Travel Web sites: a move away from traditional travel
agencies to online travel agencies
Planning a nice family vacation was
more complicated in the past. It involved one of two methods: calling a hotel,
calling multiple airlines to get the best price, and finally calling a rental
car company all from different locations or by going to a travel agent who
could book everything for you. But with today being the Internet age, it is
easier for people to book trips on their own with the help of online travel
websites.
Online travel
sites
let you be your own travel agent. Plan your trips or vacation and make
reservations quickly with just a few mouse clicks.
[1] People would rather be at home than have to make a trip back and forth to a
travel agency. People are moving away
from traditional retail travel agent services because they are not free.
Fees start from around $30 for a simple
air booking and can be more than that for a complicated itinerary. For a
relatively simple itinerary, you can probably find on your own good deal you without
using a retail agency. [2]
One benefit to using an online
travel agency for flights is they they offer quick and easy comparison of not just fares but schedules on many
different airlines at a glance. [3] Websites like Orbitz, kayak, etc allow
the user to enter in a date, time and location and it will generate a list of
all the participating airlines that match the criteria. This makes it very easy
for the user to see what airline offers the best value without having to reach
out to each airline individually. It also allows for mixing and matching
arriving and departing flights from different airlines. Specifically for kayak,
there is a feature that allows you to add +/- 3 days t help determine when the
best day to leave would be.
A second benefit of booking your travel online is that some of the
online sites will have access to the smaller hotels that you might not have
even realized existed. [4] These websites act as a database of hotels. The
show all information on the hotel, amenities, pictures, maps, etc. They also
tend to show reviews of the hotels. Now
typically these reviews are written by guests that have stayed at that hotel
and booked through the website. [4] These are useful because the
description and pictures displayed by the hotel sometime does not truly reflect
the condition of the hotel. It is important for a pleasurable experience to see
what other guests have experienced first hand.
Travel websites usually offer
flight, hotel, and car rental providers. They will sometimes offer “packaging”
feature. On some trips,
especially last-minute ones, we've seen hotel plus air packages for half what
air alone costs. [3] There is a discount for booking
multiple parts of a trip by bundling them in one itinerary.
In conclusion, online
travel sites let you be your own travel agent. You can plan trips from the
comfort of your own home at any time day or night. You have access to many
different airlines and hotels all in one place and are in control of mixing and
matching packages to satisfy your need best.
[3] http://www.nbcnews.com/id/40964440/ns/travel-news/t/benefits-online-travel-agencies/#.UfCVcVPkpqc
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