What's Wrong with Search Tools for Travel Sites? Better Designs Needed

© janderson99-HubPages

Most travel directories and other websites that provide information on places to stay and things to see and do on your holiday are based on ancient database sites that are very hard to use. Most have a home page with terrible search tools. Users have to enter the town they are interested in and then go through several boring steps to find the information they are after. Some require you to enter the country, the region, the locality, and even then you have to pick the town from a scroll down list. Even after that effort, you will have to click one link for accommodation, another about attractions and another about activities.This is so old fashioned and so NOT user friendly. These sites are based on databases and you the user have to serve their clumsy search tools, enter data in their lousy forms and wait while system builds the page to display to you from the database.

This is totally foreign to how people search for this information and want it delivered. Most people will be looking for information about a specific town or destination. For example 'Beachfront Flat to rent in Sydney', or 'Vacation Apartment in New York'. This is what people want - why can't they get this information straight away without having to fill in all the boring forms.

Good News! There is a better way! Many modern websites are focused on designing sub-pages for every town and location, so that the user gets exactly what they need instantly. No more wasting precious time entering words for database searches - click and you will sees the website designed specifically for each town and location. You get exactly what you want instantly.

Many of these sites don't use databases and so the information is delivered much quicker. Google and other search engine list the specific sub-page in the search results that matches your exact search request.

You search for 'Beach Front Accommodation in Byron Bay' and Voila! that is what you get straight away - instantly.

Byron Bay - Beach Front Holidays, Holiday Accommodation [ LINK ]

Find Byron Bay - Beach Front Holidays, Holiday Accommodation and Beachfront Properties for Sale, Rent or Lease - Byron Bay, Belongil Beach, Northern Rivers ...www.ozbeachfront.com/byron.html - Cached - Similar

Click the link and you get the listings

Watego`s Beach House . Ozbeachfront List
32 Brownell Drive, Watego`s Beach
House/Villa in Wategos Beach
Enjoy the wonderful ocean and hinterland views in seclusion and comfort for your next memorable experience! Welcome to our spacious, five bedroom, three-bathroom, three-level beach house. The property is an easy 120 metres walk from the beach designed to comfortably accommodate families featuring three outdoor deck areas and multiple living zones and garden surroundings.
Tariff: On Application 5 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms Sleeps 10 Car Spaces 1

Memories at Watego`s . Ozbeachfront List
41 Brownell Drive, Watego`s Beach
House/Villa in Wategos Beach
Located at Watego`s Beach this modern well equipped house has a tropical oasis setting. A salt water pool, timber decks and a BBQ area make for a relaxing holiday, or take a short stroll to the beach. This large 4 bedroom house accommodates up to 8 people. Suitable for 2 small families or couples. 4 Bedrooms , King, 2 Queens, 2 Singles (sleeps up to 8 people); 3 Bathrooms (1 with spa).
Tariff: On Application 4 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms Sleeps 8 Car Spaces 1

And many more listings

Map Based Search

The other advance is map-based searches using Google Maps. Once again there are good and bad ways of doing this.

• The user does not want a mass of labels marked 'A', 'B', 'C' etc., that the unfortunate user has to manually click on to get the information they are looking for.

• Likewise the mapping systems there need directly take you to the specific town or suburb when the user enters the town name.
• The labels need to convey information such as the name of the accommodation or tour provider.
• Also the background of the labels should be colour-coded according to the type of accommodation - 'apartment', 'house', 'unit' etc. so that the user and quickly see the category they require.
• The information summary should be shown on 'pop-up' windows on the map itself, rather than elsewhere on the page. This makes it easier for the user to try various labels and see what is available without ever leaving the map.
• Summaries of all the accommodation and tour providers in each town should also be available with links to the provider's websites.

So if you are searching for travel information - where to stay, what to see and do - look for these websites and you will find the exact information you need quicker.

How can you separate these modern sites from the old travel website dinosaurs? Just look at the URL that is shown below the search result item. Look for sites that have a clean URLs with no '?' or 'php' or 'asp' etc. before the town name. These symbols are clear indicators that your information will have to be delivered from a database system. The results will be slow to load, you will often have to make several steps to get want you are a after and the information will be inferior and very limited. Why inferior? Simply because there are limits to what can be stored in each record of the database.

© janderson99-HubPages

Conclusion: Travellers deserve better ways of finding the information they need without have to deal with dinosaur database systems. Some good example of these new website are shown below.

Below are modern travel website examples that use these principles: