Airbnb and important things you should know

The concept is absolutely wonderful and, in theory, it should be a great alternative to the stodgy and sometimes just plain icky hotel rooms that one encounters when trying to keep to a travel budget. 

Airbnb goes one further than most other holiday apartment bookers by adding an element of social media to the site, meaning that proprietors are encouraged to be accessible to their tenants, allowing for like-minded people to connect through housing.

Airbnb is a new concept in accommodation that allows individual home and apartment owners to rent out their properties as holiday accommodation to tourists and travelers looking for a homey twist. The site’s tag line, “Travel like a human”, conveys the breadth of the company’s purpose, which is to connect real travelers with real homes-on-the-go.

I just finished booking my first trip through Airbnb – a weekend away in Paris for my husband and I to celebrate our wedding anniversary. This, I felt, would be an appropo time to invest in a romantic little apartment of our own and live the quaint Parisian life for a few days.

Spend your vacation in Las Vega

Most hotels have Web sites that allow you to book with them directly, with the same rules as booking over the phone. Beyond that, there are also a few travel Web sites where you can book a room, and sometimes airfare, a rental car and more.

Booking online with the hotel itself is usually done through the hotel's Web site. Often reservations made this way have all the benefits of a phone-in reservation, making them a great option. Most Vegas hotel sites feature room photos and descriptions, some with floorplans and 360-degree photos. Generally the only way to book through a hotel site is directly with them but some hotels DO offer what is called an 'affiliate program'. Basically this allows other third-party Web sites, such as RateVegas.com and others, to offer booking at these hotels with all the benefits of a direct booking. This helps keep these third party Web sites free as the hotel pays a commission back to the site owner while still offering all the flexibility of a direct booking . This is fairly rare with only some MGM Mirage hotels  offering this service. You know this is being used if you click on a link to book a hotel from a third party site and you are re-directed back to the hotel's Web site, just as if you were booking with them directly.

Cheap Air Tickets, Online Booking

Simply enter in your trip details and we’ll compare prices across the top sites to find you the best deal there is.

The best tips to Money Saving Flight Booking.

1. Check out discount carriers regionally. Eg. If you’re heading to Europe look to fly into London and then see if Ryanair or EasyJet has a flight to where you want to go.

2. Fly out on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday. These days are often the least expensive.

3. Book early! It’s never too early to book as the cheapest seats often go first. Ideally book your flight two to three months in advance of your vacation.

4. Use alternative airports. It can be very expensive to fly into Innsbruck, Austria but it is only a couple hours shuttle away from Munich, Germany – a major hub. Find out if it’s less expensive to fly to another airport and drive or shuttle in.

5. Consider layovers. Often direct flights are more expensive than multiple stops. If you have time to spare look to see if any layover options are available.

6.Fly last minute. If you are flexible on where you fly you can get discounted tickets 48 to 72 hours before a flight.

Latest flight reservation discount

Airline ticket prices change frequently (with seemingly no particular rhyme or reason).

Let’s face it — your time is too valuable to be laboring over a computer screen for hours searching for a great deal — our company mission is to take the mystery out of shopping for cheap flights, so let’s get started.

We have boiled down hundreds of our tips from a decade of airfare research specifically to educate fliers on how to make the best ticket purchasing decisions for each and every trip

Cheapest Day to Fly – Wednesday

We did an in-depth study of our proprietary historical airfare database (world’s largest) and pinpointed the cheapest day to fly is Wednesday for domestic travel (gory details at the link).

Wednesday is one of the three cheapest days, the others are Tuesday and Saturday (Friday and Sunday the most expensive days to travel). The cheapest day to travel internationally are a bit different — we are working on this research and it should be up shortly.

The cheapest time to fly is typically the first flight out in the morning – yes, that means you have to get up at 4am. Next best times are flights during/after lunch and flights at the dinner hour (of course the absolute cheapest time to fly is on those limited routes with red eyes).

Best Time to Buy Airline Tickets – Tuesday 3pm Eastern

The Best guideline for flight booking

1. Look on airline sites

Try hunting for fares after midnight; that's when many airlines reload their computers with the deeply discounted fares that people reserved but didn't pay for. If you're only seeking last-minute Web fares, look on airline sites, major booking sites, and aggregate sites  between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning for tickets for the coming weekend. Such fares usually require that you leave on a Saturday and return on Monday or Tuesday, but some airlines offer Friday departures and Sunday returns.

