Founded in 1999, Direct Ferries was launched by founder Howard Davies, and quickly expanded to serve multiple markets across the globe. In 2016, the business received investment from private equity firmLivingbridge, and has since reported major growth worldwide. Direct Ferries was the first European company to work with NFC in the Sultanate of Oman, and was also the first European company to work with major ferry operators in the US. In 2017, Direct Ferries launched a dedicated website for both the US and the Middle East, further expanding their marketing capabilities.
Operations
Direct Ferries is a U.K. based company, and has its headquarters based in London, England, where the majority of its employees are based. The company is very internationally focussed though, with their services being offered being spread across the globe, with multiple websites based across the many different languages and countries that they serve. Direct Ferries’ website works as a third-party ticketing service that allows users to compare many different ferry routes, ports and operators. They allow access to practically any port in both Europe and North Africa, as well as many different ports in North America, Asia, and the South Pacific. They also allow you to compare prices between 220 different ferry operators, on routes that allow cars onboard, as well as foot passenger only routes. The possibility to change a booked ticked is not implemented for the most ferry companies. They offer around 3011 ferry routes across the world, with more being added every week, with a choice of over 725 ferry ports in over 194 countries and separate islands. The Direct Ferries App was launched in 2013 for both iOS, as well as for Android, offering access to ferry bookings on the go.
Criticism
Over the years, examples of problematic practices related to customer concerns have repeatedly come to light. During 2018 there was an increasing number of cases of credit card debits for ferries for which no ticket or booking confirmation was available, the European Consumer Centres Network issued a guidance for affected customers. During the COVID-19 pandemic the problems accentuated, on websites like Trustpilot or Google Play there are reports of hundreds of customers who had problems with direct ferries. The main issues concerning the lack of information from the side of direct ferries, the respond time to customer concerns seem to be very long and in many cases there is no reaction from the company at all, another common criticism is the refusal of direct ferries to reimburse any payments.
