Where to book. How to book tickets without payment

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Don't forget to monitor carriers' websites. Sales are usually held in February - March and October - November. During such periods the servers may be down. But a little patience, and a cheap ticket is in your pocket. And some airlines offer to send messages if the price drops. Agree so you can buy the right ticket.

Subscribe to Telegram channels

To search advantageous offers use Telegram channels. Information about discounts comes in the form of a personal notification. It’s better to subscribe to several at once and monitor them, comparing prices. Here are three useful channels from cheap air tickets: Samokatus, Travelradar and PassOnBoard.

And of course, use cheap air ticket aggregators such as Aviasales, Skyscanner, Momondo, OneTwoTrip. They are not tied to a specific airline, but compare prices from different sites and give you the best option. These search engines also have convenient price charts and calendars. With their help, you can move the date of your trip and save a significant amount.

Most of these search engines have mobile applications.

2. Clear cookies and cache

If you have already searched cheap flights, the aggregator or airline website remembers both the country of departure and the approximate cost of the trip. As a result, you may see the old price even if the tickets have become cheaper. In addition, the site will rush you and assure you that there are almost no seats left on the plane. Even if this is not true at all.

5. Buy tickets in advance

It is more profitable to buy tickets in advance. Airlines typically open sales 330 days in advance. But, as practice shows, the most optimal booking time is 50–60 days before departure.

The fact is that when sales start, the program is guided by last year’s prices, and then demand determines the price and, as a rule, it decreases. A couple of months before departure there are not many bookings. And the more free seats on the plane, the lower the price.

When buying a ticket, you should also take into account the time of day. Most people buy tickets in the middle of the day. So book your flight late at night or early in the morning. There are not many visitors to aggregators, demand is falling, prices are starting to creep down.

6. Keep documents handy

Carry your passport information with you at all times. It is not necessary to carry a passport with you. It is enough to take a photo of the necessary pages or write down the data in notes. Special offers usually come at the most inopportune times. And cheap tickets will most likely not survive until the evening. So when planning your trip, be prepared to book your tickets at a moment's notice. And, of course, don’t forget about the money on your bank card.

The ticket price directly depends on the flow of tourists. During holidays, school holidays and high season, the cost of flights usually increases. So be sure to check prices for other dates. Sometimes departures within a couple of weeks are several times cheaper.

Thus, a ticket to Asian countries departing at the end of December is almost twice as expensive as at the beginning of the month.

And don’t shy away from traveling in the off-season. Firstly, it's much cheaper. Secondly, there are no crowds of tourists or queues at museums. For example, everyone goes to Europe for the New Year holidays. It is much more profitable to fly there in early autumn.

8. Buy round-trip tickets

Buy tickets in both directions at once, don’t delay until later. Firstly, when you buy round-trip tickets you save about 20%. Secondly, remember: the closer the departure, the more expensive ticket. For example, tickets Moscow - Paris and back cost 14,000 rubles, and if you take them separately, you will have to overpay more than 2,000 rubles.

9. Don't limit yourself to the capital

If you want to get to France, for example, you don’t have to fly directly to Paris. Look at tickets to neighboring cities: sometimes you can get there much cheaper than to the capital.

Then you can travel by trains, trains, buses or planes. Just remember: when abroad, it is better to book tickets for intercity trains and buses in advance, at least a couple of weeks in advance. It will be cheaper this way. In Europe, this can be done online, through the carriers' websites.

Typically, the two most significant expenses when traveling are airfare and hotel accommodation.

A lot has been written about how to save money on flights (), and many already use search aggregators to find good air tickets.

At the same time, to book hotels, it turns out that the majority, in the old fashioned way, use familiar services, and few people think that they can also save money on this (or find best option for the same money – it’s whatever you like best).

We conducted a small survey among our friends and found out that many use the booking.com and agoda.com systems for searches, while the argument in favor of the second is often given that this service works better in Asia.

I decided to check whether it is advisable to search for hotels through these booking systems or, after all, it is better to use aggregators and did a little research - I will tell you about its results in this article.

What are search aggregators?

First, a little explanation of what search aggregators are.

