London Cabs First in Taxi Rank

MUMBAI, India, November 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Global travellers vote London taxis as top cabbies in the world

London taxis have been voted the best taxis in the world for the sixth year in a row, according to the annual global taxi survey from Hotels.com. London secured 22% of the votes, a clear runaway winner followed by New York with 10% and Tokyo with 9% in second and third place.

     (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120628/540164 )

London's iconic black cabs won nearly a quarter of the vote in the survey*, which also saw Berlin reclaim its position in the top five list, in fourth place with 5% and Madrid, Mexico City and Amsterdam in joint fifth with 4%.

The world's best taxis:

    Rank City         % of votes
    1    London        22%
    2    New York      10%
    3    Tokyo          9%
    4    Berlin         5%
    5=   Amsterdam      4%
    5=   Madrid         4%
    5=   Mexico City    4%

Of the 30 countries surveyed, London topped the list across five of the seven categories, including cleanliness (23%), knowledge of the area (27%) and quality of driving (30%). While London cabs were also voted top for friendliness (23%) it was this category that was deemed the least important to travellers, meaning London's friendly cabbies could be seen to put some punters off. Almost a quarter of respondents (23%) voted safety their number one priority when travelling by taxi, which London's cabs also ranked highest on.

New York and Bangkok taxis came joint first in terms of value for money (20%); interestingly the latter didn't quite make the overall top five this year. New York's recognizable yellow taxis grabbed the top spot when it came to availability (23%).

Categories ranked in order of preference:

    Rank   Category           % of votes
    1      Safety               23%
    2      Value                20%
    3      Knowledge of Area    17%
    4      Availability         14%
    5      Quality of Driving   11%
    6      Cleanliness           8%
    7      Friendliness          7%

The global Hotels.com taxi survey also revealed the world's more obscure objects that travellers have admitted to leaving behind, which included:

• A wig and a bird in a cage left behind in a US cab
• A prosthetic leg and an ex-boyfriend in Australia
• A trombone in Finland
• A Rubik's cube in Italy
• Dentures in Germany

Globally the survey found that people tend to text or email whilst in cab (19%), while sleeping was the second most popular activity (15%), followed by eating (10%) and kissing (9%). When asked which nation was the most amorous in the back of a cab, Brits came out with 14% admitting to displaying passionate behavior- 10% higher than the global average of 4%. According to the survey, 48.5% of Indian respondents wanted newspaper and music in the cab.

Other global findings include:

• Over half of us (53%) would choose a taxi as our desired mode of transport from airport to hotel.
• While the majority of people would round up to the nearest amount when tipping (38%), taxi passengers tend to choose to not tip over tipping more than 10% for the journey.
• The most important feature in a taxi is WiFi (14%) beating both the radio and music.
• The biggest pet hate for UK travellers is when taxi drivers take a longer route to the destination.

Alison Couper, Senior Director of Communications of the Hotels.com brand said, "Six years running and London cabs are still leading the pack when it comes to travel- it's great to see! Our iconic black Hackney Carriages and their well-informed cabbies can pride themselves on being globally recognised for their expert knowledge and quality of driving, maybe next year we can top the list for all categories!"

Notes to Editors:

*2,683 respondents across 30 countries.

About Hotels.com

Hotels.com is a leading online accommodation booking website with almost 220,000 properties around the world, ranging from international chains and all-inclusive resorts to local favourites and bed & breakfasts, together with all the information needed to book the perfect stay. Hotels.com benefits from one of the largest hotel contracting teams in the industry, negotiating the best rates for its customers, and offers frequent sales, special deals and promotions. Regular customer e-newsletters provide exclusive offers and advance warning of up-coming sales. There are 7 million reviews on the site from users who have actually stayed in the hotels to ensure customers can make an informed choice when booking. Through its industry-leading loyalty program Welcome Rewards, customers can earn a free night for every 10 nights stayed at more than 85,000 hotels. Under its Price Match Guarantee, if a customer can find the same deal for less on a prepaid hotel, Hotels.com will refund the difference. Travellers can book online or by contacting one of the multilingual call centres. Special apps for mobile phones and tablets can also be downloaded at http://www.hotels.com/deals/mobile_in/ enabling customers to book on the go with access to 20,000 last minute deals. For the last eight years, Hotels.com has published an award-winning twice-yearly review of international hotel room price trends called the Hotels.com Hotel Price Index, which is now produced in 31 individual country editions. Follow Hotels.com on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/Hotels.com.India and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/hotels_com_IN. Hotels.com is part of Expedia Inc., the largest online travel company in the world with an extensive portfolio that includes some of the world's best-known brands.

For more information please contact:
Perfect Relations PR / India
Karishma Nasta: - TEL: +91-9920556080 / knasta@perfectrelations.com
Pragya Singh: - TEL: +91-9930666106 / psingh@perfectrelations.com
Or Zoe Chan, zchan@expedia.com, +852-3607-5719