| Sometimes, looking back at the way we booked airline tickets and hotel rooms a few years ago gives me the shudders. It was such a Process. Today, everything is on the ever-expanding Internet and all one has to do is log on to an airline website and book a ticket. |
| I know what you must be thinking. It's a tedious process to compare rates from multiple airline websites in this new-airline-a-month age (hotel websites too!). Travel portals are the answer, aren't they? |
| At the cost of sounding rhetorical, let's compare each of the few travel websites in the Indian online space "" www.makemytrip.com, www.travelguru.com and www.journeymart.com |
| On the face of it, all three are pretty good to look at. The first two, I would say, look classier and have an international feel. All three have a search option for airline tickets. I checked out the Travelguru search for Delhi-Mumbai flights and got fares for only Jet and Sahara while Makemytrip (MMT) resulted in Air India, SpiceJet, Sahara, Jet and Kingfisher. |
| Journeymart returned Air India, Jet, Sahara and Indian Airlines flights on the same sector. None of these sites give you a sweep of all airline websites in India as yet! |
| Speaking to a few people who use websites to book tickets and other travel items, one realises how important it is to feel secure on a website. |
| Travelguru and MMT are verisign-secure, so they get a 128-bit SSL encryption certificate (which is as secure as it gets), but the other is not (though it has tie-ups with ICICI, VISA and MasterCard). Over the years, as online transactions have increased, security has become one of the major concerns of the websites. |
| Journeymart has some very interesting features like the destination explorer to 186 countries as well as a guide to Spiritual Quest in India, cutting across all religions. |
| MMT and Journeymart offer air, hotel and car rental booking options but travelguru is restricted to flights and hotels. Journeymart also has a cruise booking option as well as train schedules and availability checker. |
| Cruise options are interesting on Journeymart "" to Singapore, Caribbean, Bahamas, Alaska and Mediterranean on Royal Caribbean as well as Star Cruises. |
| Vacation packages are also very exciting on these websites. Travelguru, though it formally does not have a section on vacation packages, does have a small portion of its homepage for Guru's getaways. |
| The other two, though, have extensive holiday options to choose from. MMT lets you search for specific packages using variables like destination (obviously), date, travel style (adventure, beach, ayurveda etc) and the travel duration, which is much more effective in some cases. |
| Though the sites offer many good options, I would suggest you research thoroughly before selecting a holiday packages so that you are not disappointed by what you get. Also, spending time looking could also save you some money. |
| One of the special features on MMT is that you can book a hotel and an airline ticket together, and save a bit (they say). MMT's super saver link is also very interesting, springing surprisingly low fares once in a while. |
| Check out the journey tools on Journeymart "" weather, time, currency, holidays and festivals, travel health, travel trips as well as an eating out guide to 13 cities. |
| If you are looking for car rentals, log on to MMT or journeymart, though when I tried logging on to the latter, it said the "page is currently under maintenence". |
| On MMT, you can get cars with or without air-conditioning across 27 cities in India. Right there are the car super savers which can help you save a considerable amount. |
| For those of us who want to be in control while getting to our destination (I mean drive down), MMT also has a Road Trip section which helps with a general orientation as well as hints, traveller's review, things to see and do, staying options and a map. |
| MMT also links you to the Lonely Planet website through its expandable world map under the destinations section. |
| Travelguru has a link at the bottom of its site saying Powerful Meta Search. They claim that with a click of a search button, their "engines race across the planet to find the best options". |
| Such is the power of the Internet and these websites, though still evolving, are indeed starting to become our travel partners. This does not, however, mean that we leave it to the website to decide where we should holiday. It's for you to use this technology to the fullest. Happy travelling! |
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