TripAdvisor is More Than Just Reviews: Maximize Your Time and Money by Booking Your Trip Too - Mapping Megan (2024)

I’ve been doing research for my next trip on Tripadvisor too and found some great tours and attractions there. Its usually my first resource when planning a trip :-)

Great stuff Meg. I have used Trip Advisor here and there to look things up. Trusted resource resource for travelers and travel bloggers alike. I dig the price savings and the fact that it brims with reviews…and that it ranks on page 1, result 1, on Google for so many keywords. Tough to do that these days unless you run a legit, well stocked, genuine site.

Ryan

I’m game. I’ll try it out- share your post with a slew of my friends who also plan intricate travel itineraries.

Tripadvisor is my go-to site for hotel reviews, I never book a hotel without checking about it there. These new features are great additions for the users. I’ll have to check out their offers next time.

I have never been a user of Trip Advisor until recently and seriously feel like I have been missing out all these years. I mainly use it to read hotel reviews! However, I haven’t tried these other features like things to do in and booking anything! I need to give it a go!

I haven’t ever been one to rely heavily on Trip Advisor, but I’m not sure why. I will definitely go check it out, especially with all the new additions to the site! I love that booking and researching is all in one place, so that will save me a step next time. I feel like I’ve really been missing out on an awesome tool!

Just to report back, we found this service to be great to deal with. Thanks for sharing !

I have always been a fan of trip advisor when it came to finding reviews on hotel and resorts. I’m so happy to see that they are expanding their services and love that you can now find attractions and tours available in your area and the various filter options.

As a big fan of TripAdvisor I thought the overhaul was such a great step too. My favourite feature is the fact you can go back to recently viewed. That means I no longer have to take notes/screenshots to remember. I haven’t used the low price guarantee either but what a way to instil confidence that you’re getting the best deals. Also the views and scenery around the Tahune Airwalk look incredible! What a great find!

Would have to check out TripAdvisor again, didn’t have time to look into the new details. You got me curious with “what to do” feature on tours and activities in the area. Didn’t use that one so far and you are so right – it really is time consuming to find the info yourself online, compare prices etc. Here, everything seems like a click away!
Nice, thanks for pointing it out. :)

I use TripAdvisor a lot when planning my trip and it’s so nice to see how much it progressed. I used it from the beginning, from when they first launched the website and I remember how basic but still very useful it was back then. It’s great that now you can book hotels and experiences directly though them.

TripAdvisor has become such an important step in travel planning research. It’s an amazing resource to find tips and ideas for activities. I’m still a bit careful when I read reviews on businesses themselves as I’ve heard instances of fake testimonials before – positive or negative (I don’t know if it still happens or if they’ve found a way to fix that).

I had never heard of the iVenture card but I’ll definitely have a look, it sounds super interesting (and they have a Black Friday sale…!). And I didn’t know TA had a low price guarantee. That’s very good to know. I’m not surprised they added booking functions to their platform. It’s a great business momodel and it’s helpful for the travelers –> win-win! :)

We don’t really use much of tripadvisor, although it does appear while we do our research on google as its info is reliable for many locations. Starting to use it more and more than the usual thought. Booking on it is nice sometimes we would say, as their cut is higher and you sometimes ending up paying more.

I have mainly used Trip Advisor for hotel and attraction reviews. I think it’s great that you can go ahead and book most hotels and attractions directly on Trip Advisor. While some have not been available on Trip Advisor in the past, it’s welcoming to see they are always expanding the number of products they partner with. Your iVenture Tasmania Card sounds like a great deal. I look forward to reading about your Huon river jet boat tour next month.

Hi Meg, Thanks for sharing your experiences with booking things to do through TripAdvisor. You are absolutely right, they are the Google of the travel world. I use the website all the time to check reviews. And from there it’s such a short and easy step to book the best accommodation for the budget that you have. I didn’t realise you could also book experiences, so that’s great to learn.

Trip Advisor seems to be building a one-stop destination for all things travel from activities to accommodation. This will save time looking on multiple sites for the same thing. The one thing about Trip Advisor I take with a grain of salt is the reviews. Everyone is different and culturally we all expect different things.

We use TripAdvisor regularly to plan activities. They do a solid job providing an overview and the first person ratings are often invaluable. It’s great to see that they have further streamlined the site to provide a full click-to-purchase experience.

Oh, interesting. I usually just look into TripAdvisor for checking photos and reviews but haven’t actually tried booking anything under this platform. A friend told me that we should just write reviews here but never mentioned something like this. It’s seriously good to know! I’ll probably my next trip here! It seems like TripAdvisor has it all! x

I love TripAdvisor too! What I love best about it is that for example, I book a hotel room via Agoda… The photos there are usually submitted by the hotels so they look all good and nice but it ain’t the real deal most of the times, right? What I do is look to TripAdvisor and look at “Traveler’s Photos”. These are photos taken by actual guests. Not the best photos but at least they give you an idea of what you are actually getting. I think only TripAdvisor has this feature! If you know more, let me know please! And if you travel frequently, help fellow travelers by contributing actual photos! No edits please :D

I’m the odd man out. I rarely ever go to TripAdvisor. I usually don’t like user generated reviews and find myself scoffing at many of them because they usually don’t give me any useful information. I’d much rather read a review by a professional reviewer that can give me real information about what I’m going to get.

I find user generated reviews swing to one extreme or the other: it was either a gushing review or it’s a rant about something. People let their emotions influence the review, so when they’re mad about one thing that whole experience suddenly sucked. Or they don’t want to be critical about anything, so gush that everything was fabulous.

But a lot of people do like user generated reviews. So it’s good to know that you can finally book right on TripAdvisor. That makes the planning phase more convenient.

Such a helpful post. I’ve always used it for hotel reviews, but just recently I booked a restaurant on there and I was thrilled to see all the useful additions. Like you said I love the tabs that allow you to see what to do in an area. It’s definitely going to completely change how I research trips now!

I use Tripadvisor all the time to plan my trips! I love the reviews, the itineraries…but I never thought to book a tour or something fun to do on there! Thank you for making me aware of this. I’ll have to go to the site to take a look!

I agreed tripadvisor is a good guide to use to travel around the world. It has a lot of option where to travel. Its reputable sites and we can get a trust to our booking. We are planning to get our next trip. Great post i’ve found in your blog.