Outsourced Travel Websites

This is a tough post that no one wants to see in print.

Outsourcing is a dirty little secret for many companies, internet companies included. Although no company wants to talk about it, it is in fact a large issue because it affects the bottom line of these companies while it hurts the local economy. The travel industry has felt this impact as well. It is too easy to outsource call center and technical jobs to places such as India. But if jobs keep going away, who is going to have the money to travel and give it to the very same greedy companies that started the downward cycle?

Our belief is that if you are calling from the USA, you should get an employee from the USA. If you are calling your favorite travel agent from Great Britain, you probably want to speak with someone from Great Britain as well. Someone who knows the area and can speak your language.

Popular travel website companies that outsource many jobs include Expedia/Hotels.com, Orbitz, Priceline, Travelocity and Cendant Hospitality (Super 8, Days Inn, Ramada, Wyndham, Baymont, Wingate, Travelodge, Howard Johnson, Amerihost and Knights Inn).

We can swear that AllStays.com does not employ or outsource any job under our control. We don't worry about a stock price and we don't send our own customers out of the country, wherever they may be located. Our website is built here, stored here, programmed here and maintained here. We strongly push for customer service jobs of all industries to remain in this country. Whether we build an office in Las Vegas, London, or Paris, we'll hire locally for that office. For full disclosure however, we do use a outside phone call service center run by another company that remained open in Texas. This company has now begun to outsource some of these positions as well and against our wishes but out of our control. Although we don't agree with this tactic, we are powerless against it at the moment. Until another solution is found, that is what is happening whether we like it or not.

So how can you avoid the outsourced position when booking travel? Book online right here. Our servers are housed, serviced, secured and maintained in America. Nothing so much as a graphic image on this site was built anywhere else.

A more complete list can be found from CNN's Lou Dobbs, as a resource for this information here.

Cancellation Fees and Policies In Detail

It is time again to address cancellation policies, fees and charges. Hotels are the ones that charge them but it sometimes appears as if we do.

We get emails from upset customers when they are surprised by cancellation charges and sometimes even have to pay for a hotel stay they didn't complete. This anger is directed at us but that fact is that we don't charge any fees at all. The hotel controls the policies and collects the money. We just take all the blame because it's our name on the reservation.

Most bookings on AllStays.com do not have a cancellation fee at all if it is cancelled by a certain time, usually 24-48 hours ahead of the check in date. However, certain rates are negotiated with the hotels and these include cancellation fees and are clearly stated on the pages for the hotels. Please always read this policy (#3) on the booking page. This is stated before you ever enter your personal information. This fee is in place for about 8,000 out of 54,000 bookable hotels listed. It is part of the contract with the hotels for the cheaper rates. The hotel gets a certain amount of money regardless of what happens in the booking. They are set in that point.

Holiday Inn is an example of a hotel chain that gives out discounted rates. Whether booking with us or at the official Holiday Inn website, if you book one of those rates and cancel, you will pay between one nights rate and even possibly the entire stay. You basically save $5 or $10 a night to give up the right to cancel.

This is one of the most frustrating things about the travel industry these days and we hope you will read all of this to see the concrete proof that we are not the ones that caused fees for a cancellation. If it was up to us there would be no fees at all. But we do not control the hotels policies. We just link to them so you can book your travel. When complaining about fees, make sure to include the hotel. They are the ones that got all the money in fees. We didn't get a dime of it.

For example, please check this link from the official Holiday Inn website for this hotel where they charge you one nights stay for the cancellation. We are picking on Holiday Inn in this case but many of the chains and independents do the same.

Because the credit card is accepted by us and passed onto the hotel, the hotel can dictate the fees charged and they appear as if they are coming from us. AllStays.com does not get a dime of these fees. Zero. They are charges put upon us by the hotel and/or the GDS network (Global Distribution System) which in this case is Sabre which is the same company as Travelocity. They control the most number of access points for travel agents. You get charged the fee, we take the heat and get nothing for it. You get mad at AllStays or your local travel agent and the big greedy corporation gets the money.

You may still want to blame us for charging fees but you can also look up the same hotel on other travel websites like Expedia/Hotels.com (actually same company), or Travelocity. You will find in most cases, the same exact cancellation fee and policy.

And remember that anytime you make a booking for the next day or the same day you are making the booking, you will be paying for the hotel stay. You can't cancel at that point. You are charged the whole room rate because the hotel doesn't have any time to re-sell that room if you cancel.

Because we are always trying to make improvements and want to keep your business, please let us know if there is any way we can make the fee more obvious up front. we state the policy before the booking takes place but we realize it takes time to read the text on the page.

We don't answer to any stock price and stockholders like other websites. We answer to you. We really are on your side, the guest, but the rules of the game are tough on independents and those trying to do the right thing.

Adam Longfellow
President, AllStays.com