Great websites 0806

Tripadvisor (www.tripadvisor.com) has been one of the great survivors of the dotcom boom.  Part of the Expedia group, Tripadvisor’s great selling point is a huge database of genuine reviews of hotels and resorts from ordinary people who have stayed there.  It’s easy to use, and it's free.

If you just want to check out a hotel before you book it, type in the name of the city.  The hotels that have been reviewed will be displayed in order of their popularity with reviewers, giving a clear indication of what people really think.  So for example, if you type in Paris, 1575 hotels have been reviewed, with the George V at number one.  Obvious enough, but often, cheap hotels will be very highly rated – it's not always the best hotels that get the best reviews.  For example, Paris’ number three hotel, is the three star, 31 room, Hotel Bassano.

Tripadvisor is accurate – if more than two reviews for a particular hotel say that the food is dreadful and the check in staff are rude, this is what awaits you at that particular establishment.

Skytrax (www.airlinequality.com) is the flight review equivalent of Tripadvisor, with lots of information about airlines, airports and aircraft.  This is a very comprehensive site and when given the choice of who to fly with, this site can help to make that decision.

With lots of comparative information about airlines, and the benefits of the different classes of seats provided by the carriers, it is easy to get past the airlines advertising campaigns and make an informed choice. 

Expedia (www.expedia.com and then direct to individual country sites) is a online travel agent.

The great benefit of using Expedia is access to comprehensive information about hotels and flights.  No other equivalent travel search engine, has such clear and up to date information.  Again, the site is very easy to use.  For hotels, go to the hotels tab, select your city and dates and availability will be displayed, with Expedia special offers listed first.  There is comprehensive information about hotel amenities, with photos, and in many cases, virtual tours.  For flights, click the flights tab and enter your details.  The system will search all of the airlines and bring up a comprehensive choice list.

However, Expedia is just a travel agent, and the prices are the same as they would be if you book direct.  For example, a search for the night of November 9^th in Brussels (the night before the EuRA Members Day) staying at the Radisson Brussels hotel, brings up a price of €204 on Expedia, exactly the same price as on the Radisson website (however EuRA delegates have a special rate of €175!).  The benefits of booking direct are: better cancellation terms and more flexibility to request the room you would like.  I have in the past booked through Expedia only to find the room I had requested was not the room I was given.  I was told that because I had booked through Expedia, I did not have the option to change.  
 
So, Expedia is great for getting comprehensive information about hotels and flights, but it is always worth going directly to the hotel or airline website to check whether there is a genuine saving.  A further advantage of booking flights directly through the airline website is the ability to choose your seats online, something that isn’t possible through Expedia.