There are 3 search levels:

Hotel websites.
Reservation systems that have contractual relationships with hundreds of thousands of hotels around the world.
Search aggregators (metasearch engines) that search for offers among many booking systems.

Each next level covers larger number hotels than the previous one. There are several dozen reservation systems; in addition to the most famous ones, which are well-known, there are many popular in a particular region, but unfamiliar to many in Russia. For example, have you ever heard of such systems as laterooms.com, asiarooms.com, easytobook.com, hotelclub.com, hrs.com, hotel.info, splendia.com, hotelopia.com? So we haven’t heard =) But they exist, and tens of thousands of people use them.

All of them enter into contracts with certain hotels, and it is clear that each of them individually is not able to cover absolutely all hotels (even such mastodons as booking.com and agoda.com, which have captured the overwhelming market share).

And this is where search aggregators come into play, searching across most booking systems, and thus providing the end consumer (that is, you and me) with the most complete selection of hotels with the greatest variety of prices for the same rooms.

The search aggregators themselves do not process hotel reservations; their only task is search. Those. as a result of their work, you will see a selection of hotels and for each a list of reservation systems in which this hotel is represented.

It is worth noting that prices for the same hotel in different booking systems may differ, and the same hotel will not always be cheaper - it depends on many factors, the main thing is that you can see the prices offered by all booking systems , compare, and choose what you like.

Comparison of search engines and booking systems

For comparison, I chose 2 reservation systems - booking.com and agoda.com, as well as 2 aggregators - the largest international aggregator roomguru.ru (aka roomguru.ru) and the Russian project hotellook.ru (a subsidiary of the Russian air ticket aggregator aviasales.ru). As regions – several popular destinations in Asia, Europe and the USA.

I won’t bore you with screenshots, I’ll give you just one as an example

The main task was to compare the number of hotels found in one system or another. I chose the same date for all systems, the table shows the names of the directions, total quantity hotels that are available in this direction in a specific system, and the number of available hotels on the selected date.

Hotellook does not show how many hotels are available, it displays them in one list, and places occupied ones at the very end, so there is a dash in the corresponding columns.

What conclusion can be drawn from these comparisons?
Firstly, agoda in Asia, indeed, most often produces more results than booking.com, but not always - for example, in Ubud, it turned out that booking’s base is larger.

Secondly, in Europe and the USA booking.com is ahead of Agoda.

Thirdly, it is quite obvious that in all cases, without exception, aggregators find more hotels than booking systems. Actually, that’s what needed to be proven =)

Tips for booking hotels

If you are booking an expensive hotel (from $100 per day and above), then after you have selected the right one, take a look at their official website. Sometimes, on the hotel website, you can find good discounts and offers - for example, we booked our “wedding room” for the promotion of 3 nights for the price of two. Some hotels offer free transfers when booking directly on the hotel website. But sometimes it happens the other way around - the discounts given by the booking system may not be visible on the official website.

Agoda.com and roomguru.ru offer a “best price guarantee.” Those. if you found a hotel through roomguru and booked it for $50 per night, and then saw it for about $45, then they promise to refund the difference ($5 in this case) - however, we never used this option.

Prices on agoda.com are excluding taxes, so it may seem cheaper there, but you usually need to add about 17% to the price (the exact amount is indicated in the room description)

Please read the cancellation conditions carefully. On agoda.com, as a rule, a reservation can be canceled only with the loss of some amount (from $15 and more). On booking.com, cancellation will often be free if you do it no later than 3-7 days before arrival. Of course, there are not always areas in which free cancellation is also impossible.

Booking systems often use the trick of crossing out the price - " special offer, 50% discount, last 2 issues left." Don’t rush without thinking, grabbing such a “hot offer” is often just a ploy to attract attention. But, however, sometimes there really are discounts, just study carefully.

It is also worth considering that in addition to hotel search and booking systems, there is also a service for booking private accommodation airbnb.com - and this ranges from hundreds to several thousand offers in each city (I talk in more detail about this service in separate articles about and about ). By the way, they also have hotels in their database, for example, we once booked through them nice villa on the island. Lembongan(in Indonesia), and also booked an apartment through them for a month in Phuket. And considering what you can get bonus when registering (here) – it’s generally very profitable.

