Shop for Travel

Shameless self-promotion

2006-07-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

Now, what you were really waiting for. How about something in travel that really is...a bit different? A bit more useful?

Well SmarterTravel has launched a nifty little tool, designed and executed by yours truly, to help you decide on your vacation destinations. Here it is. Just go there, tell it your interest and when you want to go, and it will recommend the best destinations for you. Then you can click through and see all the great deals SmarterTravel has found to that destination. Cool!

New Kayak commercials

2006-07-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the new Kayak commercials? What do you think?

I'm all for companies having funny and catchy ads with personality. But...sorry guys...these are just in bad taste. There's edgy and then there's...annoying. Thumbs down.

And while I'm on the topic of dumb commercials...who was it that came up with the roaming gnome commercials for Travelocity? OY! Not to be outdone, Orbitz has it's own dumb commercials, gameshow style.

Is it that travel companies are just genetically incapable of creating a good ad campaign?

Home&Abroad

2006-07-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

A new site called www.HomeandAbroad.com takes an interesting step into travel planning. You enter your destination, and the site has a few ways of listing out attractions and can help you build an itinerary for your trip. It doesn't have any roadtrip functions, doesn't recommend destinations, and doesn't really help you in filtering through dozens of attractions...but it is a great step forward. The site has some kind of relationship with Expedia, so I'm sure we'll see and understand more about that in the future.

FareCompare and FareCast

2006-07-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

Two new places to compare airfares...FareCompare and FareCast...are now up and running. They both allow you to look at the trends of airfares, to see when might be the best time to buy. It's great to see more flexible ways to shop for airfare.

New feature for Mobissimo

2006-03-22T07:26:00.000-08:00

Noticed that Mobissimo introduced a new "activity search" feature on their website...gives the ability to pick an activity (say "beaches") and they show a list of airports to select from. Great feature...a starting point for the full-featured travel planning functions that are headed our way.

Of course the first incarnation of this at Mobissimo is limited. They only have about a dozen things to choose from, and their "keyword search" is not useful (it recognized "Mexico" but didn't recognize "United States", for example). There is also no help in selecting from the places that they display...how do I know whether I would enjoy Cancun more than Puerto Vallarta?

Let's hope the competition heats up around these types of features so that travel providers really start to offer shopping features that will actually help travelers plan.

Some News

2006-03-21T11:27:00.000-08:00

Noticed that SmarterTravel has added user content to their site, as well as destination guides. Not much there at the moment, but I'm SURE there will be more soon :^)

Also saw a press release from Kayak saying they won an award from Entrepreneur Magazine for best site. When I looked, it appeared to me that all the meta-search sites were recognized (including SideStep and Mobissimo). So has the lack of differentiation between these guys gotten to the point that they're bashing each other with empty press releases? Looks like.

"Deals" sites

2006-01-18T14:56:00.000-08:00

In addition to the sites with "live" travel pricing information, check out some of the sites that publish travel deals.

I think the best one is SmarterTravel. They definitely put much effort into scanning through the deals that are out there, and they write little articles about the deals to help you understand the ins and outs. SmarterTravel also has sister sites BookingBuddy.com and TripMania.com. Both are also interesting ways of looking up travel deals...my favorite is still the main site though.

Another "deals" site is TravelZoo. I've heard alot about them in the media, but my experience with them hasn't been very good. It just looks like a cheapo advertisement site to me. But to each his own.

General Fare shopping

2006-01-18T14:49:00.000-08:00

If you're looking for airfares and hotel fares, you have many many choices. On the big 3 (Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz) you can find decent prices, but with the supplier (airline, hotelier) price guarantees in effect, you're likely to find slightly better prices on supplier sites.

For airfares, always check Southwest and Jetblue...they do a great job and often have the lowest fares.

For price comparisons across supplier sites, you can use what's called a "meta-search" engine...these are tools that look across several sites to compare prices. The oldest one is SideStep. Kayak (which is also AOL's Pinpoint Travel) and Mobissimo are also good options. These guys also do hotel searches, but they don't have many functions to help you choose the hotel.

Priceline is still a good option. Last year I was able to get a 4-star London hotel for about $100/night...very good deal. Since Priceline's deals are unpublished...the price guarantees don't apply to them...so you can really get some deals.

Also, check out FareCompare...especially if you are a techie and now how to do RSS...good stuff.

Coming up...features and functions from these sites and others that help you make your travel decisions.

Welcome to Shop for Travel!

2006-01-17T09:29:00.000-08:00

Shopping for leisure travel is difficult and time-consuming, and people need help to keep up with what's out there. How can you find the right destinations, hotels and cruises for your situation? That's what I'll be discussing regularly on this blog. Things on travel sites change constantly, so I'll keep you up to date with everything so that you can make better travel decisions.