Get paid to travel for free

travel for free

Think you can’t afford to go on vacation? Think again. A Wisconsin-based teacher and author with a passion for Spain, Abbey Algiers looks for inexpensive ways to take trips on her summer holidays. So when she discovered Diverbo, she couldn’t believe it. Diverbo offers free vacations for English speakers willing to spend a week mingling with foreigners in Spain or Germany to help them practice their language skills. “It’s the best-kept secret on the planet,” she says. Algiers spent a week chatting, enjoying Spanish tapas and wine and bonding with…

Keep Reading....

Airbnb and Very Weak Business Travel Are Hurting Hotels – Bank of America

airbnb vs hotels

Julie Verhage, Bloomberg – May 20, 2016 5:00 am In a note published on Thursday, BofAML analysts led by Shaun Kelley cited a raft of pressures on the lodging sector, such as “soft” corporate demand, a glut of brick-and-mortar hotels, and pressure brought to bear by the Internet, including the rise of home-sharing startup Airbnb Inc. The team is downgrading Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., Hyatt Hotels Corp., and Hersha Hospitality Trust from “buy” to “neutral” and cutting RLJ Lodging Trust from a “buy” to “underperform.” The analysts estimate that the sector could see shares fall…

Keep Reading....

No rooms at Christchurch hotels during Cricket World Cup 2015

Chricket world cup opening ceremony

Thousands of crickets fans have descended on Christchurch for the opening of the Cricket World Cup, packing out the city’s hotels and motels. Only a handful of rooms are left in a city that “seems to be growing” in anticipation of one of the world’s largest sporting events. There was a “genuine, general feeling of excitement” New Zealand Motel Association (NZMA) chief executive Michael Baines said. NZMA members had room for six people across Christchurch as of 4pm on Wednesday. Moteliers were sharing room information on NZMA’s Duty Motel internet…

Keep Reading....

Hotelscombined.com affiliate program is biggest ongoing online scam

HotelsCombined Scam

In 2005, Yury Shar, Brendon McQueen and Michael Doubinski (all three formerly worked for HotelClub) partnered to create a hotel comparison site where users could access the best rates from a variety of top travel sites all in the same place. Today, HotelsCombined has nearly 200 employees and 17 million users monthly. The site is available in more than 220 countries and in 39 different languages. In 2010, HotelsCombined won TRAVELtech “Website of the Year and was named a finalist in the Telstra 2010 Business Awards. In the same year,…

Keep Reading....

Your guide to 100% successful Schengen Visa Application!

Schengen Visa Application

Obtaining a Schengen visa can be a nightmare at the best of times for the national of countries like India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and most of the Middle East and African countries. You need to obtain a ton of forms for your application and jump through hoops for the embassy but there is always a nagging feeling that the embassy has not informed you of ALL the Schengen Visa requirements. Yes, believe me they deliberately leave things out and if they have outsourced their visa application processing…

Keep Reading....

Amazon to Get Into Hotel Booking With Launch of Travel Site

Amazon.com is poised to launch its own travel service, featuring booking at independent hotels and resorts near major cities. The initial rollout of Amazon Travel would feature a curated selection of hotels within a few hours’ drive from New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle. The service will likely go live around January 1, 2015. We contacted representatives of three independent hotels, two of which signed up for the new Amazon service and one that was strongly considering the option. Properties would load their room types, availability, pricing information, and photos…

Keep Reading....

Couple ‘Fined’ £100 By Hotel For Bad Review on Tripadvisor

A couple were “fined” £100 by a Blackpool hotel after they wrote an internet review describing it as a “rotten stinking hovel run by muppets”. Tony and Jan Jenkinson stayed at the Broadway Hotel in August and were so disappointed with their accommodation that they took to TripAdvisor to share their experience. The couple later found their credit card had been charged £100, with the hotel stating its policy was to charge for “bad” reviews. The policy, included in a booking document, reportedly says: “Despite the fact that repeat customers and couples love…

Keep Reading....

Travel ideas from all time great explorers

by Anis Ibrahim I HAVE always been an advocate of long-term travel — not necessarily non-stop travel, but extended trips beyond three weeks. If you work full-time and can wrangle an arrangement with your bosses to take a month off, go for it. But what do you do and where do you go for (at least) a whole month? If you haven’t decided on a route or destination, borrow a few ideas from books, movies or explorers who have gone before you. Ibn Battuta Ibn Battuta, regarded as the greatest explorer…

Keep Reading....

How Will Japan Celebrate Summer Without Unagi

The freshwater eel is now endangered, but who is to blame and what are the best substitutes? By Amanda Arnold As summer temperatures approach 90 degrees, restaurants boast their outdoor patios and decks, and Americans pull out their biggest knives to hack through watermelons and cantaloupe, the Japanese fill up on charcoal-grilled unagi, glazed with a sweet, rich sauce and served on a bed of steamed white rice. Gone are the days of simmered kabocha squash and stew-like oden. In Japan, summer is eel season and being the pragmatists that…

Keep Reading....