Alternative travel options for booking your next trip

Kayak, hotwire, Travelocity, Trivago, Expedia … the list of sites to help you compare and save on airfare, hotels, and more is endless! But are there other ways to save that also save you time?

How do you save for a vacation?

While your best bet for comparing hotel rates may be something like hotels.com, why not ditch that option all together? Try searching for home or condo vacation rentals using sites like VRBO or AirBnb.

These put the planning in your hands and give you more flexibility. You can also list your home and possibly find someone who wants to pay you while you’re away! Even better, you may have the option to house sit for someone else! If you don’t mind taking a few minutes to feed a cat or water a plant, try sites like housecarers.com to find out if you can save big at your next vacation destination.

Finally, you could try online auction. Sites like skyauction.com may be able to help you find some extremely inexpensive stays in some upscale resorts, if you bid correctly.

Just be on the lookout for blackout dates and sneaky last-minute out bidders.
Before you plan, check out credit card options that could benefit you in the long run. Credit karma lists top options for not only travel rewards cards, but top cards for collecting airline miles too.

Contributors to this news report include: Gabriella Battistiol, Producer; Roque Correa, Videographer and Editor.