How to find the Best Travel Deals
The internet has changed the world, and we now have ways to comparison shop for the best prices on goods and services that never existed before. When it comes to shopping for the very best travel deals, the World Wide Web is replete with web sites that are going to make your trip considerably more enjoyable knowing that you got the very best deal on your trip!
Almost one half of households with online access will book a trip on the Internet this year. When it comes to commerce on the Web, the very largest component is travel, and that is good news for you because there is a lot of competition out there for your business. We will help you make sense of a number of these sites.
Online Travel Agencies
At the core of the online travel agencies are the big three: Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz. Expedia and Travelocity were founded in 1996, and Orbitz followed in 1999. Orbitz was the airline industry’s response to the growing demand for online travel agencies, particularly to the growing popularity of Travelocity and Expedia. Orbitz was a project put together by Continental Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Airlines, and Northwest Airlines, with American Airlines joining in later. Other Online Travel Agencies include Priceline and Hotwire, as well as a host of others.
Online travel agencies reach agreements with the airlines, hotels, car rental agencies to provide competitive pricing to their customers. Their goal is to have you book directly through them rather than going elsewhere for your bookings. This may sound obvious at first, but it is a different story for the sites that have cropped up over the last several years known as “aggregators”.
Travel Aggregators
These sites sprung into existence to provide a service that searches multiple sites, which can include the online travel agencies as well as the branded sites (the sites of the individual hotel chains, airlines or car rental agencies). They tend to have a broader net that they cast in searching for travel deals. The revenue on these sites comes from advertising, and “click through's” to the sites that give the best deal rather than from direct bookings. They are in a sense specialized travel search engines.
Branded Sites
The home sites for the specific companies such as Hilton, American Airlines, or Hertz all provide their own booking systems, and would like to see you book through them directly. While this may not necessarily be your first stop in you search for the best travel deal available, these sites will definitely be an important part of your search, and could be where you finally make your reservation.
Certain companies such as Southwest Airlines only book through their site, and do not provide information to the online travel agencies.
