The Informed Traveler
The Informed Traveler
Avoiding Booking Scams & Alternative Destinations
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There's all kinds of travel scams waiting to take advantage of you, one of them that seems to be on the rise is fake booking sites. On this week's show, travel expert Onanta Forbes will join me to discuss what to look for and how to avoid them. Plus, the folks from Skyscanner have come out with The Smarter Summer Report so you can find the best places to go this summer. So we'll have a look at some of their handpicked alternative destinations.
Well, hello and welcome to the Informed Traveler Podcast, a weekly travel podcast where our goal is to help you become a more informed traveler. I'm your host, Randy Charman. There's all kinds of travel scams waiting to take advantage of you, and one of them that seems to be on the rise is fake booking sites. So in a few moments, travel expert Onanda Forbes will join me to discuss what to look for and how to avoid them. Plus, the folks from Skyscanner have come out with the Smarter Summer Report so you can find the best places to go this summer. Destinations that have similar offerings, but with lower prices, fewer crowds, and a bit more room to explore. So we'll have a look at some of their cheaper, hand-picked alternative destinations.
Avoiding Booking Scams
SPEAKER_02But first, let's kick things off chatting with travel expert Onta Forbes, who joins us each week to talk about the latest travel news and trends and travel tips in general. You can follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and X at Onanta Forbes. OnantaForbes.com is her website. Hello, Onanta.
SPEAKER_03How are you?
SPEAKER_02I'm well, thank you. We're going to talk about uh travel scams. I I think we could probably talk about uh a different scam every week. It seems like there's lots of them out there and there's new ones popping up all the time. But uh I did see a story from Travel Industry Industry Today from their website, travelindustry today.com, talking about uh fake booking sites. Uh this isn't really new, but there certainly seems to be uh more and more of it out there now.
SPEAKER_03Right, and as travel continues to rebound and technology becomes more sophisticated, scammers are becoming more creative than ever. So they're creating fake websites, fake vacation rentals, fake customer service numbers, and even using AI to make their scams look incredibly um convincing. And it's true, you like you really do have to read and not uh to skim it over. Look at the um the sender emails. It's it you just can't just float through life anymore because you uh there's you just become a a risk of being a victim. Travel's very emotional, like we're very excited about our vacations, we don't want to miss out on a great deal. We may be rushing to book flights before prices increase or try to secure that perfect accommodation before it sells out. And scammers understand this, they know travelers are making more expensive purchases and making decisions quickly, so they use urgency, excitement, and sometimes fear to get people to get uh let their guard down. And it's actually becoming one of the fastest growing forms of consumer fraud. So um, so maybe a red flag, maybe number one, the deal is too good to be true. So if you see like a luxury resort advertised at half the normal price or business class flight for a fraction of what everybody else is paying, stop yourself and ask why. Um they get the scammers get the know that unbelievable prices get attention. So uh one of the most common travel scams involves fake travel websites that look remarkably similar to that legitimate hotel or air or cruise or tour operator website, and then you enter your payment information, you receive a confirmation email only to discover your booking doesn't even exist. So my advice is simple if a deal looks dramatically better than everybody than every other offer on the market, do your homework before handing over your credit card.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think you're right too. Uh everyone wants a deal. Yes. So it's like, oh, I've got to book that now because we've been trained to think that the prices are gonna go up, maybe in in in minutes, and some take in some cases it actually does. And so so what are we uh and just um uh getting back to this story from uh travel industry today, uh Flight Center said it worked with Google and other search engines to take down more than 200 fraudulent listings and imposter websites. So uh you really do have to be on guard, don't you? And and and most of the time with some of these pop-up ads and and it's a third-party link or something like that, rather than doing a legitimate search, say, on on real websites, right?
