While the internet has made it easier to plan a trip yourself — and see how much you’re saving — it also demands you slog through hundreds of pages of destination research, hotel and home rental options, and myriad flight-routing alternatives, becoming an amateur travel agent along the way.
But this summer, a few travel platforms have instituted or announced fixes designed to make travel planning easier, by refining searches, creating more informative maps and streamlining loyalty programs.
Now, if you want to find a vacation home on an island, a hotel 15 minutes’ walk from your nephew’s bar mitzvah locale or an electric car, Airbnb, Google and Skyscanner, respectively, make that easier.
Analysts say those and other platforms aren’t done yet. “Travel information, pricing and booking is still so fragmented and disjointed that I fully expect we’ll continue to see more brands developing and upgrading these types of features in the future,” said Madeline List, a senior research analyst at Phocuswright, a travel market research firm.
Refining rental searches
Finding the right vacation rental can feel like hunting for a needle in a haystack when it comes to sifting through search results. Among the measures Airbnb has adopted this summer to make renting easier: the creation of 56 categories of homes that aim to help you find rentals identified as, say, tiny homes, castles, “ski-in/out,” near national parks, homes with “amazing pools,” and even an “OMG!” category for architecturally unusual options.
Additionally, the new “split stay” feature aims to help renters who want to divide their time away between two locations. The tool suggests nearby rentals available for part of the trip, making it easy to pair two rentals over longer stays and streamlining the booking process for both.
“People are much more location-agnostic than they were prior to the pandemic,” said Jamie Lane, the vice president of research at Airdna, a market research firm specializing in short-term rentals, noting the growth of extended trips linked to working remotely. “Airbnb is making it easier to piece together a longer-term trip by helping you find listings that meet your criteria and are open over the length of that trip.”
Another new addition, a free policy known as AirCover, automatically included with every rental, protects consumers by guaranteeing a similar stay or a refund if a host cancels within 30 days of your trip.
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