Travel - why so complicated?

[steve-5snwi]

I find it more annoying that 2 nights in a uk hotel are more expensive than a flight and hotel in Europe.

[SpamDisco]

Onthebeach is quite good a putting flights and hotels together in to packages with good filters.

[BlueFiestaST]

How many people really need that service though?

Id say 99% of people who want to book an holiday know where they want to go.

In the eyes of the major providers is it worth them offering that ability? I know nothing of coding/IT website searches but I guess there'd be hundreds of holidays if you searched for everywhere, from anywhere in the UK, in a certain date range.

Every 3 weeks I am off for 5 days. I'd love to be able to put into Skyscanner; UK airports - Everywhere and then put the date from and to have it bring me back the cheapest combined return flights within them 5 days.
That is asking a lot though.
Currently search Manchester/Liverpool to Everywhere and change dates from and to searching for cheapest prices.

I think i'm definitely in the minority though.

[SunsetZed]

768 said:

I'd like to be able to search for "Any but Bristol".

I'd much rather fly from Bristol than Luton, Gatwick, or many others. Why the dislike for Bristol?

[anonymous-user]

pretty sure BA's site allows you to do this http://www.britishairways.com/travel/holiday-finde...

Budget,
Length
Departure
2,3,4,5*
Beach/City
etc

[13m]

To be honest, these search engines I was unaware of. However they seem limited to a single provider, don't they.

You'd think a site like Last Minute would develop a search across multiple providers and destinations. But again, when using that site, you've got to stipulate where you're going.

[oyster]

wsurfa said:

pretty sure BA's site allows you to do this http://www.britishairways.com/travel/holiday-finde...

Budget,
Length
Departure
2,3,4,5*
Beach/City
etc

Only works if it's 2 passengers sharing 1 room.
If you need to edit the passengers to include children and multiple rooms then it forces you to specify exact destination - which makes it useless.

[oyster]

13m said:

To be honest, these search engines I was unaware of. However they seem limited to a single provider, don't they.

You'd think a site like Last Minute would develop a search across multiple providers and destinations. But again, when using that site, you've got to stipulate where you're going.

It's painful.

[ChasW]

wsurfa said:

pretty sure BA's site allows you to do this http://www.britishairways.com/travel/holiday-finde...

Budget,
Length
Departure
2,3,4,5*
Beach/City
etc

I was just about to recommend the BA site. I have booked a couple of breaks for my OH and daughter and I have struggled to beat the BA deals plus, being cardholders, the BA site has our traveller details. Very simple

[shakotan]

otherman said:

I agree with OP. You always have to know your destination. Why not let us search by date and cost.

Momondo, you don't have to set a destination, just a date range.

Then it gives you a choice of countries and desitination and the cheapest price for each.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

BlueFiestaST said:

Id say 99% of people who want to book an holiday know where they want to go.

I'm not sure that's true at all. I often get time off at short notice and just want to bugger off somewhere....anywhere. I want a week in the sun for £300 or whatever. There must be loads of people like me.

Of course sometimes I do know where I want to go, but that's more family holidays.

[bloomen]

I use google flights for all my flight stuff these days. Everywhere else is painfully clunky and it takes you several minutes to chop and change dates and locations. google flights does it near instantly.

[StevieBee]

I often fly odd routes to odd locations for work and can easily spend a morning or whole day sifting through the various permutations.

The more you do it, the more you get to know what and where to search but I have tended to throw requirements at a good travel agency to save the time and also - sometimes money. Chandlers Travel in Upminster used to be very good but I think they've disappeared. The Flight Centre have also come up trumps too.

[PurpleTurtle]

O/P, without wishing to sound facetious, the vast majority of people going on holiday know their (normally local to them) starting point and a vague idea of destination. Your very requirements are probably shared by a fraction of a percent of holidaymakers, so it wouldn't be cost effective to develop something with so many variables.