Arranging your holiday through an online holiday giant such as Booking.com might seem like an easy option, but you might not be getting the best deal, research has found.
The web-based accommodation specialist also sells package holidays and flights via its partners, but analysis by consumer group Which? has found the same trips cheaper at the travel site's biggest rival on three quarters of holidays.
When Which? compared holidays at the same hotel on the same dates, Booking.com was beaten on price by Expedia on nine out of 12 occasions.
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And it performed worse for price for flights alone with Skyscanner showing cheaper fares for all 12 routes compared - with 10 of the 12 routes cheaper to book the flight direct with the airline.
The price difference between Booking.com and Expedia was significant for many holidays.
A couple travelling to Nice, France for a week’s stay at the four-star Okko hotel could save £154 by booking with Expedia instead of Booking.com., and a week's stay in Hotel Plaza del Castillo on the Costa del Sol would set you back £99 more with Booking.com at £961 compared to £862 with Expedia.
Although a search with Booking.com is ‘powered by Lastminute’, Which? also found that it seemed to be cheaper to book direct at Lastminute.com.
Lastminute confirmed that its holiday partners have access to the same flight inventory as themselves, but the availability of flights is dynamic and subject to changes at any time, meaning that a simple price comparison from one platform to another may not be the full story.
While Booking.com is now the UK’s ninth largest ATOL holder, with a licence to carry 285,292 passengers on Atol-protected package holidays in 2022, it has chosen instead to partner with LastMinute.com to fulfil its package bookings.
Atol protection is important because it stops you losing money or becoming stranded abroad if the travel company that you booked with goes bust before you travel or while you are on holiday.
Any flight and hotel package booked through Booking.com currently has LastMinute.com as the Atol holder.
However, for the past two years, LastMinute.com has finished bottom of a Which? members survey of both flight booking and accommodation booking sites.
In the online booking sites survey, published last November, LastMinute.com received a customer score of just 30% as a flight booking site, although Lastminute claims that the score does not provide the full picture of travel ‘in the context of a pandemic’.
Booking.com has reassured its package customers that they don’t have to use LastMinute.com’s customer support, saying: "Our customer service team is available 24/7 to support our customers no matter what sort of trip they book with us."
LastMinute.com also has a poor record on Covid refunds, with regulator the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) threatening LastMinute.com with legal action in January 2021 unless it repaid over £1m in outstanding refunds to customers whose holidays were cancelled due to the pandemic.
As the Atol holder, it will be Lastminute.com rather than Booking.com that is legally responsible for refunding customers if and when holidays are disrupted.
Booking.com partners with Swedish online travel agent, GoToGate to sell flights.
Which? checked four routes at three different times of year and compared the cheapest non-stop return flights that Booking.com found with both Skyscanner and direct with the airline.
Booking.com didn’t find the cheapest fare on any single occasion, and for ten of the 12 flights it was cheaper to book direct with the airline.
On one London to Malaga summer holiday return flight, Booking.com found the cheapest non-stop fare with Spanish airline Vueling for £183. But when we checked the same flight on the airline’s own website – Vueling.com – the fare was just £129.
A customer using Booking.com would have paid £54 over the odds.
Booking.com said: "There are no hidden charges or fees for any travellers who choose to arrange their flights with Booking.com. The price the customer sees when searching for flights, is the final price they’ll pay’.
Which? has recommended booking flights direct with the airline as the customer experience offered by online travel agents (OTAs) during the pandemic has often been poor.
"Booking flights with an OTA can complicate and delay the refund process. Some of the worst OTAs charge a refund processing fee – even though you can always claim a free refund from the airline for a cancelled flight (in the EU/UK)," the survey said
"Additionally, OTAs can charge for overpriced extras such as hold baggage, seat selection and web check in and most have their own cancellation fees – on top of the airline’s."
A Booking.com spokesman said: "Booking.com works with many partners, including Lastminute.com, who provide travellers with flights & hotel package holidays.
"As with many other online travel platforms, we undertake on-going tests and experiments (known as AB testing) on our platform to ensure we’re fully optimising and enhancing the customer experience every step of the way, offering the best in choice and value.
"While these tests are in place, this can, on occasion cause temporary fluctuations in price - which we understand to be the reason for some of the changes presented to us by Which?
"Travellers using Booking.com to access package deals via our partners, can be confident in knowing that our prices are in line with what is available on Lastminute.com."
