Our advantages. How to buy tours online and not pay agents How to book tours correctly

Prefer to buy ready-made tour so as not to think about searching for air tickets and booking hotels? We'll tell you how and where to buy tours online, why buying tours on your own is more profitable than buying them in a travel agent's office, what tour search services exist and how they differ.

To put it simply, the tour operator creates a trip, and the travel agent sells it. The tour operator enters into contracts with hotels, organizes air transportation, buying blocks of seats or even launching individual charter flights, to the point that some major tour operators have their own airlines. That is, the tour operator transports the passenger, places him in a hotel, and organizes his leisure time.

The cost of a tour with the same conditions of hotel accommodation, for the same number of days, may vary among different tour operators, since the conditions of cooperation with hotels are different for everyone.

There are several dozen tour operators in Russia who organize the sale of tours both popular destinations, for example, Türkiye, Bulgaria, Greece and all over the world. Largest tour operators— Biblio-Globus, Anex-tour, Pegasus-tourist, Teztur, Coral-travel, Sanmar, Tui, Mouzenidis, etc. Some tour operators are part of international companies, leading tour operator activities not only in Russia, but also in other countries.

A travel agent enters into an agreement with a tour operator to sell ready-made tours. Than with big amount tour operators, the agency enters into an agreement, the more offers it can make to buyers - to you and me. The cost of the tour will be the same, it makes no difference whether you go to the tour operator’s office or to a travel agency. For the sale of a tour, the tour operator pays the agent a commission, which amounts to several percent of the cost of the tour, but the conditions for paying the commission are also not the same. An honest travel agency does not add any commissions to the cost of tours.

Why buy a tour on your own?

If there is no difference and the cost of the tour will be the same, why do you need to do it yourself if you can come to the office of a travel agent and he will do everything himself? Our attentive reader asks quite reasonably.

But why.

But then how to buy tours correctly? On tour operator websites? Oh, just not like that. Firstly, there are many of them, any search for the simplest tour on the operator’s website will give you several hundred different tours, with combinations of hotels, flights, days and nights. Secondly, each site has its own specifics and, unfortunately, not all of them have a simple interface.

The tour aggregator service is constantly connected to the tour operator’s database and receives real-time information about the availability of tours and their cost. All offers are sorted according to your search and set parameters, and you see where and how much the tour you need costs. Aggregators do not add any surcharges or fees for using the systems. And since the costs of running their activities are minimal, aggregators also give a discount at the expense of their commission.

Advantages of purchasing tours this way:

You see the prices of all tours that are available - from the cheapest to the most expensive.
You are not limited in time for searching tours. You can sit at home, in a calm environment, with the whole family, choose what is right for you, while reading reviews and looking at photos (every aggregator has such an opportunity and such a section).

There are several popular systems, we have tested and used the services of three and can confidently recommend them - , . What is the difference? Only in additional functional settings and filters for users.

All three systems are very easy to use.

Onlinetours - search for tours, website, reviews

Onlinetours is a popular online service for selling tours from 130 leading tour operators in Russia. The service organizes searches for tours to more than 80 countries. Millions of travel packages that include airfare, hotel stays, medical insurance and transfer.

Search tours on OnlineTours very simple - go to official site. The search window is immediately available to you and you see last-minute offers.

In the search, specify:

where you want to relax - this can be either a specific resort or a country;
indicate during what period you are on vacation and how many days you need;
add how many people will be on the trip - adults and children.

In a few seconds, the system will select tours for you from all tour operators that work with this destination. There will be a lot of offer, so it’s worth setting restrictions, setting filters - the number of stars in the hotel, type of food, beach, etc.

All you have to do is wait literally three seconds until all the options are sorted and...

By clicking on a specific tour, you immediately see what will be included in the price; as a rule, the full cost for all vacationers is indicated, including flights, hotel accommodation and the selected type of food, transfer, insurance for traveling abroad. If this suits you, book a tour - provide your full name, passport details and pay online with a card from any bank. If you don't have the full amount immediately, you can pay 30% to reserve the tour and then pay the rest within 3 days. Also, all tours on the site can be purchased online on credit!

