How do we compare?
Here you will find all the information about how our comparison site works: How do we rank the offers? Are they exhaustive? When are they updated? What are the relationships with our partner bus companies? How are the fares displayed? With CheckMyBus, you can travel by bus easily and cheaply, but above all transparently!
Classification of offers
All the offers shown in our search result list have the following characteristics:
Means of transport: A symbol representing a bus, train, car or plane.
Departure and Arrival time: The time at which the ride will start and end.
Price: the price of the offer, in the official currency of the country.
Duration: How long the ride will last.
Travel company: The logo of the company that will make the trip.
Number of changes: The number of changes during the trip.
Departure and Arrival station: The name of the stations from which the trip will start and end.
Means of transport: A symbol representing a bus, train, car or plane.
Departure and Arrival time: The time at which the ride will start and end.
Price: the price of the offer, in the official currency of the country.
Duration: How long the ride will last.
Travel company: The logo of the company that will make the trip.
Number of changes: The number of changes during the trip.
Departure and Arrival station: The name of the stations from which the trip will start and end.
The search result list
Relevance:
After carrying out a research on our homepage, the customer will be redirected to the search result page. Here, the offers found by our search engine will be listed in order of "Relevance". We classify one offer as “more relevant” than another based on a number of factors, including price, departure time, duration and number of changes.
Filters:
When the "most relevant" offer is not the desired result, the customer can sort the search result list in the following ways: by Price, Departure Time, Duration or by Company. The results shown will not change, but they will now be listed in ascending order of the selected value, or in alphabetical order. Our customers can then use the filters on the left to customize the search result list as they prefer: some of the available filter options are Seat Classes, Amenities offered on board, Methods of Payment, Stations of departure and arrival and so on.
Service Fee:
Some booking partners charge service fees in addition to the ticket price. In order to create the best possible transparency for the user, we show this data in our search result page, and the user can check the cost of the additional service fee using the dedicated toggle. When a company already includes the fee in its price, we will show that price directly on our search result page. In case the partner doesn’t provide specific data on the use of service fees, we will show it as “variable”. In any case, CheckMyBus does not charge service fees on top of prices delivered by booking partners.
Nearby cities offers:
In certain cases, for example when no direct connections are found, our search page will show additional offers that start or arrive in cities close to the selected locations. This is done to provide more options to the customer.
Additional qualitative information:
To provide users with better guidance beyond price and time, we add qualitative information to the search.
The "Users' Choice" identifies the top two providers for a route in terms of the quality of the booking process. We measure this by the percentage of tickets created per 100 visitors who are sent via our search (conversion rate) to the provider. This is the strongest indicator of how well a provider performs in terms of price accuracy, ease of use, payment options or additional services. Where available, a Trip Ranking can be found within a search result as part of the “Relevance Sorting”. The score displayed ranges from 10 to 7. The ranking contains qualitative information about the conversion rate for the user experience at provider level, seat class, duration, departure time and price. The aim is to give the user an indication of the highest benefit for a specific trip.
After carrying out a research on our homepage, the customer will be redirected to the search result page. Here, the offers found by our search engine will be listed in order of "Relevance". We classify one offer as “more relevant” than another based on a number of factors, including price, departure time, duration and number of changes.
Filters:
When the "most relevant" offer is not the desired result, the customer can sort the search result list in the following ways: by Price, Departure Time, Duration or by Company. The results shown will not change, but they will now be listed in ascending order of the selected value, or in alphabetical order. Our customers can then use the filters on the left to customize the search result list as they prefer: some of the available filter options are Seat Classes, Amenities offered on board, Methods of Payment, Stations of departure and arrival and so on.
Service Fee:
Some booking partners charge service fees in addition to the ticket price. In order to create the best possible transparency for the user, we show this data in our search result page, and the user can check the cost of the additional service fee using the dedicated toggle. When a company already includes the fee in its price, we will show that price directly on our search result page. In case the partner doesn’t provide specific data on the use of service fees, we will show it as “variable”. In any case, CheckMyBus does not charge service fees on top of prices delivered by booking partners.
