Rating Online Air & Car Booking Sites

It's seems like the ultimate in convenience. A few clicks of the mouse, a few numbers entered, and you can now book yourself on a flight to almost anywhere in the world. Websites that allow you to book your complete trip from the comfort of your own living room are becoming quite common. However, it's important that consumers use the power of feedback from their fellow consumers before investing time, money and commitment in a website that is poorly designed, poorly executed or even a total fraud.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Empower your fellow consumers by leaving feedback on a website after each use. If the website delivered quality service for a low price, let others know. If it failed to give you what was promised or expected, let others know about that, too.

2. Go to Star Reviews. It's a website that compares things, and the travel section clearly shows you how consumers rate all the major online air and car booking websites.

3. Assess the quality of the website itself. Think about whether you found it easy to navigate. Consider whether it offered you enough search options so that you could truly find what you wanted. The website itself is something to take into consideration when establishing a rating.

4. Consider the customer service associated with the website. Think about whether it had someone that you could contact available 24 hours a day or at least during reasonable business hours. If your questions were easily answered, then the customer service is probably good on the website. If it took a long time to get answers, deals were likely gone before you were able to make purchases. This is an important component of an air and booking website, so be sure to look at this aspect of the business.

5. Look at the speediness with which your tickets or services were delivered. If you did the transaction online, write about if all the instructions were clearly stated for a smooth result during your trip.

6. Give each website that you've done business with both a written review and a general star rating. Be honest. Be fair. Simply because you hold a grudge against one incident, it doesn't mean that the entire airline is at fault. Ask the company to resolve any complaints you have before writing a review. It could just be that the company would give you a full or partial refund, or some sort of compensation, if you voice your complaint first with the company. By doing so, you are giving a full, fair review for others to read.

7. Go to your blog. If you have a blog with a following, voicing your rating there for a certain website or company may be your best bet. The audience knows and trusts you.

8. Go to the website itself. Look for a place to leave your review and rating. Some websites feature this, but many do not out of fear of the feedback. If the website has such a system in place, you're probably dealing with a very reputable company willing to make amends if a transaction has an error.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't enter your credit card information on any website without first checking its security three times. You could easily be the victim of fraud unless you use every precaution to safeguard your information, using it only on the most trusted and reputable websites.

Resources

• Star Reviews
• Travelocity
• Orbitz
• Priceline
• Expedia