An alternative to travelocity, orbitz, expedia - I'd love some feedback

I'm working on a service which facilitates communication between
travelers and travel agents. The goal is to help people get the best
possible expertise and fares possible. It's an alternative to the
online "big boys." Please look at it and send some feedback. I want
to make the best service possible. It's free of course. I've been
working on software for travel agents for years, now I'd like to let
people benefit from the collective expertise of 40,000+ travel
agencies. I've used it myself twice with great success, but it can
still be better with good feedback and ideas

Please check it out at www.metatravel.com

"dbk" wrote in message
om...
I'm working on a service which facilitates communication between
travelers and travel agents. The goal is to help people get the best
possible expertise and fares possible. It's an alternative to the
online "big boys." Please look at it and send some feedback. I want
to make the best service possible. It's free of course. I've been
working on software for travel agents for years, now I'd like to let
people benefit from the collective expertise of 40,000+ travel
agencies. I've used it myself twice with great success, but it can
still be better with good feedback and ideas

easy peesy.

If I have to register to try it out, I go somewhere else.

I *know* that I am not alone in this.

tim


Please check it out at www.metatravel.com

tim wrote:
"dbk" wrote:
I'm working on a service which facilitates communication between
travelers and travel agents. The goal is to help people get the best
possible expertise and fares possible. It's an alternative to the
online "big boys." Please look at it and send some feedback. I want
to make the best service possible. It's free of course. I've been
working on software for travel agents for years, now I'd like to let
people benefit from the collective expertise of 40,000+ travel
agencies. I've used it myself twice with great success, but it can
still be better with good feedback and ideas

easy peesy.

If I have to register to try it out, I go somewhere else.

I *know* that I am not alone in this.

You are not - it kept me from going past the first click too.

Professionals who run web sites have learned that they have to offer
additional added value in order to coax registrations (e.g., Amazon with its
recommendations, Travelocity with its FareWatcher, etc.). Requiring
registration before presenting any value at all is one of the surest ways to
turn the majority of visitors away before they even see what you have to
offer (up there with moronic things like "your browser is not the same one
that I, the developer, use, so go download another one before you can visit
here, and why not change your monitor resolution while you're at it?").

miguel
--
Hit The Road! Photos and tales from around the world: http://travel.u.nu

Or you could simply register with fake information, they don't confirm any
of it.

I *know* that I am not the only one who figured that out.

It's amazing that when you put a name or an e-mail question on a form
everybody believes you have to fill it in with real information.








If I have to register to try it out, I go somewhere else.

I *know* that I am not alone in this.

tim


Please check it out at www.metatravel.com

Miguel Cruz wrote:

Professionals who run web sites have learned that they have to offer
additional added value in order to coax registrations

It was a good thing for the people that handle aa.com to eventually get
this and permit checking the price for a booking before requiring you to
login.

"Mike Cordelli" wrote in message
...
Or you could simply register with fake information, they don't confirm any
of it.

It is not the giving of the information that I have a problem with.

It is the inconvenience of doing it (when there is no real reason).

(Bear in mind that if you like the site and want to make a booking
later you will regret lying.)

I *know* that I am not the only one who figured that out.

I once got rejected from a site because too many people
had claimed the address

It's amazing that when you put a name or an e-mail question on a form
everybody believes you have to fill it in with real information.

But some types of site require 'real' information to be usable in other
ways

tim









If I have to register to try it out, I go somewhere else.

I *know* that I am not alone in this.

tim


Please check it out at www.metatravel.com

Miguel Cruz wrote:

tim wrote:

"dbk" wrote:

I'm working on a service which facilitates communication between
travelers and travel agents. The goal is to help people get the best
possible expertise and fares possible. It's an alternative to the
online "big boys." Please look at it and send some feedback. I want
to make the best service possible. It's free of course. I've been
working on software for travel agents for years, now I'd like to let
people benefit from the collective expertise of 40,000+ travel
agencies. I've used it myself twice with great success, but it can
still be better with good feedback and ideas

easy peesy.

If I have to register to try it out, I go somewhere else.

I *know* that I am not alone in this.


You are not - it kept me from going past the first click too.

Professionals who run web sites have learned that they have to offer
additional added value in order to coax registrations (e.g., Amazon with its
recommendations, Travelocity with its FareWatcher, etc.). Requiring
registration before presenting any value at all is one of the surest ways to
turn the majority of visitors away before they even see what you have to
offer (up there with moronic things like "your browser is not the same one
that I, the developer, use, so go download another one before you can visit
here, and why not change your monitor resolution while you're at it?").

miguel

Hear! Hear! Well said, Miguel. Most of those holier than thou sites are
not worth the time for a download.

John Bermont
--
------------------------------------------------------
* * * Mastering Independent Budget Travel * * *
http://www.enjoy-europe.com/
------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the feedback, I hadn't considered how the registration would be
received. I only use the email as a way for travel agents to send you
info, and you're email address is hidden from them, they never see it
because they use an online form. It's supposed to be for convenience. But
it is good feedback to get. I'll see if I can devise another way of
getting providing the service without asking for an email, or perhaps I can
provide the agent search function without having to register and login.

Thanks a lot, that's what I'm looking for

On 2004-05-04 16:12:13 -0400, "tim"
said:


"Mike Cordelli" wrote in message
...
Or you could simply register with fake information, they don't confirm
any
of it.

It is not the giving of the information that I have a problem with.

It is the inconvenience of doing it (when there is no real reason).

(Bear in mind that if you like the site and want to make a booking
later you will regret lying.)

I *know* that I am not the only one who figured that out.

I once got rejected from a site because too many people
had claimed the address

It's amazing that when you put a name or an e-mail question on a form
everybody believes you have to fill it in with real information.

But some types of site require 'real' information to be usable in other
ways

tim









If I have to register to try it out, I go somewhere else.

I *know* that I am not alone in this.

tim


Please check it out at www.metatravel.com

Miguel Cruz wrote:

Requiring
registration before presenting any value at all is one of the surest ways to
turn the majority of visitors away before they even see what you have to
offer

yes

(up there with moronic things like "your browser is not the same one
that I, the developer, use, so go download another one before you can visit
here...).

When I encounter this malarkey, I ask myself how interested I really am
in the site. Did I go there for some purpose, or was I incidentally
carried there by the surf? If the former, i.e., if I care at all, I will
usually try to send the webmaster a note, quoting the following:

"Anyone who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with Browser X' label on a
Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web,
when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another
computer, another word processor, or another network."

-Tim Berners-Lee in Technology Review, July 1996

cheers,

Henry

(Of course, there wil be some--webmasters included--who say 'Tim who?')

Personally, I'd never use a site like this. I like to browse, get pricing
and if I see something I like I buy it. Giving personal information and then
waiting for a response tends to make me feel like there would be sales
tactics or pressure when I did get a response. Instant online pricing like
expedia, travelocity, smartcruiser, etc are the things that everyone I know
uses because it's instant and anonymous. I can look at the details for
hundreds of vacations before deciding about anything. Most of the time I'm
not sure where I want to go until something looks attractive. If the pricing
is right then I may book it online or go to my travel agent.

Mark



"dbk" wrote in message
om...
I'm working on a service which facilitates communication between
travelers and travel agents. The goal is to help people get the best
possible expertise and fares possible. It's an alternative to the
online "big boys." Please look at it and send some feedback. I want
to make the best service possible. It's free of course. I've been
working on software for travel agents for years, now I'd like to let
people benefit from the collective expertise of 40,000+ travel
agencies. I've used it myself twice with great success, but it can
still be better with good feedback and ideas

Please check it out at www.metatravel.com