Internet Brands made a few headlines in the travel industry when it bought the online forum FlyerTalk in March. It wasn’t the company’s first travel acquisition. It already owned several other sites, including WikiTravel and CruiseMates. If you’re an investor, you may have also noticed that Internet Brands filed a Form S-1 registration statement with the Security and Exchange Commission this summer to go public. But that’s not all.
October 2007
Aren inspects the equipment as his Halloween party. The smoke machine worked (kind of) but it was still spooky.
When travel companies screw up, they issue what are euphemistically called “goodwill” vouchers to aggrieved customers — funny money that can be used toward the purchase of even more of an often faulty product. To which customers sometimes say: Thanks for nothing. Why would they ever do business with that company again?
Everyone knows there are exceptions to the travel industry’s strict refund rules. Unless you’re dealing with one of the so-called “opaque” Web sites, where all sales are final, and the only thing missing from its terms and conditions are, “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” At least that’s the conventional wisdom. But maybe the conventional wisdom is wrong. Robert Stringer thinks so.
If you rent a car, you know what happens when you return your vehicle. At the time of check-in, agents often do their best to add extra fees for minor damage or fuel. But what’s happening from the agent’s perspective? One reader was curious, so he asked. In fact, he got involved in a rather heated exchange with a major car rental company.
During good times, when the travel industry takes its customers for granted, there’s no end to the fees and surcharges. And make no mistake, these are good times. Just yesterday, the government reported that airlines carried a record number of passengers in June. So today, we have a fee-themed newsletter, featuring outrageous extras from hotels, cruise lines and car rental companies. Be sure to weigh in on your favorite fee. There could be something in it for you.
Hotels.com confirms a rate of $140 a night at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort in Panama for Donna Katos, but when she checks in, the resort doesn’t have a reservation for her and insists she pay nearly double her rate. She pays, hoping to get things sorted out when she returns to the States, but things aren’t getting sorted out. Is she out of luck?
No business, except maybe politics, is as two-faced as travel. There’s one set of rules for us, the customers. And there’s another set for them, the airlines, car rental companies, hotels and travel agencies. But it’s worse than that. See, the travel industry isn’t just getting away with its duplicitous behavior. The real crime is, we’re letting it happen.
Thanks to 9/11, we know what can bring down a plane. Box cutters and knives. Baby formula and hairspray, too. And nailclippers. Oh, no, wait — you can carry those onboard now. But just don’t pack an external hard disk drive.
Erysse hangs out in the pumpkin patch, waiting for her carving knife. Not gonna happen — at least not this year.
Iden gets behind the wheel of an antique red tractor at the petting zoo in Kissimmee, Fla.
For air travelers, the time between Thanksgiving and New Years’ can be unbearable. Crowded terminals, full planes, frayed tempers await the average traveler. But this year, instead of writing yet another “surviving the holidays” story, I asked Joe Farrell to tell us how he makes it through the busy season.
Some hotels mess around with a $15-a-day resort fee or a $5 “tipping” charge. But the Holiday Inn Surfers Paradise on Australia’s Gold Coast doesn’t bother with piddly double-digit extras. Oh no, it socked guest Vicki Noble with a $163-per-person “car racing” fee and a bizarre $230 “building access levy after she had confirmed her four-night stay.
Just how bad is it out there? I publish a lot a lot of stories from disgruntled passengers, hotel guests and motorists on this blog. But what about the experiences of the people who are often providing the services that they’re complaining about?
Where you book your hotel room matters. A lot. Buy directly from the property and pay the going rate, and you’ll probably end up with decent accommodations. Book online through an agent and pay a cut rate, and might find yourself in a not-so-decent quarters. But it’s unusual to find such a textbook case of the variable law of hotel booking than Scott Hall, who recently complained to me about a hotel reservation made through Orbitz in Reno, Nev.
Elliott is consumer advocate 
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