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah, yeah. It it it it's it's so easy to get misdirected. That's what I find. Um, or you you start looking online for a certain destination or a time frame or um a company, then all of a sudden all these emails start popping up or um suggestions uh in your uh I guess search engine, and it it makes it almost looks like, oh yeah, I know what you're talking about. Here are some ideas. Well, it it might not be the from the right source. So that's definitely um things that you have to read, whatever you look at, to just make sure that it is a legitimate source, and there's other ways um that they have pressure tactics, and that's the like a warning sign of urgency. Like you may see messages say, only one room left, this offer expires in 10 minutes, book now or lose your reservation. So legitimate suppliers may have limited inventory, but scammers rely heavily on pressure because they don't want you to stop and think. Um, so you do have to be aware of different tactics that are out there. I do have to say, um, it is, you know, airlines especially, and we've definitely, as um a travel retail advisor, we've been told it, you know, if somebody starts looking, or if a bot or uh an airline uh algorithm start seeing a certain date or certain destination that people are kind of clicking on to research, the next time you look, the price might be higher.
SPEAKER_02Dynamic pricing, I think is what it's called.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I think they can change the price. I I always tell my clients up to four times a day, I think they can change it more than that if they really see the interest. Um, but it it is, you know, so you do have to be aware that there are tactics in the um marketplace, the travel marketplace, that are real, but also scammers know that, and they kind of um meld real and reality um like into their fraud tactics. So be careful of that. And a lot of people are um you know going online and booking their own vacation rentals, and um that seems to continue to catch travelers. So, what a scammer does is they steal the photos from a legitimate, legitimate property listing and advertises the accommodation online. So the traveler pays a deposit, arrives at the destination, and discovers the property either doesn't exist or was never available. So protect yourself, book through reputable um platforms, read the reviews carefully, uh, verify the property address and be suspicious if a host asks you to uh communicate or pay outside of the booking platform. So if someone wants you to move the conversation to WhatsApp, text messaging, or personal email or and or send the payment direct, consider that a major warning sign.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. Um and one thing that uh they mentioned too that you can do is is always verify your booking. And I do this because I don't trust technology. So as soon as I make a um a booking, if if it's a third party, like you're using booking.com or something like that, and you get your confirmation. I I usually phone the hotel and say, hey, I just want to check I got my this room is legit, la la la kind of thing. And and same with uh an airline, if you if you get the the uh booking confirmation number or the it's not the flight number, but it's the it's the confirmation number, and then put that in the actual uh airlines uh website, and if it doesn't pop up, uh that's a that's a red flag right there.
SPEAKER_03Right, and you're referring to it's called the booking reference or the yes, so you're right, absolutely. Um, one of the ones that um I I we have shared before on our on the show was even suppliers, they um for transfers, uh the scammers will go to the airport, see the names of legitimate uh transfer companies, and then kind of park themselves in front of them, put the name of the the guest on their sign, and then the guests, you know, they're tired, they they seem that they're excited that the transfer really is there, and they go up to that person, and then the uh that scammer will take them to their destination, but then ask for the money again, which where you've already prepaid and you don't know what to do, right? Uh, you kind of get flustered, so you actually do pay them again. Um, so you have to be very aware of that. Um you know, with AI, uh artificial intelligence is making scams harder to detect. Um, as we said, they are creating professional-looking websites, realistic emails, customer service messages. You know, in the past we could kind of tell because poor grammar and spelling mistakes were easy giveaways, but a fake website today can look identical to the real thing. So double check website addresses, verify contact information, and wherever possible, book through trusted suppliers because and advisors, because you you just don't want to be in that situation where you spend tons of money, or not even tons, but just money.
SPEAKER_02Less money, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and then you know something goes awry. So um one of the things that I also I kind of you have to be careful of this is public Wi-Fi, cybersecurity risks.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, so and this ha sometimes can happen when you're traveling. So airports, hotels, cruise terminals, and cafes often provide free Wi-Fi. But um cyber criminals, no travelers, are using these networks. So uh a couple of simple precautions can go a long way. Avoid online banking on public Wi-Fi. Use a VPN if possible, enable to factor authentication on important accounts, and keep your devices updated before travel. So it it's um it, you know, you don't think of it sometimes because you're in a rush, you want to do something, you're at destination, you just need to check something really quickly, and and you think, oh, it won't matter this one time.
