The HappiTravel® Journal
Plain-spoken articles on wholesale travel, member economics, and how to evaluate any booking platform before you trust it with a vacation.
A timeshare pitch always starts with the same promise: own a piece of paradise, come back every year, lock in today’s prices forever. The brochure shows a sunset, a pool, a family laughing. What the brochure does not show is…
The travel membership market splits into two categories: operators that deliver genuine wholesale access and operators that use the language of savings to sell…
The question has a simple answer and a complicated one. The simple answer: a travel club membership is worth it if the savings on…
The debate between using a travel agent and booking online has been running for two decades, and most of the advice you’ll find treats…
Yes. Expedia is marking up hotel prices. The company’s own financial disclosures describe exactly how: Expedia buys hotel rooms at wholesale rates negotiated directly…
The short answer is yes — OTAs are almost always more expensive than booking direct. But the longer answer matters more, because “booking direct”…
Every hotel room, rental car, and cruise cabin moves through a supply chain before it reaches you. At the top of that chain sits…
Travel agents have been booking the same hotel rooms you book — at lower prices — for decades. The mechanic behind this is not…
A net rate is the wholesale price a hotel, airline, or cruise line charges its distribution partners before anyone adds a markup. It is…
The question makes sense. “Wholesale travel” sounds like a phrase that should mean something specific — prices before the retail markup, the rates hotels…
A wholesale travel membership gives you direct access to net supplier rates — the actual prices hotels, resorts, and cruise lines charge their distribution…
Expedia earned more than $1.2 billion in profit last year without owning a single hotel room, airline seat, or cruise cabin. The company’s 16,000…