How to book a tour with a travel agency. Detailed instructions for online booking

Prices from tour operators are dynamic. Some tour operators change prices online, others several times a week. Or someone else can buy the tour. With us you will have time to book a tour at the lowest price. Online payment allows you to book a tour before the price increases. It's fast and convenient - you can pay for the tour on the website or directly in the mobile application.

After payment, the tour operator confirms the tour. And a few days before the start of the trip we send you everything Required documents for the tour by email: tickets, hotel voucher, transfer and insurance. All that remains is to print it out. We will remind you of the departure time via SMS. We also issue visas or provide documents for self-application at visa centers.

Have questions before or after your trip? Ask our managers through any convenient messenger. Tourist support is available 24 hours a day.

Did you like the tour, but are not satisfied with the price?

Track the price using special tools on our website and mobile applications. The Tourhunter service allows you to subscribe to a destination or hotel. As soon as the price decreases or increases, you will receive an email and a push notification on your smartphone.

If you have a certain budget for a trip, but don’t know when and which country to go to, you can choose a destination using the Low Price Calendar. In addition, when the issuance of tours opens, a price schedule for tours according to the specified parameters appears under the search bar (currently available for departures from Moscow and St. Petersburg).

At travel agency offices you will buy a tour at the price that the manager will tell you. And here you can find the most favorable price on one's own. And immediately book the tour you like!

Do you prefer to buy a ready-made tour so as not to think about finding air tickets and booking hotels? We'll tell you how and where to buy tours online, why buying tours on your own is more profitable than buying them in a travel agent's office, what tour search services exist and how they differ.

To put it simply, the tour operator creates a tour, and the travel agent sells it. The tour operator enters into contracts with hotels, organizes air transportation, buying blocks of seats or even launching individual charter flights, to the point that some major tour operators have their own airlines. That is, the tour operator transports the passenger, places him in a hotel, and organizes his leisure time.

The cost of a tour with the same conditions of hotel accommodation, for the same number of days, may vary among different tour operators, since the conditions of cooperation with hotels are different for everyone.

There are several dozen tour operators in Russia who organize the sale of tours both popular destinations, for example, Türkiye, Bulgaria, Greece and all over the world. The largest tour operators are Biblio-Globus, Anex-tour, Pegas-touristik, Teztur, Coral-travel, Sanmar, Tui, Mouzenidis, etc. Some tour operators are part of international companies that conduct tour operating activities not only in Russia, but also in other countries.

A travel agent enters into an agreement with a tour operator to sell ready-made tours. The more tour operators an agency enters into an agreement with, the more offers it can make to buyers—you and me. The cost of the tour will be the same, it makes no difference whether you contact the tour operator’s office or a travel agency. For the sale of a tour, the tour operator pays the agent a commission, which amounts to several percent of the cost of the tour, but the conditions for paying the commission are also not the same. An honest travel agency does not add any commissions to the cost of tours.

Why buy a tour on your own?

If there is no difference and the cost of the tour will be the same, why do you need to do it yourself if you can come to the office of a travel agent and he will do everything himself? Our attentive reader asks quite reasonably.

But why.

But then how to buy tours correctly? On tour operator websites? Oh, just not like that. Firstly, there are many of them, any search for the simplest tour on the operator’s website will give you several hundred different tours, with combinations of hotels, flights, days and nights. Secondly, each site has its own specifics and, unfortunately, not all of them have a simple interface.

The tour aggregator service is constantly connected to the tour operator’s database and receives real-time information about the availability of tours and their cost. All offers are sorted according to your search and set parameters, and you see where and how much the tour you need costs. Aggregators do not add any surcharges or fees for using the systems. And since the costs of running their activities are minimal, aggregators also give a discount at the expense of their commission.

Advantages of purchasing tours this way:

  1. You see the prices of all tours that are available - from the cheapest to the most expensive.
  2. You are not limited in time to search for tours. You can sit at home, in a calm environment, with the whole family, choose what is right for you, while reading reviews and looking at photos (every aggregator has such an opportunity and such a section).

