Holiday price comparison website launches

A new holiday comparison shopping site - travel.co.uk - launched yesterday, promising to provide a superior comparison shopping experience for package holidays.

Travel.co.uk offers a wide range of information about holidays, including descriptions, photos and videos of hotels, Trip Advisor user ratings and reviews, climate and weather statistics and Google Maps.

Apart from the wide range of searching and comparing options, probably the most useful element of the site is the live availability and pricing information.

It aims to be a one-stop shop for booking package holidays, saving consumers time and money when researching their holidays.

"As travel.co.uk links directly into suppliers' booking systems, a user can now quickly and easily, search, compare, find and book with the provider of their choice - all from one site," managing director Ray Mason explains.

There is also the ability to create and save a shortlist of potential holidays and to put these into a side-by-side comparison chart with all the information laid out.

But the really exciting news for holiday consumers is yet to come.

Travel.co.uk is working on new features that will allow travellers to compare package holidays with a combination of low-cost flights and accommodation.

"This will allow consumers quickly and easily to compare tour operator packages with no-frills airline and accommodation options side-by-side," said Mr Mason.