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Online rental-car shopping: how low can you go?(Up Front: news/trends/advice)
Which Web sites show you the best rental-car deals? Orbitz.com and Travelocity .com led the field, according to a new study pitting seven leading sites against one another in 150 trials. The study was conducted in midyear by Consumer WebWatch, a project of Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of CONSUMER REPORTS,
WebWatch researchers found troubling practices on some sites:
Vanishing "low" rates. On Orbtiz.com, the lowest rates were sometimes listed as unavailable or mysteriously jumped when researchers proceeded to the next step. In the worst case, the rate jumped by $90 for a three-day rental.
The researchers found similar vanishing rates in two queries on Expedia.com. Orbitz.com officials later told a CR reporter that the problem was caused by occasional delays in getting up-to-the-minute data from a separate computer reservations system. Orbitz.com says it has largely corrected the problem. Expedia says it is working to correct occasional failed connections to car companies that resulted in a stored price being displayed.
Extras not tallied. Fees, taxes, and surcharges aren't well covered on some sites, and they can hike the cost of a car rental by 8 to 72 percent, according to a recent study by Travelocity.com. In one test, Expedia.com and Hertz.com didn't tally the cost of those extras; other sties didn't always itemize them. (Taxes and other charges vary widely from airport to airport and sometimes among rental companies serving the same airport.)
Few best rates from rental companies. The rental-company Web sites had the fewest lowest rates. Hertz.com and Avis.com had none.
Preferential treatment?
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- News wire article from: News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) November 15, 2006 700+ words
...lawsuit filed this month in Wake County Superior Court names a dozen travel companies as defendants, including Hotels.com, Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline.com and Travelocity. "We're not trying to gouge anybody. We're just trying to collect what the...
- MSN Expedia Expands Distribution Through Exclusive Agreements With GeoCities...
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- Expedia Announces Partnership With BedandBreakfast.com.
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...s inventory across the Expedia and Hotels.com Web sites, delivering unprecedented...easily sell through the Expedia Web sites and gain access to a large...availability for all of Expedia's Web sites in one place on BedandBreakfast...
- Expedia.com Kicks Off '02 with Dual Awards as Top Web Site; Expedia.com Praised...
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...Communications' "Best Mobile Web Sites of 2001." The honors praise Expedia(R) for providing consumers...January 2002 issue honored Expedia for the second consecutive...one of the Best Mobile Web Sites of 2001. Expedia.com was one of only...