargainholidays didn't give me a good impression with their homepage. You are literally bombarded with oodles and oodles of information straight away and there is just too much of it - I know it isn't intentional but it's one of the most confusing and unclear homepages I've seen. The page is very colourful with bright yellows and oranges and is full of flashing icons which is a good thing but they've gone way over-board. Another thing that annoyed me was the sheer amount of pop-ups installed on the site which can't even be countered with pop-up stopper which is useless against them. I know this is a huge source of income for on-line companies but in my experience only porn sites have more pop ups than this site (so I'm told). They seriously need to have a look at their website layout in my opinion. The speed of the website in contrast though is ultra fast.

First impressions are not always correct though, were they with Bargainholidays ?

The left hand side of the homepage has the menus which allow users to venture to the different parts of the site. The rest of the page consists of flashing icons and special offers. Firstly there was a late deals section which consisted of heavily discounted trips for the following weekend. There was also a large section of summer 2003 bargains plus Christmas shopping trips and flight only offers - all at very reasonable prices, very much cheaper than your local travel agent. I was impressed and continued on. The top of the page has the usual search section very much simular to Expedia.co.uk if you've ever used that site. Simply type in your favoured destination, the airport you would like to depart from, the number of nights and the dates you require and results will appear which meet your criteria. You can sort the results by price, date or hotel depending on your preference - again the results in my case were very cheap and tempting. Also with this search facilty you are given the opportunity to choose from a range of flights and flight times - very handy and useful function which can be used to meet your requirements, for example I required a morning flight to avoid the M25 rush hour! I was very much surprised at the sheer amount of holidays available - Bargainholidays uses holidays offered by every major tour operator in the UK and has over two million holidays in it's database. Even if it doesn't have a holiday which meets your criteria which is highly unlikely, you will be offered an equivilent. The last sections are the £99 and £199 holiday sections which is just that - all holidays in the database which do not exceed those limits plus the opportunity to add on a flight.

The left hand menus offer some excellent services;

This Weekend - this is a more detailed view on the late deals on offer on the main page which has holidays at bargain basement prices for the coming weekend.

Find a holiday - this is where you can do a more detailed search to reduce the amount of results you receive - very handy if you have some specific requirements or know exactly what you want, for example the hotel.

Buy a flight - if you just need a flight only and don't need accomodation this is the section you will need. Flights are available from every major airport in the UK and come at very reasonable prices especially if it's a late deal. Some airlines do require you to confirm a flight - you will be notified if this is the case.

Ski Holidays - this is the section dedicated to skiing holidays only, all major resorts in Europe and America can be found.

City Breaks - deals, offers and holidays related to the major cities including the likes of Paris, Amsterdam, Rome and Barcelona. Of course with Paris you can alternatively book with a Eurostar add-on instead of a flight.

Book a hotel - if you just need to book a hotel only - come to this section, many thousands of Hotels are in the database ranging from budget to five star.

Hire a car - if you need a car once you have reached your destination this is a useful service to bear in mind. You can get preferential rates with companies such as Avis and they can be ready to collect at the airport. The costs involved can be added to the holiday extras in your shopping basket if you so wish or alternatively you can pay seperately up-front.

Travel insurance - most travel companies offer travel insurance and usually you can find cheaper elsewhere if you try, but not in this case, my premium was just £5 for the weekend which was the cheapest insurance I've ever had to pay. You can opt out of the insurance but bear in mind you will need insurance at some stage so I recommend you use Bargainholidays premiums. The cover notes will be sent seperately from your booking notes but well in advance of your departure date.

Buy currency - I highly recommend this service because you will pay 0% comission with free delivery, in the past I have used Bureau de change and have had to pay their fancy comission charges. Again you can add this onto the holiday extras and have the currency sent out with the other booking paperwork. Bear in mind you will need to book this service before 2.00pm on a Friday if your departure is on a Saturday the next day to ensure you have it in hand although I would advise waiting that late anyway.

Airport parking - if your leaving your car at the airport you will no doubt be aware of the astronomical car park charges involved especially with Heathrow and Gatwick. This section can give you some heavily discounted rates - upto 50% off!! As with the other services, it can be added onto the extras or paid up-front and it comes in the guise of a car parking voucher which will prevent you having to pay at the meter. Highly recommended.

