As a travel writer I always
find myself needing to book a flight or an accommodation almost spontaneously. Most
of the time when I am on the tail-end of travel writing assignment, I extend my
trip in order to cover more places. And in each time, I always score myself
cheap flights and hotels via Traveloka – which I now consider as my go-to
travel app. There has been a lot of apprehensions whenever a traveler books a
flight through third-party app other than a website’s official app. I
understand where the doubts are coming from, but I guarantee that I have never
experienced even a slight problem with my numerous bookings made via Traveloka.
To ease your mind and help
you better budget your trips, I will share some of the many reasons why I now
have only a few travel apps on my phone; Google Maps, Grab, Tinder and yes; Traveloka.
Traveloka
is an established brand since 2012
A major sponsor of Asia’s
Got Talent 2017, Traveloka has been a popular brand in Southeast Asia since its
inception in 2012. Founded in Indonesia, it has grown its popularity to the
rest of the region which include the growing travel industry in the
Philippines.
User-Friendly
Interface
A no frills design allows
users to quickly get a hang of using the app. At the opening page, users are
instantly presented with the options of what to book; Flights or Hotels. It
also has a tab for Price Alerts and Ongoing Promos – something every traveler
would love to check out – all the time.
As a traveler, I consider
the user-friendliness of a travel app as an important factor because there
would be times when I would need to book that emergency flight or hotel at the
most inopportune time. Having used Traveloka App a handful of times before, with
its user-friendliness and instantaneous processes has helped me a great deal.
User-Reviews
Traveloka not only lists down
user reviews from its own app, it also integrated with user reviews from TripAdvisor
– the leading traveler review website in the world. Thus, saving you the time
from opening another browser to check the TripAdvisor site.
Useful and Detailed Information
This feature of Traveloka is
really useful especially when booking hotels. You can easily see the map of the
hotel you are booking and the corresponding distance of places of interests –
helping you to choose the best accommodations related to the things you planned
to do in the city you are visiting.
Year-round
Promos and Great Deals and most of all, NO HIDDEN CHARGES
What I also love about
Traveloka is the what-you-see is what-you-get price listed on their app. Most
of the time, in other booking sites you will get the initial idea of scoring a
cheaper hotel, but when you ended up booking it - taxes and online charges
added will result into a rate 20%-25% more expensive.
In Traveloka, taxes are
already inclusive and on top of that, they also throw in an occasional up to
20% discount on their promotional deals – visible when you click the Ongoing
Promos at the home page section.
To highlight my point, I did
a mock booking and since I have another trip planned for Taiwan at the end of
this month, I selected Taipei and chose Capital Hotel Taipei.
The rate I found at
Traveloka App for this hotel shows 4,779.20 for a Deluxe Room (1 King Bed) and
5,084.25 for a Deluxe Twin Room (2 Twin Beds). Comparing it to Booking.com, the
respective rates are pegged at 5,613.00 and 5,972.00 for a price margin of more
than 800 pesos for each room.
I suggest you do a few other
mock bookings comparing Traveloka with other booking websites to make sure that
I am telling the truth.
Wide
Selections of Flights and Hotels
What is user-friendliness
and revolving promos and great deals without a wide selection of flights and
hotels? Traveloka thought of that long before they incorporated their amazing
features. By having a long available list of flight options and hotels situated
in the city you are traveling to – as a traveler, you are presented with many
possibilities to make your travel planning a very easy task – while meeting the
range of your trip budget.
Also,
when booking flights you can easily select two different airlines
depending on which two can combine to give you a cheaper RT ticket. Doing so is
just a few clicks away. Imagine doing it the old fashioned way switching from
one airline app/website to another? Using Traveloka eliminates that hassle and
speeds up your flight selection process.
An
Extensive Range of Partner Hotels
Ever wonder how Traveloka
afford to dish out attractive rates and discounts? It is because they have
partnered with many domestic and international hotels in order to give travelers
a better deal all year long.
Convenient
Payment Options
Traveloka also made sure
that its payment process become very convenient for everyone, by giving you
many options for mode of payment. Leading payment choices such as credit card,
debit card, bank transfer or even over-the-counter at all 7/11 and M. Lhuillier
branches are allowed – thereby giving you all the easy time in the world to
confirm your bookings pronto.
Paperless
Transactions
Once you settle your booking
payment for your flights or hotels, there is no need to print your itinerary as
the Traveloka App will automatically email you the confirmation letter complete
with all required information re: flight info for flights and hotel info for
your accommodation. Just show this to the check in counter or hotel receptionist
and you’re good to go.
Reliable
Customer Service with Live Chat
Lastly, if you happen to ran
into a glitch in the system or made a mistake while making your booking, you
can easily contact the customer service via the app itself and in no time –
because they have a 24/7 local customer service which includes a live chat
feature that will have you chatting with a CS agent in less than a minute after
you have submitted your concern.
Is
Traveloka a Legit App?
100% sure legit. I have used
Traveloka for almost a dozen round trip flights and accommodation bookings in
the last year. As a travel writer, I make sure to get a break from travel
writing assignments by going on a series of solo backpacking trips. Each time I
go on a personal trip, I use Traveloka to take care of my flight and hotel
booking needs.
Book a flight now and enjoy the joys of traveling by searching for the cheapest airfare at Traveloka.