You will receive documents for the tour - air tickets, voucher and instructions by email.

Advantages of Online Tour:

If you need a visa, OnlineTours will help you obtain it. If you live in Moscow, the courier service will come to your home, pick up your documents and bring your passports with ready-made visas.
OnlineTours has one of the largest call centers, 250 employees are ready to support you day and night.
For each tour you receive from 30,000 rubles bonus miles For a present. You can save them and later spend them on buying tours!
Another important feature on the site is, of course, the section.

If you have questions, you can read the special section on using OnlineTours on. you can read reviews from clients who have already used OnlineTours services.

Travelata - online tour hypermarket

To the project Travelata more than 120 tour operators are connected, and the company guarantees that these tours can be purchased at the most favorable conditions on the official site.

Benefits of Travelat

Travelat's partners are only the largest and most reliable tour operators, so you can be confident in the quality of the tours offered.
The best prices: best deals price/quality ratio.
Convenient, fast and reliable:

Payment by bank card online through a secure portal. There is no need to waste time on the train to the agent's office.
Electronic execution of documents: the contract is drawn up directly on the website. After confirming your reservation, you can receive all the documents necessary for the trip by email and in your personal account.

Finding cheap tours to Travelata is very easy and really fast. Enter the departure city (Travelata selects tours from different cities Russia), departure dates, number of adults and children

It will take less than 30 seconds and you will immediately see all the offers from more than 120 operators who sell tours to this region!

Other benefits of Travelata include:

Offers only from top tour operators.
Instant booking. The cost of tours may change at any moment. There is no such thing that the price of tours is fixed and does not change - dynamic pricing is used. The minute you read the description, someone may already be booking and the price may change, or the hotel may run out of space.
A separate selection of constantly updated and.

If you have questions, you can check out the special section on using Travelat on, but believe me, the search is really incredibly simple.

Level.Travel - online tour booking

Another system for searching and booking tours online, which has proven itself well, is simple, reliable to use and has received many positive reviews - Level.Travel, official website.

Level.Travel is an automated system for searching for tours from all reliable tour operators and purchasing them online, without the participation of a travel agent. The system allows you to buy a tour in the same way as buying air tickets or booking hotels online.

On the main page of the site there is a standard search form in which the direction, dates and number of vacationers are specified. We won’t describe it in detail, the essence is the same as Travelata’s.

Advantages of Level.Travel

Level has statistics on prices for tours. You can compare how much tours in different countries on different days of the month.

A cool feature that we really like is . Calendar is a whole section on the website that shows the most low price for a tour of all those existing at the moment.

If dates are not important to you, and you only know the month in which you are going on vacation, feel free to use this calendar. It immediately shows how much the most cheap tour by month, for a different number of days! Moreover, you can search and look at prices from different cities, not only from Moscow.

Now is the time to try one of the systems -

Greetings, dear readers of the blog site. Today we’ll try to figure out: are there any pitfalls? self-booking or is it just a phobia of most people who are accustomed to the services of travel agencies. Let me immediately draw your attention to the fact that this article is about a tourist package (package tour) and how to purchase it (either on the operator’s website or through a travel agency). Please do not confuse with independent travel, the preparation for which was dedicated.

Using the websites of large operators is tempting. detailed information about prices and current special offers for the destination of interest, a photo gallery of countries and hotels, flight schedules and frequency, weather forecast, as well as detailed instructions about the rules for self-booking - all this today allows the average tourist to avoid calling and visiting travel agencies in his city to arrange a trip. The convenience of this option is beyond doubt and has its fans. However, this method of design also has its own characteristics.

1) Even the most “advanced” website cannot compare with the emotional story about a given resort by a travel agency manager who has experienced sending numerous clients there, especially if the manager himself has visited this resort personally and is ready to give advice, the value of which you will definitely appreciate in practice.