There are several popular systems, we have tested and used the services of three and can confidently recommend them - , . What is the difference? Only in additional functional settings and filters for users.

All three systems are very easy to use.

Onlinetours - search for tours, website, reviews

Onlinetours is a popular online service for selling tours from 130 leading tour operators in Russia. The service organizes searches for tours to more than 80 countries. Millions of travel packages that include airfare, hotel stays, health insurance and transfers.

Search tours on OnlineTours very simple - go to official site. The search window is immediately available to you and you see last-minute offers.

In the search, specify:

  • where you want to relax - this can be either a specific resort or a country;
  • indicate what period you are on vacation and how many days you need;
  • add how many people will be on the trip - adults and children.

In a few seconds, the system will select tours for you from all tour operators that work with this destination. There will be a lot of offer, so it’s worth setting restrictions, setting filters - the number of stars in the hotel, type of food, beach, etc.

All you have to do is wait literally three seconds until all the options are sorted and...

By clicking on a specific tour, you immediately see what will be included in the price; as a rule, the full cost for all vacationers is indicated, including flights, hotel accommodation and the selected type of food, transfer, insurance for traveling abroad. If this suits you, book a tour - provide your full name, passport details and pay online with a card from any bank. If you don't have the full amount immediately, you can pay 30% to reserve the tour and then pay the rest within 3 days. Also, all tours on the site can be purchased online on credit!

You will receive documents for the tour - air tickets, voucher and instructions by email.

Advantages of Online Tour:

  • If you need a visa, OnlineTours will help you obtain it. If you live in Moscow, the courier service will come to your home, pick up your documents and bring passports with ready-made visas.
  • OnlineTours has one of the largest call centers, 250 employees are ready to support you day and night.
  • For each tour you receive from 30,000 rubles bonus miles For a present. You can save them and later spend them on buying tours!
  • Another important feature on the site is, of course, the section.

If you have questions, you can read the special section on using OnlineTours on. you can read reviews from clients who have already used OnlineTours services.

Travelata - online tour hypermarket

To the project Travelata more than 120 tour operators are connected, and the company guarantees that these tours can be purchased under the most favorable conditions on the official site.

Benefits of Travelat

  1. Travelat's partners are only the largest and most reliable tour operators, so you can be confident in the quality of the tours offered.
  2. The best prices: best deals price/quality ratio.
  3. Convenient, fast and reliable:
  • Payment by bank card online through a secure portal. There is no need to waste time on the train to the agent's office.
  • Electronic execution of documents: the contract is drawn up directly on the website. After confirming your reservation, you can receive all the documents necessary for the trip by email and in your personal account.

Finding cheap tours to Travelata is very easy and really fast. Enter the departure city (Travelata selects tours from different cities Russia), departure dates, number of adults and children

It will take less than 30 seconds and you will immediately see all the offers from more than 120 operators who sell tours to this region!

Other benefits of Travelata include:

  1. Offers only from top tour operators.
  2. Instant booking. The cost of tours may change at any moment. There is no such thing that the price of tours is fixed and does not change - dynamic pricing is used. The minute you read the description, someone may already be booking and the price may change, or the hotel may run out of space.
  3. A separate selection of constantly updated and.

If you have questions, you can check out the special section on using Travelat on, but believe me, the search is really incredibly simple.

Level.Travel - online tour booking

Another system for searching and booking tours online, which has proven itself, is simple, reliable to use and has received many positive reviews - Level.Travel, official website.

Level.Travel is automated system search for tours from all reliable tour operators and purchase them online, without the participation of a travel agent. The system allows you to buy a tour in the same way as buying air tickets or booking hotels online.

On the main page of the site there is a standard search form in which the direction, dates and number of vacationers are specified. We won’t describe it in detail, the essence is the same as Travelata’s.

Advantages of Level.Travel

Level has statistics on prices for tours. You can compare how much tours in different countries on different days of the month.

