How do we search for accommodation and trains etc?

The other day, someone asked how we search for things like accommodation, trains, airfare etc. I think they were asking regarding our China trip, but this applies to any country really.

In doing the research for China specifically, I kept coming up with references to www.trip.com. And I knew of trip.com, but hadn't used it before. 

With accommodation, I usually had used either booking.com or airbnb.com in the past. However I haven't been thrilled with Airbnb recently.

Anyhow, I downloaded the trip.com app and went to work searching. And I was quickly impressed. I ended up booking almost all of our accommodation through trip.com and all of our train travel and even a flight within China... even though I am staunchly against booking flights through a third party app.

But in China, trip.com works the best. Even with airlines, where booking through the airline's site is often glitchy and can't be completed easily. I had no problem at all, and that was the flight where we ended up getting an upgrade to first class.

I like the way the app and website are organized, and the way it's easy to read reviews. I also like that they give points for everything you book and everything you review. The points take a long time to add up, but it's better than getting nothing! As an example, this three week trip earned us a whole $24 CAD ($17 USD) to be used on anything in the future... but again, better than nothing, and if it's a better platform to use in the first place then it's a bonus.

For flights, I will continue to only book through the airline website unless we're actually flying to, from, or within China. Otherwise, we've learned in the past that if there is a problem, you're better off booking directly with the airline and being able to deal with them directly.

We ended up using trip.com for all accommodation except for one. And when we had a problem with the train that was cancelled, customer service was easy to contact, and quick to issue a full refund. In all honesty, I can't find anything to complain about with them, and we used them for a lot of our trip.

So, while I'm now a trip.com fan, I will also check Airbnb and booking.com for other options because no one site has everything that's available. And it still pays to shop around.

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