Nov 28

Is It Safe To Book with Venere? – Venere.com Hotels Review

Is It Safe To Book with Venere? – Venere.com Hotels Review

 

www.venere.com

www.venere.com

Is Venere.com a Travel Agency?

Venere is an online travel agency founded in 1995 that specializes in online hotel booking. The company was acquired by Expedia and it now operates as a brand of Expedia.com with a focus on European travelers. The agency provides an online hotel reservations booking for many types of accommodations such as apartments, bed and breakfast and beach houses.

With Venere, you are able to get access to over 120,000 accommodation properties in the world by making an online reservation. The hotel brand has gained a lot of positive reviews on the internet because of the satisfaction it provides to accommodation seekers. When you visit the website, you will realize that it has a different feel although it is part of Expedia.

Venere’s partnership with Expedia allows it to offer negotiated rates so that the traveler can get the best deal. Accommodation seekers can book a hotel by calling the agency on 0044 203 027 7155 or using an online booking form on the website.

Hotel Search and Booking

To make an online booking, go to http://www.venere.com and fill in your requirements. Enter your destination, the check–in and check–out times as well as the number of guests and rooms that are needed. Click [Find Hotels] to get a list of accommodations in your destination. The travel agency offers an online hotel reservation in 11 languages and there are 9 local country–specific websites including the ones for the UK, USA, Italy, Spain, Japan, Germany, France, Netherlands and Norway.

Users can make hotel savings up to 50% by signing up for an email alert that brings hotel deals to your inbox. There are a lot of deals for city breaks, holiday packages and top attractions. Some of the most popular destinations where Venere provides accommodation are Rome, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Milan, Tuscany, London and Florence.

After clicking the hotel search button, you should see a list of hotels in your area. The hotel rates are listed in ascending order starting with the lowest price. The price is given in your local currency when you are on the internet, so you can see the actual price without using a currency converter. You can sort the list by choosing the parameters on the left sidebar. You can sort the hotels by budget, star rating, accommodation type and city area.

Venere will show you results from the default criterion when you make your first search. This setting allows you to search all hotels. While sorting by price is the default option, you can also see additional information about the hotel such as star rating, hotel reviews, location and photos. Check the availability of the hotel room by clicking the green button. Discounts and deals will also be highlighted if they are available.

 

To get more details about the hotels in a specific country, go to http://www.venere.com/hotels/

 

Select your destination country, for example http://www.venere.com/hotels/france/ This will give you more information about hotel locations which is classified into four or more categories such as coast, countryside, airport, online city index, top cities & destinations, mountains etc.You can go to each location to find the best hotel accommodation for yourself. If you need a hotel near the airport, go to Airports and choose the airport for example, Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Browse through the list of available hotels, choose the preferred hotel and make an online booking. If you are going for a beach vacation, you might want to find a hotel near the beach. Go to the seaside or coast section to browse the locations.Venere has put in a lot of hard work to help you find the best hotel in a few minutes.

The travel agency has its headquarters in Italy, Rome on 693 Via della Camilluccia where they can be visited for consultations. The hotel network covers a lot of countries in the world from Andorra to Zimbabwe including the top destinations.

The advantages of booking with Venere are that there are no extra fees charged after your hotel reservation payment. The amount you pay at check–out is the total and final amount and there are no hidden charges. You can cancel your hotel reservation at any time or change the details. No charges are incurred for cancelling or modifying your booking.

Travelers to European cities have access to over 32,000 hotels and accommodation properties. You can book a hotel in one of the following languages:

Italy Hotels – http://www.venere.com/it/ Germany Hotels – http://www.venere.com/de/ Spain Hotels – http://www.venere.com/es/ France Hotels – http://www.venere.com/fr/ Netherlands Hotels – http://www.venere.com/nl/ Norway Hotels – http://www.venere.com/no/ Sweden Hotels – http://www.venere.com/sv/

Nov 28

Is It Safe To Book with Agoda? – Review

Is It Safe To Book with Agoda? – Review

www.agoda.com

www.agoda.com

 

Is Agoda an Online Travel Agency?

Join one of the leading hotel booking services in Asia with a rapidly growing international reputation. The mission of this travel company is to provide the lowest hotel rates for travellers around the world. Agoda in partnership with Priceline presents you the opportunity to save money. Here you will find the best rates and rooms, catering for all types of travellers from the budget conscious traveller to the high- class traveller.

As one of the affiliates, we present you the best of the Agoda network, a trusted network with over 40,000 high quality hotels in the Asia Pacific region and 200,000 hotels worldwide. Join thousands of travellers who use this portal every year to find the best hotel prices.

The travel network has dedicated staff who are knowledgeable in the travel and hotel booking service, using the Priceline technology to offer the cheapest hotel deals with unmatched quality.

Agoda Worldwide Hotels >> Book Now

Rewards

When you sign up for the Travel Rewards program, you will be able to save even more money. You earn points with every hotel booking you make, allowing you to redeem these points for the best hotel deals and offers.

Just think about it, with every dollar you spend on hotel booking, you will get a percentage of that dollar back. It’s like an investment. Booking and travelling with other agencies is a loss because they don’t reward you for your dedicated service. With Agoda, you are rewarded for your dedication. The more you travel, the more you earn free points, meaning that your next hotel booking might be free.

When you earn enough points, simply log into your traveller account and book a hotel of your choice, all for FREE! ($0.00) Zero Dollars.

Special Offers and Facilities

The Agoda travel website has a page dedicated to special offers for each travel destination. Anytime you feel like saving money, go to the Special Offers section and browse through hundreds of daily hotel deals.

To get started, simply enter your destination country and city/town, then click the magic button to reveal a ton of amazing too-good-to-be-true hotel deals and discounts. You will find hotel discounts ranging from as low as 10% to a sky-high 75%.Actually, most hotel discounts are in the middle of the road, revolving around 50%.

Agoda travel network negotiates directly and personally with hotel owners and travel agencies around the world to bring these amazing discounts to you. Hotel owners agree to lower their rates and in return they get a consistent inflow of clients. The savings are passed on to the traveller and it’s a win- win situation for both. The travel and hotel industry is one of the most competitive, and one of the ways to attract customers is to offer attractive rates.

