https://travel.bart.la/2018/02/01/10-tips-for-better-travel-in-2018/

10 Tips For Better Travel in 2018

byFebruary 1, 2018

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1. Use Google Trips

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If there’s one travel app you’re going to install on your smartphone this year, it should be Google Trips. The app gathers all your travel reservations (flights, hotels, rental cars, …) from your gmail inbox, organises them trip by trip and stores all details on your phone so you can still access your travel reservations while you’re offline. But the app does a lot more than that. It uses your travel plans to generate of number of handy list for your destination: “Things to do”,  “Food & Drink”, “Getting around”, “Need to Know”, … it even creates Day Plans using Google Maps so you don’t need to plan anything in advance. And what’s really great, all this information is available when you’re offline! Have a look at the video below for a nice overview of the features of Google Trips.

2. Keep track of Flight Deals

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Checking flight deals should become a daily routine if you want to score the best travel deals. In my opinion, the most efficient way to keep track of deals is Twitter notifications. I get most of my deal notifications via:
@secretflying
@fly4freecom
@traveldealz_de (German)
@theyhbu (German)
If you are overwhelmed by the number of notifications, you can also limited the notifications to flight deals from Belgium via the pushapp of Fly4Free. In case you are looking for a particular flight deal, you can set an email alert via Google Flights to keep track of flights for your destination & dates. Don’t forget to also check your flights via Momondo, as they tend to regularly find cheaper or alternative fares.

3. Keep track of Hotels Deals

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Once you have your flights booked, you want to score a good hotel deal. My 5 tricks to get the best hotel deals should help you out. Additionally, you’ll want to sign-up for the free Extreme Hotel Deals email and twitter alerts. Don’t expect daily deals, but a few times a month a really good hotel deal will land in your inbox. In many cases these will be ‘mistake’ rates which might not always be honoured by the hotel. Still, I had my fair share of extremely cheap hotel stays thanks to EHD, so it definitely worth the effort.

4. Earn money with your hotel bookings

<img data-attachment-id="12572" data-permalink="https://travel.bart.la/2017/12/28/my-best-travel-experiences-of-2017/holiday-inn-tbilisi-bart-lapers-nov-2017/" data-orig-file="https://bartlapers.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/holiday-inn-tbilisi-bart-lapers-nov-2017.jpg?w=604" data-orig-size="600,600" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Holiday-Inn-Tbilisi-Bart-Lapers-Nov-2017" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://bartlapers.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/holiday-inn-tbilisi-bart-lapers-nov-2017.jpg?w=604?w=300" data-large-file="https://bartlapers.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/holiday-inn-tbilisi-bart-lapers-nov-2017.jpg?w=604?w=600" src="https://bartlapers.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/holiday-inn-tbilisi-bart-lapers-nov-2017.jpg?w=604" alt="" srcset="https://bartlapers.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/holiday-inn-tbilisi-bart-lapers-nov-2017.jpg 600w, bartlapers.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/holiday-inn-tbilisi-bart-lapers-nov-2017.jpg?w=150 150w, bartlapers.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/holiday-inn-tbilisi-bart-lapers-nov-2017.jpg?w=300 300w” sizes=”(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px” class=”” style=”max-width: 100%; margin: 0.5em auto; display: block; height: auto;”>
In 2017, I earned more than 1000 EUR (!) with one simple trick: cashback sites. Every time I book a hotel, I check my favourite cashback sites to earn up to 20% back of the money spend on hotel bookings. Here’s how it works:

1. Create a cashback account
2. Use cashback search function to find booking site (e.g. Hotels.com)
3. Click on the link and book your hotel
4. After your stay, you’ll receive the money in your cashback account
5. Wire the cashback money to your PayPal account

There’s no difference with booking directly on the hotel booking site or going via a cashback site, except you (instead of the deals sites) earn a nice cashback!