How the internet changed travel for ever
In just a few short years, the Internet has completely revolutionised the way that people plan their holidays and make travel arrangements.
From convenience to savings to incredible ease of use, dedicated websites have made travel more affordable and practical for thousands — even millions — of people each and every year.
One of the first online travel sites — lastminute.com — is now 11 years old, making it a mature business by any standard. One of the main business streams of lastminute.com, hotels make up the largest part of the site with pages in the millions. The benefit of booking a hotel via a site like last minute is cost: the average prices are usually less than hotel’s own internet sites.
Goodbye, Travel Agencies
Only a few short years ago, making travel arrangements required a lot of manuvering and involvement; the two main options were hiring a travel agent or making an extraordinary number of phone calls and trips to the local library. Travel agencies, of course, charged for their services — and took the specifics of planning a vacation out of the hands of the actual travelers. While this may sound like convenience, it actually caused a lot of errors and created a great deal of confusion. In many ways, travelers were left in the dark in terms of what their options were — and often paid dearly for it.
Farewell, Tedious Library Visits …
Travelers who wanted to save money by avoiding travel agencies had only one other viable option: booking their trip themselves. Unlike today, though, they couldn’t simply log on to hotel websites to find what they were looking for; they often had to first plan where they were going by conducting tedious research at a local library. From there, many phone calls had to be made to obtain price quotes from various hotels.
The entire process was generally frustrating and painstaking — and discouraged many people from planning their own holidays altogether.
… Hello, Convenience!
The Internet has changed many aspects of ours lives, but few were changed as dramatically as travel planning. Booking hotels is facilitated by well designed websites that allow users to compare different places side-by-side; destinations can be examined from thousands of miles away thanks to online ratings and virtual tours. Instead of waiting on hold with the reservations desk at various hotels, people can now book their own stays easily and conveniently.
The change is truly astounding, and it’s little wonder that more people are experiencing wanderlust today than at any other time in the past. The ability to book lastminute.com hotels with ease — and getting a splendid deal to boot — makes traveling more palatable than ever before.
About the Author
Ian Evans is originally from North Wales, but now works as a freelance author in West London.
