How To Plan Your Summer Holidays Using Social Media
When most people go to book their summer holiday the first port of call is invariably the internet as they seek everything from information about their destination to flight and hotel options. Social media is increasingly influencing the way we book holidays especially because we all tend to trust what our friends say when making decisions about where we travel to. In a world where we have so many choices and are all becoming more and more price conscious here are some of the top ways in which you can use social media to make sure you have a dream summer holiday this year…
Google Flight Search
Not many people know about this feature but if you type the word “flight” followed by the departure airport and destination airport Google search will automatically give you a timetable of all the different flights between those 2 destinations. This is an incredibly useful service if you just want a quick overview of the different timetables for flights.
Google flgiht search will make your life much easier
Location Based Tips
With a rise in the amount of people using location based services there is a wealth of information that you can now access via your mobile phone. Services like Foursquare, Facebook Places and even Yelp all have apps that allow people to leave tips in physical locations. As a tourist this can be a great way of tapping in to local knowledge but the volume of tips outside of big cities especially outside the USA is still light enough. An area that is only going to grow though.
Tripit
This is more of a service for a hard core business traveler but it works brilliantly for people who have to keep track of lots of different trips. As they say themselves…”Organize trip details into one master online itinerary — even if arrangements are booked at multiple travel sites + Automatically include maps, directions and weather in their master itinerary. So in a world where you might have three different bookings for one trip the good guys at Tripit manage to become your online travel dashboard.
Airbnb
One of the biggest game changing companies to come along in the travel space in years Airbnb allows you to effectively rent anything from a room to a private island in another country. You rent the places directly from other people with users often putting their own houses or apartments on the market. It all means that you can get somewhere far more homely for a fraction of the price of a hotel and with over 60,000 listings around the world this could be a game changer for the travel industry.
Where I Have Been
You’ll have seen plenty of people using this application on Facebook and showing off all the places that they have been to and it’s also a standalone site. Again the idea here is that you can see where all of your friends have been on the map and if you see that they have been to the destination that you are about to visit then it would be worthwhile tapping them up for advice.
Trip Advisor
Everybody has heard about Trip Advisor but it has really taken a leap forward in terms of how useful it is since they introduced instant personalization from Facebook. It means that if you connect your Facebook account the entire site is personalized to your tastes based on the activity of your friends
Talk Direct
With so many restaurants and hotels embracing social media tools like Facebook and Twitter why not try and reach out to them before you visit. Most hotels are only to happy to talk to you via their social media channels and if you are lucky you might be able to avail of the special deals and offers that many of them share via their own social media channels. A good hotel will be able to answer your questions about getting their, transfer and good local restaurants etc.
Lonely Planet App
LOnely planet have some great reading material and guided tours for many of the cities around the world and if you are lucky enough to won a smartphone then downloading them in advance is a great way of getting the most of out a local city.
Who Are We?
Simply Zesty are a Social Media Agency located in Dublin, Ireland who offer a range of Social Media Services.