SPEAKER_02Or it won't happen to me.
SPEAKER_03Yes, absolutely. So um if I you know, just to wrap up our conversation, if a deal's too good to be true, investigate further. Never rush because someone creates artificial urgency. Use a credit card where possible and keep your payments and communications on legitimate booking platforms, and always verify, like you say, go back to the source that you booked to see if it's if it's uh if it's legitimate. Check websites, phone numbers, reviews, and suppliers before making a payment.
SPEAKER_02Always good tips, always good advice. Onata Forbes is a travel expert. You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and X at Onanta Forbes. OnataForbes.com is her website. Uh good chatting, Onanta. Thank you. This is the Informed Traveler Podcast. I'm Randy Sharman. Just want to remind you of our website, theinformedraveler.org. That's where you can find our contact page if you have any questions or comments about the podcast or any show segment ideas you like to pass along. You can always email me too with any questions or ideas you might have. My email address is randy at the informedtraveler.org. And you can check out our social media pages too at facebook.com slash informed traveler, Instagram at informed traveler, or on X at InformTraveler. That's where you'll find the number of videos and photos from our recent visit to Fort Lauderdale and other interviews and stories. Plus, you can sign up for our monthly newsletter. It's released at the beginning of every month. Our June issue is now available. Just go to our website, theinformtraveler.org, click on the newsletter button, and it'll take you right there. Or better yet, you can subscribe to it and have it arrive in your inbox each month.
Alternative Destinations
SPEAKER_02Well, with lots of people eyeing these same places, it pays to look elsewhere. Destinations that have similar offerings, but with lower prices, fewer crowds, and a bit more room to explore. And that's just part of the Smarter Summer Travel Report that Sky Scanner has come up with. Joining us now to share some of the results is Lordes Losada. She is a travel expert from Skyscanner. Skyscanner.ca is the website. Hello, Lourdes.
SPEAKER_00Hi, how are you?
SPEAKER_02I'm well, thank you. I'm excited to become a smarter summer traveler with your smarter summer report. Uh some of the topics on there, the cheapest um times to travel, uh, smarter places to travel, and under the radar destinations. So uh we're gonna just discuss a few of those. But let's start with the cheapest time to travel. I I was looking on your on your website, it does have your Smarter Summer Report on there, and I'm not surprised with the week that was chosen. That's right towards the end of summer, just before the beginning of fall, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes. So it's if you don't have kids in school, which I think that's the biggest issue for traveling, that you have a little bit more of a fixed schedule. And you if you can actually choose a time to go, based on the data that we have, the most affordable week overall is August 31st through September 6th. And Mondays, surprisingly, they continue to be among the cheapest days to fly. So we're seeing that that's the best week overall based on prices. But also, we can also see that June, September, they are sweet spots for travelers always.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's always usually the shoulder season, as they like to call it. And and that's when people like you're talking you're saying they're going back to school. So the end of the summer is obviously a good time, especially like you say, if you don't have children and want to avoid the crowds.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. Yes, because you still get the great weather in many of the destinations, but prices are often lower and crowds are smaller, so you can get the reservations in the nice restaurants and you can do many other things that you wouldn't be able to do if it was too crowded. And it's generally easier to find availability altogether.