2. Check a Broad Range of Dates

Travelocity and Orbitz have the most flexible search functions of any of the major booking sites. Travelocity will allow you to search for the lowest round-trip or one-way domestic or international fare within a range of months, which it shows as green dates on a calendar. Even if you are just using Travelocity's calendar for research, click all the way through an available date; the site frequently shows dates as available when they're actually sold out. Orbitz will let you search for the lowest price over a weekend you designate; search up to three days before and after your dates; or look for the lowest published fare within a 30-day period. The site recently extended its flexible search option to include international flights, though at press time, it still indicated that the destination airport "must be within 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, or Canada." Expedia's flexible search provides a pull-down list of 50 popular U.S. destinations only.

3. Use Aggregator Sites

Once you've figured out which dates will yield you the best fares, search one of the Web's "meta" travel agents. Mobissimo searches 85 U.S. and international sources and converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars. Kayak, which at press time was still being tested, searches 60 sites and allows you to sort airfare results by departure or arrival time. Qixo is a good source for deals from small charter companies and discount airline agencies, as well as major carriers—28 in all. Cheap flights lets you search flexible dates and, like Travelocity, offers a calendar with a range of available dates. Here, too, you should click through the green (available) dates to ensure that the fare you want isn't sold out. Aggregator sites don't charge fees themselves, but they might direct you to a site that does.

4. Book Award Tickets Early—and On-line

Since airlines allocate only a small percentage of their seats for award travel, it's smart to book months in advance. Just to be safe, book 330 days in advance—when most airlines load award fares. Also, reserve those seats on-line: American, Northwest, and Continental all charge $5 for booking award travel over the phone and $10 for doing it in person—but nothing for on-line reservations. (United charges more to book award travel by phone than to book paid tickets by phone: $15 versus $5.) If you do get lucky and are able to reserve an award seat only a week or two before you travel, unfortunately you could get slapped with a high "expediting fee." For instance, Delta charges $50 within two weeks of travel; Continental charges non-elite frequent fliers $75 for booking within three days of flying (elites pay $50).

5. Book Through an Airline's Web Site

If you've found the same low fare on an on-line booking agent like Orbitz and an airline's own Web site, it makes more sense to reserve on the latter to avoid paying the $10 or so service fee booking sites now charge. By booking on an airline's site, you'll also avoid the service fees the airlines themselves have begun to charge: $5 for booking over the phone, and $5 to $10 for booking at ticket offices and airport counters.

6. Don't Pay Too Much for Change Fees

If there's a chance that you'll need to change your flight, book directly with the airline. Orbitz and Travelocity (but not Expedia) charge a $30 fee to change a flight, which is on top of the $100 change fee the airlines assess. Low-cost airlines have much lower change fees. JetBlue charges $20 ($25 on the phone) plus the fare difference, Song charges $25 plus the fare difference, and Southwest has never had a fee—it charges only the difference in fare. But there's some good news from the major airlines: in January, Delta decreased its change fee to $50 from $100. And though the other major airlines hadn't followed suit when this went to press, we expect they will.

Save Money Booking Online

 Auction Sites Usually Offer Best Deal For Savings

If you have a little extra time and patience, consider an online auction site to see just how low you can go with your travel expenses. Again, in addition to checking the most popular sites, search some of the lesser-known sites for some surprising deals. For example, SkyAuction.com lets you bid on a number of travel expenses like dining, flights, luxury experiences and more. With savings averaging around 60 percent, these discount sites are definitely worth exploring if you have some time to plan ahead.

Sign Up For Many Different Hotel Loyalty Programs

The airlines aren’t the only ones reaching out to frequent travelers. Virtually all the hotel chains have gotten into the game as well. Savvy business travelers already know this, enjoying the perks of Marriott Rewards, Hilton Honors and the other popular programs. But to take advantage of potential savings, join every possible hotel rewards club, even for chains where you don’t stay that frequently. Sign up for the email updates. Yes, you’ll get plenty of useless offers to filter through. Once in a while you’ll find a gem, a chain offering double or triple airline miles or 10,000 bonus points for booking a weekend stay.