A cool feature that we really like is . Calendar is a whole section on the website that shows the most low price for a tour of all those existing at the moment.

If dates are not important to you, and you only know the month in which you are going on vacation, feel free to use this calendar. It immediately shows how much the most cheap tour by month, for a different number of days! Moreover, you can search and look at prices from different cities, not only from Moscow.

Now is the time to try one of the systems -

You can organize a trip in different ways: buy a ready-made tour from an agency or by mastering the websites electronic booking, search for literally everything on the Internet yourself - from air tickets to car rental. If you don’t feel like an expert in organizing trips, and you don’t want to spend extra money and time, find out how you can book a tour.

What is the profit

Every novice tourist should know that there are two types of companies providing travel services on the market:

  • tour operators who directly develop routes and enter into contracts with carriers;
  • travel agencies that simply sell ready-made trips from different operators.

Of course, the agency, as an intermediary, works for a certain percentage of the fee, which you pay out of your own pocket. Surely you will prefer to buy a ticket directly from the operator, you just need to choose which one.

Is independence always good?

Let’s not say that agency services are not needed: after all, not every tourist prefers to deal with organizational issues on their own. Even in the West, where tourism is much more widespread, people travel around the world on their own without resorting to services travel companies, no more than ten percent of travelers. Others prefer to book a trip without any hassle.

You can, of course, be patient and, after browsing through search engine sites, find the cheapest tickets and inexpensive hotel.

In addition, you need to take into account weather, especially if you are heading to some Asian country with a tricky climate. You will also have to become an expert in the field of insurance in order to choose a reliable and inexpensive company, because you are not going to leave your homeland without medical insurance?

All these skills will be very useful if you don’t want to live without traveling and are going to travel around the world at least once or twice a year.

But for homebodies who have finally decided to get out to the sea, it’s easier and more convenient to simply book a tour on your own. As a result, they do not overpay agents, and after just one operation, they will receive a ready-made trip without unexpected surprises.

What resources are there?

As in the case of booking air tickets, there are special search engine sites where you can select offers from different tour operators, buy tickets, find and book accommodation. Since their services are paid for by tour operators, the client does not overpay, he gets tours at exactly the same price as in the office, and there are also discounts.

Step by step

What do you need to book a tour online? Let's look at this using the example of the Sletat.ru service. First of all, decide on your desires and capabilities: what country do you want to go to, will it be beach holiday at the hotel or excursion.

Tour selection

To search, you need to enter several parameters:

  • country of destination;
  • departure city;
  • number of nights;
  • number of tourists.

By clicking on the “Search” button, you will receive a whole list of possible tours indicating the cost, type of accommodation, and hotel information.

Booking

If you have found a suitable option, you can proceed to booking. You need to enter data about tourists, as well as contacts: phone number and email address.

Your order will receive the status “conditionally accepted”, because now the application must be paid.

Payment

There are usually several payment options available:

  • by card,
  • electronic money,
  • overdue loans non-repayment.rf
  • through a payment terminal,
  • by postal transfer.

On the above site, for example, you can pay only 30% of the total order amount at once, and transfer the rest to your account within twenty days.

If the application cannot be paid online, you will have to drive to the nearest company office.

Documentation

Once all the money has been deposited into your account, the necessary documents will become available to you on the website. You can print them immediately or send them to your mailbox.

The biggest challenge users face when booking online is the issue of trust. You don’t see who you are paying money to and for what, especially if you are using the service for the first time.

Listen to the recommendations of your friends: perhaps some of them have used such a service as booking a tour online. And if this is not possible, you should contact specialists by phone or even drive up to the office to dispel all doubts.

Last minute tours - pros and cons: Video

And finally, the most interesting thing is the restriction of travel abroad for debtors. It is the status of the debtor that is easiest to “forget” when getting ready for your next vacation abroad. The reason may be overdue loans, unpaid housing and communal services receipts, alimony or fines from the traffic police. Any of these debts may threaten to restrict travel abroad in 2019; we recommend finding out information about the presence of debt using the proven service nevylet.rf

Looking for a cheap tour? Find out 7 secrets on how to find and buy a trip online at a profit in 2020. Independently and on your own best price. And let the travel agencies turn green with anger. Have a cheap holiday!

