It's ex-peedy to use (expedia.co.uk)

Member Name: CAFCGirl

Product:	expedia.co.uk
Date:	05/07/09 (44 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheaper than booking seperate

Disadvantages: Minefield of potential destinations

Having used Expedia 4 times in the past year, I guess you could say that says a lot in itself.

We've had one stay in London and three trips booked to New York via Expedia, and my experiences to date have been satisfactory, pleasant, mediocre, no major issues, relatively easy to navigate and book. Now it all depends on your take on those words as to whether its positive or negative...!

The first part of booking a holiday, actually searching for one to book, has probably been to date my most painful part of the process.
Selecting where I was flying from was fairly straightforward, London, as was selecting my dates of travel. Having the added option of searching holidays seven days either sides, means you dont run the risk of missing out on any good deals which may have been applicable to dates outside the ones you selected. I'd be surprising if many high street travel agents were doing that!!!

However if you dont know where you would like to go to, which the second time I used expedia I didn't, it can be a bit of a faff! I was navigated to so many pages, I forgot what I was looking for in the first place. It does allow you to view selected deals for say summer sun, or city breaks etc but I found these were so far ranging that I was better off just deciding in myself where I would like to visit, as I just got too bored browsing so many different places.

The search results come back automatically ordered in the Expedia recommends order, which I'm yet to figure out how they decide that! I looked through five within the top fifteen of the recommended, to discover a wide ranging customer satisfaction level of rating, one was even marked as a general rating of 1.5 and was in the top 15!

I find it easier to ordered them based on price, and then I sub select a star option for the hotel in the additional search criteria on the left hand side.This then gives up the options based on the kind of places I generally know I'll enjoy.

You can also then select certain amenity options, such as wifi access, air con, or room service in a selection box at the top of the search results page. Ideal for certain locations, and also certain times of year. For example there was no way I was travelling to NYC late july with a room with no air con!

Once you start looking at individual hotels, the lay-out is pretty easy to use. Pictures and virtual tours are available, as are places of interest, location maps etc, all at the click of a button. I must admit I generally look at photos first and then I skip through to the ratings and reviews and look at the most recent reviews (so what its currently like there) and then at reviews for the time of year I'll be travelling.
What I really like about the reviews area, is that they often included a travellers tip, which you just wouldnt get from your travel agent in town, because they've not been everywhere! I especially love picking up tips about great places to eat that arent always named in guide books, or little boutique stores people have found....That kind of information to me, from real people, in real time situations is priceless!

Booking of the holiday is simple enough, as with booking most things online. You do have the option to change your flights, and even your airline if you are booking them together. However I normally in my additional search criteria search for flights in the morning going out, and then evening flights for flights coming in, especially for NYC due to the time difference means you gain time going out there!

So what dont I like do I hear you say? Well I dont like that once I've selected my holiday I have to de-select their automatic travel insurance option which on our holidays has been about £90, how many people just automatically click?! Then before I've booked and confirmed I have to go through two pages of additional extras they want me to add on, like car hire, or theatre tickets etc.....
I'm sure for some people this service is a blessing for them because once you arrive you dont need to spend time organising these things, but for me it just makes my holiday too planned!

I'm a firm believer of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do". Live the life of the place you're in, thats what a holiday is surely all about?

Online payment is relatively simple and what I really like is that you have the option to pay it all in one payment or you can split it between two, making budgetting/getting the cash together a lot less of a stress. You can set it up to charge your card automatically on the day, saving you logging back on to pay the remainder.

All in all its a enough website to use. It is worth seeing if you can book items individually for less, which for us, it never has been by a long shot! So I'm very happy with that element. I dont like searching gor inspiration on there, because it just boogles my mind, but when I know where I'm going, its very good to use.

Tickets and confirmation are sent via email, which makes life a lot less stressful as well, just bear in mind they are sent to you literally as you book it, so either print them straight away or put the email in a seperate safe folder, rather than having a mild panic three days before your holiday that you've got no ticket!!!!

Summary: Easy-ish to use when you know where you're going