2) When booking on your own via the Internet, you will inevitably encounter the problem of paperwork (for example, the signing of a service agreement by the parties). If you are not a Muscovite, but the tour operator is a Moscow company, you will have to resolve this important issue with the reservation manager. His reaction to your desire to draw up an agreement and send it to you by mail is not at all easy to predict, especially if we are talking about a “last minute” trip and a “high” season, when everyone has a lot of work to do without these additional difficulties.

3) Sooner or later you will have to pay for the booked tour. Of course, in this case, everyone will be able to use the bank’s services, if only the company you choose agrees to issue an invoice for payment by email. All you have to do is check that the company has received money and this issue can be considered resolved.

How do travel agencies make money?

And here it is worth noting that the cost of the tour in both cases will be approximately the same, since each travel agency has its own discount on the purchase of tours from a tour operator, which is their marginal income (for example, 30%). By offering a tour at the same price as the tour operator, and then selling it, the agency will earn its interest. By the way, when communicating with the travel agency manager, you can always ask for an additional discount, which in turn will be taken from the same 30%. Many agencies, in order to retain a client, go to meet him!

The disadvantages include the difficulties that you will have with sending documents if you are going to visit a country with which Russia has an existing visa regime entry Calculate the costs of numerous long-distance telephone calls, payment for the services of a guide and courier, and think about whether all this is really profitable and safe enough to refuse the services of professionals. It is also useful to imagine the process of filing a claim against a company located in another city in the event of poor organization of your voyage and the measures that you are going to take in order to hold those responsible accountable and receive monetary compensation for services not provided.

Everyone must do their job

Independence and computer literacy are valuable qualities. However, let's not forget the well-known fact - everyone should do the work in which he is a professional: a shoemaker - sew boots, a dentist - treat bad teeth, and a travel agency employee - registers his clients and represents their interests in proceedings with the tour operator in the event of an emergency. problems and unforeseen situations during the trip. IN tourism business, as in any job, there are a lot of secrets and nuances whose existence you don’t even suspect. In total, a lot of people are involved in the implementation of your trip (airlines, hotel staff, embassies, guides and translators, etc.). Carefully connecting all these links into one strong, reliable chain and ensuring that it remains so until your return is not an easy task at all and is not always up to amateurs.

So I advise Internet lovers to remain so in everything related to obtaining preliminary information on the upcoming trip, but I recommend entrusting the registration to those for whom this responsible procedure is a profession. And you must agree - it’s always more convenient and calmer when you communicate face to face with the person who is sending you on your next trip, especially if this person is sitting in the house opposite, or across the road!

What I would like to say as a result - if you are confident in yourself, and the above disadvantages are not for you - go for it, get your hands on booking tourist packages on your own. Who knows, maybe later you will want to open your own travel agency. And so, I will say that currently on the market there are many aggregator sites or services for comparing tourist packages, such as Onlinetours, Sletat, Travelata, etc. (), in which you can choose the appropriate destination, date, and then the system will direct you to a page with the choice of a travel agency office convenient for you in your city. Where you can meet with your personal manager and discuss all the conditions. P.S. don't forget about additional discounts 😉

You can see what such services look like using the form below, there is nothing complicated about them, I think you’ll figure it out...

If anyone has encountered the pros and cons of booking tours on their own that are not described in this article, please write about them in the comments, to help those who have not yet decided. I would be very grateful!

24.07.17 96 557 6

What kind of beast is a travel agency?

How to buy a tour so as not to be left without money and a vacation

Roma and his friends were going to New Year to the Dominican Republic.

Konstantin Golubev

traveler

Roman, victim

In November, he paid for the tour, but the agency manager forgot to transfer the money to the tour operator on time. Roman learned about this already at Domodedovo, when he was not allowed on the flight. Friends flew away on vacation, but he remained at the airport.

A month later, Roman returned the money, but the holidays were ruined. How to avoid such situations and what to pay attention to when working with travel agencies - we will tell you in the article.