Use Online Coupon Codes to Boost Savings

Paperless coupons are perfect for penny pinchers on the go. There’s no paper to clip and hold on to, and the savings are automated once you hit the purchase confirmation button. One of the most popular sites to grab coupon codes for nearly anything is RetailMeNot.com, which also includes travel expenses like hotel rooms. Company websites often have coupon codes listed as well. One of the more underutilized strategies is to follow the RSS feed of well-known travel bloggers. Affiliate marketing is big business and tourism program managers will often assign an exclusive code to a particular web site editor in the hopes of capturing that particular site’s audience.

Don’t Forget Lesser-Known Travel Discount Sites

Sites like Priceline and Hotels.com offer plenty of travel deals to be sure, but there are many lesser-known sites you can check for great deals. SmarterTravel.com, for example, lets you sign up for automated deal alerts that originate at your airport of choice, and allows the selection of deals on a city-to-city route as well. So when that once-in-a-blue-moon deal on a flight from JFK to Heathrow comes around, you’ll be in the loop. Autofrance.net offers unlimited mileage with no international taxes on rental cars for your trip to Europe, provided you book the car while you are still in the United States and are not a citizen of the European Union.

Speaking of additional fees, if you’re traveling with Rover, then you’ll definitely want to check out PetsWelcome.com before purchasing or reserving your hotel room. Not only do they let you know which hotels along your route welcome your furry, four-legged friend, but also which establishments charge additional pet fees. This is a huge help when choosing which place to rest your head, particularly if you are on a lengthy trip. More of a spa fan? Spavelous.com has a large spa directory and lists location-specific deals for travelers.

Package Deals Save Money

This works particularly well with discount websites such as Expedia, which even advertises the fact that you can often save more by booking hotel rooms at the same time as rental cars or airline tickets. Also, don’t assume that the best price can only be found by using a third-party booking service. Often, the hotel chain’s website can beat discount site prices with special package deals that wrap up food, entertainment and overnight accommodations. When visiting the St. Kitts Marriott at certain times of year, for example, it’s possible to book midrange room rates that come with bar beverages and meal items included, along with a day on the golf course or at the on-site spa.

Online Hotels Booking Tips

Rio de Janeiro is a fantastic city with numerous restaurants, hotels and resorts, beaches, restaurants, the Carnival, and much more. Other popular cities include Sao Paulo, Salvador, and Foz Do Iguacu, offering visitors a lot to see and do. When traveling to Brazil, it is important to stay at a hotel that meets your personal needs and budget To help you find and book the best hotel that fits your travel needs, the following is a list of 5 tips for booking hotels in Brazil.

Decide your Brazil Destination and Preferred Hotel: Brazil is home to many fantastic cities that offer a wide range of hotels. For instance, Rio de Janeiro has 269 Hotels, Sao Paulo 260 Hotels, Recife 49 Hotels, Santos 10 Hotels, Foz do Iguaçu 111 Hotels, etc. Review locations to see what they offer. As well, look at the star rating of each hotel and the amenities offered. At least a 3.0 star hotel is a good choice. You also have to keep your accommodations budget in mind when researching hotels.

Book Early: You can often save a lot of money if you book your hotel early. Booking at least 30 days before you plan to visit will result in savings. It also helps ensure you get the hotel and room you want. If you wait too long, you might lose out on the hotel you want and you might end up paying more than you wanted to pay.

Book A Brazil Vacation Package: When you travel to Brazil, you will be spending money on airfare, accommodations, meals, car rental, etc, depending on the type of vacation package purchased. You can save time and money if you buy a vacation package that is bundled with all of the travel services you want. To get the cheapest hotel rates, research vacation packages and their prices and travel services offered.

Compare Offers on an Online Discount Travel Website: Online discount travel sites are a great resource to finding and location cheap flights to Brazil, cheap quality hotels in Brazil, and cheap Brazil vacation packages. Online discount travel sites have lower-cost hotel rates through deals and offers. Shoppers can search for deep discounts at popular Brazil destinations. As well, you can find great last minute hotel deals. In addition, online discount travel sites post hotel ratings and prices. Booking through an online discount travel site can help reduce travel costs.

With winter just around the corner, this is the perfect time to book a vacation to a hot destination like Brazil. And, you do not have to spend a fortune on hotels. A fun vacation in Brazil will definitely chase those winter blues away.