The 3 Worst Travel Websites Out There!

Pictures Courtesy of:
Expedia.ca
voyagesarabais.com
selloffvacations.com

I want to take a few minutes to tell you about the worst travel websites out there and why you shouldn't use them.

SellOffVacations.com is by far one of my least favorite travel websites out there right now. These guys spend a fortune on publicity for a website that is completely dysfunctional 80% of the time. Although they have recently renovated the site and made it more user-friendly, I still refuse to encourage a web site that makes browsing so difficult and which doesn't provide accurate or even decent results.

Voyages A Rabais.com is an amazing travel website, extremely user-friendly and a ton of travel opportunities offered at amazingly low prices, this website is at once my favorite and my least favorite for the following reason: customer service is crap!

Although they provide a phone number, they refuse to give you service over the line. Questions must be sent via e-mail as well as insurance purchases, technical support and any other difficulty users may be having. This is frustrating because response time isn't immediate and if confronted with a serious dilemma, it feels like there's no one there to help you out so for this reason, Voyages A Rabais.com is great for travel purchases but horrible at customer service.

Expedia.ca is another one of those sites that is great in the sense that it has so much to offer travelers in terms of destinations, types of packages and it's extremely user-friendly but for some reason, their vacation packages are always more expensive than others.

This is a little weird because the site actually searches amongst travel wholesalers and finds the best bargain but the best bargain on Expedia.ca doesn't always match the actual wholesalers' price found on the carrier's website. Therefore, for this reason, I tend to stay away from Expedia.ca and prefer searching on the actual wholesale website, like AirCanada or Air Transat sites for example.

What A Great Travel Website Should Include

1. Every good travel website should have a valid phone number associated with customer service. This is particularly important for last minute travels where problems are more likely to occur. It's important for everyone really because when you put down $1500 for a vacation, you expect service and support down the line, a good travel site should be able to provide you with both.



2. It should be user-friendly. A good travel website should make it easy to browse through vacation deals and packages and should offer different options along the way. Destinations should be well listed and easily accessible as well as hotels and specific resorts, chains and special offers should also be clearly visible and their last minute deals or departures should appear on the first page of the website.



3. The website should be up and running all the time! SellOffVacations.com is a good example of a website that doesn't do this well. Travel websites are there to be used but if they are always down and not running properly, how do they expect us to purchase travel deals with them if we can't even access them? If the travel site you are on is giving you problems or is slower than usual, it's a good sign that it's perhaps not a great idea to do business with them. A good website oozes professionalism, a bad one oozes skepticism.



4. Be the judge. If a certain travel site doesn't inspire confidence then don't use it. You want to make sure you feel comfortable with the company before purchasing anything. Remember that phone line, use it and ask customer reps about the company, who it does business with, where are they located, do they provide any feedback, support, service? The best judge is yourself so trust your instincts and always do your research.

If there are other websites that you hate or love please send them to me and don't be afraid to call these companies out, after all, we're the ones paying and we deserve decent services and products!