Nearby cities offers:
In certain cases, for example when no direct connections are found, our search page will show additional offers that start or arrive in cities close to the selected locations. This is done to provide more options to the customer.
Additional qualitative information:
To provide users with better guidance beyond price and time, we add qualitative information to the search.
The "Users' Choice" identifies the top two providers for a route in terms of the quality of the booking process. We measure this by the percentage of tickets created per 100 visitors who are sent via our search (conversion rate) to the provider. This is the strongest indicator of how well a provider performs in terms of price accuracy, ease of use, payment options or additional services. Where available, a Trip Ranking can be found within a search result as part of the “Relevance Sorting”. The score displayed ranges from 10 to 7. The ranking contains qualitative information about the conversion rate for the user experience at provider level, seat class, duration, departure time and price. The aim is to give the user an indication of the highest benefit for a specific trip.
Fares and prices of the offers
The proposed fares
The fares proposed on our site, all taxes and fees included, are not guaranteed and may vary from the website of the company where the reservation is made. It is indeed the company that sets the prices for each of the proposed routes. The price of the tickets includes handling fees and credit card payment fees (by default: Visa debit card). Depending on your final selection criteria (e.g. payment method or additional services such as luggage), the final amount may vary from the price indicated in our results list.
Update of offers
We update the offers every hour, so the majority of the fares are always up to date. In case of technical problems or limitations of our partners, the last update of some fares may be 12 hours old.
Exhaustiveness of the offers
Our ambition is to always offer you the largest number of available offers. However, it may happen that for technical or commercial reasons, we cannot display all the results of our partners for a given route.
Variations in prices
CheckMyBus is committed to make it easy for users to navigate search results. For this reason, we might use the most common rounding method, “Half Round Up”, where we see benefits in usability. This means a price of 7,5 will become 8, while 7,4 will become 7. Prices may vary compared to the partner pages due to currency conversion. Should we receive data in USD from a partner interface while the user searches in GBP, a small deviation might arise. To keep interfaces running efficiently, or upon partner requirements, we apply limited data caching methods. This can lead to a temporary price deviation when a partner has changed a price, but the update happens on CheckMyBus with a small delay (caching). Therefore, only the price on the partner’s page is the valid price at the purchase of a ticket.
The fares proposed on our site, all taxes and fees included, are not guaranteed and may vary from the website of the company where the reservation is made. It is indeed the company that sets the prices for each of the proposed routes. The price of the tickets includes handling fees and credit card payment fees (by default: Visa debit card). Depending on your final selection criteria (e.g. payment method or additional services such as luggage), the final amount may vary from the price indicated in our results list.
Update of offers
We update the offers every hour, so the majority of the fares are always up to date. In case of technical problems or limitations of our partners, the last update of some fares may be 12 hours old.
Exhaustiveness of the offers
Our ambition is to always offer you the largest number of available offers. However, it may happen that for technical or commercial reasons, we cannot display all the results of our partners for a given route.
Variations in prices
CheckMyBus is committed to make it easy for users to navigate search results. For this reason, we might use the most common rounding method, “Half Round Up”, where we see benefits in usability. This means a price of 7,5 will become 8, while 7,4 will become 7. Prices may vary compared to the partner pages due to currency conversion. Should we receive data in USD from a partner interface while the user searches in GBP, a small deviation might arise. To keep interfaces running efficiently, or upon partner requirements, we apply limited data caching methods. This can lead to a temporary price deviation when a partner has changed a price, but the update happens on CheckMyBus with a small delay (caching). Therefore, only the price on the partner’s page is the valid price at the purchase of a ticket.
CheckMyBus is neither a reseller nor a provider
CheckMyBus operates solely as search engine: it shows the available offers, but does not operate the lines or routes, and most importantly does not sell the tickets which are compared in the search. For all the requests related to acquisition, delivery and refund of the ticket, we invite all our customers to inquire with the company with which the purchased the ticket.
Relationship with our partner companies
We have a contract with many partners and receive a commission from them for the service we provide. However, we also post content from partners from whom we do not receive a commission. In both cases, we do not change the rates and there is no price difference for the customer.
