Author ∣ Advocate ∣ Journalist
Smart Consumer is a weekly syndicated column that offers smart, actionable advice to customers. If you’re interested in publishing this feature, please contact Elliott directly at chris@elliott.org or (202) 370-7934.
The world’s worst travel fee may be history.
Mandatory resort fees, which can add hundreds of dollars to the cost of your hotel stay, could disappear if a lawsuit filed this week by the District of Columbia’s Attorney General is successful.
Read more “Is the world’s worst travel fee about to disappear?”
Every day brings new reports of tourists dying in the Dominican Republic. Airlines have loosened their refund rules to accommodate the wave of cancellations, but a lot of visitors are wondering: What happens if I get sick on vacation?
“Many domestic health care plans may not be accepted outside the U.S., and Medicare won’t cover medical expenses abroad,” says Daniel Durazo, a spokesman for Allianz Travel Insurance. “So it’s especially important to get travel insurance with medical benefits and emergency medical transportation when traveling internationally.”
Read more “Don’t get sick on vacation (unless you have one of these)”
Karl Steiner’s lab in Austin, Texas, looks like a CIA interrogation facility. Surveillance cameras monitor every corner of the windowless room. A row of mannequin heads wearing electrodes stare into the unforgiving fluorescent light. Its most distinguishing feature is a pane of one-way glass along a wall.
Hard to believe that it’s all for fun, but it is. Steiner heads a secretive 20-person research team at the vacation rental site Vrbo.
Read more “This secret lab will help you have a better vacation”
A proposed new law that regulates peer-to-peer car sharing companies may quietly kill an emerging business in Maine. But the repercussions could be felt across the country.
If it did, it would represent an important victory for the car rental industry, which says it’s trying to create a level playing field to compete with companies such as Getaround and Turo.
Read more “Will this new law kill car sharing?”
There’s no shortage of expert tips for buying travel insurance online. But where’s a pro when you really need one?
That’s what Mike Mehta wanted to know when he contacted me recently. “Is travel insurance worth buying?” he asked. “Do you have any recommendations for reasonably priced travel insurance providers?”
Read more “Don’t go anywhere without these expert tips for buying travel insurance”
