Opodo.co.uk

Monday, 05 Feb, 2002 0

Review by Adrian Mann, owner of Adrian Mann Design, providing independent reviews and analysis of travel web sites in the UK.

The long-awaited site for Opodo in the UK was launched on 22nd January, and, as promised, we now bring you a review.

Overall
Naturally, the same clean and minimal interface is followed for this UK site. Download time on a 56k modem is about 27 seconds – 4 seconds longer than for the German site. Layout is good, with all the major areas accessible via tabs, buttons for registration and newsletter subscription, and a quick flight search right where you want it.
opodo.co.uk

Content
The content mirrors that of the German site, with the major areas being Flights, Hotels, Cars, Travel Guides, Opodo Offers and Travel Manager. The Quick Flight Search works well – it provides a calendar and requires the minimum of information to conduct a search. It understands airport codes, and where any ambiguity exists, it presents the user with options (e.g. Birmingham – UK or Alabama). Results are listed by price, and from there, it’s a simple matter to book and pay for the flight. A small progress indicator at the top of the page lets you know how far you are through the process. While it’s not necessary to register in order to book a flight, registration does allow use of facilities such as the Travel Manager. Curiously, the site doesn’t allow the user to use the same registration details if you’ve already registered on another Opodo site.
Plenty of information and options are provided along the way, such as the ‘At-a-glance’ booking process, 24hr contact number, and options to add a car, hotel or insurance. Prices also look good too – checking a few trips around Europe returned lower prices for the same flights than, for example, Expedia.co.uk.

The Hotel search was similarly quick and simple, giving a good range of hotels, locations and facilities. Information on the hotels is a little basic, but should be enough to get an idea of what’s on offer.

Car hire follows a similar format, with all major car hire companies being searched. Cars can be booked up to 10 months in advance.

Travelguides, which features content provided by Insight Guides, provides good quality information on the vast majority of destinations around the world. Content includes weather and climate information, passports and visas, background information on the country, a fact sheet and a mini-phrase guide. Suggestions and recommendations for flights and travel are included along the way, with good quality interactive maps provided by Mapquest.

The site also has a wide range of special offers, some of which are featured on the homepage, and with more on the Opodo Offers page. There are options to show offers to or from specific locations, or by price or airline.

The Travel Manager will store future and past trip information, or details of trip ideas. There’s also an option to submit your own review of a holiday or trip.
Customer support is also good. There’s a 24hr phone line, some basic FAQ’s, (e.g. ‘Can I use a Mac with Opodo?” – Answer – “No problem”), a site overview and information on how to use the site to book flights, multistop itineraries, car and hotel booking and so on.

Summary
Overall, it’s an excellent site. The design and build of the site is first-class, and the level of information, from destinations to how to use the site, is consistently good. The prices also look good – they make a point that research by NOP shows that Opodo.co.uk is cheaper than the UK average online fare for 85% of top destinations from the UK. Only two very minor niggles were apparent – there was a tendency for sessions to time-out quite quickly if the site didn’t receive any interaction, and some of the text appeared in Times rather than the standard Opodo font. But that’s it. An excellent, well-designed and implemented site. Recommended.