Most popular travel websites in the US for the week ending March 13 2010:
Agency
Rank Website Domain Percentage of Visits Previous Position
1 Expedia www.expedia.com 15.10% 1
2 Travelocity www.travelocity.com 8.61% 2
3 priceline.com www.priceline.com 8.52% 3
4 Orbitz www.orbitz.com 7.21% 4
5 Yahoo! Travel travel.yahoo.com 5.26% 5
6 Hotwire www.hotwire.com 5.19% 6
7 cheapoair.com www.cheapoair.com 4.36% 7
8 Lowfares.com www.lowfares.com 3.35% -
9 bookingbuddy www.bookingbuddy.com 3.24% 8
10 Cheap Tickets www.cheaptickets.com 3.18% 9
Destinations and Accommodation
Rank Website Domain Percentage of Visits Previous Position
1 TripAdvisor www.tripadvisor.com 6.12% 1
2 InterContinental Hotels Group www.ichotelsgroup.com 2.43% 4
3 Hotels.com www.hotels.com 2.36% 2
4 Marriott International www.marriott.com 2.31% 5
5 Best Western International www.bestwestern.com 1.73% 3
6 Walt Disney World disneyworld.disney.go.com 1.58% 6
7 Hilton Hotels Online www.hilton.com 1.48% 7
8 Vacation Rentals by Owner www.vrbo.com 1.47% 9
9 Choice Hotels International www.choicehotels.com 1.37% -
10 Carnival Cruise Lines www.carnival.com 1.35% 8
Airlines
Rank Website Domain Percentage of Visits Previous Position
1 Southwest Airlines www.southwest.com 21.18% 1
2 Delta Air Lines www.delta.com 13.05% 2
3 American Airlines www.aa.com 9.36% 3
4 JetBlue Airways www.jetblue.com 7.85% 4
5 AirTran Airways www.airtran.com 6.16% 6
6 Continental Airlines www.continental.com 5.83% 5
7 United Airlines www.united.com 5.23% 7
8 US Airways www.usairways.com 3.89% 8
9 Allegiant Air www.allegiantair.com 3.36% 9
10 Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air www.alaskaair.com 2.85% -
Travel search terms
Rank Search Term Percentage of Clicks Percentage Paid Percentage Organic Previous Position
1 mapquest 2.77% 2.74% 97.26% 1
2 mapquest driving directions 1.51% 1.56% 98.44% 2
3 google maps 1.20% 0.93% 99.07% 3
4 maps 0.88% 1.71% 98.29% 4
5 southwest airlines 0.77% 12.38% 87.62% 5
6 map quest 0.52% 0.00% 100% 7
7 google earth 0.46% 1.14% 98.86% 6
8 expedia 0.43% 24.68% 75.32% 8
9 cheap flights 0.41% 24.82% 75.18% 10
10 mapquest.com 0.40% 0.36% 99.64% -
NB: Data courtesy of Experian Hitwise
Priceline is so popular in the US, yet in Europe/UK there’s barely any sign of it.
I wonder when would Priceline decide that growth opportunities in the EU are more promising than in the US and try to tackle the EU (again).
@oz
Priceline decided on a different strategy in Europe/UK – the booking.com brand, which is actually working out very well for them.
@Kevin,
Booking.com is an excellent site, no doubt about it. But in the same time, Priceline runs the priceline.co.uk and pricelineeurope.com which are an outdated version of their sister services. Moreover, Booking.com is not differentiated among the rest of the OTA’s, Priceline.com certainly is.
It looks like Priceline tried those services, then ditched them in favor of booking.com, and forgot to pick up the pieces.
Updating the look and feel of these two domains should not take more than a week’s work, especially not when the model of their sister site belongs to the same firm.
@oz – do you they need to pick up the pieces?
@Kevin, I think that a European version of Priceline.com can succeed where Priceline.co.uk failed. In fact, Priceline does business in Europe today through Priceline.com, but European users must ‘pretend’ to have a US address in order to complete the deal.
Hey, If Priceline did not have strong patents on their model in Europe, I would have loved to plan a venture with a similar model. Too bad that they don’t see that (yet).