I don't like overpaying for a vacation. I'm sure you do too. There is always the opportunity to fly to a resort inexpensively: to Turkey for , to Greece for , to Thailand for , to the Dominican Republic for rubles. These are real examples of cheap travel packages that I have found. Find out where and how to find such last-minute tours.

This guide is already four years old. If you are a reader my travel blog, then you know that I am an avid traveler and a passionate hunter for cheap tours and tickets. In this review, I outlined my experience and knowledge of finding inexpensive travel packages. Learn how to relax without extra costs!

Rules for searching and purchasing the cheapest tours:

1. Buy tours online

Travel agencies on the street sell tours at a higher price than online tour search engines. Last time I bought a ticket at a travel agency office back in 2012. Then convenient and reliable online tour search services appeared - now I only use them. I no longer go to the offices of greedy travel agencies - it’s more convenient and profitable to buy tours on the Internet.

Why are travel agencies more expensive? The reason is the human factor - cunning managers in travel agencies use every possible means to encourage the client to buy a more expensive tour package. They fundamentally do not want to sell tours for 5, 10, 20 thousand - the percentage from such transactions is not enough for them, they need more gold!

Where to look for cheap tours online? I use three search engines: , and . All three are reliable and very comfortable. Choose which one you like best.

Install the mobile application. Travelata has an excellent app: download it for or and use the current promotional code when purchasing a tour AF600MOBmake-trip- you will receive a discount of 600 rubles on any tours costing over 50,000 rubles.

How do tour search engines work? They compare prices among 130 popular tour operators and find the cheapest tours. Finding and booking a tour yourself is easy. You see complete information on the package: hotel, flight, meals, tourist reviews, and so on. You choose the tour that you like. Do you have any questions? Ask them to a consultant via chat or phone. Secure online payment by credit card. The tour can also be purchased in installments.

Offices and consultants. All three search engines have offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and others major cities. There is also a hotline support line. So it's easy to interact with them.

Pros of buying tours online:

  1. Big choice. Compare prices from all tour operators to find the cheapest tour. Compare - save!
  2. Convenient and fast. There is no need to go to travel agency offices, waste time on travel, waiting and communication. You can find and book a tour in 15-30 minutes at home or at work. When buying last-minute tours, speed is especially important: if you find a cheap tour, buy it in a couple of clicks before it disappears.
  3. Safely. Search engines work only with reliable tour operators. Payment takes place using a secure protocol. There is a 24/7 support service.
  4. Independence. I recommend searching and purchasing tours on your own. It’s more reliable this way - you know better than anyone what exactly you need and at what price. No interference from others - no opportunity to confuse you. In offices, managers are often cunning or simply incompetent.
  5. Documents - immediately. When purchasing a tour online, all reservations and confirmations will be sent by email immediately after payment. In a regular agency, employees like to delay the issuance of documents - they did it, we know.
  6. Reliable. I trust large online search engines, and with a large customer base and a well-known name. Travel agencies with motley names like “Cactus”, “Sea of ​​Dreams” or “Marina Travel” scattered along the streets of Russian cities - no.

Our holiday in Greece on the island of Rhodes in June 2019 on a last-minute tour for 27,000 rubles for two. It was possible to take a tour for 21,000, but we chose a cool and cozy hotel a little more expensive. We really enjoyed:)

2. Be flexible with deadlines and dates.

We often have many restrictions: strictly fixed vacation days, personal matters and obligations. However, try to achieve as much freedom as possible in choosing dates - this will save money.

See different departure days. Your vacation starts on Monday and you found a tour for that day for 50 thousand? Check flights on Tuesday or Wednesday - maybe there will be tours for 30 thousand. I encounter this regularly.

Change the length of rest. Often (not sometimes, but often!) 7-night tours are cheaper than 5-night tours, 10-night tours are cheaper than 8-night tours, and so on. Don't limit yourself - check out all the options! Check the prices in the calendar.


