My Travel Auction Conversion: Opening my Eyes to Travel AuctionsCategory: Travel & Holidays
Article added by: Paul Collins
I remember the first time it struck me quite vividly: I was having a drink with a Spanish writer friend of mine, complaining (as I so often did) about the cost of travel. She looked me in the eye, and said: "Take my word for it, all you need to do is go and check out the subasta viajes that online travel auction sites are doing these days.”
We talked a little about it, and then the conversation moved on to other things. It wasn’t until I was back in my flat that her words rung in my head. Subasta viajes? Did I really think there was mileage to be had in buying my trips and holidays by auction?
A Mixture of Pleasure and Work
I worked then (as I do now) as a travel writer. A fair proportion of my work is freelance, too. As such, I really have to make every penny count when I’m planning a trip. Because if I don’t I can find that – no matter how much of a good time I have – the returns at the end of the day can end up pretty minimal.
Although I’ve traveled extensively (naturally), my professional focus has always tended to be on a handful of places. Tenerife and the Canary Islands have long been great loves of mine, while the Caribbean (particularly the Spanish-speaking parts like Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba) also features quite highly.
I have a special rapport with all of them because of the way I can mix pleasure (a day or two on a Tunisian beach or scrambling over an ancient historical site in Mexico, say) with work.
During the summer in question, I recall that I’d been having a little more trouble than usual securing the regular freelance work that I need. I wasn’t terribly concerned about it – it was a marginal and short-lived dip – but it still meant that I had to work hard to really drive costs down.
Which is why my Spanish friend’s advice was so timely: subasta viajes… I mulled over the possibilities in my head and then just decided to give it a go.
Early Concerns Dissolved
In all honesty, when we first discussed it, my keen rip-off antennae were alerted. It had always been my rule on eBay (the only online auction I’d ever used up to that point) that I’d never bid for anything that cost more than I’d be prepared to lose.
Nevertheless, I decided to give it a go...
I joined up to a small handful of sites (back in those days there were fewer online travel auction sites than you find now) and started to dig around. And almost immediately I was struck by the scale of the potential savings to be had.
That year, I was going to fly out to Cuba before spending a couple of weeks in the Dominican Republic. And the range of savings to be made was quite phenomenal. There were half price reductions on flights, hotels and package holidays – travel auctions, I thought to myself, were really quite attractive!
And did my initial concerns about security magically disappear? Perhaps not right away, I guess. It’s my nature to look closely at ways in which I could be hung out to dry. It quite soon became apparent to me that, unlike making a bid on eBay, say, where, despite the ratings and reviews, you don’t really know anything about the seller at all, here you had that peace of mind that comes from dealing with a real company.
I was also delighted to find that there was a fair bit of joy to be had in checking out the non-English language travel auction sites. Nowadays, for example, French speakers have a couple of good options, and Spanish speakers are genuinely well catered for.
Don’t ask me why it should be that the Spanish holidaymaker likes a good travel auction. As a hispanophile, though, I couldn’t have cared less, and eventually it was with the Spanish site Logitravel.com that I made my final bid.
I don’t recall exactly what my savings were – but I remember clearly that they were significant. As an added bonus, in the process, I had merged three of my great pleasures in life: using a bit of Spanish, saving some cash and, of course, travel. And let’s be honest, that’s a pretty attractive trio!
Posted By: Paul Collins
Contact: e-mail
| About the Author: |
| Paul Collins is a travel writer from England who was converted to the cost-cutting possibilities of travel auctions a couple of years ago. As a Spanish speaker and lover of all things Spanish, subasta viajes (the Spanish for travel auctions!) tend to feature quite highly in his trip plans. |
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