Lower rates does not mean poor facilities. To ensure uncompromised quality, Agoda only works with certified hotels that offer facilities of acceptable standards. You are able to choose facilities ranging from 1 star to 5 stars, select room types, add beds and make custom configurations.

Agoda Hotels – Book Now

24/7 Service

The Agoda customer service staff is available 24/7 a week to handle any queries with regards to hotel reservations. You will feel at home because we have a diverse staff that is conversant and fluent in over 38 languages.

Their dedicated staff will be happy to answer your questions. They believe that there is no small or complicated question. There is nothing like a stupid question because every one of their customers is a valuable customer.

Feel free to contact Agoda via email address, contact form, telephone or fax. They have been in the hotel booking business for over 10 years, and they know the importance of a prompt and convenient service. They are quick to answer queries, offer solutions and connect with travellers, and above all you can trust them. Agoda’s collection of travel awards like the “2012 Favorite Online Travel Site” is a testimony to their accountability. Agoda has also been recognized for travel innovation because they believe that combining good customer service with innovative technology makes life easier for the traveller.

Offices / Headquarters Agoda Company Pte Ltd, 20 Cecil Street,

No. 1401,

Equity Plaza 049705,

Singapore 049705 SG

Facebook Page 

Facebook Page >> Link

Agoda Customer Service Phone Numbers

 24/7 Customer Service:

United Kingdom 44 20 3027 7900

Australia 61 2 8066 2868

Bahrain 973 1 619 6662

China 4006 302 838

France 33 185 148 161

Germany 49 698 679 9066

Hong Kong 852 3071 1201

Hungary 36 1 4292234

India 91 22 61014585

Indonesia 62 21 2188 9001

Israel 972 7 22713343

Italy 39 02 38591359

Japan 81 3 5767 9333

Macau 853 6262 5205

Malaysia 60 3 2053 1869

New Zealand 64 9339 1656

Philippines 63 2 246 9092

Russia 7 495 705 9247

Saudi Arabia 966 11 486 8366

Singapore 65 6329 7537

South Africa 27 11 844 6064

South Korea 82 2 6022 2443

Spain 34 91 754 7020

Taiwan 886 2 8723 1285

Thailand 66 2 016 4106

United Arab Emirates 971 4319 7490

United States 1 866 656 8207

Vietnam 84 8 4458 2393

Nov 28

Is It Safe To Book with Travelocity? – Review

Is It Safe To Book with Travelocity? – Review

 

www.travelocity.com

www.travelocity.com

 

Is Travelocity a Travel Agent?

Travelocity is an online travel booking agency with headquarters in Texas, USA.This is one of the top 5 biggest online travel agencies in the league of Expedia, TripAdvisor and Priceline. Actually it is the second most popular travel booking site after Expedia.Brand properties owned by Travelocity include Zuji, Last Minute and IgoUgo.

Travelocity allows travelers to book flights, hotels, vacation packages and cars online. There is everything to book for when you are planning a trip including rail tours and cruises. You can even buy merchandise on the site’s store.Travelocity.com is the main site which also acts as a booking portal for US residents. The site has 34 geo–targeted international sites including Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Italy, New Zealand, Mexico and Argentina.

When you click a link to Travelocity, it will take you to the welcome page which asks you to choose your local site. Actually the site can auto–detect your location and if there is no site for your country, you can go to the main site Travelocity.com to make a booking.

Like other competitors, the travel company runs a travel reward program for travellers.To participate in this program you must apply for a Travelocity Rewards American Express card by Barclays Bank which will allow you to earn 10% of your bookings back. You have to make use of this card all the time to get travel rewards. A travel rewards program allows you to earn points when you make a booking on the site. When you have earned enough points, you can redeem them by purchasing an item whose price is equivalent to the points.

Flights

To book a flight on Travelocity, go to http://www.travelocity.com/Flights There is a form to book flights which you must fill in with your details. You can book a one–way or round–trip. Enter your destination and point of departure. You can even compare prices from nearby airports. The next thing is to select your travel dates, which is the date of departure and date of return. You can choose exact dates or you can opt for flexible dates which allow you to delay your departure by up to 3 days. If you have a fixed timetable, you should use exact dates which allow you to choose a particular day and time.

Finally, you should state the number of people who are travelling with you. Click the search button to get flight results. A list of flights starting from the lowest to the highest price are shown. For example, the lowest price for a flight from New York to Singapore might be $880.40.You should see flights by different airlines such as Cathay Pacific Airways, Singapore Airlines,Emirates,United Airlines, Qatar Airways and so on. An airline with several flights to the same destination will show multiple results. There are 8 ways to sort flights on Travelocity.

You can sort flights by price, airline, travel time, departure time and arrival time. You can also filter the results by the number of stops. To get an even wider choice of low–cost flights, you can compare the results from several travel agencies such as Orbitz, Kayak, Priceline, OneTravel, Student Universe and CheapO Air.

To take advantage of savings opportunities on your airline ticket, you must look at current flight deals offered by different airlines. Depending on the site which you are using, you will see deals suited to your location. The US site will show deals for domestic flights as well as flights from the USA to international destinations. Airlines like AirTran, Frontier, Virgin America, American Airlines, Delta and Sun Country Airlines offer deals on a regular basis. You might get a $49 airline ticket for US cities or a $1000 round trip to Europe.

To keep updated on Travelocity low airfares, you must sign up with Farewatcher, an email service that brings cheap flights to your inbox. For people who want to save even more on their travel, there is an option to book a combo flight and hotel at the same time. This can cut your combined hotel and flight costs by 40%.Take advantage of combo bookings if you can to maximize your savings. The best thing is that you can find a flight and hotel to your destination in any part of the world.

Hotels

If you need to book a hotel, go to http://www.travelocity.com/Hotels Just like on the flight booking form, you can book a combo flight + hotel or you can choose to add car rental to your hotel reservation. To search for hotels, complete the form by filling in the destination country, city or airport code. Choose your dates for checking in and out of the hotel. State the number of rooms that you need and click “Search Now”.

An advanced Travelocity hotel search allows you to include more parameters such as the hotel company and the desired star rating. You can also find hotels near an airport or attraction. Hotel results can be viewed as a list or map. You can view prices from the lowest to highest and search hotels by keyword, price range, reviews, star rating, facilities, area, brand and accommodation type. If you want to find hotels which are recommended by travelers, then you should search using the review rating. Drag the marker to 4 stars if you want hotels that have been rated 4 stars by users. Hotels with a minimum rating of 3 stars should be good for you if you don’t mind the price. Hotel bookings can be cancelled at anytime if you need to make a change of plan.