I'm sailing along Indian Ocean. Photos from my trip to the Maldives in spring 2019. On paradise islands We had a super cheap vacation - for the price of a trip to Crimea!

3. Be flexible in your choice of resort

If you are a monogamous person who prefers to go on vacation to the same place every year, then choosing a destination is not a question for you. I recommend everyone else consider different resorts - your chances of buying a cheap tour will increase.

How does direction affect price?

  1. There are traditionally expensive destinations (,). There are cheap destinations (,).
  2. Seasonality plays an important role: it is cheaper to fly to some resorts in the summer, to others in the winter, and to others in the spring or autumn.
  3. Random factors also work. For example, a tour operator sold few tours to one of the destinations and decided to reduce prices - last-minute tours appear.

Do you want to buy the cheapest tour? See as much as possible more directions. Compare not only countries, but also individual resorts within the same country.


Our holiday in the Maldives, island. The beaches there are luxurious!

4. Buy tours from Moscow

It is for flights from Moscow that you can find the cheapest tours. Competition and a developed air transportation system are driving prices down. Sometimes the difference in price compared to other cities is colossal.

What should a non-capital tourist do?

First, check if you can find a cheap tour from your city. Found it? Great - let's take it! If not, then it is worth expanding the geography of departure cities.

See if there are cheap tours from neighboring cities or from Moscow. You can get to the departure point yourself: by bus, train or plane. Pobeda flies to Moscow from many Russian cities - tickets cost from 1000 rubles. I myself live in the provinces, and fly from Moscow on vacation.

Every situation is different - there is no one solution. Compare prices and decide what is better for you: pay more and fly from your city or save money but spend time traveling to another city.

Look at the examples below. I compared the cost of trips to Cyprus from Moscow and Yekaterinburg. A tour from the capital can be bought much cheaper. If you fly to Moscow on your own, you can save a lot of money.


We are flying on a charter trip to Turkey. We ourselves live in Perm, but in 90% of cases we buy tours and tickets from Moscow - it’s much cheaper, even taking into account the cost of traveling to the capital.

5. Use Smart Search


Our trip to the Dominican Republic last December.

7. Book in advance

Buy a tour in advance or catch last minute? This question is asked by many tourists. AND early booking, and buying a tour at the last minute provides an opportunity to save money. Each option has its pros and cons.

Early booking. Minus: discounts are usually not as big as when buying last-minute tours. Plus: you can choose any hotel to your taste, relax beautifully and pleasantly. This is a winning option in terms of price-quality ratio.

Last minute tours. Buying a tour at the last minute is often very profitable. Pros: big discounts, sometimes trips are even sold for pennies. There are two minuses. Firstly, there is no guarantee that a cheap last minute tour will appear for your destination on the dates you need. At the last moment, prices can either decrease or jump significantly. This game is quite gambling. The second drawback is that at the height of the season everything best hotels will already be booked, you will have to choose from second-rate options.

Conclusion. If you need a tour anywhere and as cheaply as possible, grab last-minute tours just before departure. If the quality of your vacation is a priority, then buy a tour in advance (optimally - 2-3 months in advance). You will receive both an early booking discount and wide choose hotels.


Everyone can travel a lot and cheaply! Subscribe to my VKontakte group - get inspired and learn a lot of new things. Good luck!

Introductory image source: Fezbot2000 | unsplash.com.

Tour operators, with which it works (in terms of reliability): Coral Travel,TUI, Tez Tour, Sunmar, AnexTour, Pegas Touristik, NTK-Intourist, Biblio Globus, Mouzenidis Travel, PAC group and others.

Cities, with departure from which you can choose a tour: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Ufa, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, Perm, Tyumen and many others.

Holiday destinations: Russia (Sochi, Adler, Crimea, Anapa, etc.), Abkhazia, Cyprus, Greece, Thailand, India, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Tunisia, Vietnam, Israel and many others.