Travel Aggregators

Aggregator web sites have begun showing up over the last several years as a way to simultaneously search several sources for the best travel deals that the Web has to offer. They are sites that gather information. Once you input your search data into the aggregator site, it will check reservation info at numerous brand sites (the individual company’s own reservation systems), as well as one or more of the online travel agencies. Some may even be able to search sites of low cost, no frills airlines that do not share information with the online travel agencies.

This offers a great way to quickly survey a large relevant section of the Internet for available travel deals. This type of information is very powerful, and will be an invaluable asset in your search for the very best that is available for your travel needs.

Once you have collected the information, you can either act on that information by clicking through to the web site that the aggregator has found, or use the information for further comparison shopping. The information collected will as a minimum give you the range of prices that are out there for your particular destination and dates. These sites are mostly information gatherers rather than direct booking agencies, and make their revenue from advertising on their sites, as well as from customers clicking through to the actual booking sites.

Some of the major players in these travel aggregators are Kayak.com, SideStep.com, Cheapflights.com, Mobissimo.com, Farechase.com (Yahoo), and Qixo.com. Travelaxe.com and hotelscombined.com are aggregators that specialize in collecting hotel pricing information.