Car Rental

Car rental and rail deals are some of the services offered by Travelocity. Car hire can be added to your hotel reservation so that you pay a single price. Enter the pickup and drop off points including the pick– up and drop–off dates and times. You can choose from 6 types of vehicles which include convertibles, mini vans, pick ups, SUVs, station wagons and green cars. There are several types of vehicle providers to choose from such as Avis, Budget, Dollar, EZ, Enterprise, Europcar, Fox, Hertz, Sixt, Thrifty and Payless.

Nov 28

Why Agoda is the Best Hotel Booking Site To Find Cheap Rooms

Why Agoda is the Best Hotel Booking Site To Find Cheap Rooms

www.agoda.com

www.agoda.com

Have you ever searched for the lowest priced accommodation on a booking website only to find that there is none? It can be hard and frustrating to find a cheap room because truthfully speaking, these rooms are not usually advertised or listed by booking sites. Most of the times, you can only find these rooms through people who know the place and those who have visited the city. You can also find these rooms by directly visiting the hotel or enquiring from staff via telephone (but be careful, some hotel staff will try to sell you expensive rooms first).Fortunately, Agoda is the only booking site where you can find all types of rooms, ranging from $1 to anything. All you have to do is book a room on the website and a confirmation will be sent to you.

Hotel – 120 USD per night Hotels – 120 USD per night

Needs of a Business Traveller

If you have travelled a lot on a personal budget rather than a company sponsored trip or business trip, you will realize that there is a difference between the two, especially when it comes to budgeting needs and choice of accommodation. When you are travelling on a business trip i.e. going to a conference, workshop, seminar or site meeting, you have the advantage of company funding whereby the company pays for your trips as part of your travelling benefits. As an example, a Civil Engineer who works for a consulting firm makes several trips to construction sites across towns and cities which are many miles apart, often separated by large expanses of land. He or she has to fly to attend site meetings and board room consultative meetings. As part of the job requirements, the Civil Engineer has to book accommodation and flights in advance. It’s not uncommon for construction industry consultants such as the Civil Engineer, Architect and Quantity Surveyor to make at least 10 trips in a month. The consultant doesn’t need to book accommodation and buy air tickets personally, but he or she has the luxury of delegating the work to the secretary or office assistant. In addition to this, the business traveller does not need to worry about finding the cheapest hotel, lodge or bed & breakfast because he can always use the company cheque book to settle the bill in any hotel, regardless of the price. Even if there is no advance booking, a business traveller can always choose any accommodation on arrival, as long as the company foots the bill.

Hotel – 30 USD per night Hotels – 30 USD per night

Needs of a Budget Traveller

An adventure traveller or vacation goer travelling on a personal budget doesn’t have the luxury of choosing any hotel or appointing an office assistant to make booking arrangements. If you are travelling on personal savings, you have to be modest and minimal in your spending, otherwise you may find yourself in trouble. An individual traveller doesn’t have the advantage of a company cheque book or credit card. In order to make your journey as smooth as possible, you have to plan ahead. Let’s say you are planning to travel to Nairobi, Kenya for a sight–seeing holiday. You have never been to the city or country and you have no friends or relatives there who can give you free accommodation, so you are basically making a journey into the unknown. Luckily, there is nothing like travelling into the unknown in this digital age of the Smartphone and internet. Before you set a date for departure, you have to find suitable accommodation at your destination city. There are many hotel booking sites on the internet but most sites will not show you what you are looking for. If you have ever used a majority of sites like Booking.com, Hotel.com, TripAdvisor.com and Travelocity, one thing you will realize is that accommodation on these sites usually start from $25 and above. You won’t get anything cheaper than this. The site owners have deliberately set that minimum for their own gain. They usually promote discounts and deals, pitching themselves as the best place to find cheap accommodation but they really aren’t offering the cheapest rates. Try to use the search filters on the sidebar of the booking site to find lower rates. You will notice that the minimum is about 20 to 25 USD, depending on the site. You won’t be able to go lower than that. If you are looking for cheap accommodation under $10 or $15, then tough luck for you. However, to all budget travellers out there, do not despair!! There is a solution for you.

Hotel – 8 USD per night Hotels – 8 USD per night

Agoda is the only booking site where you can find rooms lower than $10. You can find rooms starting from $1. Asia Pacific has some of the world’s cheapest accommodation. It’s also a top destination for Western tourists. In the Asia Pacific region, there are lots of lodges, guesthouses, villas and hostels offering decent accommodation in the $3 to $15 bracket. As an example, in Cambodia, it is not a surprise to find rooms for single occupants and shared accommodation in the following price ranges:

Thatch Rooms – $1 per day

Dorm Rooms – $4 to 6

Bamboo Rooms – $6 to 12

Budget Rooms – $10 to 13

Standard Rooms – $12 to 16

Deluxe Rooms – $17 to 20

Superior Rooms – $12 to 21

Bungalows – $20 to 27

You won’t find these rates anywhere except on Agoda . Compared to other regions like Asia, rooms in Africa are not cheap. Accommodation rates are usually in the same range with no distinction between hotels, guesthouses, villas, bed & breakfast and apartments. However, if there are any lower–priced rooms, you can always find them on Agoda. So do not waste your time with other sites such as TripAdvisor or Booking.com.These sites hate cheap accommodation. Just go to Agoda. Every traveller has a right to cheap accommodation.

Nov 23

Is It Safe To Book with Skyscanner? – Review

Is It Safe To Book with Skyscanner? – Review

 

www.skyscanner.net

www.skyscanner.net

 

Is Skyscanner a Travel Agent?

Skyscanner is an online price comparison site for booking hotels, flights and car hire. The interface of this travel portal is simple, straightforward and easy to use. The home page will greet you with the flights search feature that allows a visitor to search for flights to any destination. If you are browsing the booking website from the UK, the default departure point will the United Kingdom. In other words, the application can detect your location provided that you are not using a proxy on your browser.

