Find ridiculously inexpensive unadvertised special deals. Locate last-minute luxury fill-ins. Try the airline ticket auctions that you've only heard about. You indicate where you want to go and how much you want to spend...they make it happen!
Priceline.Com
The Grandaddy of name-your-own-price travel sites. Build your own Air and Hotel combination deal to over 30 destinations! Indicate where you want to go, select the exact hotel, then Name Your Own Price. Their Best Price Guarantee applies to every Air, Hotel, Rental Car, Cruise and Vacation Package sold on priceline.com. If you find a lower price for the same itinerary, they'll refund 100% of the difference. Book an Express Deal and they'll refund 200% of the difference - Double the difference! The lower price, including taxes and fees, must be available to the general public for booking on a website in the same currency, using the same form of payment and from the same point of sale as your original reservation when you call. The lower price must also be an exact match to the itinerary booked on priceline.com. You need not worry about being serenaded by William Shatner en route. Their service is markedly better than their advertisements.
Travelocity
Incredibly comprehensive travel site wholly owned by Sabre Holdings. You will see some domestic flights for $5.00 or less (excluding fees and taxes). Discount airfare, lodging, car rental, and cruise sections. The special Vacation Packages and Travel Deals sections make it difficult to leave this site without making some travel plans. You can also plan your trip around Activities and Attractions that pique your interest.
Expedia
Expedia is another discount travel mega-site. They combine great deals with attraction and Rewards, Groupon Getaways and Vacation Packages. In 1996, a small division within Microsoft launched online travel booking site Expedia.com�, giving consumers a revolutionary new way to research and book travel. Since that time, Expedia, Inc. has evolved into the world�s leading online travel company, with a portfolio that includes approximately a dozen of the world�s most notable travel brands. In 2011, Expedia, Inc. completed spin-off of TripAdvisor. In 2013, they completed acquisition of majority interest in trivago, a leading hotel metasearch company. In 2015, Sabre and Expedia Announce Expedia announce acquisition of Travelocity. In the same year, Expedia also acquired Orbitz Worldwide and HomeAway. Expedia supports a symphony of Things To Do. Check it out.
Orbitz
Orbitz is a joint effort of some of the world's leading airlines. American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United combined resources to produce a web site that assists clients before, during, and after the services are purchased. Orbitz.com � the flagship brand of Orbitz Worldwide � has been in operation since 2001. Other Orbitz Worldwide online travel companies include CheapTickets in the Americas; ebookers in Europe; and HotelClub and RatestoGo, based in Sydney. In February 2015, Expedia announced that it would acquire Orbitz for $1.2 billion in cash, in order to better compete with Priceline.com. The deal comes only a few days after Expedia agreed to purchase Travelocity. Spas, Ski Trips, Business travel, weekend getaways, cruises, and trips that feature Broadway Shows are available ON THE CHEAP. These corporate Machiavellis finally realized that it is preferable to sell a $600.00 seat for $50.00 than to allow it to remain vacant. Hmmm.
KAYAK
The cofounders of Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz started KAYAK in 2004 to take a different approach. Ironically, it was bought by Priceline in 2013. Their website and mobile apps enable you to easily compare hundreds of travel sites at once, in one comprehensive, fast and intuitive display. If you want, you can spend hours searching every airline, hotel and other travel site yourself, that�s one option. If you prefer an easier way to find a good deal, use KAYAK. Once you find what you want, choose where to book, including airline, hotel, car rental and online travel agency sites. They send you right to the booking page to finish your purchase there. You can also book your hotel right on KAYAK with our fast, easy and secure booking process. They also offer travel management tools including an itinerary management tool, flight status updates and price alerts.
Hotwire
An Expedia operating company, Hotwire's mission is to offer unbeatable low prices on airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, vacation packages and cruises. Through partnerships with leading travel companies, they get low prices that can't be found anywhere else. How does it work? Their partners permit access to their unsold inventory - empty seats on flights, empty hotel rooms, and unrented cars - at big savings. By showing the name of their travel partner after you book, Hotwire can get travel deals that are significantly below published prices. They also offer a host of deals & destinations as they become available along with popular attractions and activities.
Yapta
Yapta.com will track a flight�s price for you after you buy your ticket. If the costs drop below what you paid, most airlines and online travel agencies will refund the difference, usually in the form of travel credits or vouchers. Yapta will alert you to falling fares via e-mail or tweet. And if the change in price dips below the cost of any �re-booking fees� some airlines charge in these situations, the site will explain how to collect your refund. Note: Yapta does not currently track Southwest flights.
Cheap Tickets
Cheap Tickets, a leading vendor of discounted leisure travel products, was acquired by The Trip Network, an Orbitz affiliate. The company offers consumers affordable one-stop shopping for all of their travel needs. It has one of the largest collections of discounted airfares (more than one million unpublished fares offered on more than 60 major airlines), car rentals, hotel accommodations and cruises in the industry. Cheap Tickets sells one ticket every 10.5 seconds through its 24/7 multi-channel service model, including its Internet site located at Cheaptickets.Com; and toll-free number, 1-800 OKCHEAP.
