Website of the Week: www.cityhook.com - the online guide to airport transfers
Rating:
CityHook claims to be 'the simplest way to figure out how to get from the airport to downtown'. A neat idea - but does it deliver?
I had a look at what the website offers for transfers from Schiphol Airport to Amsterdam, and from Heathrow to London.
Transfer tactics: The websites aims to provide travellers with all the options available to travel between the airport and nearest city centre
Strengths
The initial presentation is pretty good, with at-a-glance information on a destination provided on a single page. So for Amsterdam, I can see summaries of train, bus and taxi transfers, including the length of journey (from 'gate to door' - ie from baggage belt to the destination, including time walking, waiting and transferring) and the rough cost.
You get more detail when you click through on each option, including the wait time, the actual journey time, the frequency of services, and the time of the first and last services. For the train transfers to Amsterdam, it all looks pretty accurate.
For Heathrow, CityHook neatly summarises the main options into central London, including the Heathrow Express, the Underground, National Express buses and taxis.
Weaknesses
So far, only transfers between airports and cities in Europe are covered. However, there are plans to expand coverage to other continents.
The transfers shown are only between the airport and its closest city. So, for example, from Malaga Airport you're shown transfers just to Malaga, and not to resorts along the Costa del Sol, where many people flying in to Malaga head on to.
Some of the information on transfers between Schiphol Airport and Amsterdam doesn't really stand up to close scrutiny. The taxi transfer times look optimistic. The bus information is based on the public bus service, rather than the popular private shuttle service between the airport and Amsterdam hotels, which isn't mentioned at all.
Likewise, for Heathrow, click on City Bus and you are given details on Municipal bus 140, which takes you out to Harrow… not exactly helpful for an unsuspecting Japanese tourist.
CityHook says it's still 'in beta' - techspeak for it not being the finished article. Therefore, 'the directions below may be wildly inaccurate or even wrong. Please check with official sources.' Not exactly reassuring.
And as the website is not yet fully functioning, the promised details on the comfort of the transfers isn't yet shown.
In short, a neat idea, but some way to go to provide a really useful service.
Ratings
Inspiring 1/5
Useful 2/5
Easy to use 4/5
Rating:
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