Online travel sites lack personal touch

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Social Travel = Spam?

Reviews are useful, but can take a long time to sort through. Usually the advice from a travel guide is sufficient for all but the most obsessive. As the creator of iGuide (http://iguide.travel), I've brought together much of the web's best travel information and booking tools so travelers won't have to sort through the mess!

On Line Reservations

It is possible BOTH are true. The article says fewer LEISURE travelers are booking online. If business travelers continue using 3rd party sites, then overall use could be up yet leisure bookings down.

As a front desk agent who daily sees people come in having all booked in different ways, I can tell you that MANY people are fed up with getting bad or no information when you book through a 3rd party. No one is there to tell them which shuttle to get (so they end up at the wrong hotel) or that they need to call us to have it sent out or that they can't leave their car for a week or the room doesn't have a refrigerator or they can't earn rewards points for their stay. I daily see messages written in comment fields that go unanswered because the online experience only works when you are in direct contact with the hotel. The third party sites do NOT monitor your online booking, so they only call us when guests call them! Why not just call us to start with?

I do not doubt the trend is swinging AWAY from Third party sites (which are the majority of online bookings) yet online reservations might rise because guests are learning to contact the hotels directly, especially after one bad experience.

The Devil is in the details

There's not enough specific information presented in the referenced article to conclude that online bookings are down as a whole. Bookings through online travel agencies may be down, but does that include companies' own web sites?

Although it's a dying practice, airlines have given bonus miles for booking through their own sites. Many hotels don't give any frequent-guest credit unless reservations are booked through their own sites. There are no service charges for booking through company sites, either (if you have someone who will base a travel decision based on one airline's ticket being $3 cheaper than another's, then that person isn't going to be happy about paying a $10 service fee to make the reservation).

Common practice is for travelers to use the online agencies to get the information they need to book arrangements through the providers' sites.

Maybe what I've said doesn't jibe with the research, but as I said at the start, insufficient details were provided for the user to evaluate the veracity of the information reported.

Online Travel Sites

I've been a travel agent for 20 years and love the Internet. However, I cannot begin to count how many of my client base have come to me because of these online sites. Complicated, unfriendly, not enough specifics, etc.
A good travel agent is worth their weight in gold these days with travel becoming more and more uncertain and rife with daily or mniute by minute changes. Look for an agent who has been certifed by the Travel Institute-TAP (Travel Agent Proficient), CTA (Certified TRavel Associate or the highest level, a CTC ( Certifed Travel Professional).A Cruise Counselor should be certifed by CLIA- the cruise line certification agency. You would choose a Board certified physician, why not a Board certified Travel Agent? Travel agents can find a client a best deal on flights, cruises or tours and best of all- you can talk to real live person, who truly cares that your trip will be a happy & hassle free.
I have had many a client sitting at my desk with sheafs of paper printed from these online sites but not knowing or very confused as to what to do with the information they had acquired. A travel agent can sort through all of that for you- why waste your time? Travel agents do not charge for their services or their time spent, so why go online?
Remember- without a travel agent, you are on your own!

So true...

Mitch, your comments are right on the mark. Largely in response to this frustration felt by countless consumers, we launched NileGuide to provide personalized travel recommendations to our users quickly and easily. Our goal is essentially to be a virtual concierge or travel agent, delivering highly relevant recommendations about what to do and where to stay, eat, and drink around the world. With hundreds of thousands of points of interest from over 80 destinations, we strive to bring the world to your fingertips. In addition, we leverage our local travel experts in each destination we cover to provide insights that you can't find anywhere else.

At the end of the day, as you note, it's critical that we give our users the ability to plan THEIR perfect trip, not just work with the same old tired "greatest hits." Thus, once we help you find relevant content, we also give you the tools to plan them, book them (through our partners) and ultimately download and print their own customized guidebook, all for free.