GTS Mark

http://www.sidestep.com/

My tech guy recommended I check it out. It's a program that installs on your computer and searches for the best travel (hotel, airlines etc) prices for you. I used it recently to book a hotel room in Niagra Falls and it got me a pretty good deal.

Only thing is that it seems to re-direct you if you type in say "priceline" into your browser it will take you to sidestep and start searching for whatever you were searching for on priceline. Seems to be a bit sneaky if you ask me ;)

Anyways I hope this doesn't come across as a spam, I have no financial interest in this company, I just use travelocity alot for booking travel and this seems to be a good alternative.

Anyone else use sidestep?

DH

Basic_man

Thanks for sharing, I'll send the link to some friends !

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NaughtyINC

get a copy of the program travel agents are using now and you will thank me later. Got to see how it worked first hand the other day where it spiders all the web based travel agents and discount places as well and comes back with the cheapest flight as well any other options you wish to add in

(from car to hotel to shows)

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meh

Shoehorn!

I tried that sidestep thing but it reminded me too much of spyware, so I got rid of it. All the best deals seem to always come up on Orbitz anyway.

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robfantasy

can u get me that

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wyldblyss

When I find the hotel I want at the best price I can find it online before I book it I always call the hotel directly. About 70% of the time I can get a better deal with the hotel either a lower price or a better room for the same price I was going to pay online.

I have also found cheaper airfares by calling the airlines directly.

NaughtyINC

I will be going to pick up my information for vegas from the place and will hint at grabbing it.. not sure if it connects to a database or if it is all built into the program, either way I will see what i can do.

Now I just came up with a great idea for a program for the web.. gotta go find a programmer now

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AvsTgp

I owned a mainstream travel company (we tracked flights and issued notifications to cellphoes and pagers for delays and cancellations , this was way before evryone was doing we were the first)
I met the guys from sidestep! their system sucks ass! they are like all toplists and sell themselves to teh highest bidder they have no interest in the consumer or giving the best prices...
heres the synopsis
we tried setting up a system like theirs but the real big boys wont let you query their system multiple times especially if your pitting them against their competition and risking making them look high priced, also they dont wnat to be queried 100 times for the possibility of one sale.
orbitz is the best for domestic flights
hotels.com is the best for hotels
vacations use travelocity or site59
international use a travel agent and make sure he uses sabre and not worldspan,
always look for the travel agent that specializes in that contry ..i,e if its russia call a russian travel agent
also do the research yourself it takes 5 minutes to check 5 sites its well worth it!

Za Ha

I bet you www.wotif.com has better prices for the falls

OzMan

Great advice mostly except Sidestep doesn't suck ass, it usually saves you both time and money. I too have worked in the travel industry. We used to do a sample weekly comparison for a particular fare checking out several competitiors. Usually about 9 times out of 10 sidestep would be cheapest.

Let me explain briefly what SIDESTEP is. It is a browser plugin that will search multiple travel sites for air, hotel or car. Or you can go to their site to search if you don't want to install anything. It is NOT spyware. It is smart enough that when installed, if you are searching for a fare on say Orbitz, it will popup a sidebar and say something to the effect of "Hey do you want me to check a bunch of different sites for that same fare for you?" It doesn't matter that the travel companies pay Sidestep to be included in their search results as its kinda like PPC, except the results are ordered by price not bid amount so whoever is cheapest will come up first.

Regarding NaughtyINC's post about the programs travel agents use, as AvsTGP mentioned they are referring to either SABRE or WORLDSPAN. These programs query the airlines fare inventories directly insted of going thru' a web interface so they are faster. They are available to travel agents only and it is not worth becoming a licensed travel agent just to do a faster search and having to learn the command line type query strings.

The big 4 for airfares are Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia and Cheaptickets. I think all of them plus many others are covered on Sidestep except Cheaptickets.

What I usually do is search at cheaptickets. Then a sidestep search will run in parallel after I agree and then choose the cheapest based on price, times, stops, FF points etc. This is good as it includes all the web only specials. If you choose one of the sidestep results you will be taken to the airline or travel site's page to get details and actually buy it if you want to.

AvsTgp

Hmm sidestep has representation on GFY ,jk
I dont know to each his own but I was left with a bad taste after finding out they were in as content advertisers.
Im sure they have gone through serious modifications in 4 years
NOTE: if u do use them install their program for that allows them to search with your ip and can search sites that they are locked out of!
What did you do in the travel industry? if you dont mind me asking

OzMan

I started as a reservation agent for an online travel site to get a foot in the door. Then when a job opened up in web development I moved there as a web analyst monitoring site traffic trends mostly. Then 9/11 came and we were all laid off. Thank you Mr Bin Laden.