Lesser Known Travel
Sites Offer Alternatives
By Ira Wilsker
 We have all seen the Travelocity gnome being
brutalized on TV, taking the licks for his clients. We have seen the travel
giant Expedia heavily marketed in the media. Hotel.com seems to have cheap
rooms everywhere, while Orbitz, Priceline, and Hotwire battle for our business.
There are literally thousands of travel sites on the web, including the
airlines, major hotel chains and franchises, car rental companies, cruise lines,
and many others. While not quite universal, many of these primary sources
guarantee the best rate or fare if purchased directly from their own websites,
and are usually free of any additional fees or surcharges. The question is
often determining which of these sites is offering the best deal to us at ay
given time, considering the constant volatility of air fares, and other travel
needs.
In some cases, the secondary travel sites can
offer air fares or rooms when the direct sellers show no availability.
Recently, I had to book a flight on short notice to attend a just called
meeting. A visit to the airline website I know by experience has the best
connections, showed the needed flights were sold-out, with no seats available on
the connecting flight. A look at two major online marketers of travel services
showed the same airfare and flights, but allowed me to book my desired segments,
the exact same flights I could not book directly. For the five dollar fee
charged by the selected online service, I got my confirmation and reserved seats
on my first choice flights. I have also had similar experiences booking hotel
rooms at popular destinations, where the hotel website showed no rooms
available, but the travel sites showed rooms available at good rates. It has
been mentioned in the media that some travel sites contract for rooms for resale
on their websites.
I have also found that different travel sites
will often quote different rates for the same dates and circumstances. As an
example, I experimented with a set of dates for flights to, and rooms in Las
Vegas on specific dates. Many airlines fly to
Las Vegas, and it would be too time consuming to check all
of the relevant airline websites. There were several hotels I was checking on
for those dates, first on the hotel website, and then on the major travel
sites. I found an often large variance in the airfares listed by different
sources, and hotel rooms available at the same location for widely varied
rates. I was careful to specify, when possible, the type or grade of room to be
sure I was comparing the same room class. A wise traveler may be able to save
quite a bit of money by shopping around and comparing websites. The problem is
often one of available time and willingness to shop around.
 There is a website that is growing in
popularity, at www.kayak.com. While this
website is not unique in the service it provides, and has direct competitors, I
have found it very reliable. Kayak searches many of the other major travel
websites, airlines, rental car companies, and hotel sites, and displays the best
fares or rates found, along with a direct link to the location that offered that
best deal. Since Kayak searches multiple websites, it is not beholden to just a few
sources. In my Las Vegas example, when looking for cars, Kayak allowed the
selection of any or all of 14 car types or sizes. It searched 11 different
rental car websites, as well as the major travel websites. In some cases, it
found the best rates at the rental company site, in other cases, on another
travel website. It does the same for airfares, hotels, and other travel
services. Kayak can be a good choice if one wants to find the best deals
currently available, but does not want to search a lot of separate websites.
 Another website that takes a different
approach to airfares is www.farecompare.com.
It provides information on airfare trends and changes, and lets the user know
where in the matrix provided the best fares are available. The charts provided
clearly show the seasonal influences on airfares, as well as the impact of high
fuel prices. Farecompare.com has an interesting business model that flyers may
find beneficial. According to a statement on the website, “Our low fare deal
engine is powered by the raw fare and rule data which comes directly from each
airline (not scraped from reservation sites). We subscribe and receive the same
domestic and international fare and ticket information as the popular online
shopping sites (Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz …) and process it in a unique
fashion that allows us to quickly scan for the cheapest deals and distribute
this low price information several hours before it shows up on these sites.”
Farecompare.com is different from the other travel sites, but provides a lot of
information that the traveler may find money saving and useful.
 Another website that is still in its early
developmental (beta) stage is online at
www.farecast.com. Farecast is currently only offering information on a very
few cities while it is being developed, but should evolve into a helpful site
for travelers. Farecast uses a graphical interface to help the user decide when
to buy airline tickets, considering the volatility and wide fluctuations in
ticket prices over time. Farecast recommends that the user buy now (fares will
likely go up), neutral (fares are stable), or wait (fares will likely drop). If
the prediction model utilized by Farecast works, it may relieve one of the
common aggravations of travel, and that is buying a ticket, only to see the
price go down a short time later. It may also give the impetus to buy a ticket
now, when it predicts pending fare increases.
Travel is supposed to be fun and relaxing.
Finding the best travel deals may make the trip that much more enjoyable.
WEBSITES:
http://www.kayak.com
http://www.farecast.com (Currently in beta – not fully operational)
http://www.farecompare.com
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