Booking travel was never so easy

Anubhav Jain
Aug 26, 2017 · 3 min read

This post is to create value for money. I am going to be vocal about it. Do your kayaking, do your booking, do your expediaing, but pricing sources suggested by me will undoubtedly win.

You are sitting, perhaps a bit dull and thinking where can you travel next. So many options, so many places but not so much of money always. Do not worry I will help you out to plan a 5 star trip at a cost of 3 star. Sounds too good to be true? Well no, I have gone through the same feeling until i found a way to book travel cheaper. I will share it right here.

Labelling this world as a digital era is a passé. Indeed, everything around us is digital yet there are traditional brick and mortar stores that can’t always be missed. Specifically, if we talk about booking travel online then sky is the limit. One click we zoom in straight into the destination, browse through the concierge services of a ritzy Ritz Carlton to a motel across the street. Undoubtedly, internet is powerful, and makes us an engineer when researching about anything technical, or a doctor after reading up about some specific disease, or maybe a university professor by reading a few journals. Well, if you can read between the lines then I am hinting at one thing, which is an expertise can’t just come your way by only researching. Experience almost always supersedes our research.

I am not denying that internet is our dearest friend. It certainly helps us in taking informed decisions as a customer but to become an expert on anything clearly requires lot of hands on experience. Now, let’s link it back to our travel agents. For the sake of simplicity, I will consider only the big guys, who are doing about 100 bookings a day or maybe 30,000 bookings a month. That’s a monstrous number. Not convinced?

Let me add another perspective. Each booking from India to anywhere outside India is a minimum of 3 nights. Each night(excluding air fare) on an average( let’s say for a 4 star hotel in Bangkok) is about US$ 100. So 3 nights will cost US$ 300, translating to US$ 900000( 30,000*300). This is a lot of money. Now, these experts have access to better prices all the time. Why? Well plenty of reasons.

Firstly, they contract a lot of hotels directly. Hence, always get an edge over pricing. Secondly, in business hotel has a separate pricing for a B2C website vs a B2B website. A travel agent always will have a B2B pricing, which is always cheaper than the retail or B2C pricing.

Thirdly, since these travel agents drive so much volume, they are the first ones to know about promotions. Do you already have those butterflies in your stomach to get access to that dream pricing?

Well, towards the end, I will name few of the best travel experts for you.

Start Packing Now

Now, let’s go back to our story of Internet. I mentioned that it should be used as a tool to take informed decisions. So, go on to kayak, look for the hotels you need, look for the flights you prefer and before booking online pass these exact requirement to a travel expert, who has tonnes of experience in preparing these itineraries.

The biggest hurdle for new age consumer is to trust these travel agents. Online everything is so transparent, and offline there is this constant fear of getting duped. I agree, sometimes, the communication style is the biggest wall between us, and the travel agent. However, dissecting an itinerary is the easiest thing to do. This helps you in validating the price quote given by a travel agent.

Now here are a few of the travel agents in India that can be trusted, and will surely save you a lot of $$$

GRN Connect

ClickitBookit.com

Akbar Travels

Travel Boutique Online

Hotelexpertz.com

Start filling up that bag pack because i am sure that this post will save you a lot of moolah to indulge in that perfect travel therapy.

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Anubhav Jain
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