Day: December 30, 2016

Wondering how to find an affordable Caribbean vacation in 2017?  There are many ways to keep your general costs down during the year to be able to afford a trip but more importantly, there is a very specific way to find an affordable vacation that not everybody is in the know about.

Let us explain.

Changes in online travel

The online world has changed the way we travel but more importantly it has allowed people to do so more often with everywhere being so much more more accessible and affordable. That said, the latter of these benefits has all but disappeared in recent years with the arrival of a new law called rate parity.

You see, until recently most travel booking engines or brands were enabled to offer excellent discounts on vacations, hotels etc and for good reason, customers were lining up to avail of these fantastic prices. Sounds great right? Yes it was but actually, all of these great prices and value have completely disappeared from the market without the consumer even noticing.

But how or why has nobody noticed?

Well, naturally if a travel website is perceived as not offering any real value, there is no reason for them being there in the first place. After all, why use a third party when you can go direct to the service provider for the same price? For this reason, a new law called rate parity is little talked about in an industry which is now severely restricted from offering customers genuine value.

What is rate parity?

In a nutshell, rate parity stipulates that travel companies is required to offer the same price to customers across every channel of distribution. Straight to the point, this essentially means these booking engines are no longer permitted to offer customers the great discounts we have seen in the past.

Does this mean the end of hotel discounts or special offers?

Well, no. There was one exemption from this rate parity law and it came in the form of travel membership clubs. As a membership club, you are entitled to negotiate large discounts with suppliers and pass this value on to paying members.

Hence, Travel membership clubs such as Hotels Etc are now returning to the fore of an industry they dominated before the online world and booking engines took over.

Hotels Etc

As mentioned above, Hotels Etc have worked within the travel industry for more than 20 years. At one time this membership club was one of the only ways to find a vacation or hotel discount in a world without internet.

With more than 4 million members and a five star rating, it continued to take care of members but was obviously affected with the arrival of booking engines and online travel brands. As discussed already, with the declining value of booking engines, this membership club is now re-emerging to establish itself as one of the few providers of genuine travel discounts.

It makes sense that customers like to stick with the major travel brands which they trust but with 4 million members and some truly genuine value, Hotels Etc has an easy to use booking system in which you can search and compare all of the best online discounts for hotels and vacations.