Travel 2013: Ireland, Dominican Republic and movie sites are on the list

Hotel Trends

According to Anne Banas, executive editor of Smarter Travel, ever-increasing airfares and airline fees have forced travelers to focus on the other big-ticket item in vacation spending: Hotels.”It’s all about hotels now and hotel deals,” she says, and interest is skyrocketing in hotel booking sites, apps and membership-only sites. The vacation rental market is changing too, with more owners allowing people to book for a weekend of a few nights instead of the Sunday-to-Sunday week.Banas says sites like SniqueAway, Jetsetter and the Vacationist are becoming more popular “because you can get a more luxurious property for lower prices — you can stay at a four- or five-star hotel for the price of a three-star. But you have to be more flexible. You have to take what’s being offered, which might be offseason or slow season.”Another site, Tingo, “automatically rebooks you at a lower price if the price drops, and issues you a refund,” Banas says. “Tingo does all the work. It’s a nice passive way to save some money.”Several new sites and apps offer highly discounted hotel rooms that can only be booked that night, including HotelTonight and Priceline’s Tonight -Only Deals.”This is for two types of people — people who are really last-minute, flexible travelers, or people whose flight is canceled and they need a hotel tonight,” Banas says.Jan Freitag of STR, which tracks hotel data, says mobile apps are becoming a “preferred travel booking tool” to the point where some travel startups are forgoing websites for app-only hotel booking models.