Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
what you're paying for (a feature that helps counter the claims that
the best rooms are often held back from bargain-booking websites).
Travelocity
posts unvarnished customer reviews and ranks its prop-
erties according to the AAA rating system. Also reliable are
Hotels.com
and
Quikbook.com
. An excellent free program,
Travel-
Axe
(www.travelaxe.net), can help you search multiple hotel sites at
once, even ones you may never have heard of—and conveniently
lists the total price of the room, including the taxes and service
charges. Another booking site,
Travelweb
(www.travelweb.com), is
partly owned by the hotels it represents (including the Hilton,
Hyatt, and Starwood chains) and is therefore plugged directly into
the hotels' reservations systems—unlike independent online agen-
cies, which have to fax or e-mail reservation requests to the hotel, a
good portion of which get misplaced in the shuffle. More than once,
travelers have arrived at the hotel, only to be told that they have no
reservation. To be fair, many of the major sites are undergoing
improvements in service and ease of use, and Expedia will soon be
able to plug directly into the reservations systems of many hotel
chains—none of which can be bad news for consumers. In the
meantime, it's a good idea to
get a confirmation number
and
make a printout
of any online booking transaction.
ONLINE TRAVELER'S TOOLBOX
Veteran travelers usually carry some essential items to make their
trips easier. Following is a selection of online tools to bookmark
and use:
•
Airplane Seating and Food
. Find out which seats to reserve
and which to avoid (and more) on all major domestic airlines
at www.seatguru.com. And check out the type of meal (with
photos) you'll likely be served on airlines around the world at
www.airlinemeals.com.
•
Mapquest
(www.mapquest.com). This best of the mapping
sites lets you choose a specific address or destination, and in
seconds, it will return a map and detailed directions.
•
Travel Warnings
(http://travel.state.gov/travel_warnings.html,
www.fco.gov.uk/travel, www.voyage.gc.ca, www.dfat.gov.au/
consular/advice). These sites report on places where health con-
cerns or unrest might threaten American, British, Canadian, and
Australian travelers. Generally, U.S. warnings are the most para-
noid; Australian warnings are the most relaxed.
•
Universal Currency Converter
(www.xe.com/ucc). See what
your dollar or pound is worth in more than 100 other countries.
