Five Things to Know Before Booking a Trip Online

A lot of people are using on-line travel sites to book vacations and weekend getaways. How popular is this practice?

The numbers say it all:

Last year over 148 million trips were booked using online travel site.

57% of all travel reservations were made online last year.

A recent study revealed that the average, hotel consumers made twelve visits to an online travel websites, requested 7.5 pages per visit, and spent almost five minutes on each page before booking.

85% of leisure travelers consider the internet their main source of travel planning.

If you are planning a trip soon and thinking of using a travel site to book the trip, College of Charleston hospitality and tourism professor Bing Pan has five things you need to know before you complete the booking.

1. You may not save money by going to an online travel site.

Have you recently compared the price of a specific hotel on several different travel sites? If so, you will notice that the price of a specific room at a specific hotel is about the same on every site. Pan says nowadays almost all the prices are comparable on different platforms.

2. Looking for a better price? It may not be a bad idea to surf over to the hotel sites.

“The hotels are also working hard to allure the customers to book on their own sites, “ says Pan. “In some case, the rates may be cheaper because customers are not paying a transaction fee to the on-line travel sites.”

3. Beware of the hidden cost.

When you book a room using an online travel site, chances are very good that you will be paying a fee for the service. Pan says that could mean a 15 to 30 percent transaction fee at some online travel sites. Also sites are now required to pay accommodation taxes to some states. That cost is also passed on to the person booking the vacation.

4. Timing is everything.

Hotels tend to keep prices higher until about three months out. The reason? They have determined that people booking very early aren’t too sensitive on price.

Likewise, the closer you are to the date you are booking a hotel, the cheaper you rate MAY be. “Priceline can give you deep discount when the hotels want to get rid of their stressed inventory in the last few days,” says Pan. But if there is not a large inventory of rooms close to the date, the price may actually go up. It is the old “supply and demand” principle.

5. One less worry to have.

Have you worried about giving your credit card number, address and other personal information to a well know internet travel site?

Don’t.

Pan says customer information leaking incidents are rare at these sites. However, it is always smart to use common sense when it comes to releasing your information.