That's all I have. I wish you to find great accommodation and have an unforgettable vacation!

How are you looking for housing? Write your version in the comments!
P.S. Please note that the links to booking systems and aggregators in the article are affiliate links, which means that if you click on them and make a reservation, we will receive an affiliate commission (the price will not change for you). We use these systems regularly ourselves and recommend them because we find them useful and trustworthy.

Greetings, dear readers of the blog site. Today we will try to figure out: are there any pitfalls of self-booking or is it just a phobia of the majority of people who are accustomed to the services of travel agencies. Let me immediately draw your attention to the fact that this article is about a tourist package (package tour) and how to purchase it (either on the operator’s website or through a travel agency). Please do not confuse with independent travel, the preparation for which was dedicated.

Using the Internet sites of large operators is a tempting business. Detailed information about prices and current special offers for the destination of interest, a photo gallery of countries and hotels, flight schedules and frequency, weather forecast, as well as detailed instructions about the rules for self-booking - all this today allows the average tourist to avoid calling and visiting travel agencies in his city to arrange a trip. The convenience of this option is beyond doubt and has its fans. However, this method of design also has its own characteristics.

1) Even the most “advanced” website cannot compare with the emotional story about a given resort by a travel agency manager who has experienced sending numerous clients there, especially if the manager himself has visited this resort personally and is ready to give advice, the value of which you will definitely appreciate in practice.

2) When booking on your own via the Internet, you will inevitably encounter the problem of paperwork (for example, the signing of a service agreement by the parties). If you are not a Muscovite, but the tour operator is a Moscow company, you will have to resolve this important issue with the reservation manager. His reaction to your desire to draw up an agreement and send it to you by mail is not at all easy to predict, especially if we're talking about about last-minute travel packages and the “high” season, when everyone has a lot of work to do even without these additional difficulties.

3) Sooner or later you will have to pay for the booked tour. Of course, in this case, everyone will be able to use the services of the bank, if only the company you choose agrees to issue an invoice for payment according to email. All you have to do is check that the company has received money and this issue can be considered resolved.

How do travel agencies make money?

And here it is worth noting that the cost of the tour in both cases will be approximately the same, since each travel agency has its own discount on the purchase of tours from a tour operator, which is their marginal income (for example, 30%). By offering a tour at the same price as the tour operator, and then selling it, the agency will earn its interest. By the way, when communicating with the travel agency manager, you can always ask for an additional discount, which in turn will be taken from the same 30%. Many agencies, in order to retain a client, go to meet him!

The disadvantages include the difficulties that you will have with sending documents if you are going to visit a country with which Russia has an existing visa regime entry Calculate the costs of numerous long-distance telephone calls, payment for the services of a guide and courier, and think about whether all this is really profitable and safe enough to refuse the services of professionals. It is also useful to imagine the process of filing a claim against a company located in another city in the event of poor organization of your voyage and the measures that you are going to take in order to hold the perpetrators accountable and receive monetary compensation for services not provided.

Everyone should mind their own business

Independence and computer literacy are valuable qualities. However, let's not forget the well-known fact - everyone should do the work in which he is a professional: a shoemaker - sew boots, a dentist - treat bad teeth, and a travel agency employee - registers his clients and represents their interests in proceedings with the tour operator in the event of an emergency. problems and unforeseen situations during the trip. The tourism business, like any job, has a lot of secrets and nuances that you don’t even suspect exist. In total, a lot of people are involved in the implementation of your trip (airlines, hotel staff, embassies, guides and translators, etc.). Carefully connecting all these links into one strong, reliable chain and ensuring that it remains so until your return is not an easy task at all and is not always up to amateurs.

So I advise Internet lovers to remain so in everything related to obtaining preliminary information on the upcoming trip, but I recommend entrusting the registration to those for whom this responsible procedure is a profession. And you must agree - it’s always more convenient and calmer when you communicate face to face with the person who is sending you on your next trip, especially if this person is sitting in the house opposite, or across the road!

