Trying out Groupon: a new way to travel

January 16, 2012 | Online Travel

Sometimes you don't know what you're looking for until someone makes you an offer, writes Susan Glaser in a review of Groupon/Expedia for The Plain Dealer.

Groupon took its show on the road last year, collaborating with online travel agency Expedia to offer group travel discounts. Its deals run the gamut -- from Las Vegas to Thailand to Niagara Falls -- with savings of 50 percent or more.

Groupon wasn't the first to come up with this direct-to-the-consumer, group-discount concept. Other Web-based companies, including sniqueaway.com and livingsocial.com, also act as Internet intermediaries, linking consumers with excess inventory at hotels, restaurants, cruise lines and even airlines. And bricks-and-mortar travel agents have passed along similar types of discounts to clients for years.

In general, the deals can be a boon to consumers, said industry analyst Henry Harteveldt of Atmosphere Research Group, based in Cambridge, Mass. Just make sure you do a bit of basic research before you click "buy".

Get the full story at The Plain Dealer

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