Archive for the ‘Opinion poll’ Category

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Announcing the Travel Rants Consumer Awards

Monday, December 8th, 2008Karen Bryan

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Travel Rants BlogHere are the winners of the Travel Rants Consumer Awards. Congratulations to all the winners and especially to Trip Advisor which won in two categories, Best Travel Planning and Best Holiday and Hotel Reviews. I’ve added my own comments about the various travel content sites.

Best Travel Blog

Traveling Mamas

The Europe a la Carte blog was nominated in this category but was trounced by the competition. However it was an honour to be nominated for Best Travel Blog. Well done to Traveling Mamas. I’ve only read a few posts in the Traveling Mamas blog, as our kids are grown up now.

Best corporate travel blog

Euro Cheapo

I really like the Euro Cheapo blog but and am inclined to read it because it’s focus is on budget travel in Europe, similar to that of the Europe a la Carte blog.

Best trip planning site

Trip Advisor

I haven’t used Trip Advisor for trip planning, only for reviews.

Best for travel content

Matador Network

Matador has loads of great travel content but I haven’t used it much.

Best designed travel website

Lonely Planet

I must amid that I hardly ever look at the Lonely Planet site.

Best travel comparison site

Kayak

I’ve not been impressed by Kayak UK’s performance as an accommodation price comparison tool, finding it to be a damp squib I much prefer HotelsCombined.com. However Andy Hayes of the Europe a la Carte blogging team rated Kayak highly for flight comparison.

Best online travel tool

SeatGuru

As I mainly fly within Europe on budget airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet which don’t have allocated seating, I haven’t used Seat Guru. However it does appear to have a lot of detailed information about seating on different aircraft which will be really useful to some travellers.

Best travel forum

Thorntree

I haven’t used Thorntree.

Best site for holiday and hotel reviews

Trip Advisor

I almost always have a look at the accommodation reviews on Trip Advisor when I’m searching for accommodation just to check out my intended accommodation hasn’t received a slew of negative comments

Best newspaper travel portal

New York Times

As I live in the UK I’m more inclined to read the Guardian, Times or Telegraph travel sections.

Did your favourite travel content sites fare well in the Travel Rants Consumer Awards?

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Posted in Blogs, Opinion poll, Travel news, Travel planning by Karen Bryan | 2 Comments »

Guardian Travel Awards 2008

Friday, October 24th, 2008Andy Hayes

Copyright Andrew Hayes

The Guardian has announced the results of its reader poll of 2008, and for the ninth year running, Edinburgh has topped the list as favourite UK city! Their awards cover all aspects of travel, though, from airlines to tour operators to travel website. You can visit the original article here but a couple of items to point out:

Top 5 UK Cities

1. Edinburgh

2. Bath

3. Belfast

4. York

5. Glasgow

Favourite European Country

1. Switzerland

2. Sweden

3. Croatia

4. Austria

5. Italy

I’d like to propose we have a little poll of our own. In the comments below, why don’t you tell us your favourite:

- European City

- European Country

Ok, I’ll start. My favourite city would probably be Ghent, Belgium. Such a wonderful little medieval town, with great boutiques, beer, and a wonderful art museum. My favourite European country would probably be the Czech Republic. It has that bohemian magic that I find very attractive.

What about you?

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Posted in Opinion poll, Travel news by Andy Hayes | 7 Comments »

How much time do you spend in your hotel room?

Friday, May 30th, 2008Karen Bryan

I wasn’t exactly astounded to read that Brits spend more than half their holidays in their hotel and hotel room. If you think about it logically you probably spend eight hours in bed, one hour having showers, doing hair, make up etc and one hour eating breakfast. So already that’s a total of 10 hours in the hotel. If you are staying on half board you can add at least another hour to that. I don’t spend time in hotel bars (as I’m a Scot who never drinks alcohol), watching tv, sending text messages, checking emails or have a laptop with me.

I think it depends on the individual and the type of holiday. If we stay for a week in an apartment or hotel during a Winter Sun holiday we might spend a hour or two a day reading in the balcony but if we are on a touring holiday where we stay in a different hotel every night, we may spend very little time in the hotel if we arrive late and depart after breakfast.

Posted in Accommodation, Opinion poll by Karen Bryan | 1 Comment »

How not to argue when driving a hire car abroad

Monday, May 12th, 2008Karen Bryan

Easycar.com have done some research into the causes of arguments between British couples when driving a hire car abroad. My ears pricked up at this as my husband and I will be hiring a car to explore off the beaten track in southern Tuscany and Umbria at the end of this month. It doesn’t exactly portent well with more than a third of couples arguing when driving abroad (I’m actually surprised it isn’t higher) with poor map reading skills being the most likely cause of the argument.

by finnur

I had to laugh at some of the tips in the article such as ask locals for direction, which should have the addition of “assuming that the locals can speak English well and are good at giving directions”. Another gem of wisdom was to play music that you both like (assuming that you both like the same music) as you’re unlikely to argue when your favourite tune is playing (would you like to bet on that?).

What are your tips for avoiding arguments when driving abroad?

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Posted in Car hire, Opinion poll by Karen Bryan | 2 Comments »

Berwick upon Tweed in England, Scotland or Scengland?

Monday, February 18th, 2008Karen Bryan

I’m Scottish and moved to Berwick upon Tweed two years ago. I christened the area Scengland as it does feel like either Scotland or England to me. Berwick upon Tweed, lies in far north eastern corner of Northumberland. Evidently more than 60 % of Berwick residents would like be in Scotland. The majority party in the Scottish Government the Scottish National Party is ready to take legal action to achieve the transfer.