Flight Search

To begin searching flights from your location to your destination, simply enter your destination either as a city, country or airport in the [To] field. If you only want direct flights, tick the small box below [Prefer directs].This option will show you all the direct flights from your current location to your destination.

The Skyscanner flight search function also allows you to choose between a one way or return flight. The choice is yours. A one way flight allows you to buy a one-way ticket, and this is the best option if you are not sure about your stay and date of return. A two way or return ticket allows you to purchase a double ticket for flying to your destination as well as the return journey. If you are certain about your date of return and have scheduled your stay in advance, then this is the best ticket to buy.

Enter your date of departure and state the number of people who are travelling with you. You will be required to state the number of people over and under 12 years, as well as those under 2 years. The economy class is the default class which also happens to be the cheapest. If you prefer a higher class, then click the drop-down box to choose from Premium Economy, Business Class and First Class.

You can also do a simultaneous search for hotels and car hire for your destination by ticking the hotels and car hire boxes. This will allow you find everything you need in one place – flight, accommodation and car hire, allowing you to book these at the same time and saving money. Click the Search button to check the results and choose your preferred flight, hotel and car rental. This is the ease with which Skyscanner allows you to find your best booking needs, all the click of a button. There is no easier way to make a booking than Skyscanner.net.

Network

Skyscanner claims to cover millions of travel routes which are catered for by over a thousand airlines across the world. The travel application will show you the cost of the cheapest airline tickets to countries within your region. You can explore more information about the routes in their travel network by clicking the appropriate category at the footer of the home page. You can explore cities, airports, airlines and regional countries.

The team at Skyscanner is aware of barriers in language across the continents, so they have done their best to address this problem by providing their online service in 20 languages including French, German, Italian Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese and Swedish. To access the travel booking website in your language, simply click the country language icon at the footer.

Just like other price comparison sites, Skyscanner.net functions as a hotel comparison, flight comparison and car rental comparison site. The site acts as a third party or facilitator for connecting travelers to the best travel booking agencies. These are travel agents, airlines or hotels which are willing to offer the best deals to customers in the competitive travel industry.

Track Bookings

It is important to know that Skyscanner doesn’t handle bookings, so they have a page dedicated to all the airlines and travel agents who use their portal. You should know the airline that you booked and if you need to contact them, go to the page on https://help.skyscanner.net/entries/21028066-Who- should-I-contact-if-I-have-a-question-about-my-booking-

Airlines that work with Skyscanner.net are listed on this page from A to Z.The objective of this flight comparison site is to help you find the lowest price. Gathering information from a dozen or hundreds of airlines and travel agencies is a tedious task to do by yourself. You have to leave it to the professionals who can network with thousands of airlines. Travel professionals do not just collect airfare prices for you to compare, but they negotiate with airlines to give you the lowest price. Travel is all about price, and this is the top priority for most travelers.

It is not clear whether Skyscanner negotiates with airlines, travel agents and hotels to bring you the lowest prices like Expedia or Priceline. It seems they are just an updated price comparison site that allows you to book the cheapest flight, and they have no control over prices charged by the airlines.

Hotel Search 

It is safe to regard this travel website as a flight search engine, much similar to HotelsCombined.com.The hotel search function on Skyscanner is found on http://www.skyscanner.net/hotels.html

This page is dedicated to hotel search. Simply type in the name of your destination city, then enter the check-in and check-out dates. Enter the number of guests with you as well as the number of rooms that you desire. Click the search button.Apparently,Skyscanner aggregates data from 32 popular hotel booking sites like Expedia,Agoda,Booking.com,Hilton,GetARoom,LateRooms,Ebookers,Carlson,Choice Hotels,LastMinute and Hotel Club.

You should see a list of popular cities and you can search the popular hotels in each city. Alternatively, you can view all the hotels and cities.Skyscanner has 9 geographical sites for hotel search, including France, Germany, Russia, Norway, UK and the USA.

Car Hire 

The third search function on Skyscanner.net is Car Hire. The car rental search feature is found on

http://www.skyscanner.net/car-hire

Once again it’s a simple search feature that allows you to find a car for hire at your destination city or town. You just need to name the pick-up and drop-off point. Enter the dates and time for pick-up and drop-off respectively, select your currency and country of residence, then click the Search button. Car rental rates are charged per day and you should check the special deals that are often advertised on this page.

Nov 23

Is It Safe To Book with Kayak? – Review

Is It Safe To Book with Kayak? – Review

www.kayak.com

www.kayak.com

 

Is Kayak a Travel Agent?

Kayak is a travel booking search engine and price comparison site for hotels, flights, car rental, travel deals and vacations. What will strike the reader on visiting this travel portal is the very attractive yet simple and clean interface. I have seen a lot of booking sites, and not one comes close to the combined simplicity and attractiveness of kayak.com

While you will struggle to find out where to begin among the clutter and distractions on most travel sites, Kayak gives you a simple menu and pages to book a flight, hotel, car, vacation and travel deals on its home page. The home page alone makes me want to book a flight.

Find Flights

Kayak flights offers one-way, round-trip and multi-city trip. The flight booking search engine is intuitive. Your first step is to fill the [From] box and the [To] box. You can also choose to show airports near your destination and location. If you are interested in maps, then you can click a link to see the airport map.

The next row on the flight search page is the field to fill in your date of departure and date of return. If you have not planned a schedule, then you can make your dates flexible by clicking a link to this option. Flexible dates allow you to choose a time range in which you are ready to travel. It is a normal thing for travelling plans to change and for trips to be delayed, postponed and not go as planned, therefore an allowance must be made for this event. Flexible dates allow you to adjust your stay for any eventuality or change of plans. You might want to extend your holiday in Tokyo or Bali for whatever reason or the business meeting that was supposed to take 2 days had an extra day added to it at the last notice.

Fexible dates allow you to take care of these contingencies when you choose this option on Kayak.

The third step is to select the number of adults or children that are in your group and the passenger class. Four types of cabins are available, with Economy being the regular class and First / Business being the luxury class for businessmen and wealthy passengers with money to spend.

Kayak.com allows you to book a non-stop flight to your destination. Simply choose [nonstops only] on the flights search. This is good for passengers who value time and want to avoid the delays caused by stopping in transit. Along with your flight, you can also book a hotel and car. Click [Find Flights] to see the results. The interactive Google Maps flights application on http://www.kayak.com/explore/ allows you to sort through thousands of flight deals from 400 airlines and find the right budget, flight time and weather for travelling throughout the year. You can even search stuff that you would like to do at your destination.

