Stiftung Warentest rating: "Good (2.2)"

Stiftung Warentest, the German consumer protection organisation, has put online portals for holiday accommodation under the microscope. atraveo narrowly missed out on first place by 0.2 points, but was named as the third best portal out of a total of 21 test candidates, with an overall score of 2.2.

We were able to achieve ratings of “good” to “very good” for our search function, results list and booking features, among other things. For us, these partial results are a great acknowledgment of the work that we have invested in these areas over the years. As part of our big website relaunch, not only was a new design concept introduced, but so too was a completely new booking engine for holiday homes and apartments. High ease of use, a high level of information and transparency, as well as a quick and easy booking process were at the forefront of this new development.

The booking engine, known internally as the "IBE5", forms the heart of our website and is continuously being improved and expanded. Completely new features have been developed and introduced since the relaunch, as have numerous optimisations. These include e.g., a sorting algorithm, which has been improved in many respects and emphasises, in particular, the quality of each property description on the basis of clearly defined features, a search speed which is much faster overall, improvements to the auto complete function, and one of the most visible new innovations - search results on the map.

Our aim is clearly to operate the best website for holiday homes and apartments on the entire Internet. And even if this goal has not yet been completely reached, Stiftung Warentest’s test result confirms our belief that we are on the right track.

Outside of the sub-areas of searching and booking, atraveo was also rated positively in the test for the transparency of its website provider details and the handling of user data. The high level of transparency which atraveo offers its customers had already been praised back in 2013, when a comparison test of holiday home portals was carried out by Stiftung Warentest. At that time, the customer service team’s advisory assistance was also named as one of the best of all those that had been tested.

Stiftung Warentest used fictitious travel arrangements to test a total of 21 online portals for holiday accommodation - including nine portals for hotel rooms, nine for holiday homes and apartments, and three for private rooms and apartments. It was striking that the providers of holiday homes and apartments were able to significantly outperform the hotel portals overall. The improved search capabilities were cited as a plus point, in particular.

From our point of view, it was also pleasing that the major shortcomings of many portals, which were revealed by the test - such as non-transparent results lists, insurance cases and defects in the terms and conditions - did not apply to atraveo at all.

This detailed test report with all the results can be found in issue 09/2015 of "test" magazine. Further information is on the Stiftung Warentest website.