Cheap flights guide: TransferWithMe.com feedback

Former_MSE_Rose

Hi all,

This is a feedback thread as part of the Cheap Flights guide - we want to know if you've used TransferWithMe.com to find people to share lifts with to the airport. Did it work for you? Were there any problems? Would you recommend it to other MoneySavers? Just click 'reply' to share your thoughts below.

Thanks,

MSE Rose

Tojo_Ralph

....
This article rides the coattails of the BBC Click feature and whilst in principle the concept of sharing the cost of getting to the airport is sound, I just don't see where the demand for the service will come from.
http://urlspy.co.uk/www.transferwithme.com

Have MSE Towers done any research on this service I wonder?
Input dummy searches?
Seen if there are actually any travellers to share with? ..... I assume not.

Well I have done some research, I put in a lone male travller profile, I picked random days in the coming 30 days, I chose Birmingham and Gatwick airports based on throughput, a town nearby to travel from, a midday flight, +/- 12 Hrs and within a 100 mile radius ...... and I did not find one single match.

Personally I don't see families using the service due to vehicle space and I don't see business travellers using it as travel is expensed.

This leaves the ones and twos travelling together who naturally benefit most from any cost saving, but when you weed out folk who have no wish to share, folk who live within a reasonable taxi fare distance, folk who get a lift to/from with family/friends, folk who find long stay car parks economical, etc, etc, the customer base does not strike me as huge. IMHO.

Also, the only way I would ever consider sharing is if it were a taxi I had booked.

Add to that the fact that the website is not user friendly and has the feeling of a ghost town devoid of life, something the user stats would appear to support.

TransferWithMe

Hi Tojo Ralph

I run the TransferWithMe.com web site. I hope I don't fall foul of any self-promotion rules, if I respond to the points made.

This is a UK based start up business that has got potential to grow. We don't pretend otherwise.

The concept was successfully beta tested in 2011, in tourist locations in Turkey. We concluded this idea could work anywhere and everywhere, and we did indeed get international interest following the BBC News Click feature.

We have had many matches. The testimonials on our web site are genuine and not made up.

You make perfectly valid points about some situations where people may not wish to share, but it is obvious that there are many travellers out there who would and do share.

All we would respectfully ask is that you don't knock something just because you personally don't wish to use it. I know this is stating the obvious, but the more people that embrace the idea, the more matches we will find.

Surely that can't do any harm, and it could do some good.

Finally, as for the comment that the web site not being user friendly, we are always happy to receive constructive feedback. If you or any other MSE readers have suggestions, I promise you that we will listen.

Regards,

Neil

clashgour

TransferWithMe has worked for me and I will use it again.

It's a great idea but needs a far bigger pool of people using it on a regular basis and it will need a lot of marketing to generate that pool. Too often, in my limited experience, it does not find a match.

Come on people, start using it. We can all save on our transfer costs.

Tojo_Ralph

Hi Neil,

First off and to clarify, whilst I may not see the demand for the service, I do wish you success with your venture and would be only too happy to be proven wrong.

With regards to beta testing the concept using Turkish tourist resorts, if you had success with that then it must be a good sign as I would have thought that the Turkish resort business would be a far tougher market to crack as the market has always struck me as being well serviced already.

With regards to the website, I would suggest that the lack of an initial browsing facility along with the need to register before you can see if someone is making the same journey as you is going to put the majority of people off.

Whilst I understand that you need folk to put journeys up, IMHO a first time visitor is going to want to browse journeys already posted by others that they may wish to join. The issue there is I assume that if an unregistered user is given the ability to browse and sees nothing, they are likely to leave the site quite quickly.

doug4knfpu

Tojo_Ralph wrote: »

Hi Neil,

First off and to clarify, whilst I may not see the demand for the service, I do wish you success with your venture and would be only too happy to be proven wrong.

With regards to beta testing the concept using Turkish tourist resorts, if you had success with that then it must be a good sign as I would have thought that the Turkish resort business would be a far tougher market to crack as the market has always struck me as being well serviced already.

With regards to the website, I would suggest that the lack of an initial browsing facility along with the need to register before you can see if someone is making the same journey as you is going to put the majority of people off.

Whilst I understand that you need folk to put journeys up, IMHO a first time visitor is going to want to browse journeys already posted by others that they may wish to join. The issue there is I assume that if an unregistered user is given the ability to browse and sees nothing, they are likely to leave the site quite quickly.

Exactly my thought. It is a great website though