What does a tour operator do?

There are two types of travel agencies: operators and agents.

A tour operator is like a travel producer. He comes to the country and looks at what hotels, excursions, transport, entertainment and everything else that might be of interest to tourists. He negotiates with all these suppliers, checks their licenses and certificates, makes an advance payment to them, negotiates some quotas and discounts - the result is a tourism product, aka a tour.

By popular tourist destinations tour operators collect ready-made holiday packages: they negotiate in advance with hotels and airlines. Typically, a packaged tour includes flights, medical insurance and ground services: hotel room, meals, transfers, guided tours and entertainment. A tourist does not need to waste time and plan a trip himself - he buys a ready-made tour, takes a passport and goes on a trip.

These travel kits are called package tours. Operators sell them independently or through intermediaries - travel agencies.

What does a travel agency do?

If the operator is a manufacturer, then the agency is a store of ready-made trips. The agency buys ready-made tours from the operator and sells them to tourists.

The agency's task is to help tourists choose and buy a suitable tour. Usually it goes like this:

A tourist comes to the agency and says: “I want to go on vacation! Where will you send it?
The agency shows him ready-made tours and explains what is included in them: where the tourist will live, how many days, when he departs and returns, and what else is included in the cost of the trip.
The tourist chooses the tour he likes, and the agency books the tour with the operator: “Reserve this tour for my tourist. Here are the passport details."
The operator confirms the reservation: “The tour has been booked. I'm waiting for payment."
The tourist pays for the trip at the agency, the agency buys the tour from the operator: “Here is the money for the tour. You reserved it for my boyfriend."
The tour operator receives the money and sends a tour package for the tourist to the agency: “Guys, everything is okay! I received the money. Tomorrow I’ll send you the tickets, hotel reservation number, insurance policy and travel itinerary.”
The agency hands over the voucher to the tourist - the tourist packs his suitcase and flies off on vacation.

If the agency and operator were people, it would look like this:

Before booking and paying for a tour, the tourist and the agency sign an agreement on the provision of travel services. We’ll look at what it looks like and what to pay attention to in the contract in the next article.

How agencies mislead tourists

Natalia Golubeva

worked in a travel agency for four years

Let’s say a client comes to an agency and asks the manager to select a tour. The manager has not been anywhere, but in order to sell the tour, he says that he has a great idea of the room, beach, pool and entertainment in the area. It turns out that the manager is misleading the tourist.

This is the most disgusting thing: when you go to a hotel with nothing but expectations, and get a room with a non-working air conditioner or mold on the walls. Therefore, we called and found out whether the tourist was satisfied with everything; studied descriptions of hotels and excursions from the tour operator; read reviews about hotels from others.

An adequate manager is always aware of construction near the hotel or long-standing renovations in the rooms and will not outright lie. The main thing is not to sell a tour for once, but to get a satisfied tourist who will return and book the tour again.

How to buy a tour cheaper

It is better to book a tour according to the season: choose a place in advance and contact the agency. Four to six months before the holiday, tickets and accommodation are cheaper and there will be many available rooms. If you take a tour a month or a couple of weeks before the trip, you will have to choose from what is left. For example, the cherry blossoms in Japan good hotels booked six to seven months in advance of the tour.

Take a holiday at the beginning or end of the season to save on accommodation. Hotels give operators discounts to fill rooms before and after the main influx of tourists, so holidays at the beginning or end of the season usually cost less. You can find out the right time to travel to different countries.

Follow the Early Booking promotions. At the start of sales, operators want to quickly raise money to pay for purchased rooms and charter flights. Therefore, they attract tourists with promotions and discounts.

Charter - an aircraft rented in advance. The operator and agencies sell tours specifically for this flight in order to fill the flight and recoup the rental. Charter tickets are often cheaper, but the flight may be rescheduled for another time.