Find Hotels 

Kayak gives you the ability to search hotels among thousands of hotels in the world. Results are obtained from hundreds of booking sites such as Expedia, Priceline, Hotels.com, Booking.com and Travelocity. The booking site claims to provide a network of over 350,000 hotels around the world. The travel site seems to be popular in the USA where the top 50 cities in this country are listed at the footer. By using Kayak.com, you are expected to save at least 25% of the regular cost. There is a big difference between Kayak and Expedia because unlike Expedia, Kayak’s staff does not negotiate rates with travel agencies and hotel owners. They are simply giving you a platform to compare rates from various reputable sources on the internet. Their application is good at filtering results and showing you the cheapest rates.

To find and book the cheapest hotel, go to http://www.kayak.com/hotels

Enter the name of the city or airport in your destination country, the date range, rooms and number of guests in your entourage. Click [Find Hotels] and you should see a list of hotel prices. You can arrange the results by in order from lowest price to highest price or vice versa.

Hire a Car

Travelers can choose to hire a car by going to http://www.kayak.com/cars

This simple car hire section allows you to rent a car in your destination. Cars can be hired to take you within the city limits and the surroundings or you can book a car to take you to another town in a different location. Cars can take you anywhere and they are the best option to move around a tourist site if you know the map. You can get a guide to show you the routes.

To rent a car, enter your destination airport or town, then choose the pick-up and drop-off times. Click [Find Cars] and to see the car rental rates and services in your destination. Kayak can search for car hire services in 36,000 locations around the world. Prices are obtained from hundreds of international and local car hire companies like Hertz, Budget, Avis, Alamo, AA and Thrifty. You will find car rental discounts starting from 35% and above. The top 50 rental car locations in the world are listed at the bottom including the most popular cities in the USA.

Daily Deals and Vacation Packages 

Kayak aims to keep its visitors coming back again by offering a deals page. The travel deals page at http://www.kayak.com/deals is updated on a daily basis to keep you in touch with the latest deals. The top deals can be quickly fished by using the search function. Enter your travel destination and click [Search] to get the latest deals for your destination.Alternatively,you can browse the list of destinations at the bottom that includes Las Vegas,Hawaii,Caribbean,Florida,Asia South Pacific, Europe and South America. You can also browse deals by interest – all inclusive, vacation rentals, beach, resort and spa, ski, family, luxury and others. The most popular destination deals are listed as well, and these include Aruba, West Palm Beach, San Juan and Fort Myers among others. Check the sidebar to see featured deals.

Travelers can sign up with Kayak to receive an email update of daily deals. It is a good idea to sign up for deals because some of these travel deals can only be seen by signed up members.

Kayak.com offers a search for vacation packages from hundreds of booking sites and travel agencies. Vacation packages are special holiday deals that offer a combo of services at the lowest rate, for example a helicopter tour and river cruise to Las Vegas. Combos might include free dinner, accommodation and adventure trips. It all depends on the travel agency and the organizers of the holiday package. Vacation deals are good for people on a budget, for example, a family or couple that wants to explore the most amazing tourist attractions and experience the luxury of a premium service that can only be afforded by the rich.

Mobile Travel Booking

Kayak is not just a travel website or booking search engine to compare rates but it is a social experience.Indeed, I have not yet seen a travel site that takes social networking seriously like Kayak.com

They have a Facebook application, a travel app with over 20 million downloads. When you sign up with Kayak via their website or Facebook app, you will be able to manage your trips, bookings and receive email alerts about hotel / flight prices. They have a mobile app that allows you to compare prices, search a flight, hotel and check your flight status via a mobile device. Support is available for the iphone, android phone, iPad, Kindle Fire and Windows phone. The app is free to install and use, and it will help you to book your travel needs within a few minutes.

After booking a flight on Kayak, you can track your flight status by calling the airline or going to the airline’s website. The list of airlines that can be booked via Kayak.com is listed on http://www.kayak.com/airlines

The contact telephone number is given for each airline and if there is no phone number, you can go to the airline’s website. To see airlines that operate between your travel routes, simply enter your location, destination and the anticipated date of departure. You can enter a date or date range. Click [Find Flights] to get a list of airlines.

Nov 22

Is It Safe To Book with TripAdvisor? – Review

Is It Safe To Book with TripAdvisor? – Review

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/

http://www.tripadvisor.com/

 

Is TripAdvisor an Online Travel Agency?

Tripadvisor is one of the oldest and most popular travel websites in the world. What sets this travel and booking site apart from the rest is its wealth of community-generated content. It is the top site to find travel advice by travelers and travel experts.

The Most Popular Travel Community

 At Tripadvisor.com, you will find all you want to know about a hotel or restaurant anywhere in the world. It is safe to say no booking site can match the diversity of information and traveler feedback that Trip Advisor has at its disposal. All hotels and restaurants are rated by travelers themselves, and you can also read feedback in the form of comments left by visitors to that hotel or restaurant. Traveler rating is important because you get the real opinion of the customers unlike expert reviews that tend to have a commercial bias.

Tripadvisor is a place for travelers to share their travel experiences with friends and the community. Users can share pictures taken during their trips and share with the world. There is also an active forum for discussions where questions are answered by the community and travel experts.

A user can find all types of travel accommodation on this site, ranging from low-priced hotels to specialty lodgings, bed and breakfast to motels, inns and vacation rentals. You can find suitable accommodation for family, couples and businessmen. You can choose a location on the beach, in resort areas, downtown or in the quiet outskirts. You can find places to stay that are suitable for a romantic outing, luxury accommodation for those with a taste for pleasure or get yourself a room near a casino if you are a night time reveler. Tripadvisor is able to give you value for your money whether you are a budget or high end traveler.

Find Hotels

To begin your hotel search, you must enter the name of the hotel or city on the homepage or simply go to the [Hotels] tab on the menu at http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels

Enter your departing date and click the [Find Hotels] button. It is a good idea to search by city as this option will show a variety of hotels to choose from. You will see a list of hotels in the city, then choose to sort them by price, traveller rating, accommodation type, hotel class, types of facilities or amenities available or brand. The choice is yours, but you have to know your budget. This brings us to the bottomline – the price of the accomodation.Price is the ultimate deciding factor when booking a place to stay.

