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| My Travel apps |
I've been using TripAdvisor for the longest time in my search for best rated hotels. Their review sections are legit and believable. I, myself, is also a contributor to review some hotels and restaurants. Yes, TripAdvisor also have various restaurants posted per location and even things to do on those locations. I also make use of TripAdvisor's hotel search for best prices as reference but I haven't really tried booking from them. I will tell the reason why later.
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| TripAdvisor Mobile App |
Trivago has been popular because of their TV commercial. Since then, there were a lot of reviews already on various hotels which I'm quite skeptical with since they're just fairly new. Similar to TripAdvisor, Trivago also provides best prices on hotel search. But the booking companies that they are partnered with were mostly Booking.com (or at least that’s what’s always showing upon search). Unlike in TripAdvisor, you will find various booking companies upon search such as agoda, booking.com, hotel quickly, hotels.com and even our local Travel Book. Although these are also available in Trivago, you will notice that mostly Booking.com appears the cheapest. Again, I also use Trivago as reference in finding cheap hotel deals. Trivago, by the way, only has hotel search unlike with TripAdvisor and Traveloka which has flight search (TripAdvisor even has restaurant search and things to do).
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| Trivago Mobile App |
I came to know Traveloka through their sponsored ad in Instagram. I seldom use this app in search for cheapest hotel deals since for me Trivago and TripAdvisor are enough. But anyway, when you try searching for hotels, their booking partners are also similar to the two apps mentioned above. They even show prices from TripAdvisor. What I find very useful to this app is their flight search. The prices that they will show you upon search on the cheapest flight is very close to the prices when using the airline's app directly. This is very convenient when you want to know which of the airlines provides cheapest flight deals. Similar to the two apps mentioned above, I only use this for reference. TripAdvisor also has flight search but I haven't really used it.
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| Traveloka Mobile app |
I only use these 3 apps for reference. I haven't really used them for bookings, whether flight or hotel deals. The reason being is that I also have accounts in booking sites such as agoda and Travel Book where I can accumulate points so I directly booked with them instead. (I’m not sure though if you can still accumulate points when booking through TripAdvisor and be directed to agoda or Travel Book.) And there were times that booking directly from booking sites can be a bit cheaper. But I still use these apps, again for reference.
In may last HongKong trip, these three apps were very useful to me: Traveloka in search for cheapest flight (I booked a flight 3 weeks before our travel schedule), TripAdvisor and Traveloka for hotel deals. In my hotel search, both TripAdvisor and Traveloka shows different cheap deals that makes it quite confusing. There are some booking sites which appears both in these apps but shows different prices. Well, in the end, I just booked directly to my chosen hotel's website. It is a bit cheaper than these apps.
Trivago, Traveloka and TripAdvisor are great apps in your hotel and flight search. They will be very useful and really saves time in your search. But I suggest you still include in your research the hotel's website price and promo deals. There will be times when your chosen hotel will no longer have available room on your preferred date but when you ask directly the hotel, there could still be available rooms for you. So be resourceful!
Which of these apps you find useful? Or do you have any other recommended similar app?