Low Fares from Los Angeles!

August 13, 2008 No Comments

These days it’s not uncommon to see articles in the news warning travelers about the rise in airfare prices, due to airlines decreasing flight numbers in order to save on fuel.  What is rare is to find news of low airfare prices.  In the New York Times, Michelle Higgens wrote an article this week called Ahead: Fewer Flights, Fewer Bargains which outlines the increases in airfare.  At the end of the article, Ms. Higgens writes “Horizon Air, which begins daily nonstop flights to Mammoth Yosemite Airport from Los Angeles on December 18, is offering introductory fares of $79 each way.”

While that’s pretty specific, Horizon Air’s introductory rate might be a good way to squeeze out a vacation in 2008, even if your budget did not originally include vacation possibilities.  Unfortunately, ParkSleepFly cannot do anything to further lower the airfare, but already being fairly low, a round trip between LAX and Mammoth Yosemite Airport would cost $158, for the airfare alone.  But we all know that a vacation costs more than airfare.

At ParkSleepFly, you can book a three star hotel plus seven days of parking for less than $140, which is less than you could expect to pay were you to book your hotel through a separate entity, and park at the airport for those seven days.  For less than three hundred dollars, you’d have your roundtrip airfare, a hotel room to stay at the night before your flight (or the night after) and secure parking for the duration of your vacation, plus a complimentary shuttle service between your hotel and the terminal you’re flying from.

Of course you might make the trip for even less if you drive, but you’re looking at almost six hours driving for each leg of the journey.  If your car gets twenty miles to the gallon, you can also expect to pay over $130 in fuel, if fuel is at least $4.50 per gallon, which it likely will be by the time December rolls around.  You also could face some snowy roads, so if you drive the SUV or truck instead, you could expect to pay a good deal more in fuel.

ParkSleepFly means a relaxing trip with less stress.  You won’t have any traffic to deal with, and you can make your reservations ahead of time, so that you don’t have to miss out on a holiday trip in the rush of the holidays.

Caught a Late Flight? Stay overnight!

August 11, 2008 No Comments

The future of flying and the future of ParkSleepFly are obviously closely tied.  Already, several airlines offer in-flight Wi-Fi services for a small fee, or, in some cases, for free.  The significance of this development will touch the travel industry in many ways, but most important for ParkSleepFly customers is that you will be able to reserve a hotel room from tens of thousands of feet in the air.

Two possible situations are clear and easy to imagine.  Suppose you missed your flight home and caught a later plane, but now you won’t arrive at the airport until the wee hours of the morning.  You’ve already used ParkSleepFly to stay in a hotel and park the night before you departed, but you’re a bit nervous about driving back home without plenty of sleep, during a potentially dangerous driving time.  Perhaps, even, the weather is inclement back at the airport (this information could be known by accessing the internet of course).  You would be able to access ParkSleepFly in order to book a room so that you know you’ll enjoy a safe night’s sleep before your drive home.

Perhaps you were away on business, and you found out that you’d be returning for more meetings in a week’s time.  You could book your hotel room and parking during your flight, saving you time at home when you might want to spend time with your family or do some yard work (although not many people get excited about mowing their lawns).

The addition of Wi-Fi services to the array of in-flight conveniences will be a positive one, for airlines, for ParkSleepFly, but most importantly, for you, providing you consistent access to the internet and making reserving hotel and parking space even easier.

As Airlines Raise Prices, ParkSleepFly Saves Travelers Money

August 8, 2008 No Comments

Earlier this morning, MarketWatch published notification that American Airlines will begin charging fifty dollars in addition to fifteen thousand miles for any frequent-flier upgrades.  As fuel prices continue to rise (even though they’ve decreased a bit lately) airline prices will continue to soar.

Let’s look at a comparison.  Suppose you’re flying out of LaGuardia Airport in New York for a ten day trip, and want to stay at a hotel the night before you fly.  For the sake of example, suppose also that you’re flying American Airlines.  Not only will you face that extra fifty dollars (and fifteen thousand miles) for any upgrades, but parking and hotel arrangements through the airline (or any airline) are pricey as well.

If you’re taking the train into Manhattan, the least expensive stay at a two star hotel in the city of Manhattan will cost $39 per night, but chances are that hotel is pretty scary, but maybe you’re up for a bit of adventure.  If you take the train into the city, chances are you’ll take a cab to LaGuardia, which will cost upwards of $45 each leg of the journey, which you have to multiply by two because you’re going to have to get back to Grand Central somehow.  All in all, to stay at a scary hotel (which won’t give you peace of mind) and catch a cab to the airport will cost you around $130.  Granted that’s pretty inexpensive, but most people don’t stay at hotels in Manhattan for less than a hundred dollars a night and expect to rest.  Even so, dealing with traffic from the Big Apple to the airport is no picnic and can be quite stressful.

