Beware

Online booking sites!

I have to do a visa run the beginning of next month, priced San Salvador to Liberia CR on TACA's site $278 return.

Then went to Cheap O Air which routed me to Kayak, Orbitz, Expedia who all came back with prices $100+ more to fly the same TACA flight with Trip Adivisor's Expedia being the highest at a whopping $127 more

Well yeah, how do you think they make money?

Andromeda wrote:Well yeah, how do you think they make money?

Actually that's not how they make money. Kayak for example, doesn't sell anything directly. Sites like orbitz and expedia used to charge a small commission (I remember orbitz was $5) but don't anymore. As this q/a explains, the money is made in selling hotels, rental cars and package tours.

http://www.quora.com/How-much-does-an-O ... ket-booked

Anyway, the lesson as always is to shop around when booking airline tickets. When I came back to the US from Peru, Orbitz had by far the best deal, about $500-800 less than any other site. Oddly Kayak, which is supposed to search Orbitz, didn't show the deal I found on Orbitz.

By the same token, I would elaborate on what the linked article refers to as "leakage". Expedia and other booking engines DO charge pretty extensive commissions on hotel reservations, so I am all for said "leakage" (researching a property via Expedia, but booking directly with the property) - inevitably, you will get the same price OR better.

(This is from 5+ years in the hotel industry, both corporate and site operations.)