The operator "Tez-tour" is selling tours to the UAE for early booking with a discount of up to 40% until August 30. Screenshot from the tour operator's website

Usually buy early booking tours at summer resorts possible from January to April. For winter - from July to October.

Check canceled or last minute tours, if you are ready to go on vacation in a few days. When a tourist cannot go on a trip, he tries to return some of the money and resells the tour at a discount. Operators also reduce prices for charter tickets two to three days before departure in order to fully fill the board.

Spend less on vacation

How scammers deceive

Unfortunately, there are scammers among travel agencies, and simply incompetent people among tour operators. Here's what to watch out for when dealing with an agency.

They work without an agreement with an operator. According to the law “On the Fundamentals of Tourism Activities”, the agency must have an agreement with each operator. Without an agreement or power of attorney from the tour operator, the agency operates illegally: it sells fictitious tours and has no intention of buying them back from the operator. Most likely, in a few months the scammers will close the office and disappear with the tourists’ money.

In order not to give money to scammers, before purchasing a tour, ask the agency manager to show the agreement with the tour operator and check this information yourself on the website of the Tourpomosch association. This can be done in two ways:

open a list of partner agencies in the register of tour operators;
in the register of travel agencies, see which operators the agency works with.

The reservation is cancelled. To confirm a reservation and purchase a tour from the operator, the tourist first pays for the trip at the agency, then the agency transfers the money to the operator. After this, the operator sends a tourist voucher and route receipts. Without these documents, the tourist will not be able to go on vacation: he will not be allowed on the plane and will not be accommodated in a hotel room.

This is what the itinerary receipt looks like:

In order not to be left without tickets and other documents for your trip, call the operator the next day after payment and check whether the agency has transferred the money. No - ask the agency for payment documents confirming payment for the tour to the operator. Sometimes the payment status can be checked on the tour operator’s website.

How else do they deceive tourists?

They lure you with promotions and discounts. The agency makes money by reselling tours: it buys from the operator at one price and sells them at a slightly higher price. Usually the agency receives 5-10% of the tour cost.

Fraudsters offer tours at bargain prices, accumulate the required amount and go off into the sunset. To avoid falling for the tricks of scammers, check in advance the average prices for tours from different operators.

They take money without an agreement. A travel services agreement is the basis for partial or full payment for a trip. When an agency takes money without an agreement, it is working in a dirty way. Therefore, if the manager is in a hurry with payment and offers to draw up an agreement later, it is better not to risk it and immediately go to another agency.

They don't provide payment documents. When a tourist pays an agency, the employee is obliged to give him a payment document: a cash receipt, a cash receipt order with a stamp and signature, a note with passport data, the purpose and amount of the payment - any document confirming the fact of transfer of money. Without payment documents, it will not be possible to return the money even through court. If you paid for the tour, but didn’t take the documents, you gave the money to the scammers.

Remember

The tour operator creates a tourism product, the travel agent sells ready-made tours for operators.
The tour operator is responsible for the quality of the tour and the accuracy of the information; the travel agent is obliged to explain to the tourist what he will get for his money.
Package tours are more profitable independent trip to popular tourist destinations.
It is better to book a tour several months in advance, and accommodation is cheaper at the beginning or end of the season - this way you can save money.
Before paying, check the tour program and contract, and then take the payment documents.
If the operator has not sent the travel voucher and itinerary receipts, make sure that the agency has transferred the money to the operator.

Go on a tour on your own

Do you want to relax with minimal expenses? To save on your trip abroad, try buying a tour without a travel agency. Organizing a trip can be intimidating because you don't know where to start. The most important thing is not to panic. It is important to collect the necessary information and prepare well:

decide on the allocated budget and the country you would like to visit;
expiration date of the international passport (some countries will not be allowed into the country if the document expires in 3-6 months);
check whether you need a visa (this can be done online, for example at KLM.Com or Staralliance.com).

Buy a tour online

Everything is sold on the Internet, from souvenirs to travel packages to any corner of the world. On specialized services you can find and pay for a trip without leaving your couch. The advantages are obvious: minimum costs time and cost savings.