Let’s look at another option.  Suppose you book one night at the Clarion Hotel using Expedia for the first night in October of 2008.  For a single room for one adult, you could expect to pay around $175 for the night.  You drive your own car to LaGuardia, where parking averages $30 per day, which amounts to $300 for a ten day trip, bringing your total cost for hotel and parking to a whopping $475.

ParkSleepFly wants to give you another, less expensive version of this story.  For around $280, you can stay at that same hotel, the Clarion, for one night, and receive ten days of parking.  In addition, you’ll be driven to the airport by a complimentary shuttle that will take you directly to your terminal.  Providing peace of mind where your first booking option failed, and providing significant savings where the second option failed, ParkSleepFly wants you to be able to enjoy your travel experience for a more reasonable price.  Who knows, maybe that extra $50 American Airlines is asking for won’t seem so bad now that you can save almost 60% on your airport hotel and parking.

Travel Tip: Planning Ahead

August 7, 2008 No Comments

Planning ahead means more than washing your laundry and making sure your suitcase is ready to go by the time you need to head to the airport. You wouldn’t likely head to the airport without a ticket and expect to get onto the flight of your choice. What if the flight is full? What if you encounter unforeseen delays, such as long lines at security checkpoints? Similarly you wouldn’t expect to avoid all possible delays on the way to the airport, or even on your way home.

Traffic is an ever-present issue, along with finding a parking space, waiting in line for your boarding pass and getting through security to the gate where you might discover your plane was delayed. Or perhaps you hire a limousine or use a shared-ride service which eliminates the hassle of finding a parking space, but leaves you vulnerable to all other delays.

Planning ahead can keep your trip stress-free, and as the internet grows, so does ease of travel. Suppose you’re flying out on business or vacation, and the only flight you were able to reserve that would get you to your destination on time departs at six am. Most airports advise allowing up to two hours for getting your boarding pass, checking your luggage and passing through all of the necessary security checkpoints, but your flight is so early that you aim to arrive at the terminal at five in the morning. Let’s estimate that finding a parking space will take about a half hour, and then you have to get to the terminal itself, so you’ll want to reach the parking lot by four am. Give a half hour over to travel and you’re waking up, at the absolute latest, at three am. If you don’t fall asleep until ten the night before, that’s a maximum of five hours.

Five hours sleep will hardly leave you rested for that important business meeting or tours through the city of Rome, and chances are, any shut eye you manage to have on the flight itself won’t be terribly restorative. With a little bit of planning ahead, you can save over an hour of that early-morning rush, and save yourself the anxiety that would only be made worse by a lack of sleep.

ParkSleepFly has your solution. By offering accurate and easy-to-search quotes on hotel rooms and airport parking, you can plan to sleep at a hotel that’s located near the airport of your choice the night before you fly, or even the night you arrive (or both), saving you the hassle of delays and the danger of potentially driving while sleepy. Each search reveals a number of listings, all rated by industry standards as well as customer surveys.

With quick, easy and secure reservations, you can be on your way to a relaxing and safe trip, from the moment you book it to the moment you arrive home again.

Quality and Service Demands Increase…

August 6, 2008 No Comments

…And ParkSleepFly is meeting the challenge.  According to “10 Travel Trends,” written by Marvin Cetron in Travel Weekly (June 2008), current and future generations of travelers care most about services offered and the quality with which they’re executed.  Because of the ever-increasing growth of the internet, travelers are able to instantaneously make public their reviews of hotels and airlines.  Rather than try to stem this increase in public voice, ParkSleepFly encourages travelers to rate their experience at hotels they’ve booked with ParkSleepFly.

 

This feature not only provides an outlet for travelers to express the quality of their experiences, but adds a higher level of merit and usefulness to travelers who are looking to book reservations.  When searching for hotel accommodations on ParkSleepFly, customers receive not only a commercial rating of each hotel based on a five-star system, but the customer rating as well, based on customer surveys and shown as a rating of one to five stars.

 

Along with each customer rating, the number of surveys taken is shown, giving each rating a quantifiable value that further empowers the qualified customer rating, further than the commercial rating.  So what does this mean for travelers using ParkSleepFly to book their hotel and airport parking reservations?  Not only will customers be able to view the value assigned to each hotel by the standards of the industry, but also the value assigned to each hotel by their peers.

 

According to Cetron’s article, individuals ranging from their mid-twenties to over thirty-five years old relate more to their peers than any other traveling generation group.  This inter-generational bond provides the value behind each customer rating for each hotel found with ParkSleepFly, and ParkSleepFly provides the value of reserving hotel and airport parking ahead of time to make each trip more relaxing and therefore, more enjoyable.