Here are some of the observations I made during my research on the Indian online travel portal.
Obs 1) Several of the portals showed me deals which did not make any sense logistically. For example, while searching for flights from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, a couple of portals showed me a few itineraries with a stopover in Delhi and Hyderabad. Now, why would I opt for a stopover in Delhi or Hyderabad if I intend to go to Mumbai ?
Results from Yatra:
Results from ClearTrip:
Can any of the above travel portals explain the absurdity above ?
Obs 2) MakeMyTrip did not display the total cost of the itinerary till the last screen:
Obs 3) TraveMartIndia was unable to find any flights from Ahmedabad – Mumbai departing 9th Apr – returing 23rd Apr.
Obs 4) TravelGuru just froze on me when I selected to book the itinerary.
I would like to hear what you have to say about this head-to-head comparison.
Also, if you can spare a second and take a quick poll below, it would be great.
I buy this point of absurdity of showing stop overs illogically, but look at the way guys like Yatra evolved themselves, m regular user of their website since last year, m noticing they keep on evolving themselves with better user friendly experience. At least someone is defintely looking at this aspect closely. Showing fares rules is fantastic idea and none of the player is showing as friendly as they are. No doubt cleartrip is clear but at the end of the day, info is the key and hats off to YATRA till we have better one.
Sandeep,
The one thing ClearTrip is doing so right and where Yatra is missing out is soliciting feedback.
Cleartrip founders interact directly with the end users through their blog – asking for feedback etc. and then incorporate those changes. If yatra can reduce the clutter to some extent, it would do wonders for their usability
-pranav.
Hi Pranav,
Thank you for taking the time for conducting this comparison. This was indeed interesting and informative.
We appreciate honest feedback from customers like you, which definitely helps us in improvising our services. We are currently implementing enhancements to our website functionality and appearance, and can assure you that your feedback shall be accorded due consideration, and acted upon.
Thank you for mentioning Makemytrip.com on your weblog.
Regards,
Geeta Eral
Manager – Customer Delight
Makemytrip.com
Geeta,
I’ll admit it – it comes as a surprise that MMT is keeping a close tab on blog reviews related to MMT.
Will watch out for the changes to MMT website.
Pranav.
Hi Sandeep,
It’s extremely heartening to get feedback from you. Sincere apologies for letting you down at the final frontier.
We’re in the process of upgrading our flight engine, and I hope you’ll have a much better experience next time you log on to Travelguru.
Keep posting till then. It keeps us going.
Saunak Ghosh
Marketing Manager
Travelguru
Hi Sandeep,
Also looking forward to a similar exercise for hotels too.
Would love to hear your feedback and comparison for the same and am sure the community will definitely benefit from it.
Cheers
Saunak
Saunak,
I believe your comment is aimed at me – my name is Pranav.
Sorry Pranav…. Looking forward to your opinion.
hi
im doing a research project analysing consumer behaviour and their perceptions towards online travel portals in india.
right now im trying to get few insights from the customers who are using the services of these portals. what are the major factors that influence their behavior while purchasing holiday packages and tickets etc from these portals and questions like these.
it would be of great help if anyone can give some insights towards my queries. thanks
Namrita,
In my opinion, there are three key factors that influence the end customer:
1) First and foremost will be price / cost.
2) Cost / low price does not always guarantee good customer service / end user experience. So, people who were guided solely by factor (1) and had a bad experience will start giving importance to customer service – end user experience.
3) Brand conscious – several people I know love Jet Air’s service. and they dont mind paying extra for flying only Jet.
I’m pretty sure there can be several other dimensions you can add to the list above.
-p
hi pranav
thanks for your reply.
one more question…….
what are the important features that a customer will look in a travel portal? or what features make a travel portal interesting or
usable for the customers?
Have you checked out http://www.indiflight.com? you can do flight search for multiple days with one click! and you can setup price alerts and much more, Hope you like it
I personally like makemytrip, because of their straight forward and most importantly fast searches.
Cleartrip is clean. By clean, I mean easy to load and without ads.
Travelguru has VAPI listed in the list of cities (I don’t know whether VAPI even has a airport), but Patna is not mention in the list. I think they are supports of MNS [:P].
Hi All,
A note from someone who has been travelling around a lot in the last two years and has booked most of his tickets on the net.
While a lot of focus is on the way the websites present content little attention seems to have been paid to their customer service back bone. I have had problems twice with MakeMyTrip where the same fare has been charged twice on my card. (Note that being a frequent user I am aware and make it a point to click only once on their payment link – Problems happen when the expected page does not load!!) The response timelines when such issues are raised are pathetic.
I have had far better service from Yatra. First off, they have not given me reason to complain, the site is more User friendly than any other (Have you tried their price and time filters?? They are a brilliant feature for travellers whose needs are not just to look for the cheapest flights but ones that suit their schedules!) and I find better deals than most other sites. I always check different sites everytime I book and my hit rate for the cheapest ones has been as high as 90% with Yatra!
Cheers,
Raj
Pranav,
Great site and community. Check what we are trying to achieve in Birbal.in
Birbal (when launched fully) will do three things for the user:
1) Help search and compare options amongst participating OTA’s and airlines
2) Help the community to discuss and rate (both objective and subjective) Airlines (Domestic and international), Hotels, Places of Interest and Cities.
3) Transfer the user to the service provider (Whether travel sites or airlines) to make a purchase
Travel is being launched first with (airfares and hotels) followed by Consumer Finance,Insurance, Mutual Funds, Telecom, Food, Events, ISPs.
Let me know what you think.
