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Finally, online travel planning just got (a little) easier

    While the internet has made it easier to plan a trip on your own — and see how much you’ll save — it also requires you to dabble through hundreds of pages of destination research, hotel and home rental options, and countless flight route alternatives, to find an amateur travel agent down the road.

    But this summer, a few travel platforms introduced or announced solutions to make travel planning easier by refining searches, creating more informative maps and streamlining loyalty programs.

    Now if you want to find a vacation rental on an island, a hotel 15 minutes’ walk from your cousin’s bar mitzvah or an electric car, Airbnb, Google and Skyscanner respectively make that easier.

    Analysts say those and other platforms aren’t ready yet. “Travel information, pricing and bookings are still so fragmented and disjointed that I fully expect to see more brands developing and upgrading these types of features in the future,” said Madeline List, senior research analyst at Phocuswright, a travel company. market research agency.

    Finding the right vacation rental can feel like a needle in a haystack when it comes to sifting through search results. One of the steps Airbnb took this summer to make renting easier: the creation of 56 categories of homes intended to help you find rental properties identified as, for example, tiny homes, castles, “ski-in/ out”, near national parks, houses with “amazing pools” and even an “OMG!” category for architecturally unusual options.

    In addition, the new “Split Stay” feature is intended to help tenants who want to split their time between two locations. The tool suggests nearby vacation rentals that are available for part of the trip, making it easy to link two vacation rentals to a longer stay and streamlining the booking process for both.

    “People are much more location agnostic than they were before the pandemic,” said Jamie Lane, vice president of research at Airdna, a market research firm specializing in short-term rentals, pointing to the growth of longer trips associated with remote work. “Airbnb makes it easier to plan a longer-term trip by helping you find offers that meet your criteria and are open throughout the trip.”

    Another new addition, a free policy known as AirCover, automatically included with every rental, protects consumers by guaranteeing a similar stay or a refund if a host cancels within 30 days of your trip.

    “I see it as wanting to compete better with hotels,” said Mr Lane. “Guests can feel comfortable knowing they are getting what they booked or getting their money back.”

    Expedia Group wants your loyalty. Named after its flagship online travel agency, Expedia, the collection of travel companies includes online agencies Travelocity and Orbitz, vacation rental platform Vrbo, hotel discount site Hotwire.com, car rental site CarRentals.com, and more. It plans to unify them in early 2023 under One Key, a loyalty program that includes the 12 brands, meaning points earned when booking a flight on Expedia can be applied to the cost of a future rental on HomeAway.

    “It’s so hard for people to keep up with programs and rewards,” said Jon Gieselman, the president of Expedia Brands, the group’s consumer division, adding that the idea of ​​an integrated loyalty program occurred to him when he created his own travel wallet. filled with dozens of membership programs and credit cards.

    “I noticed that our superpower opportunity was to create connections between all of our brands in the minds of customers while also making it easy to understand disparate programs,” he added.

    Some brands, including Expedia, Orbitz and Hotels.com, already have loyalty programs – with a combined enrollment of 154 million members – and the company has not yet disclosed conversion plans or One Key’s rates for earning and using points.

    While most loyalty programs encourage members to stick with one brand, One Key allows users to apply points in different categories in a scheme that Mr. Gieselman calls the “unloyalty program,” which sets it apart from competitors.

    “Expedia’s expanded loyalty offerings can draw more people to the brand umbrella with flexible options to earn and burn points on the Expedia brand that offers the most appropriate options for a given trip,” said Ms List of Phocuswright, adding that the loyalty program is simplifying “friction” between Expedia brands that often overlap.

    New features on Google Travel, announced in May, map things like road trips and restaurants with many restaurants, providing a visual sense of geography in areas that visitors may not know before booking.

    When searching for hotels on the platform, a Google map already showed hotels with corresponding prices. New icons representing transportation, restaurants, attractions and shopping — what Google calls “interest layers” — allow users to, for example, overlay a transit map to see where public transit lines are relative to hotels. Engaging shopping or dining icons obscure the map in neighborhoods with many shops or restaurants. Clicking the attraction icon will add things like museums to the hotel map.

    At the bottom of the map, users can slide the bar next to a walking figure to see the radius the average person can walk from a given location in up to 30 minutes (there’s also an option to map the driving radius). The feature could be useful in identifying hotels near a wedding or meeting venue, the company suggested.

    “There was always the option of finding this out in Google maps using addresses, but this takes a lot of guesswork out of it,” said Craig Ewer, a Google spokesperson.

    The new Explore tool identifies destinations within a few hours’ drive. Clicking on a road trip destination will show attractions, hotels, and directions.

    “We saw an increased preference for road trips and trips that did not involve the airport during Covid,” said Mr Ewer. “We tried to get inspiration with the Explore tool.”

    For bargain hunters, Google Flights now lets you track prices between a few cities – departure and destination – and click on “all dates” to have the platform check fares for the lowest prices in the next six months.

    Using tracking, like most other Google features, requires you to sign up or create a free account with Google. For travel purchases, such as flights and hotels, the platform matches users with those companies or online travel agencies.

    Two more platforms help consumers refine their searches by providing more targeted results.

    The travel search engine Skyscanner has added a new filter in electric vehicle rental cars. After entering dates and location, users can check the electric box – among other search filters such as unlimited mileage or four-wheel drive – to see all available EVs

    The initiative grew out of a similar green filter that Skyscanner launched a few years ago when searching for flights, showing choices with lower than average carbon emissions for each search.

    The car rental filter helps travelers “understand the environmental impact of travel and how to reduce it,” said Martin Nolan, the sustainable travel expert at Skyscanner.

    Online travel agency Booking.com wants to make it easier for LGBTQ travelers to find hospitable accommodation. It has introduced a partner training program for hotels on its platform about the challenges faced by LGBTQ travelers.

    Since August last year, the free program, known as Proud Hospitality, has certified more than 10,000 accommodations in 95 countries and territories. Certification includes a digital Travel Proud badge on the listing.

    “As a global travel leader, we have a responsibility to take action and pave the way for a more inclusive industry, with the ultimate goal of making it easier for everyone to experience the world as themselves,” said Arjan Dijk, head of marketing. official and a senior vice president at Booking.com, in a written statement.

    Elaine Glusac writes the Frugal Traveler column. Follow her on Instagram @eglusac.