Sky Auction
SkyAuction.com (www.skyauction.com) is a travel auction marketplace where you can buy airline tickets, room nights, tours, cruises and all-inclusive vacations. They negotiate special deals with leading airlines, hotels, resorts and cruises and offer them in auction format. All auctions on this web site have a starting bid of $1.00 (that's right: one dollar) with no minimum reserve price, and anyone can bid with only a few mouse clicks.
Student Universe
If you are or know a student, you are in luck. Their Back To School bargains, unlimited Rail Travel, sleep-on-the-cheap Hotels, and Student Deals are unparalleled. By negotiating with the major airlines on the their behalf, StudentUniverse provides students with exclusive, significantly discounted airfares. From travel Guides to a proprietary booking engine, StudentUniverse is a leading online resource that allows students to research and purchase reduced-cost travel products online.
Hotels.Com
An Expedia affiliate, Hotels.Com is the internet's largest specialized provider of discount accommodations worldwide. they offer savings of up to 70% off regular hotel rates in some of the world's most popular and expensive cities. They provide discount accommodations in more than 7,000 premiere properties and 145,000 self-catered properties at over 300 major destinations in North America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia. Hotels.Com contracts with lodging properties in advance for volume purchases and guaranteed availability of hotel rooms and vacation rentals at great prices and offer these rooms to consumers.
Booking.Com
A Priceline acquisition, Booking.Com guarantees the best prices for any type of property, from small, family-run bed and breakfasts to executive apartments and five-star luxury suites. Established in 1996, Booking.com is available in more than 40 languages, and offers over 310,264 properties in 183 countries. Over 5500 employees working out of 100+ offices in more than 50 countries book 475,000 room nights every day.
Last Minute Travel
LastMinuteTravel.com is the premier online website for providing last minute prices on a variety of travel products . . . all in advance. The biggest bargain available on the site is its portfolio of 16,000 plus Undercover hotels in 2,500 major cities worldwide. It covers every aspect of travel, including flights, hotels, car rentals, vacation packages, cruises and even activities. The higher airfares and hotel rates that afflict last minute travelers are offset by an endless stream of discount coupons for 3, 4 and 5-star hotels.
AirBNB
Founded in August of 2008 and based in San Francisco, California, AirBnB is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world � online or from a mobile phone. Whether an apartment for a night, a castle for a week (more than 600 are currently available), or a villa for a month, Airbnb connects people to unique travel experiences, at any price point, in more than 34,000 cities and 190 countries. And with world-class customer service and a growing community of users, Airbnb is the easiest way for people to monetize their extra space and showcase it to an audience of millions.
HomeAway
In the mid-2000's, HomeAway began acquiring vacation rental websites, including some of the most popular ones on the market such as VRBO and VacationRentals.com. Now it owns 40 Websites operating in 22 languages. More than 65 million travelers visit their family of sites each month to discover more than 1 million homes in over 190 countries. Listings with a �request to book� button or credit card logos invite a booking request, which owners / managers have 24 hours to accept. A �birdhouse shield� icon on the listing page indicates that an approved payment option through HomeAway, in which case, you can ask the property owner or manager to send you a payment request and instructions through HomeAway.
While HomeAway offers the option to process payments - in contrast with Airbnb - HomeAway acts more like a rentals listing service - not an overseer of the vacation-rental experience.
Spa Finder
Spas have become the millenium's new vacation nom de guerre. Spa Finder provides the most comprehensive database of spas worldwide. Interactive internet site, toll-free order lines, free vacation spa consultations, and reservation service make booking a breeze. They have an extensive network of day spas and a gift certificate program. If you're tired of needing a vacation to recover from your vacation, this is right up your alley.
Hostelz.Com
A hostel (also called a youth hostel) is like a hotel except at a hostel you can get a bed in a dormitory room which you share with other travelers. Hostelz.com has the largest and most comprehensive worldwide hostels database on the web (55,440 listings in 9,812 cities). Photos and reviews are submitted by users and paid reviewers, not hostel owners. The site provides direct phone and website contact information for hostels in their listings (when available). To make a booking, their system searches and displays results from all of the major hostel booking sites, enabling you to choose the lowest price and the best options.
Jetsetter
An invitation-only community of travelers that provides luxury-hotels and the world�s finest rental properties - including city apartments, ski lodges, chateaus and villas. They only recommend places that members of their army of over 200 journalists from the world�s top travel publications has been to, loved and would gladly go again. Jetsetter can have 15 to 30 of these "flash sales" available at once � more than the usual handful offered offered by similar sites at any given time -- and can save you up to 50% off published rates. Since invited members get exclusive access to deep discounts for a limited time, it works best if you're flexible about where you want to travel. Since each location is a paradise - who cares?
Airfare Watchdog
While it provides lots of cheap deals - and insider tips on how to find more - what distinguishes Airfare Watchdog is its access to last-minute travel flight deals, pulling them from carrier sites, fast. It's like having a personal assistant do all your grunt work. The site�s fare listings and alerts -- including airline promo codes and unadvertised fares -- are found and verified by humans (in this case, former airline and travel agency employees), not technology alone. Included in its search options is the unusual ability to search by departure city, enabling fast getaways. Fares are sent right to your inbox (or by real-time tweets). The site even lists Southwest Airlines and smaller airlines like Allegiant, which ordinarily never show up on search engines.