A new travel price comparison website that has backing from Lastminute.co.uk founder Brent Hoberman has officially launched claiming to offer much broader search criteria than rivals.
Hoberman meets his match advising new venture
A new travel price comparison website that has backing from Lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman has officially launched claiming to offer much broader search criteria than rivals.
Travelmatch.co.uk enables holidaymakers to use whatever requirement they have to match that with product, rather than the usual destination, date, budget and duration.
Hoberman is among “travel experts” said to be providing backing for the new venture with advice. Investors include former Opodo chief executive David Scowsill and John Moulton, founder of Better Capital.
Founders Alex Francis and Jonny Marsh have been developing it since 2006 and it was soft launched before Christmas.
Travelmatch.co.uk seeks to break the mould of websites that are destination-focussed, citing research that suggests 70% of people know what they want to do on holiday rather than where when they start their search.
Visitors to the site can use temperature, flight duration or even food and drink as criteria and the results will suggest destinations that can deliver what they want.
The site offers searches to specify details of facilities like kids clubs, crazy golf and banana boats for families, infinity pools or in-room facilities like safes or hairdryers.
The website claimed: “travelmatch.co.uk plays the role of a travel agent, matching your search criteria to the best holidays for you, taking the time and hassle out of a search.
“This not only enables customers to really drill down and find their perfect trip, but also means they can do it with a few clicks, rather than weeks of painstaking research.
“Travelmatch.co.uk is the biggest package holiday comparison site in the UK, so you’ll never be stuck for the perfect option.”
Travelmatch.co.uk also includes blogs, videos, pictures and Tripadvisor reviews plus links to social networks to aid the research process.
The new website taps into a wider trend of moving away from traditional search criteria on travel websites enabling the users to be less specific about what they want at the start of their search.
