I am wondering how the travel sites are setup.
Like orbitz , tripadvisor , smarter travel , expedia ,...etc

I would imagine they are just using webservices to pull the data from the
original price setters southwest , delta ,...aka the airline companies.

So am I wrong in thinking that the cheapest prices are directly from the airline sites ? If not then who is in charge of setting the prices if not the airline companies themselves ? ( is there someway they can afford to buy in bulk and reduce the prices because they get so much volume to there site)

Second question is for car rental services I would imagine going directly to the rental services website instead of using these third party sites would always be the best price option? Unless of course there is somebody else incharge of setting the prices for the car...


Same with hotels I would imagine it is more convenient to go thru the hotel website directly then go thru the airline website. Even though it is more convenient to get the vacation package deal from the airlines website (convenient in the sense that your trip , vehicle , and hotel are all pre-booked all in one don't have to pre-book individually though I wouldn't imagine with a little experience it would be a big issue to book separately )
I do know booking in advanced safes a lot on airfare, vehicles , and hotels.

I know when you have to find a destination flight to a particular place that your current used airliner (that you commonly uses) doesn't go reach. One can uses these third party sites to find another airline service delta , southwest ,...etc that one doesn't reach.

I think southwest doesn't go to WY for example you would have to uses United air or some other airliner.
But other then maybe that issue I don't see these third party travel sites providing any cheaper rates on air , vehicle , hotel then the direct people/sites that offer the services them selves.
But maybe I am wrong ???

I do imagine the third party sites offer the convinces of condensing all your traveling issues/needs into one centralized area.

Though I am kind of curious if the prices are not the same from the people/sources providing the services how much more do they usually tack on. On a third party site like expedia .

Or maybe they are the same prices you would find on the direct site they just uses webservices to condense the information into one location... so that a person doesn't have to go to each site airliner , vehicle rental company site , hotel site ...etc
If that is all it is just a matter of convenience

If anybody knows the answer to these questions please post as I am curious

 

And if I uses these third party sites like expedia do I still get an email with my boarding pass info/ conformation , prove of car reservations , hotel reservations ,or is it going to be a totally different process to get this information that proves I bought the ticket and allows me to board the flight.

I would imagine that all these sites (Smarter Travel Expedia Orbitz Travelocity Kayak AirGorilla OneTravel CheapAir Priceline Hotwire ) are doing is consolidating traveling information from the different source sites like southwest ...airlines , enterprise ... vehicle rentals , Hilton ... hotel/motels they can not lower the prices from lower then the source prices

Correct me if I am wrong...
Also do the expedia sites (third party sites) ever raise the prices higher then the source prices or does the source places (airliners, vehicle rental services, hotel services ) guarantee that the travel prices that show up on the third party sites are the same prices seen on there site?

 

I make all my air travel reservations through Travelocity. They compare airline prices and give you the best price. Or you can specify other criteria, like flight times or prefered origin, and they optimize the search (somewhat) based on your input. I think their prices are competitive with direct buy from the airlines. You get e-mail confirmation with all flight information and the airlie's confirmation number.

I've used other services for lodging with pretty good success. Careful if you get all reservations from the same site. Sometimes, you'll see hotels that are located X miles from the airport, but it isn't necessarily the airport you are using. I once flew into Ronald Regan, and had my hotel reservation near Dulles. Double and triple check all details before making the reservation. With Travelocity, you currently have 24 hours to make a change without suffering their substantial punitive fees.

 

I make all my air travel reservations through Travelocity. They compare airline prices and give you the best price. Or you can specify other criteria, like flight times or prefered origin, and they optimize the search (somewhat) based on your input. I think their prices are competitive with direct buy from the airlines. You get e-mail confirmation with all flight information and the airlie's confirmation number.

I've used other services for lodging with pretty good success. Careful if you get all reservations from the same site. Sometimes, you'll see hotels that are located X miles from the airport, but it isn't necessarily the airport you are using. I once flew into Ronald Regan, and had my hotel reservation near Dulles. Double and triple check all details before making the reservation. With Travelocity, you currently have 24 hours to make a change without suffering their substantial punitive fees.

Thanks for the tips on double checking I know I would have messed that up and probably still will if I try it.

But the question still stands even if the Travelocity based sites are good to uses I would imagine there prices can't be any better then going thru the commercial airliner , car rental , hotel/motel rental companies direct website prices (finding the min one thru all of them) if one was to go thru them one by one. And correct me if I am wrong it is the source companies i.e commercial airliner , car rental ,hotel rental that set the prices not Travelocity based sites those site should only be consolidating the prices from the source companies for conveniences. Correct me if I am wrong.

So my thought is still that the third party Travelocity sites are using web services to get the data of the source companies websites and do a calculation to find min / other analysis on the data to give the traveler the easiest and best options in his situation.

 

You'd be surprised how competitive travel sites are. Look at it this way, airlines aren't going to charge more for the client going through a service, because this is a service to the airlines as well as the client. And because the service has alot of influence over how people travel, the airlines want to work with them as much as possible to deliver value to the end user.

That said, it's best to check several sites to get the very best price.

 

You will find out how competitive the rates and service is when your credit card

statement is received. That when you get the 4 $$$$$ rating report.

 

But these third party site correct me if I am wrong are just buying the tickets for you by somehow using webservices to access southwest , delta ,....etc sites. So I would imagine these sites are just consolidating the information they can't set the prices lower then the direct sites like southwest,delta ,...etc

So I would imagine just choose the one that the user interfaces suits you best and uses it.

 

correct me if I am wrong

You are wrong. Conside yourself corrected.

 

Well then my next question if that is true ... is who is setting the prices for the travel transportation services like airliner companies , car rental companies , hotels/motels ...etc if not themselve.

Is there other third party site/service/companies setting there prices for them. Since in that case I would say the prices from a third party site could be lower then the direct sites.

Just don't see what is going on from the ground up. But if it is the companies are setting the prices then how can the other third party sites/companies set the prices lower ... all I see them doing is consolidating the info. Maybe the direct companies don't give out the total database of info and only give out pieces to certain website then I could see you would need to uses them all a little bit.

And really the third parties sites have to at some point place the order directly to the company unless they are working with the company like a subsidiary or partner. Then at that point it is really just renaming the company

To me it does seem pointless to have many third party sites that claim to get the best deals. It is inconvenient to have to search thru all of them and compare. Unless of course all the sites are just a different GUI interfaces geared for different uses ... but in that case one could just have one site had the user can change the theme of the website to gear it to him.

Ahhh... not going to fight it just going to have to look into all of them a little and with more experience in using them I will determine what is best for me....

 

When do the hotels/airlines make the most $$$ on efficient use of their assets?

When they are totally booked! The difference in jet fuel, personnel costs, plane usage, on a fully booked flight is not much different than a half-full flight. So any empty seats that are sold - even at a steep discount - is more $$$ for them. Similar logic applies for hotels, car rentals, etc... They discount their assets to the third-parties, who sell them a enough profit to make both entities happy!

 

all I see them doing is consolidating the info.

Sounds to me like you're going to get suck on that assumption, regardless of the answers you receive.

To me it does seem pointless to have many third party sites that claim to get the best deals. It is inconvenient to have to search thru all of them and compare.

Then don't use them.