Tripadvisor allows you to filter the price per night of accommodation in 4 ranges – under US$75, under US$150, under US$225 and over US$225 per night. You can find the lowest price in any type of accommodation – hotel, specialty lodging, vacation rentals, bed & breakfast and inns. Simply select your price range and choose your accommodation type, then click the search button.

The most common international currencies such as the US dollar, UK pound, Euro, Canadian dollar, Chinese Yuan and Australian dollar are offered to book a hotel. Twenty five international currencies are provided from all continents and these include the South African Rand, Swiss Francs, Japanese Yen, Indian Rupees, Swedish Krona, Brazilian Real, Turkish Lira, Danish Krone, Mexican Peso, Argentine Peso, Norwegian Krone, Polish Zloty, Singapore Dollars, Thai Baht, South Korean Won, Russian Rubles, Indonesian Rupiah, New Taiwan Dollars and the Malaysian Ringgit.

You can choose hotels or accommodation with free internet access, free parking, swimming pools, free breakfast, fitness center, casino and 11 other types of amenities. You can look for a brand name, e.g. Hilton hotels and above all, the traveler rating of the hotel. Hotels and restaurants accumulate ratings from travelers throughout the year, and Tripadvisor has the largest amount of traveler-submitted ratings than any other travel site you will find on the internet. The ratings, comments, and as well as the large gallery of travel photos that travelers submit to the site will give you an idea about the destination.

When you come across a hotel that you would like to book, simply add it to your trip itinerary and book later. Trip Advisor has its own huge database of hotels, accommodation and restaurants but they also give you the option to browse data from other booking sites such as Expedia, Agoda, Booking.com, Hotels.com and Venere.

After you book a hotel, flight or vacation with Tripadvisor.com, make sure to share your experience by writing a review or add photos and videos by going to http://www.tripadvisor.com/UserReview

Facebook Community

Tripadvisor is integrated with Facebook and you can see the places which your friends have visited. For example, when I go to Tripadvisor.com, I can see that 95% of my friends have been to 7 continents, 71 countries and 1,558 cities. The Facebook application will also show you the number of check-ins that your friends have made as well as the reviews that they left. This feature is useful because I definitely would like to know what a friend thinks about a certain destination, hotel or restaurant before I visit the place and this will have a large influence on whether I would visit the place or not. There is nothing stronger than a friend recommendation, and Trip Advisor recognizes this fact.

Find Flights

You can book a flight at Trip Advisor by visiting this link http://www.tripadvisor.com/Flights

The Tripadvisor flight booking feature is similar in function to most travel booking sites like Kayak. There is an option to choose between a round trip, one-way trip and multi-city. Your location is detected and selected by default, and you simply need to enter your destination (city).You can include nearby airports in your search results by selecting this option below the [From] and [To] fields. Everything else is intuitive, choose the Depart and Return dates. If your schedule is flexible, make your dates flexible by selecting this option under the Depart field. Select the number of travelers with you, up to 6 travelers can be chosen. Choose between the Economy, Business and First Class. The Business and First Class will be more expensive than the Economy class. If you prefer a nonstop or direct flight to your destination, select this option on the search form, otherwise the flight is assumed to be an indirect flight with stopovers.

Finally, Tripadvisor.com allows you to get email alerts when the price of flight tickets has dropped. This allows you to plan your trip so that you can save money on airline tickets. Click [Search Flights] to find your preferred airline.

Traveler Opinions, Reviews and Advice

To sum it up, Tripadvisor is not just a price comparison site for hotel and flight booking. It is a community site to get real reviews and advice from travelers like you before you embark on your trip. It will save you time that is needed to research and make an informed decision, and above all it will save you money and ensure that you have a secure and safe trip. Although travelling is fun and exciting, it can be stressful and frustrating when you travel to a place where you have never been before. Not knowing the best place to eat, the best or safest place to stay and the right price to pay can ruin your travel experience. It’s much wiser to get advice from people who have been there, people who know the ins and outs, the bad and the good.Tripadvisor ,a travel site that claims to have over 60 million traveler- submitted reviews for hotels and restaurants is the place to go.

Nov 22

Is It Safe To Book with Wego? – Review

Is It Safe To Book with Wego?

www.wego.com

www.wego.com

 

Is Wego an Online Travel Agency?

Wego is a new player in the online travel booking and they have a lot of testing going on like traveler surveys, mobile optimization and partner programs in beta. They are a travel booking platform for finding deals and comparing prices for hotels, flights and holiday rentals. Their booking site can find and compare rates from 150 sites within a few minutes, saving you time and money in the process.

The home page has two side-by-side search forms for flights and hotels, surrounded by a lot of information, banners, travel pictures and thumbnails. You can click the toggle buttons below the search forms to check out their popular destinations in Asia, Australia and Pacific, Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Wego travel site strives to strike the imagination of anyone who visits the booking platform by providing resort pictures of all destinations and hotels. On the left sidebar is the rectangular widget for booking holiday rentals. These are vacation rentals for a different type of accommodation besides hotels like villas, houseboats and beach studios. Most travelers are accustomed to living in dull hotel rooms when they go for a vacation, but when you want to feel at home, a fascinating beach house or duplex house with your own kitchen, bedrooms and dining room will give you an experience to remember. More information for the traveler like airports directory, hotels directory, flight schedules and flights directory is available under the directory section. The directory has information that most people will find useful for their travel needs and Wego has made sure that is information is handily available on their homepage. Like other top booking sites, Wego.com is making an effort to take their service on mobile phone. Since more people have access to mobile phones than a computer, it makes sense to reach out to this multi-billion market and give them an option to book holidays from their mobile devices.Wego.com can be accessed on your mobile phone by going to http://m.wego.com/

Wego has 30 local booking sites worldwide and expanding. They have 9 local booking websites in Asia Pacific, 7 in Americas, 6 in Europe, and 8 in Africa and Middle East. These can be accessed in the local language, for example wego.com.sg for Singapore, wego.com.my for Malaysia, wego.com.id for Indonesia and wego.co.uk for the United Kingdom.