Destination guides - this is a very useful section especially if your going to a destination you've never been to before. It provides maps, tourist information, travel advice and details of things to do.

Free Brochures - another highly useful facility which is where you give your destination and address and you will recieve in the post within four days your chosen brochures.

Live weather - use this facility to check out the weather at your destination, quite useful and constantly updated service but as we all know the weather is almost impossible to predict.

Prices by email - if your short of time or just need a quote simply give your holiday requirements and email address and you will be sent the relevant prices involved the next day.

Convert money - once you've returned from your holiday you can convert your leftover currency back into English pounds and again this service is completely commission free.

UK Airport guide - airports can be very confusing and very stressful especially if you're travelling from an Airport you haven't used before. Use this section to familiarise yourself with your chosen Airport to find out where everything is and how much time you will need to get from one place to another.

The bottom half of the page offers you the opportunity to contact Bargainholidays via the Helpdesk section, here you will be given the chance to either contact via e-mail or alternatively you can use the helpline number where you can speak to a member of the sales team directly. Given the confusing state of the homepage and difficult navigation of the site I bet this number is used a great deal however the one time I needed to use it when I had a minor query my call was answered promptly and dealt with efficiently. As with anything it's wise to ring mid morning when most people are at work I would suggest. Also here is the chance to offer some feedback to Bargainholidays where you explain how your experience of the holiday and website was, good or bad. Right at the bottom of the page is where they proudly announce their ABTA and IATA symbols which are always heartening.

Once you have your holiday in place and you are happy with your destination, dates, flights etc you will be a given an unconfirmed quote which you will need to accept. At this stage you do not need to pay for anything. You will be contacted by e-mail when your holiday has been confirmed usually the next day and then you have the chance to proceed with the holiday or you can reject it. If your happy, you have the opportunity to pay for the whole holiday including any extras you have ordered there and then or you can just pay the deposit. Any extras you have ordered will be sent straight away whereas the flight tickets and booking paperwork will be sent between 7-10 days before your departure date, if you have just paid a deposit you will sent a letter with the date the full balance will have to be paid by. In your confirmed e-mail explained previously, will be your booking reference number and sales member in charge of your custom which you will need if you have any queries so beware don't delete that e-mail!

In conclusion then ?

My initial impression of Bargainholidays.com was a false one, their home page was tacky and reminded me of one of those corner shops covered in illuminous bits of paper offering everything for nothing. I'm very glad I proceeded with my holiday through this company because my Holiday was a delight to behold. My experience with the company was a pleasurable one, the holiday they offered me met every one of my requirements plus I could fly at the time and airport of my choosing. They didn't mess up my booking and sent my paperwork to me when they said they would. There was no problem with the flights or paperwork and everything went as I had wanted it to. The hotel was very good and better than I expected it to be, in fact it was better than they had worded it to be as it was situated right next to the River Seine in a romantic location and 10 seconds walk from a Metro station - bonus! The prices I had to pay were exceptionally reasonable - 2 return flights, 2 nights in a three star hotel plus extras £300 all in! You could be forgiven for thinking it's sort of shoestring holiday.com but it's not at all - you get quality for little money. I would say that I saved 40% on price than if I had used a high street travel agent. Most of the hotels used by the site are the same ones you would have been booked into if you had used the afore mentioned travel agents too. Another thing that really impressed me was the holiday extras which saved me a lot of money like the 0% commision currency converter facility and the dead cheap holiday insurance plus the half price airport parking.

All in all I would recommend Bargainholidays.com to anyone, they offer bargains and loads of them, they do what they say they will do, they don't just sell you a deal and then abandon you like some other companies of the same ilk do. You always have the peace of mind that you can contact Bargainholidays by using their customer support centre if something goes wrong. Last but not least they have an excellent after sales service and a customer freindly approach to business which is quite refreshing thesedays. I can see why the site has been recommended by so many people and very much glad I read that opinion on Dooyoo a few months back which put me on to them. Its not often you get excellent service thesedays but I did and I'm quite prepared to put a praising opinion on here to return the favour.

Never will I use a travel agents again.

Site Rating 9/10 (one mark deducted for woeful homepage).

Thanks for reading this opinion

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