Birbal sounds interesting (when it launches). Meanwhile, dont know if you guys have tried http://www.ixigo.com
We are currently the fastest, most comprehensive (14 Airlines, 3 OTAs) and most unbiased travel search engine in the Indian market.
We can confidently claim to have the cheapest fares on any given sector on any given date since between the airlines and OTAs we show fares from, we are bound to found the cheapest options for you within a few seconds.
We show all prices with taxes included, and we dont claim to sell any 99 Rs. tickets because we want consumers to know the absolute price that hits their pockets.
Finally – try it once, and tell us if any other portal can match our prices, speed or usability, for flights.
Hi…
Travelguru…. Is the right place….to plan your holiday.
Best Deal always..
Cheers
Leena
Leena, Travelguru doesnt have a refund or ticketing process inplace…why should i buy on that site
I am not sure what you mean by no refund or ticketing process. I got a nice refund from them recently, and have bought tons of tickets with them.
I buy on value alone and their 30% “flat” cashback on my HDFC Titanium card rocked. I got over 10K back from them on my summer vacation tickets.
Obvio you have not used the site Sudhir. And all the OTAs have a slight element of hit&miss.
Hi,
I would like to ask you if you are starting a new poll than please include Hotboy Sabeer’s Arzoo.com
it would be nice to see which is standing better in providing cheap fares and better services.
bye, Cheerz.
Sumeet.
recently I had to book tickets for my father and after visiting all travel portals I finally ended up with ClearTrip.com
As a designer may be I am influenced by their easy to use simple interface. Other portals are somewhat cluttered and not user friendly… dint bothered about refunding/cancellation options…
best part is even my father with very little exposure to website was able to use the website…
full marks to cleartrip…
Hi Guyz,
Dont never use MAKEMYTRIP.com site.It is obsolutely a fraud site and they dont show responsible towards customer.They even dont have a proper faq’s about cancellation and they dont even take care about cancellation tickets.I lost my hard earned money $1000 .I am not only the vicim of Makemytrip .There are sever other customers are facing the same problem.
good post… i agree with u guys Cleartrip is the best … clear prices no suprises & decent cust service…
I guess u missed out Indiatimes Travel … I must say its worth skipping the effort the most lousy cust service ( the ticket didnt reach me 8 days after booking, luckily i had booked 20 days in advance, 6 rounds of follwo-up calls got me the ticket)
In hotels i think Nivalink.com is the best
I guess I am a little late to this party
Anyways, was trying to make an online reservation and my general observation was that the tickets online are generally more expensive than buying through a local agent. Besides not all airline options are available and there are price differences for the same itineraries among the different online travel sites.
Was wondering if the Indian online travel sites can benefit from Amazon.com’s online book selling model where they show listings from other book-sellers (mom&pop, individuals, other book stores). Our travel sites could similarly aggregate the offerings of local travel agents. So when you search for a flight and price, the offers from local travel agents should also be listed.
There is great advantage to the first-mover in this space (local travel agents will be quick to jump on to get online exposure) and the travel site can earn a buck just for making the connection.
Food for thought – hope some travel site is reading this
-Unmesh.
Founder, SadakMap.com
SpotMeUrl: http://www.sadakmap.com/spotme/unmesh
This discussion has been very interesting. But was surprised to see that nowhere ezeego1 has been mentioned.
I have used it and have found good deals. The good thing about them is transperancy as after the search, all-inclusive prices are shown with detailed break-up. However, customer service is not good as I haven’t got the reply for my queries through e-mail and their phone lines are always busy.
Though I am not a tech savvy person but, as a customer, if I have been kept on hold for 10-15 minutes and then I keep the phone with disappointment,I would be happy if organization calls me back to ask my requirements.
Their website is http://www.ezeego1.co.in
Found this bug in Yatra.com USA site.
http://www.informationmadness.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=751&Itemid=9
Nice thread..
My own comparison of these three sites at
http://www.nitinsareen.blogspot.com
Pretty late at the party. But whilst all of the OTA have their plus & minus; unfortunately since they address the same target & supplies there are always the hidden elements beyond their control.
They can only improve with constant consumer feedback; provided they are honest enough to accept it. Some of them are not.
Also the data that is used for drop down is standard & not customised every time, so the problem with airport at Vapi etc.
Keep up the work mate!
* Yatra has no concern for their customers*
My experience with Yatra has been otherwise Big names like Reliance etc does not mean that the service rendered would be world clsss. While it looks nice to see things on their Portal, on the ground reality is different ! I had done Hotel bookings thru them this April for family holiday in May and to my surprise even after the money was charged to my CC, I found the Hotels refusing to confirm the bookings. On notifying the anomaly to them, 11th hour attempt by Yatra yielded result that they found a hotel some 145 kms away from my destination ! Finally I had to search a hotel which was still some 20kms from the downtown area and pay thru my nose for an up-down cost of travel by taxis everyday. In the other case, I was offered a very dingy cottage (one can call it a servant room) at a resort instead of a room booked and confirmed thru them. I had to check in at another hotel and pay thru my nose. The very purpose of going on a vacation, with advance bookings done, is to enjoy a hassle free vacation but that is the last of the concerns with the people at Yatra. Till date, despite so many reminders, Yatra has not even bothered to call back. Their sales manager Arpit Seth has no empathy for the poor clients.Net net, my vacation was royally sc***d and my kids and wife were cursing me for no fault of mine.
I also want to be part of this discussion,i personally working in airlines,i know every web site about travel releated,i think no one is good but still there are few travel portal are doing nice job,like MMT,TG.But apart from that new web site i seen on net that’s namasteyindia.com,i think these guys are working reallly hard to compete with other travel portal,belive me guys they are giving excellent customer service.I cant explain you guys about my experiance but it’s really worhty.