You’ve seen the ad. Cute guy comes on the screen and says, This is Bob. He owns a hotel. He needs to sell an empty hotel room so he’s putting on these three sites for different amounts. You just pick the cheapest. Sounds good, right? But it’s not exactly true. Yes, Bob has a hotel and yes, Bob has empty rooms. But all of these rooms are not alike. One Ocean View room is on the top floor with a balcony and a great view of the ocean. Another room (also called Ocean View) is actually blocked by a big column, so you have to crane your neckLearn more

We all love a nonstop flight, and it’s definitely the way to go if it’s available. But more often than not, your flight (especially long-haul) is going to involve a connection somewhere. So when planning, it’s not just about looking at your departing airport, but where you are connecting. There are some obvious red flags to avoid; for instance, if you’re flying in winter, try to avoid connections in snowy Chicago. But airports known for delays are another factor to consider. This summer, New York’s JFK is undergoing runway resurfacing, which means at any one time they’ll have only three ofLearn more

Here’s a lesser-known travel fact: Some countries will deny you entry if you have fewer than three empty visa pages in your passport. The life of a passport is 10 years but if you travel frequently, those pages fill up fast. Our standard procedure when we get near to full is to add extra pages,  easily done via an online application at travel.state.gov. (We just did it last month, and it took two weeks from application to receipt of old, fatter passport.) If you’re in the same boat and thinking about adding pages, do it now. The State Department just announced that as of DecemberLearn more

The big news in the travel world today is Expedia’s purchase of Orbitz.com, for a whopping $1.3 billion; this follows their purchase a few weeks ago of Travelocity, for $280 million. It’s further consolidation of an industry that seems to do nothing but consolidate. Take Expedia. Until today, they owned (among others, and just on the consumer side) Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Trivago and Travelocity. But it’s not just Expedia. TripAdvisor used to be owned by Expedia. Spun off in 2011, they now own (among others) TripAdvisor, FlipKey, Airfarewatchdog, BookingBuddy, Cruise Critic,  Family Vacation Critic, GateGuru, Independent Traveler, SeatGuru, Jetsetter, TravelPod and Virtual Tourist. Priceline owns Priceline.com and also Booking.com,  agoda.com, Kayak, rentalcars.comLearn more

We’ve worked in media for years, so here’s a little secret: Those room rates you see listed at the end of travel stories about gorgeous hotels? They’re misleading. Most mags use the lowest available rate at low season for their copy, because it makes the hotel seem accessible to more people. Which means that, yes, you may be able to get a room at that luxury Caribbean hotel for that rate of $299. But chances are it will be the lowest-category room in the house (NOT the one pictured in the article), and at the lowest season of the year,Learn more