I am a frequent traveler in India. I do travel a lot to get contents for my blog Tech Travel Eat. I do visit tourist places, make videos and write my experiences on my blog. I am more interested in doing hotel/resort reviews. For that, I used to stay in various hotels during my trips by paying money from my pocket. Some hotels do give free accommodation for travel bloggers when we contact them early, and they are convinced.
In recent past, I started writing reviews on anything which is going through my life. It starts from considering a tourist destination, hotel reviews, restaurant reviews, bus travel reviews, flight journey reviews, spa reviews, shopping reviews, etc.
I always prefer to book flights and hotels through online websites like MakeMyTrip & GoIbibo. Both of them gives huge discounts. I have decided to go to Bangalore last week for some personal meetings. Previously I was a big fan of KSRTC buses; nowadays I prefer Flights/Trains because sometimes you get flight tickets cheaper than bus/train.
How to book Domestic Flight Tickets with discounted rate?
I checked with RedBus for bus tickets and the sleeper buses to Bangalore was priced more than Rs. 1500. Karnataka RTC had some buses which were not convenient for my time. Later I checked for trains, almost all passengers from Kochi was preferring train I guess. And buying a Tatkal ticket for the train will cost you almost same of the flight charge. Finally, I ended up checking flight tickets. I checked on some travel websites and found that Indigo has a flight at 20.45 from Kochi to Bangalore and it was showing Rs. 3500 in their website.
I started checking for offers on different sites. Goibibo was giving a price of Rs.3200 after burning my GoCash. MakeMyTrip was showing Rs. 3450. I just simply checked with Yatra.com and found a fantastic offer on their website. Since then, I haven’t used Yatra.com for any bookings. Yatra had some fabulous offers for first-time customers. They gave me Rs.500 as eCash for downloading and signing up for their app. And they were giving Rs.1000 flat discount for round trip domestic tickets and Rs.500 for one-way tickets for new users with minimum booking value of Rs.2500. Since my Indigo flight was showing Rs.3302 on Yatra.com, I got the ticket for Rs. 2868 after all their discounts. Detailed screenshot of the invoice is given below.
I still wonder, why these people always charge an enormous amount as Processing Fee. Nowadays, airline companies like Air Asia, Indigo and all has reduced or cut down their processing fees when you book tickets from their website.
How to book hotels for attractive rates?
After getting flight tickets, my next aim was to get a second luxurious stay in Bangalore. I prefer hotels having three-star category and above. Why should I pay around 1000+ for a local lodge when you can get a 3 or 4-star hotel at a price less than 2000?
GoIbibo is my favorite hotel booking website, and I use MakeMyTrip for last time reservations. MakeMyTrip always has great deals available for last time hotel reservation and GoIbibo always have a discounted price for advance bookings. You can use my code AFAF388 to signup with Goibibo and get ₹2000 goCash. Click https://bnc.lt/W1ad/cW4vfiUbyt to download the goibibo app.
How I book Hotels?
The first step of booking a hotel is to shortlist some properties which I need by visiting any of the travel websites. I usually use TripAdvisor for this purpose. Then I will look for the price for those hotels on GoIbibo & MakeMyTrip Mobile App. I will note down the rates on paper, and after the comparison of price, I will make the booking. GoIbibo has GoCash virtual money for getting discounts again, and MakeMyTrip also has a wallet system like this. You can use a fixed percentage of GoCash/Wallet money for your bookings.
This time I have got an excellent discount from Goibibo. I got a stay in Keys Hotel, Whitefield for two people, two days with complimentary breakfast and dinner at just Rs.3056/- The actual price was Rs.7244, and I have got a discount of Rs. 4188. The dinner we had at the hotel was for around 2500 rupees as per their menu card and the whole stay for two days including two meals for 3056 was just wow.
Tips for Online Hotel Booking
- Always use the mobile app for bookings, because the price given on mobile app will be lesser than their website.
- If your booking is not the last time one, make the reservations after 7 Pm. That will again help you to get more discounts.
- Always use wallets like Payumoney, mobikwik and all for getting more cuts.
- Please do not trust rate comparison websites like Trivago, their business intention is something different, and they will not show you the best price.
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How to get Online Taxi for best rates?
Ola and Uber are fighting each other to attract customers by giving huge discounts and offers. I frequently get offer emails from both of them whenever I plan a trip. This time I had a new Reliance Jio sim with me, which is not registered with Ola and Uber. I have recorded the new number on Uber app with a referral code of my regular Uber account.
Uber will give Rs. 50 discount for first three rides, if you are a new customer and Uber will also give a discount of Rs. 50 for the referral person. I had made four short trips on Uber and saved Rs.200. I still remember the face of that Uber driver who has collected an amount of Rs. 6 from me. 😛
This idea may not work every time, but you can earn unlimited referral bonus by inviting new customers to Uber and Ola by using your referral codes. You can use my referral code “sujithb94ue” for getting Rs.50 each as the discount for your first three rides.
While booking an Ola App, if you can give the five-star rating for the driver, there are chances for you to get a free upgrade when you book a taxi next time. I remember I had booked an Ola Micro and traveled in an Innova car once in Ernakulam.
Sometimes, Travel Website may Cheat you !!
Yeah, Sometimes travel websites can show you a higher price. I was looking forward to booking the return flight ticket from Bangalore, and I have seen Air Asia flights for Rs. 1699 on Makemytrip and decided to book. Air Asia has three daily flights available in Bangalore – Kochi sector and is the cheapest one always. I just simply opened their official website and checked for the price. I was shocked by seeing the price as Rs. 999/- for a flight which departs from Bangalore at 21.30. I immediately downloaded their app and booked a seat for Rs. 1098 including a processing fee of Rs.99 which was again cheaper than the travel websites.
So, let me conclude this article by pointing out some common things which you can follow while making reservations online.
- Always refer to most favorite websites and their apps for best rates.
- Making a booking from mobile apps can give more discounts.
- Also, do visit the airline official websites to know the actual price of it, sometimes you get tickets for discounted rates.
- Try to earn virtual money like GoCash and eCash from travel sites, which may help you to get more discounts, if you are a regular traveler.
- Just Google for coupon codes, which you can use on many websites for discounts.
- Don’t forget to check the travel website’s offer/deal section. Most of them offer additional discounts based on credit/debit cards of various banks.
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