Wego.com seems to be a huge name because they are associated with popular websites like Yahoo, Ebay, MSN, HolidayIQ, Travel and Leisure, NineMSN, DetikTravel and SouthEast Asia.

Search Flights

To book a flight, go to the homepage and fill in the Flights Search form. You can choose between a one- way or round-trip. Your location is auto-filled, so you just need to enter your destination. You have the ability to choose flexible dates to accommodate emergencies and change of plans during your holiday vacation. Three classes of air travel are available on Wego and these are First Class, Economy and Business. Indicate the number children and adults on your planned flight, and complete the date of departure and return. Click the search button, and that’s all you need to do to find a flight. After completing the search for flights, you can proceed to search for hotels on the adjacent form. The Hotels Search form will auto-fill your location and you will be required to enter the city or town where you are going.Optionally, select flexible dates if you want to have a flexible booking that allows you room to change your plans. Fill the anticipated hotel check-in and check-out dates, then indicate the required number of rooms and guests. Hit [Search Hotels] to get results.

You can also book flights on http://www.wego.com/flights

This is the menu tab for booking flights. This page has a lot of relevant information about flights to your destination and in your region. There is a link to domestic and international flights. Once your location is pre-filled by the Wego flights application, you will get useful information that allows you to save money. The cheapest airfares from your location to various destinations are showed in ascending order. Simply look for flights to your destination and choose the cheapest flight from the list. For example, if I am in Windhoek, Africa, all flights from Windhoek to international destinations like Athens, will be shown.

The second piece of information that is shown by the app is the most popular airlines from your location. The prices are shown in ascending order and you simply have to choose the lowest-priced airline.

The third piece of useful information on the Flights page is the Flights Directory. Like the above mentioned sections, you will be able to see a list of flights from your location to other destinations in your region or worldwide. You can check the directories for flights to South America, North America, Europe, Middle East, Australia, Pacific Region and Asia.

Search Hotels 

To find the cheapest hotels on Wego, go to http://www.wego.com/hotels on the menu.

Fill in the Hotel Search or browse the hotel directory. The top 5 hotels are shown for each of the most popular cities.Bali,Bangkok,Singapore,Jakarta,Kuala Lumpur,Bandung,Hong Kong, Yogyakarta and Lombok are some of the most popular destinations on Wego.The top 5 hotels which also seem to be lower-priced are listed.Here,you can find hotels as low as US$13.00 per night. The cheapest hotel in New Delhi is Hotel Sri Nanak Continental at US$27.00 a night, Fragrance Hotel Crystal in Singapore at US$36.00 a night, Hotel Yani in Bali at US$18.00 a night, Hotel Mutiara in Jakarta at US$19.00 a night, Unique Guesthouse in Bandung at US$11.00 a night, Merbabu Hotel in Yogyakarta at US$16.00 a night and Amari Atrium Bangkok Hotel at US$28.00

Property Rentals for Holidays

If you are tired of hotel rooms, you can book Holiday Rentals at http://www.wego.com/holiday-rentals

This is alternative accommodation provided by property developers. It is a type of accommodation with a home feel. You can go for villas, beach houses, condos, apartments, B&Bs or lodges. Wego aggregates data from property outlets such as Roomarama, HomeAway, FlipKey, Stayz and Villa Guide to help you find the best price for your money. With a network of at least 16,000 destinations, you will be able to find the right property for your needs.

Package Deals and Offers

The travel deals page http://www.wego.com/deals allows you to find the best lower-priced deals to exotic and luxury resorts that would otherwise cost you an arm and a leg. You can choose between package deals and hotel deals. Package deals include many other things besides hotel accommodation. They may come with adventure trips, helicopter rides, cruises, dinners and tours. Although package deals have a higher price tag than hotel deals because of extras, they usually prove to be cost-saving in the end because the price is all-inclusive. Consider purchasing a hotel deal, tours, cruise, car rental and exotic dinners separately, add up the costs, and you will find that the cost is multiple times higher than a package deal. Take advantage of Wego deals and special offers to experience vacation pleasures that only come once in a lifetime.

Nov 22

Is It Safe To Book with Zuji? – Review

Is It Safe To Book with Zuji? – Review

www.zuji.com

www.zuji.com

 

Is Zuji a Travel Agent?

Zuji is a travel booking website that operates in four countries in the Asia Pacific region. The online travel agency operates in Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand and has local websites in these countries. The site allows travelers to book hotels, flights, car hire, cruises and holiday packages.

Zuji claims to have an extensive network that spans over 100,000 hotels and 400 airlines internationally. Although the company is located in Asia Pacific, users can also book their travel needs in Europe and the Americas. To book a flight with Zuji.com, go to one of the websites and complete the flights search form.

Zuji Singapore is hosted on zuji.com.sg and this is the website with the most searches. Apparently there are a lot of travelers to or from Singapore who make use of this site. A quick comparison shows that the three websites are quite similar.

Zuji Search Flights

The travel portal allows you to search for flights as your first option. You have to choose between three kinds of trips that are offered by the site, and these are the one-way trip, round-trip and multi-stops. If you are departing from Singapore, then this will be auto-filled. You have to enter your departure date and return date. Select the SuperSaver Flexi Date if you want to delay or postpone your flight dates by 3 days. You will be able to fly at any time within this period. Choose your desired class – economy, premium or business class. If you are willing to take any available flight regardless of the class, then you should opt for “I don’t mind”. Select the number of people in your entourage and specify them as adults, children or kids. Click [Search].

Zuji Search Hotels 

The next step is to book a hotel to your destination. You can also book a flight and hotel at the same time as a package deal. This is a smart way to save money because you get the best price than what you would get when you book these items separately. Watch out for promotional deals to save money such as the MasterCard $25 voucher for flights and the 10% discount offers on all hotel bookings. You should also look for promo codes that can be redeemed at any hotels that are in the Zuji network.

Zuji Singapore has a call centre at +65 6329 7557 that can be contacted when you need help with your booking. The travel website is full of deals everywhere you look. Flight deals can be viewed on the home page and these are offered by various airlines such as Delta Airlines, KLM, Cathay Pacific and so on. The most common destinations are in Asia Pacific, to popular tourist cities such as Bali, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai.