SPEAKER_02Let's talk about some of the smarter places to travel this summer. Uh, a few of the places, and we don't have to talk about all of them. Um, but Kelowna, surprisingly, and for me, I'm surprised with Kelowna because I live in Western Canada. I don't find it all that uh inexpensive, but obviously you found uh otherwise.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we've seen there uh a list of the clever alternatives as we as we call them. But yeah, it's Kelowna in uh in British Columbia with the wine country, right? Um also maybe not the cheapest uh for a lot of people, but Nassau also made it to the least to the list. But other alternatives that are a little bit more on budget, Lima in Peru, great food, great food, highly recommended. Um, Prague, Dubrovnik, also Oxaka are in that list of those clever alternatives, which are basically destinations that offer many of the same experiences that travel are seeking in popular hotspots, but at a lower cost on fewer crowds, too.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm. Which is what it's all about. Uh fewer crowds, I think people are looking for not the crowded destinations anymore, and they're looking to save money always. So uh good combination there. Uh you're finding that too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's correct. So that's one of the biggest trends. We're seeing some trends this year. So the number one trend would be like the travelers are increasingly focused on value and getting the most out of their travel. The second one is that interest that you were talking about of seeing alternative and less crowded destinations. And the third one, it's uh travelers are being a little bit more flexible in timing. They are willing to shift the travel dates to take advantage of lower fares and better availability. So, yeah, overall, people still want to have those memorable experiences, but they are being much more strategic about how they plan and how they book the trips.
SPEAKER_02And one thing I like about, well, let's use Prague, for example. It's easy to get to, right? Like some of these uh out-of-the-way destinations aren't always the easiest to get to find and get to, are they?
SPEAKER_00That's correct. Uh, but that's what I'm saying too. Like that flexibility on looking into alternative alternative uh airports, sometimes it gives you better value. And if you are willing to be a little bit more flexible, maybe it's not you can't find a flight every day, but if you're flexible, maybe there are some of those flights that only leave on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, for example, especially within Europe. That's very, very common.
SPEAKER_02And then it may involve taking a train, which isn't so bad. Like other alternatives are are a good way to explore countries too, just getting to a maybe a secondary uh destination.
SPEAKER_00And it can be part of the trip, right? Like getting on a train in Prague and just enjoying the scenery, it's totally part of it.
SPEAKER_02Let's talk about some of the lesser-known destinations under the radar. Some of these places uh you're gonna have to explain to me where they are. But uh what makes them special?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so on on the under the radar destinations, those are the destinations that haven't yet reached the same level of popularity as the major tourist hubs, but they offer incredible experiences still. So the easier standouts include Jeju in South Korea. So a little bit about Jeju. It's uh it's a volcanic island paradise, and it's famous for its uh dramatic lava landscapes, waterfalls, and beautiful coastline. And it offers a little bit of a mix of outdoor adventure and wellness as well. And it's very popular for its unique culture, fresh seafood, and UNESCO um recognized natural sites, too. And bonus point, one of the travel trends that we're seeing too is people going to South Korea to do a lot of the um, we call them glow mats, so uh treatments in their skincare treatments and all that. So you have that bonus point. You have the volcanic island, the South Korea beautiful landscape, and also the uh opportunity to come back with a lot of skincare.
SPEAKER_02Nice. Come back with like glow, as they say.
SPEAKER_00Exactly, yeah. So Judge is one of them. Then Zadar in Croatia. Uh it's uh it's a historic Adriatic city that combines the Roman ruins, the medieval medieval charm, and also a vibrant waterfront. So it's home of um some architectural, it's called the sea organ, which is an architectural installation that creates music from the movement of the waves. I don't know if you have seen some of that. It's super cool. Yeah, yeah. And um, it's also, I mean, the sunsets are spectacular there. So if you are willing to go to Croatia, uh that that's yours.
