tidy

I have never booked through trip advisor. I see that some say free cancellation. HOw does that work if I were to need to cancel, I tried calling TA and could not reach a live person.

bilboburgler

its normal to book through trip advisor onto one of their service provider (ie booking.com) individually you can book a room and for many cancel the booking. To do this you just log onto the service provider site with your reference and cancel.

LSky

I haven't booked with TA but with booking.com, one must read the hotel's policy on cancellation. Each hotel can be different.

LSky

I haven't booked with TA but with booking.com, one must read the hotel's policy on cancellation. Each hotel can be different.

suze

Interesting. I use the Trip Advisor destination travel forums all the time (similar format to Fodor's). I didn't even pay attention that you could actually book thru them.

What's the advantage to this (is it a price savings?) over booking directly with your hotel or airline?

wobbers

You cannot book through trip advisor - it is just a travel site as much as Fodor's except a lot more succesful.

Mainhattengirl

Use www.hrs.com for booking hotels. Just use TA for reviews and questions and advice.

Christina

I don't think you book through tripadvisor, you can just click on links that send you to other sites.

suze

OK that makes more sense. I was surprised to read the OP about booking thru TA to actually purchase vacations.

janisj

In any case - cancellation policies are up to the individual booking sites and/or hotels. Nothing to do w/ Trip Advisor.

But my question is - even if it was an option, why would one even want to book through TA?

travelme

Well Janisj, you ask a very good question and I am delighted to make an attempt at answering it. I suppose that some people just trust TA as there are some very nice folk that offer great information on that forum. These posters are quite courteous I find. So I guess some people would feel comfortable about going with this service that TA provides. But I do agree with you Janis, that it is so easy to plan the trip yourself and for savvy people like yourself, it is fairly easy to do. Glad to be of help to someone who is always giving to others.

Underhill

Note that Trip Advisor is now owned by Expedia.

zeppole

I book "through" Tripadvisor all the time -- meaning, if I am headed to some destination like New York, or Seattle or Trieste or Lyon, I check their hotel reviews, and if I see one I like, I take advantage of the features on the TA website that let me plug in my travel dates and get availability and price pop-up windows from several highly reliable booking agencies -- like booking.com, hotels.com or venere.com -- and I book right through those websites if they've got what I want at the price I want.

I don't take the same vacation every year to the same destination. I travel around a lot, even inside Italy. Tripadvisor is great consolidator of hotel offerings, especially for cities.

And yes, their message boards are a treat, and trustworthy, with lots of natives posting for specific destinations, with very little lecturing and dogmatic thinking.

suze

I adore the forums at TA, and I agree with zeppole above about the general atmosphere there. Very helpful, with almost no lecturing or squabbling, at least on the particular forums I frequent.

Dayenu

"And yes, their message boards are a treat, and trustworthy, with lots of natives posting for specific destinations, with very little lecturing and dogmatic thinking."

I guess I am just unlucky. In my research I found something that I didn't see on TA. Started a thread, saying this is what I found. The first reply from a frequent poster: every travel guide has it, why don't you get a book.

november_moon

Dayenu - I've gotten that response too. And there are a few posters who always have something negative to say and not much that is helpful - complaining about people wanting to stay in chain hotels without recommending alternatives and that sort of thing. Or my favorite - someone asks about having wine with a picnic at Point Lobos near Monterey, CA only to get a lecture about how inappropriate it is to bring wine to a state park. Yeah - ok.

But mostly the forums are great.

suze - As for the advantage of booking through TA, which means booking with Expedia or whatever, is that sometimes you can get better deals than you can directly through the hotel or airline.

jubilada

The thing about TA is that each forum has its own personality and characters. Some are very friendly and patient, some are less so. I like the specificity of information and experts for particular sites. I use the hotel reviews ( with a grain of salt) but unlike some other posters I prefer to book directly with the hotel, though this might not always be the most cost effective I like having the initial contact which I feel gives me more information at the outset about service, as well as providing the opportunity to discuss my particular preferences in terms of room amenities and location.

Sher

I have found that if I like a hotel mentioned on trip advisor, that many times the hotel cannot be booked directly. This happened to me when looking for hotels in Croatia.
I always like to check with an individual hotel first to check prices because not all sites give you a good deal. But if you cannot access the particular hotel on it's own web page then you must book through a site like booking.com which many times TA directs you to.
And check the fine print.

suze

I always book directly with my hotel and airline. I just have a thing about that. I don't like the feeling of a "middle man" like Expedia (if something goes wrong later on). I've yet to find a cheaper deal with any other method, for my particular vacation places.

I agree with the observation that the different destination forums at TA have different "personalities". Some more friendly and helpful than others. But why I love it is you can ASK the question about the hotel or whatever and have a conversation, not just a one-way posted review. Although you can also do this with the hotel reviews section, by sending a PM to the author thru TA's email system which is great.

pippoppo

Dear guys, regarding your discussion, I can tell you that I own a B&B in Rome, pretty popular I might add, and of course I am on TA in the page of Pensions/B&B. Now, right there, in the page, you will find a box, with a button, 'Check rates!', which will lead you to rates offered by agencies like booking.com, expedia (or venere, which is the same thing, actually), and so on, depending on the number of affiliations of the single B&B. Now, I also have a direct link to my website - the difference is, if I am contacted directly, I do not charge commissions. So I agree with jubilada - it is always better to contact places DIRECTLY. This is what I do when I travel myself (which happens very rarely, unfortunately) - find the place according to people's reviews, search for it with "name of the place" on google, find the website, and contact them directly (wherever possible, of course).