Booking a beach house this summer shouldn’t be a headache. Larger inventory, later booking patterns, more properties posted on the Internet and rates not far above last year’s mean surf-and-sand lovers don’t have to sweat yet, say rental agencies across the USA.

“Like the last three years, we’re still seeing a lot of availability,” says Jean Ellis, director of Kinlin Grover GMAC Vacation Rentals, Cape Cod’s largest rental agency with about 1,000 properties on its roster.

.. the full travel news article can be read here.

UK holidaymakers are adopting a more self-service approach to travel and are increasingly turning to the Internet to book their holidays. Daniel Thomas reports

As the holiday season moves into full swing people are scrambling to escape the miserable, unpredictable British weather, and an increasing number of holidaymakers are turning to the Internet to book their breaks in the sun.

.. the full travel news article can be read here.

By 2009, half of all holidays will be booked online, according to research by two of Britain’s principal travel companies.

Thomson, the UK’s largest tour operator, said about 23 per cent of its sales were over the internet and the figure would rise to 50 per cent within four years. Thomas Cook predicted that figure could be reached sooner.

.. the full travel news article can be read here.

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) released its 2005 Travel & Tourism forecasts for 174 countries and the world and an assessment of the impact of the Indian Ocean Tsunami on the industry today at the 5th Global Travel & Tourism Summit in New Delhi, India.

.. the full travel news article can be read here.

Wow the travel-rants.com site is live for less than 24 hours and I have my first travel article!! Thanks to Julie, from e-tenerife.com for sending me this article.

This is an old page. It was written in 2001 and the construction shown has now been completed (though it eventually became a retirement home and not a holiday resort). Nevertheless the situation that is described is relevant to anyone who is planning a holiday anywhere…

Is Your Holiday Resort Still Under Construction?

Those internet sites that make excessive use of those cutesy under construction signs might be mildly irritating but imagine booking your holiday six months in advance and arriving in Tenerife to find that your dream holiday resort is still a building site. On March 22nd 2001 a lady from the UK contacted eTenerife. She has booked a holiday in Costa Del Silencio in August for herself, a friend and three children.

The travel agents had sold our hopeful holidaymaker a package in Parque Carolina which they described as ´a new hotel complex´. Although pleased with the apparently good deal she is getting our correspondent wisely decided to do a little research. Finding nothing about the complex on the internet she emailed etenerife to find out what we knew about Parque Carolina.

The photographs shown opposite were taken on the same day. Presently Parque Carolina is nothing more than a building site. Granted the developers may work a miracle and have some apartments ready for mid-summer but is this a gamble you would want to take with your annual break in the sun? What I would like to know is whether the travel agents involved bothered to send any reps out to the site before selling this long-shot to holidaymakers.

Even if Parque Carolina is able to provide satisfactory accommodation and services this summer will the travel agents tell prospective bookers that there are three other large developments in the immediate area. These three building sites, one large enough for 600 apartments, are in the earliest stages. As foundation pits are gouged out of the dry earth great clouds of dust billow into the sky. Not the ideal environment in which to enjoy a relaxing holiday in the sun.

It is greedy and unscrupulous to sell tourists this pig-in-a-poke. Costa Del Silencio is a charming vacation spot, an excellent alternative to the seedy razzamatazz of Las Americas. There are other complexes in the area and sorry guys, but if all of these complexes are fully booked, they are fully booked. Please don’t generate ill-will and dissatisfaction by booking holidaymakers into unfinished holiday resorts unless your travel company is fully prepared to offer alternative accommodation that is of an equivalent standard as the artist or computer generated fairy-tale you have sold them in the first place.

I’ve read articles by so called travel specialists stating that the internet will never replace high street travel agents. My first thoughts on this is that the comments are coming from someone with a very blinkered view on what holidaymakers in 2005 require from a holiday booking experience.

Gone are the days where holidaymakers rely on high street travel agents to book their holiday, with the introduction of the internet, holidaymakers are realising that they can book online at the fraction of the cost and also have the flexibility that comes with it.

In January I went to my local high street Thomas Cook travel agent and asked for a quote on 7 nights stay at a hotel in Boston, New York and Chicago, I stressed that I wasn’t rich, so wanted a low priced hotel, within walking distance of all of the attractions that the cities bring.

The travel agent clicked a few buttons, and within a matter of seconds said ‘Okay Mr Cronian, I have a few hotels for you to look at’ I thought to myself, wow that is quick, I’m impressed, but I spoke to soon, and excitement turned to frustration within seconds.

The prices she was quoting was £80 a night at each city, I asked why she thought that was a low cost hotel, and she simply said, ‘I’m sorry, but these are the only hotels that are coming up’ I replied by saying, ‘Oh you will earn good commission on that won’t you’ and laughed.

Luckily, I knew what I was doing and asked for the names of the hotels, and said I would be back later on in that day to book the hotels. I went home, and jumped on to my laptop and did a search on Google for the hotel names, and then called the hotels in the US.

All of the reserversation desks were VERY helpful, even told me the attractions that were near the hotel, and gave me much more information that the travel agent had given me. They then told me the price of the hotel, expecting them to say £80 a night. I was amazed when each hotel quoted me a price that was 100% cheaper than what Thomas Cook were going to charge me.

The hotels booked direct were going to cost me £40 a night, compared to £80 a night through Thomas Cook, so I booked the hotels direct with my debit card and later that day visited the same branch, and spoke to the same travel agent, who had a big smile on her face, probably because she thought she was going to get a nice big commission cheque.

I asked her what the attractions near the hotel, and she gave me a load of well known attractions, in which two of them were a 1hr walk from the hotel. I then told her that I had spoken to each of the hotels and that they had quoted me much cheaper prices and why was that.

Her reply was ‘I’m sorry Mr Cronian I don’t know and your wasting my time’ I got out of my chair and walked out of the travel agents, and followed me were two other customers who were stood waiting to be served, each one spoke to me outside and said that they were going home to search for a holiday on the internet. Mission completed!

Hotels.com says its new VacationSpot.com is the first Web site allowing consumers to book instantly thousands of vacation rental properties that include condominiums, suites, villas and vacation homes. Said Dan Proctor, vice president of vacation rentals at VacationSpot.com:

We live in bigger houses with more beds and bathrooms than ever before, so why should vacationers sacrifice space, privacy and comfort while on vacation? The company is also offering agents 5% commissions.

Mr Proctor says VacationSpot eliminates guesswork from bookings by supplying detailed descriptions, pictures, ratings and low price guarantees. He said vacation rentals are a fast-growing business that represent $30 billion a year in revenues.

More and more companies are getting involved in the vacation rental industry, why? Simply because holidaymakers want CHOICE, something that they don’t receive when booking a package holiday through a high street travel agent. The problem with the vacation rental industry is that it is not regulated like UK travel agents who are regulated by ABTA, and ATOL.

Please feel free to introduce yourself and tell me a little about yourself. I created this post because I want to know more about my readers. I’d like to know how you found the blog and I am happy to hear from anyone who has ideas for partnership.

This is a friendly travel community but please do not spam as I will simply remove your listing and ban you from viewing the blog.