There were no restaurants, shops or public transportation. In Jamaica, the tiny resort was secluded on the southern shore. "When I got there, everybody was on the coupon," she said. It was for Little Bay Cabins over Christmas week. The biggest flash sale trip Colvin ever booked was a five-day Jamaican vacation she bought last year for $399 on LivingSocial. Still, for buyers, it's hard to tell if a deal is a deal until you buy one. (The smaller DealChicken, an initiative run by Free Press parent company Gannett, issues no independent financial data.)Īs these sites struggle to remain vibrant and compete against upstarts, they are rolling out shiny new travel baubles to lure buyers - like LivingSocial's new coupon code section introduced this month. LivingSocial, with about 16.6% of the market, lost $650 million. The biggest, Groupon, with 59.1% of the market according to a new IBISWorld report, lost $67.4 million last year. Upscale Jetsetter is now owned and pitched by middle-of-the-road TripAdvisor.Īnd some daily deal companies are struggling financially. DealChicken offers complex deals from multiple travel partners. In addition, it is getting harder to know exactly who is selling the trip. (See "Deal or not?" for a sample of our findings.) We found that about a third of the time they either were not the lowest price or involved a lot of red tape. The Free Press looked at 22 travel daily deals on multiple sites. Most people know Groupon and similar sites for vouchers for $20 massages and $12 manicures.īut buying travel on these sites costs hundreds or thousands more. "You have to realize that you're likely to get businesses that are not on the regular track of marketing, so they think Groupon will help." That afternoon, we stopped at seven wineries getting Riesling refreshed, pinot primed (and for a few, Gewurtztraminer hammered).Ĭolvin revealed she'd also been skydiving and to Jamaica on travel flash deals. "Groupon has greatly improved my social life because I have to ask friends to go somewhere with me," said Colvin of Hazel Park, sitting in the fancy black Grand Traverse Tours bus with her mother as it trundled through the rainy Leelanau countryside. So did Diane Colvin of Hazel Park, a veteran flash deal traveler. It was a Groupon find - $99 for a five-hour wine tour of the Leelanau for two.
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