Zuji Holiday Package Deals 

Travel deals of the day are featured on the front page, and you can get unbelievable prices such as $100 for a weekend holiday in a resort town. These offers are usually promoted towards special holidays such as Easter or local calendar holidays. All inclusive airfare deals are a common highlight and you can get a weekend holiday that includes your flight and hotel accommodation at under $300.You have to study the best days to travel so that you can save money. It is not a good idea to travel when everybody is travelling because airlines and hotels usually increase the price on these occasions.

Holiday packages that offer you 4 days and 3 nights at a destination city like Bangkok for only $400 to

$750 can be snatched on Zuji.These usually include a 4 or 5 star hotel plus your airfare. Joining the travel community at Zuji.com.sg, Zuji.com.hk or Zuji.com.au will qualify you to receive special discounts.

Travel Insurance & Save Money Guide for Travelers

Zuji provides a guide or handbook on how to save money with the travel platform or plan your trip. They also provide travel insurance to their customers. Travel insurance is one of the most under-estimated packages but this can make a difference between having peace of mind and getting frustrated when things go wrong during your holiday. There are risks associated with travelling such as sickness caused by adjusting to a new environment, losing your baggage or getting involved in accidents. Travel coverage helps to pay for these eventualities, thus preventing you from draining your account or being stranded in a foreign land.

Car Hire

Car hire is available for travelers and this can be booked online by clicking the tab on the menu. It is important to note that Zuji is owned by Travelocity, one of the biggest booking and travel sites in the world.Zuji.com is a travel niche focusing on Asia Pacific, and this helps to serve and customize the needs of local travelers in that region.

Rewards Program

Zuji Singapore and Zuji Hong Kong have a loyalty rewards program that rewards travelers who make repeat bookings with the travel agency. You have to sign up to benefit from this program, and every time you make a booking with Zuji.com, you will earn points.

As evidenced by their large following on Facebook, Zuji is an upcoming travel site that is set to expand to all corners of the world.

Nov 22

Bing Travel Booking Online – Book Hotels and 19 Flights with Bing.com

Bing Travel Booking Online – Book Hotels and 19 Flights with Bing.com

http://www.bing.com/travelisnowMSNTravelpoweredbyskyscanner

http://www.bing.com/travelisnowMSNTravelpoweredbyskyscanner

 

Is Bing Travel an Online Travel Agency?

Bing Travel is now MSN Travel powered by Skyscanner. We all know that Bing is a big name owned by Microsoft Inc.This website is the second most popular search engine after Google. One of the things that people search on the internet is hotel accommodation and flights. People are constantly travelling to and fro, across cities, countries, regions and continents. The three most important things that you have to plan for when travelling is where to stay and how you are going to get there, as well as the cost of travelling.Bing Travel allows to search your travel needs and compare the cost among different airlines, hotels and travel agents.

With Bing Travel Booking, you don’t have to go far when you are searching for the lowest price. You can search for travel deals, low-cost hotels and the cheapest airline tickets to save money. Saving money is the top priority for most travelers because it is nice to have extra money to spend on your vacation on things other than your hotel and airline ticket. You want to make sure you get the best quality vacation or hotel room on a bargain and that you have a happy trip to remember.

Flight Search

So how do you get started finding deals on Bing Travel? Simply go to Bing.com the search engine and click the [Travel] tab on the menu.Alternatively, you can simply go to http://www.bing.com/travel

If you are using Google, simply search for “Bing” and go to the website. The Travel booking feature on Bing is very simple and easy to use. You have 3 tabs at the top, namely Travel, Flights and Hotels. The Travel and Flight search features are the same. Start by choosing your preferred trip. It can be a one- way trip, round trip or multi-city. Enter your departure city and your destination city. Start typing in the name of the city in the appropriate fields and Bing Travel will auto-detect the location code and name. Enter the date of leaving and the date of return. Choose the number of people that you are planning to travel with in the drop down box, and select your preferred passenger class. Click the search button to get results.

You will notice an option to search and compare prices from different travel agencies such as Priceline, Travelocity, OneTravel, Hotwire and Expedia.Select the travel agencies that you want to compare prices or you can leave the boxes blank if you don’t want to compare.

Bing Travel will show you the results of the available flights in tabular form including the airlines, airports, arrival time, departure time, duration of the flight, number of stops and most important of all, the price. The flight rates are shown in order from the lowest to the highest price. You can adjust the price range by dragging the bar at the top. Be sure to decide whether you want a non-stop or stopover flight. You can choose flights with a single stop or at least 2 stops. A search for a New York to Singapore flight returns prices ranging from $1190 to $2436.Naturally,you would choose a $1190 flight if it is available in your scheduled flight.Bing shows you the travel agency or airline that you can book with if you select a particular flight. More filters can be accessed by clicking an arrow under the top price bar. This allows you to filter results by airline, airports, flight quality and duration.

Hotel Search

The next step is to book a hotel.

Bing Travel hotel search can be accessed on http://www.bing.com/travel/hotels .Once again the booking interface is very simple and intuitive. If you are travelling to Singapore, Singapore City, then enter the name under Location. Choose the check-in and check-out dates. Enter the number of adults with you and the number of hotel rooms you will wish to book. Just like the Flights search feature, the hotel search gathers results from online travel agencies and booking sites like Priceline, Hotwire, Expedia, Hotels.com and Booking.com.Prices from these agencies can be compared and the lowest deal can be discovered in less than a minute.

There are daily deals offered by travel agencies and these are indicated on the price rates. A green indicator shows that a deal is available for the hotel, and a yellow indicator shows that a partial deal is available.

Hotel results can be filtered by price, class or popularity on Bing Travel. Where there is a price deal, the price from each booking agency will be indicated under the specific hotel. As an example, Copthorne Kings Hotel might be offering a $133 deal from Kayak, Agoda and Kayak, so you have to choose the travel agency to book with.

On the right side of the hotel listings is a Google Map that shows the location of the hotel. You can zoom in and out for a better view. The rating of the hotels can be viewed on the travel agent’s platform that you are booking with. In case you need to call the hotel and speak to them personally, you can quote their telephone number on the listing.

Be aware that some hotels cannot be booked via Bing or any of the travel agencies, so you have to call their customer support staff. If a hotel cannot be booked via Bing Travel, then you won’t see the online booking button on the listing.