SPEAKER_02Okay, let's talk about uh Bastia, Corsica in France now.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. So Bastia is uh it's a port city in the northeast uh coast of Corsica. So it's known of the colorful uh harbor, and then it's also like Italian influence architecture and relaxed Mediterranean atmosphere that you can find in Corsica. And um it also, you know, it has a lot of like local markets, historical squares. Um, the Corsican cuisine is amazing because it has that influence of Italy, France, even from Catalonia in the north of Spain. There's a lot of influence right there because it lives right there in the middle of the Mediterranean. Um, I am particularly driven to this destination because I am from Spain and it's right there on the coast of Corsica. It's one of the uh like it's it's a very cool one if you want to be on an island but not uh on a full blast uh just popular islands that that people just try to choose.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. So is there like there's there's 10 on here? We'll run down the there's Naxos, Greece, Godens, Poland, Cork, Ireland, Mykonos, Greece, uh, Perth, Australia, um, Polonia, Italy, and Helsinki, Finland. So um is there any place that's that for you personally that stands out that uh you go, yeah, this this is a really Good place.
SPEAKER_00So for me, I love Bologna. Uh I think it has that perfect combination also of an Italian city. You can stuff yourself with the good pasta, the good wine. It's enjoyable to get there because you can uh drive to either drive or take a train. Trains work pretty tend to work very well in Italy. So you can fly either to Bologna itself, uh, or you can fly to Milano and then come back. So it can be like uh two-in-one trip. And uh and for me that would be one of the the ones that I would recommend the most. Ireland, it's super cool. Cork is a little bit more industrial, it has a lot of um a lot of technology companies that are based there, so a lot of like nightlife and and stuff. So uh those will be uh recommendations that I would have personally on my list.
SPEAKER_02Um, so like what what did it take to make the list? I mean, every time there's a top 10 list of something, there's something somebody's gonna be left out. Like, what was there a certain criteria? Is it just based on you know uh marketing? Is it based on people that are going there? Uh, how did you find your results or get your results?
SPEAKER_00Yo, so it's not marketing. Uh, we're not paid to do these. So it's more than anything. We have uh a lot of data in Skyscanner because we are a search engine. So imagine 160 million people use us every single month, and that creates billions of data points, especially based on uh skyscanners, uh flight and hotel search and pricing data. So there we can see what's the destinations that are trending higher or lower in price, or who are who are searching a little bit more here or there. So that's how we um make this happen. And the prices and the destination rankings reflect what Canadians are actually searching for for this report. And um yeah, and the information is based like on this year. So it's basically like from March till now what we have seen moving um upwards or downwards in Canada.
SPEAKER_02Well, people can read more about it if they're looking for alternative destinations, save a little money, maybe not uh be involved with the crowds, uh, not so crowded places. Uh they can find the uh Smarter Summer Report on the Skyscanner website, skyscanner.ca. And if they find a place, they can actually book it on skyscanner.ca too, right?
SPEAKER_00That's right. Yeah, we would redirect them to uh either the airline or the hotel. So in Skyscanner, they can do the search, make sure that they got they are getting the best uh value, and uh they can be inspired too, because uh there's a fun fact that 50% of the travelers they don't know where to go. So we have a filter that it's called everywhere search, and you can choose the origin, so the city that you're sitting in, and see make an everywhere search, and we will show you what are the cheapest uh flights for a certain period of time, and you can also put an alert there, so it's kind of like easy, easy to get inspired as well.
SPEAKER_02So when you put an alert, then people then sky kind of sends you a note saying, hey, the the prices have just dropped. You might want to book now. Is that is that what you mean?
SPEAKER_00That's correct. So because we have so much data, we can predict if prices will uh typically go up or down. Of course, everything can vary, but we can send you that alert of hey, this is the best time to book. So um, so you can have the confidence that you're doing, you're getting the best.
SPEAKER_02I like it. Uh Lourdes Losada is uh travel expert with Sky Scanner. Skyscanner.ca is where you can find the Smarter Summer Report again and uh book your next trip. So I appreciate your time, Lourdes.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.
SPEAKER_02And that is our show for this week. If you have comments or questions, we'd love to hear from you. If you have a show idea, send that along as well. My email is randy at theinformed traveler.org. If you like what you heard, tell a friend. You can check out our website too at theinformed traveler.org. In the meantime, thanks for listening. Travel safe and be an informed traveler.