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Berwick upon Tweed panorama

There’s been an ongoing debate on this topic as Berwick changed hands between England and Scotland 13 times between 1147 and 1482. Berwick lies 3 miles from the border with Scotland. The River Tweed forms a natural boundary through along most of the eastern border but the border line comes north a few miles before the east coast and Berwick, leaving Berwick in England.

In my opinion the tourist potential of Berwick is not being fully exploited and I’ve heard local people saying that if Berwick were in the Scottish Borders local authority it would be considered a “Jewel in the Crown”. It’s felt that Berwick is rather overlooked by the current administration. Berwick is a beautiful town lying on the Tweed Estuary. The old town in encircled by Elizabeth walls, there are lovely walks along the riverside and a beach at Spittal. I think it deserves to be guided in to a more high profile destination, whether that be by a Scottish or English administration.

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Spittal Beach, Berwick upon Tweed

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Posted in Opinion poll, United Kingdom by Karen Bryan | 1 Comment »

More time spend researching holidays than mortgages

Thursday, January 17th, 2008Karen Bryan

Evidently UK residents are willing to spend more time researching their holiday than their mortgage. While 36% of Brits spend more than 10 hours researching a leisure trip, only 22% would be wiling to spend this amount of time on finding the best mortgage deal.

Is this a rational use of time? I don’t think so. Finding a good mortgage deal could save you thousands of pounds a year. You may have to change mortgage every two to three years to ensure you find the most competitive product but think of all the extra holidays you could afford with the savings in interest repayments. I do appreciate that it’s probably more fun to do travel than financial research but doing thorough financial research and yes that does mean reading through the small print. is a good investment of your time.

Posted in Opinion poll, Travel news, United Kingdom by Karen Bryan | 2 Comments »

Most iconic image in Scotland

Wednesday, December 12th, 2007Karen Bryan

Believe it or not, Scotland’s most iconic image is a disused coalmine, the Lady Victoria Colliery. The Colliery, which polled 20,000 votes, was voted top from a short list of ten archive images including Rosslyn Chapel and the Rennie Mackintosh School of Art in Glasgow.

Lady Victoria Colliery is now home to the Scottish Mining Museum.

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Lady Victoria Colliery

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Posted in Architecture, Culture, Day trips, Opinion poll, Scotland by Karen Bryan | No Comments »

Tax office scores higher customer satisfaction than airline

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007Karen Bryan

Isn’t it amazing that a recent opinion poll highlights that US consumers are more satisfied with the customer service delivered by the IRS than by airlines.  The IRS scored 63%. 1% higher than the lowest scoring cable and satellite TV companies and 2% lower than the IRS. How can the tax office, grabbing the tax dollar, be rated higher for customer service than the airlines which in many cases are offering a leisure service?

It is perhaps because the IRS is viewed as a necessary evil and there are no expectations of great service whereas if you’re flying on a leisure trip you have connotations of a pleasant experience?

In the UK there is an acceptance that is you fly cheaply with a low cost airlines you have no illusions of good customer service but are fairly willing to accept this to in order to get your cheap flight. Does Ryanair spring to mind?

However I don’t see why this has to be the case. One of my biggest beefs with Ryanair is the scrum to board.  I don’t see that it would cost more to allocate you a seat during the booking process. Ryanair are also criticised for unfriendly staff,  if you’re at work anyway why not be pleasant?  I think it’s more of a management stance of disregard of customer service, which filters down to company culture.

What’s your opinion,  do you think that the tax office offers a better standard of service than the airlines?

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Posted in Air travel, Opinion poll by Karen Bryan | No Comments »

Will you pay more to be a green traveller?

Saturday, November 10th, 2007Karen Bryan

It seems that my suspicions earlier this year about travellers claiming they wanted to be greener and taking on action of this front are all too true. According to a recent opinion poll only 7% of UK holidaymakers are willing to pay to offset the environmental effects of their trip. Could part of the reason by the doubling of Air Passenger Duty making us feel that we are already paying towards the detrimental effects of our flights? There’s also some mistrust of carbon offset schemes due to the lack of common standards and high admin charges. Or if it simply people paying lip service to concerns about the environment because it’s the fashionable thing to feign concern?


Carbon Cover Up by London Permaculture

So what’s your position on all this? Do you just want to be able to enjoy your holidays without being made to feel guilty and the whole issue is not top of your agenda? Are you taking active steps to reduce the impact of your travel by flying less, using other forms of transport such as trains or ferries and/or paying into carbon offset schemes?

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Posted in Air travel, Environment, Ferries, Opinion poll, Rail travel, United Kingdom by Karen Bryan | 2 Comments »

90% of online travel bookers experience problems

Tuesday, November 6th, 2007Karen Bryan

According to a new survey 90% of online travel shoppers have experienced problems during the booking process in the last year. I can certainly testify to that as I had a problem in the last couple of months trying to book accommodation with On the Beach when arranging a DIY holiday to the Canaries. I thought I’d booked the accommodation twice in error, as when nothing happened during my first attempt to enter my credit card details, I tried again. I’d to wait 24 hours for On the Beach to get back to me to say they’d no record of my booking. It was all rather unnerving. I don’t think I’d visit the On the Beach site again.

Have you had any similar problems or have you been one of the lucky few for whom travel transactions have gone smoothly?

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Posted in Opinion poll, Technology by Karen Bryan | No Comments »

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