Tips: How To Make Travel Bookings Online

As the world becomes increasingly self-service, we are now all expected to be experts in a lot of areas. Among them, we are now all expected to be expert travel agents as we book our flights and accommodation online.

While booking travel is not difficult, finding good details and ensuring against problems is an art. Read on for our top tips for booking travel online to ensure that you get the best rates and no nasty surprises when showing up at the airport or your destination. (Shhh! These are our top secrets and you should take note of them!)

Shop Around, Especially on Resale Sites

By now most people should know that you need to shop around to get the best deal. You should also know that you don’t always get cheaper rates by buying directly from the airline or hotel. This might seem counterintuitive since you may assume that booking sites put a tariff on top to make money. But that is not how it works.

For instance, at TravelTank, we sometimes will bulk buy seats on flights and rooms at hotels, and because we are buying in bulk, we get massive discounts. Not only does this mean that we can sometimes offer flights and hotels at rates cheaper than what the provider (either airlines or hotels) are offering, but also that we have access to seats and rooms that otherwise appear “sold out”.

So, it is important to make sure you explore our website, TravelTank.com to get the best rates for flights, hotels and holiday packages. 

Be Flexible with Your Travel

While it is not always possible, when it is, try to be as flexible as possible with your travel dates. Airlines and hotels bump up and reduce prices depending on demand, which can be influenced by the day of the week, holiday seasons, and local events (that you may or may not know about).

It can cost 20-30% more to fly or stay somewhere on one day of the week than another. For example, popular business flight routes are often more expensive on a Monday morning, while popular weekend city break destinations will have higher fees on a Friday. Take advantage of tools that let you see flights on a +/- 3-day window on either side of your desired travel day to see if you can save by changing your plans just a little.

Research Your Trip on Different Days of the Week

It is a fairly well-accepted fact that flights and hotels can be more expensive depending not on the day that you want to travel, but on the day of the week that you decide to look at the site. This is because prices are automatically adjusted in response to supply and demand. Unfortunately, established knowledge of which days to look on is cloudier.

It used to be accepted that Mondays and Tuesdays were good days to browse. It was argued that people make bookings on a Friday or Saturday, and then decide to cancel or not pay for them, and those availabilities are released on Mondays and Tuesdays, bringing down prices.

But we now know that most people do their travel booking while sitting at their desks at work, often just after the hump of the week on a Thursday or Friday. A lot fewer people do their bookings on the weekend when they are less likely to be sitting in front of a computer. 

According to Expedia, bookings can be up to 36% cheaper on a Sunday than on a weekday, and still 20% cheaper on a Saturday. So, schedule some travel research time for the weekend.

Use Incognito Mode 

This is our top-secret! When you make your actual travel booking, you will probably want to be signed in to your browser to remember your password for you and automatically fill in forms with your personal details. But when it comes to searching for the best deals, you are going to want to take advantage of incognito mode.

Online travel booking sites are among the leading users of online tracking. They do this to push advertising to you, but also to pressure you to “book now” by gradually increasing the price of a booking every time you look to create a sense of urgency.

Avoid paying over the odds and receiving annoying marketing pop-ups for something that you have already bought by using incognito mode. No matter what browser you are using, you will find this option in your setting menu. Switch back to your account mode when you are ready to book.

Expert tip! If you’re planning to travel any time soon, you can search for cheap rates for flights, hotels and holiday packages on TravelTank.com. We are mostly cheaper than our competitors, and we offer great services too! 

Check Review Sites

When you are booking a hotel or experience, take the time to check review sites and see what the experience of other people was. Hotels often post pictures of only their best rooms and don’t say anything about the shady bar next door or the fact that they have a 10 pm curfew.

Review sites can be difficult as hotels do their best to manipulate good reviews, and there is no pleasing some people who will complain no matter how good the accommodation and service are. Take the time to read a variety of views, posted in a variety of different places, so that you can spot common themes and get a feel for the site.

It is often a good idea to look for reviews on booking sites since they can often verify if the person leaving the review actually stayed at the hotel in question, and how recent their stay was.

Extra Tip! Always make sure that you are actually booking the hotel that you think you are! TravelTank.com has made this very easy. We offer a wide range of hotels on our websites and be rest assured that you’re booking the principal property, even at a cheaper rate. So don’t worry about finding yourself being taken somewhere less desirable to stay when you book with us. 

Join A Frequent Travel Scheme

It is always a good idea to be a member of a frequent traveller scheme (even if you don’t consider yourself a frequent traveller), that way every cent you spend is also earning you rewards, even if it takes you a while to build up enough points to get something desirable.

Not only might you get free flights or accommodation in future, but you might also find yourself unexpectedly upgraded or otherwise rewarded. TravelTank offers some reward travel schemes for every booking you make on the website. Once you sign up on the website, you will always get newsletters about deals, promotions and competitions you can benefit from. 

Pay Attention to the Details

When you are booking your travel, it is important that you get all the details right. These days, cheap tickets often come with clauses that you can’t make changes. So, if you accidentally book the wrong day, or enter your name incorrectly so that it doesn’t match your travel document, it can cost you a bundle to fix the problem.

But it is also important to pay attention to details such as check-in and check-out times, and airport transfers. There is nothing worse than coming off a long International flight in the morning and not being able to check into your hotel to rest and shower until 4 pm in the afternoon. Or is there…

No one likes it when they are forced to pay more for their baggage when they arrive at the airport. Paying at the airport is often very expensive since airlines know that you pretty much have no choice. 

People often get caught out when they realise that they have to transfer between airports in the same city, and don’t account for the time and expense of collecting their luggage, potentially passing through customs twice, and hiking over to the other side of the city.

Also, pay attention to the wait between flights. While none of us wants to be stuck in an airport for five hours waiting for our next flight, lots of airlines give you only a 30–40-minute window. Not only will this mean that you could miss your flight if you have any kind of delay, but this is also when luggage gets lost since you manage to haul it through the airport to your flight, but baggage crews aren’t as fast. This seems to be a particular problem when travelling outside Nigeria to places like the UK or USA. Waiting an extra hour in the airport can save you a lot of headaches on arrival at your final destination.

Expert Tip! Always book and pay for additional luggage online and in advance. Gone are the days when a friendly member of staff will sneak your baggage on for you. You will be expected to pay a premium if you arrive at the airport with additional luggage.

In short, the details matter! Review everything before finalising your booking.