Does anyone have an idea where to search for accommodation (resort, bungalow, hotel, whatever) for vacation, for example on a tropical beach with small kids these days?
In the past, big sites like booking or agoda (which belong to the same holding, I think) or tripadvisor worked quite ok for me. They now have 100’s of filters and pictures, and 1000 comments, but those seem rather irrelevant to me (think of filters like free welcome-drink, pictures of nicely-folded towels and colorful cocktails, comments on the nice barkeepers, but no info on children-pool or playground).
A lot of marketing-speech like unforgettable moments with your loved ones.
I read the other day that these sites lost a lot page views (to AI chat bots?), while at the same time applying AI as well. When I search online, many (optimized?) results pop up like “10 best accommodations” which are even more useless to me.
Question is not about AI, but does anyone have a hint on new sites, innovations or search methods to filter for specific requirements?
Just laughing about the big sites, it really is like that, making it harder to actually book a damn thing!
We’ve done away with AirBnb for hotels nowadays, can’t beat a 24/7 reception (we once had to go rooting for the key in someone’s garden, it was under a pot, we didn’t know which damn pot), breakfast, etc and in the end hotels tend to be in actually good locations and often at better prices than AirBnbs.
What we do is actually google for good places to stay (sort of the “10 best accommodations” you mention) and then go straight to the site of the hotel, where we often find better prices than booking. com.
This is not my experience. And every time I called tried to get them to agree on a lower price (booking keeps some 20%), they refused. OTOH booking personally over the phone or email normally means no cancellation penalties.
How would that work? I use whatsapp rather selectively, like for family or club groups. Guess that would mean to find the right group, sign up, be very specific and then hope for the right hint?
Same here. They used to have restrictive agreements with hotels, but at least in Europe that was banned by courts a while ago if I remember correctly. Not sure how it works in other parts of the world. Often enough, hotels made it unattractive to book directly and asked me to book via some platform to get the best price.
Interesting, thanks for the tip. Only know Discord from gaming, will have a look. Maybe I get lucky on Reddit or open an account. Looked at FatTravel, but that’s rather a different target group.
My criteria aren’t even that specific or plenty, but different then those pushed by the platforms.
Where I go next, you could book rooms for 200 a week, or 2000. Both of these will actually offer a welcome drink or a hair dryer, who filters for that?
You could also spend 2000 that per night, if you’re inclined to do so (I’m not).
Don’t even get me started on that scarcity crap like “very popular, only 1 room left”. I understand it’s supposed to make me book, but it does the opposite.
I don’t really understand your difficulties. We decide first where we want to go, and honestly the only things that we don’t have in Switzerland are sea/ocean and big cities. I might have gone for a desert trip, but they are usually in countries classified as “unsafe” by me.
Once the place is chosen, it is a rather technical task to find an accomodation according to our parameters.
I do know where to go, even been there before. The difficulty is that „technical task”. While the sites I know have an abundance of filters and information, those either lack the relevance or are not very precise. And it seems getting worse (might be me, of course).
Some examples on the kid’s side
“Directly at the private beach” means just that to me. “Complimentary shuttle gets you there in 10 min” in the fine prints is something else
A “baby pool” shouldn’t be 1-2m deep next to the pool bar with loud music blasting
While “playground” is ambiguous, I’d expect more than a rusty seesaw fully exposed to the sun or a dark room with dozens of arcade games.
That’s partly mitigated by the price you pay, but not reliably so. It’s ok if places target couples or singles, even those that stay just 1 night to make as many pictures as possible to brag about it, but why would they tag themselves family-friendly?
Or you’d get so many pictures of the sunset at the beach (romantically decorated dinner table in front optional), but not a single mention on how shallow the beach is or the risk of currents at the respective area. I’m not overly cautious, but this matters in some areas.
Same for restaurant options and so on.
Just some examples, question was on alternative search options I might have missed that allow to scan for different parameters.
I am sure this stuff works for the masses, I know it works for the educated as well as uneducated, creates urgency - a very low brow but effective sales tactic.
/rant - ignore
What about airlines? We can rant about that! I am old enough to remember smoking in flights - awful, and I’m a smoker myself, just never indoors for 10+ years - but I also remember baggage being included, generous luggage allowance, food, headphones and music, plus the brief period where we all got a screen for ourselves with a few channels to pass the time. Nowadays airlines try to trick people into paying additional for selecting a seat (anywhere between 20-50EUR on top), and I’ve heard of situations where people missed a flight because it was, of course, overbooked. Check-ins opening anywhere between 24-48 hours before the flight? Got hit by lightning? In the jungle with no signal? Chances are you’ll miss your flight! Heathrow airport, I was there recently for work, what a joke - everything’s automated, you can barely interact with a human anymore.
Generally travel is a massively overrated, poser activity. I mean I used to say that I’ve been to Barcelona and would go there “yesterday” when trying to score points with alternative girls, even though I’d never been there at the time. I have been to Barcelona three times, and Lisbon twice, both cities with work. That’s six times too many. Now that I am not after any girl, and would only explain myself to a judge or my kids I proudly say that I long for the day I’ll use my passport to light my grill. Been travelling abroad about 2-4 times per year since I was 6, never because I wanted to.
/rant over
Most likely it’s not you, it’s just that with Sir Stelios’ innovation travel has become accessible to the bleating masses, so there’s more to milk. When I first got on a plane in 1988 people used to travel in suit and tie because it was an event akin to going to the opera.
It boils down to whether you go somewhere where the place or the people you’ll see is the reason, or going to a hotel where the hotel is the reason. Even with kids we prefer to go for the place & people rather than the hotel (also massively cheaper!), though my wife is sick of that now, she said “next time it’s all-inclusive or nothing”.
Airbnb has developed search filter suppression into an art form, but…an antiserum has been developed:
On Airbnb there are more than 400 amenities available for host to tag their listings. But when guests search for a place to stay, the selection of filters is very limited. Most of the filters are hidden, and you have to scroll through all the listings manually and check the amenity section. For example if you need a place with EV charge, patio, balcony, elevator, game console, sea view etc there is no such a filter in the interface.
In case you use Facebook there’s a nice travel group for moms → Mamalicious Travel . It’s in German though. But I’ve found a lot of good information from people who have been to the places themselves
Thanks. I got an account some 20 years ago, but haven’t logged in for a while. Will need to check the privacy settings, assuming there’s no convenient way to log in and post anonymously?
I prefer to check for location (distance to city Center) and maybe set some filters and then i read all the 1- and 2-star reviews. If people complain about stuff I don’t care about then I’m good to go.
I hate AirBnb as guest for not disclosing the Location of the property but I use it as Host.
I did end up using a map feature, in my case to be a bit outside of the next settlement in order to minimize road and boat noise, have a private beach, but still close enough to hit town for more dinner options.
Before, double-checked the weather online: kind of off-season, but not yet full stormy season.
Then filtered for price and stars. Places that also have indoor facilities, just in case for bad weather. Found a sweet spot with a bit older places that don’t have the crazy prices of more recent, fancy developments for a suite, but still offer the desired amentities. Just boring and expensive enough to avoid party crowds and groups of regional tourists (besides some corporate events on the weekend), yet not too posh.
Blissfully ignored ratings and spa and cocktail pictures. Gave the place I picked the chance to offer a rate and ended up booking via a big platform, due to not getting a competitive rate.
I always look on booking. If i find something I like, I research it on google. I filter by 1/2 stars and read the reviews. If the reviews differ massively or if too many people mention the same single con, I pass and search for alternatives.
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