Buying a tour online

Even a beginner can easily cope with buying a tour on the Internet. The algorithm will be as follows:

Find a suitable online tour market. There are plenty of them on the World Wide Web, including level.travel, novatours.eu, otpravkin.ru, etc.
Get acquainted with the offers and select a tour at a favorable price. Set the appropriate parameters, and the system will provide several options (you can find both budget and premium solutions).
Having chosen a tour, study the details (what is included, when is the flight, is transfer and medical insurance provided). Then enter your passport details and book your tour.
After making payment you will receive all documents by mail.

Buying a tour online will eliminate the need to go to the travel agency office and overpay for the services of intermediaries.

We create the route ourselves

If a “ready-made” tour does not suit you, you can try to create a travel itinerary yourself.

Route selection

Having decided on the travel plan and the amount for the vacation, you will have:

Book your flight. It is profitable to do this on Momondo, Skyscanner, Buruki (or low-cost airlines like Wizz Air).
Pay for accommodation in a hotel or hostel (there are various offers on HotelLook.ru, HotelsCombined.com, etc.).
Take care of obtaining a visa and medical insurance. This is especially important if you plan leisure(diving, rock climbing, skiing).

Don’t be afraid to travel without the help of a tour operator – the whole world is open to you!

Very often, people who are going on vacation abroad for the first time do not know how best to purchase tickets and how to choose a tour. Therefore, now we will give a little clarification on this matter.
There are several ways to book tickets with a travel agency:
1) Online booking. To do this, you need to go to the website of the travel agency you need and fill out a special order form in which you indicate your personal data, tour number, visas and some more Additional information. After filling out the form and application, you must confirm your order by email.

2) Booking by phoneis no different from booking tickets online. You need to give the operator the same data that you entered into the form. However, this method has a big advantage, because you can speak directly with the company operator, who can advise you and help you choose the right ticket.

3) Booking at the travel agency office.If you prefer traditional way To purchase tickets, you can visit one of the sales offices. The booking procedure is no different from booking online or by phone, the only drawback is that you will have to personally come to the travel agency office to fill out necessary documents and obtaining information.

Many people wonder what is more profitable than booking tickets with a travel agency?
The travel agency will help you quickly select a suitable tour, providing additional information about each of them. available tours, and can also offer all kinds of recreation options. She will help you choose a hotel that suits your requirements and offer excursions that could help you get acquainted with the culture and traditions of the peoples living in the area. They will tell you what documents are needed and how to fill them out. Another significant advantage is that the travel agency cooperates with large and reliable tour operators, which helps organize holidays for clients at a high level without any fraud.

However, there are several disadvantages to this system:
1) It is not possible to view hotels on a city map from the travel agency website
2) The prices provided are those indicated in the hotel itself, without discounts
3) A credit card is required to make a reservation.
So, let's summarize. This booking method is ideal for people who are unfamiliar or new to the ticket booking system. A big plus due to the opportunity to get additional information about the selected tour and choose a method of relaxation. You can also look at reviews of people who have already collaborated with this travel agency about the provision of services. However, there are several minor drawbacks that, in my opinion, do not spoil the picture much.

Our satisfied clients

Hello, we just recently returned from Greece. Crete. We are very grateful to the “Colors of the World” company for selecting the tour and organizing the vacation. we were at the iberostat Creta Marine 5* hotel. the hotel is very cozy quiet place with a large territory, several swimming pools (including children's), three bays with clean beaches, three restaurants, 5 bars, etc. very friendly and attentive staff. The cuisine is excellent - absolutely for every taste, National dishes, European, Japanese, Mexican and even Russian))) is located near the city - 17 km. and 3 km from the village, which can be reached by bus, train, bicycle or car. We recommend everyone to visit Fr. Crete. We are very grateful to the company "paints of the world", we recommend everyone to contact them!!!

Victoria and Artem

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