What I would like to say as a result - if you are confident in yourself, and the above disadvantages are not for you - go for it, get your hands on booking tourist packages on your own. Who knows, maybe later you will want to open your own travel agency. And so, I will say that currently on the market there are many aggregator sites or services for comparing tourist packages, such as Onlinetours, Sletat, Travelata, etc. (), in which you can choose the appropriate destination, date, and then the system will direct you to a page with the choice of a travel agency office convenient for you in your city. Where you can meet with your personal manager and discuss all the conditions. P.S. don't forget about additional discounts 😉

You can see what such services look like using the form below, there is nothing complicated about them, I think you’ll figure it out...

If anyone has encountered the pros and cons of booking tours on their own that are not described in this article, please write about them in the comments, to help those who have not yet decided. I would be very grateful!

In this article we will tell you which sites you can book accommodation on yourself and give step by step instructions how to do it.

Have you ever had to search for accommodation around the world on your own or do you trust this task to travel agencies? The latter will prepare all the documents for you - this is a plus. However, you will pay them more money the only exception- last minute trips. In addition, you will be accommodated in one of the typical hotels where all package tourists are taken. And if you want to go on the trip of your dreams, then no one can organize it better than you.

Today we will tell you how to book accommodation yourself. To get started, we recommend reading this article. It will help you navigate housing rental sites around the world. And if you like it, sign up for ours.

Where to book an apartment yourself: the best English-language accommodation search sites for travelers

Previously, in order to rent an apartment in our city, we read advertisements on poles and in newspapers in the “For Rent” section. We asked our acquaintances if they had friends who were looking for lodgers. And renting a home abroad, before arriving in another country, seemed like an extremely difficult task. Thanks to the Internet, everything has changed - home rental sites around the world will help you.

1. Airbnb

These Airbnbs Will Blow Your Mind (Not Your Budget) features 79 of the world's most unique travel accommodations, from luxurious treehouses and small trailers to fairytale mansions.

2. 9flats

3. Wimdu

5. Tripping

6.Agoda

8.Hostelworld

10.Outdoorsy

12.Private Islands Inc.

2. WWOOF

Wherever you plan to go on vacation - be it Italy, Turkey or a dacha in the Moscow region, the main thing is to take with you good mood. And then unpleasant little things, even if they exist, will not be able to ruin such a long-awaited vacation for you.

I have collected in one place links to all sites for booking travel accommodation that I know of. Here you will find out how easy it is to spend the night in almost any city in the world at an affordable price or even for free! Or really find unusual place, a stay in which will be remembered for a long time.

The post contains the largest database of hostels in the world, the largest service for renting accommodation from hosts, sites for booking unusual designer hotels, overnight accommodation in exchange for help around the house or looking after a pet - in general, options for every taste. Choose!

Classic: hotel aggregator sites

Personally, I open these sites first when I'm going on a trip somewhere. As the name suggests, they combine information with various systems reservations, such as: booking, hotels, ostrovok (one of best prices in Russia), agoda (good for traveling in Asia), trivago, expedia and many others.

Aggregators compare prices, look for discounts and special offers, and there you can find not only hotels, but also hostels and guest houses - it’s very convenient when everything is in one place.

Free overnight stay

The best way to understand a country and its people is to get to know the locals, or better yet, live with them for a while. International hospitality sites provide such opportunities when people invite guests to their home. Just don’t see them as just a free overnight stay, rather it’s cultural exchange, interesting communication, the opportunity to improve your languages and find new friends around the world.

Source: instagram: @myinterior

Accommodation in exchange for housework

These sites should not be considered only as a way to stay overnight for free, but as a new unusual experience and an opportunity to help people and the ecology of the planet for a week, a month, or maybe more. The idea is that you work several hours a day, and in return you receive room and board.

Source: GettyImages

Rental services for cool and unusual hotels

If you want to live in a lighthouse, in a tree house, stay in eco-friendly hotels or hotels only for vegetarians, try glamping (glamorous camping) or just have fun, then there are special sites for this.

✔ and - here you can buy someone else’s reservation at a discount. Someone couldn’t go and is selling their reservation on the website. You get a good discount, and the person gets money for a non-refundable room.