You are on a trip, smartphone or tablet in hand, and looking for a local entertainment deals: a dinner cruise, a facial scrub or billiards and pizza.
These days, we have countless local dear aggregators, including Groupon, Travelzoo and Liveingsocial, provide vouchers for 50% discount or more as they entice both local residents and bargain hunting tourists with to of entertainment options. The advantage is that you don’t need to print voucher, you only need to show it on your smartphone to the vendor.
Read Fine Print
These mobile apps detect locations, and help with looking to score a deal at spur of the moment when you are in town. Pay attention to the fine print, because you might have to wait several days or weeks prior your eligibility to redeem your voucher.
There is challenges sometimes you may need to call for reservation, by the time the eligiblity period stats or you reservation is accepted, your trip may be over or you have moved to the next destination.
Same Day Redeem
Groupon app best resolves the “when is the local deal redeemable” issue, all the deals can be redeemed that day – and that day only. For example, if you purchase a $12 Groupon voucher for next Sunday for $25 worth of food and drink at the Lafayette Grill and Bar in Manhattan, you would have to have arrived before 11pm that evening.
However if you change your plan and you don’t redeem the voucher, Groupon will refund your money back to your credit card.
Groupon Pros & Cons
Groupon is part of iPhone and Android apps and moblie website proides local deals for that day only in 25 markets in the USA and Canada.
Pros:
- Redeemable that day
- No minimum number of purchases required for deal to be come active
- Full, automatic discount if not used
- Greatest selection of daily deals in cities covered
- User reviews
- Driving and walking directions
- Same terms apply to all deals
Cons:
- Need to manually select city
- Deal overly skewed toward low-end budgets
Conclusion: You can not beat the number of deal options in cities where Groupn Now is implemented, the immediacy of redemption and the automatic refunds.
LivingSocial Pros & Cons
iPhone and Android apps and mobile website detects user location and offers daily deals in nearby cities in more than 550 market s in 25 countries.
Pros:
- Lots of cities and deals available for immediate redemption
- Links to Facebook pages of deal providers
- Steep discounts
- Driving directions
Cons:
- Not especially oriented toward travelers
- Deal terms vary vendor to vendor
Conclusion: Nice discount, but some offering such as yoga and dance classes are not especially geared toward visitors
Travelzoo Pros & Cons
Detects user location and provides local deals in more than 75 markets world wide on iPhone app.
Pros:
- Presents lots of information in concise, attractive way
- Deals purported to be vetted by editorial staff
- Discounts commonly more than 50%
- Deal roller scrolls local deal in various citites fro inspiration
Cons:
- Wait times to often several days or longer to redeem deals
- No reviews or driving directions
Conclusion: Since local deal feature is only about a year old and app only a few weeks, expect broader roll-out, like LivingSocial, local deals are more upscale than Groupon.
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