7 ms·

I won’t cry for TripAdvisor and Expedia, their websites were awful. Booking Group websites (booking.com and agoda) are still doing great in 2019 as the article

I won’t cry for TripAdvisor and Expedia, their websites were awful. Booking Group websites (booking.com and agoda) are still doing great in 2019 as the article states, because they don’t suck

arkades 7y ago
What’s better than TripAdvisor for finding sights and experiences? Very much not a rhetorical question.
- Spooky23 7y ago
  The Google Maps app.
- basch 7y ago
  Yelp, Google, Facebook, Foursquare, are all alive and well, as is a lot of local journalism. Subreddits about specific cities also hit well sometimes. Now if i could just aggregate all their results into one listing per event/location.
  - ianmobbs 7y ago
    Almost like...TripAdvisor
- jimbokun 7y ago
  Rick Steves.
- massysett 7y ago
  Buy a guidebook on Amazon. It’s worth it before a significant trip and saves time compared to sifting through dreck on the Web. But if you’re in town for business and you happen to have a few extra minutes and you think “hey, what is there to see around here,” TripAdvisor works well enough.
OkGoDoIt 7y ago
Personally I find booking .com and related sites to be so aggressive and downright manipulative (“40 people are viewing this right now!” “Your dates are super popular, 70% of hotels in this city are sold out!” Showing 5 hotels that are sold out first in order to make you feel desperate to find and book anything!) that I hate using it even though they often have the best prices. So I will do my hotel searches elsewhere and the only go to booking .com once I’ve already made a decision, to check it they have a lower price. See also agoda, trip .com, etc
- naravara 7y ago
  At some point I gave up. It just stopped being worth it for me to save $10 here or $20 there for how much of a navigation PITA these sites are. I just stick to Kayak for booking most things now. It's simple, clean, and straight-forward and they do their best to de-bullshittify the manipulative fees that some airline portals use to artificially make the fare seem low.
- matheussampaio 7y ago
  I hate those manipulative sites. We should give more attention to browser extensions that clear and remove those things. ManipulativeBlock.
  - tvararu 7y ago
    "No Stress Booking - Chrome Web Store Hides all the red alerts and stressful messages from your favourite booking site" https://www.chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/no-stress-booking/kkfmoaflbacidmgmkddkhjfdepckmggg https://www.chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/no-stress-book...
novok 7y ago
Really? Even with all of this crap? https://ro-che.info/articles/2017-09-17-booking-com-manipulation https://ro-che.info/articles/2017-09-17-booking-com-manipula...
- hnick 7y ago
  Maybe I'm kidding myself but I just tune that all out. In the end I read some reviews, look at what we have (and pictures), and check the price. I've generally had good results which is why I still use them.
jakobegger 7y ago
But Booking.com does suck! They manipulate you by showing only positive reviews. When they ask you for a review, they ask you what you liked about the stay, and what you didn't like. Then they just show the positive stuff to people. I've booked on booking.com a handful of times, and every times the reviews were either just wrong, or misleading.

I won’t cry for TripAdvisor and Expedia, their websites were awful. Booking Group websites (booking.com and agoda) are still doing great in 2019 as the article states, because they don’t suck

arkades 7y ago

What’s better than TripAdvisor for finding sights and experiences? Very much not a rhetorical question.

Spooky23 7y ago
The Google Maps app.
basch 7y ago
Yelp, Google, Facebook, Foursquare, are all alive and well, as is a lot of local journalism. Subreddits about specific cities also hit well sometimes. Now if i could just aggregate all their results into one listing per event/location.
- ianmobbs 7y ago
  Almost like...TripAdvisor
jimbokun 7y ago
Rick Steves.
massysett 7y ago
Buy a guidebook on Amazon. It’s worth it before a significant trip and saves time compared to sifting through dreck on the Web. But if you’re in town for business and you happen to have a few extra minutes and you think “hey, what is there to see around here,” TripAdvisor works well enough.

OkGoDoIt 7y ago

Personally I find booking .com and related sites to be so aggressive and downright manipulative (“40 people are viewing this right now!” “Your dates are super popular, 70% of hotels in this city are sold out!” Showing 5 hotels that are sold out first in order to make you feel desperate to find and book anything!) that I hate using it even though they often have the best prices. So I will do my hotel searches elsewhere and the only go to booking .com once I’ve already made a decision, to check it they have a lower price. See also agoda, trip .com, etc

naravara 7y ago
At some point I gave up. It just stopped being worth it for me to save $10 here or $20 there for how much of a navigation PITA these sites are. I just stick to Kayak for booking most things now. It's simple, clean, and straight-forward and they do their best to de-bullshittify the manipulative fees that some airline portals use to artificially make the fare seem low.
matheussampaio 7y ago
I hate those manipulative sites. We should give more attention to browser extensions that clear and remove those things. ManipulativeBlock.
- tvararu 7y ago
  "No Stress Booking - Chrome Web Store Hides all the red alerts and stressful messages from your favourite booking site" https://www.chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/no-stress-booking/kkfmoaflbacidmgmkddkhjfdepckmggg https://www.chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/no-stress-book...

novok 7y ago

Really? Even with all of this crap? https://ro-che.info/articles/2017-09-17-booking-com-manipulation https://ro-che.info/articles/2017-09-17-booking-com-manipula...

hnick 7y ago
Maybe I'm kidding myself but I just tune that all out. In the end I read some reviews, look at what we have (and pictures), and check the price. I've generally had good results which is why I still use them.

jakobegger 7y ago

But Booking.com does suck! They manipulate you by showing only positive reviews. When they ask you for a review, they ask you what you liked about the stay, and what you didn't like. Then they just show the positive stuff to people. I've booked on booking.com a handful of times, and every times the reviews were either just wrong, or misleading.