How a deal becomes a steal
Most "deals" are normal prices with a big number next to them. We publish a trip only when it costs far less than the real alternative for the same place and dates, with every required fee added and the catch shown up front. Most of what we look at never makes it here.
Where we look
Places where prices drop for a real reason, not marketing:
- Owner rentals. Timeshare and vacation-club owners renting weeks they won't use, on marketplaces such as RedWeek and owner forums such as TUG.
- Unsold cabins and tour spots. Cruise lines and tour operators marking down departures they haven't filled, from their own special-offer pages and newsletters.
- Cruise price history. Public lists from Cruiseplum, which tracks what each sailing has been selling for, so we can tell a real drop from a brochure discount.
- Hotel prices against similar hotels. Daily checks of hotel and all-inclusive resort prices in popular destinations, flagging rates far below what similar hotels charge for the same nights (or, where there aren't enough similar ones, far below what the same hotel usually charges).
- Relocations. Rental companies paying travelers, or charging almost nothing, to move campervans and cars one way.
- Airfares. Fares other travelers found in the last few days on Aviasales, from 18 big US cities. A fare at about half its route's going rate is then checked on Google Flights for the exact dates and compared with Google's typical price for that trip.
- Deal newsletters and tips. Dozens of cruise, tour, fare and travel-deal newsletters, plus tips from readers.
Software watches these sources around the clock and scores each offer. The promising ones go to research, which is done with the help of AI tools. Where the evidence is fully structured, the software does the research itself: cruise drops from Cruiseplum's daily price checks (the fare and the sailing's own average come from the same place; these are labeled "Steal if" because we haven't confirmed the cabin on the cruise line's own booking page) and airfares confirmed on Google Flights. Each steal page lists the sources we checked, with the time we checked them.
How we check one
1. Price it for the whole party
We add every required cost for the party shown: rent and booking fees, resort and cleaning fees, taxes and port fees, cruise gratuities, insurance a rental requires, fuel on a road trip. Fees we can only estimate are labeled approximate. Things you might pay but don't have to, like flights to a rental or drinks on a cruise, are listed as not included rather than left out.
2. Compare it like for like
We compare against what you'd otherwise pay for the same thing, and say how strong that comparison is:
| Comparison | What it means | Savings needed |
|---|---|---|
| Strong | The same unit or cabin, same dates, same terms, from another seller. | 35% |
| Good | The same place and dates with the differences spelled out (say, a smaller hotel room at the same resort), or the same sailing's own price history. | 35% |
| Typical | What similar trips cost: sailings in the same region, cabin type and booking window; hotels of the same type, star class and guest rating for the same dates; or the same hotel's usual rate. | 40% |
| Not enough | A seller's crossed-out "was" price, or a cruise "% off brochure". Brochure fares are list prices almost nobody pays. | Never published on this alone |
3. Score it
The savings and comparison strength matter most. Savings are measured against what similar trips cost whenever we know it, not against a seller's own sticker, so an overpriced resort's big markdown can't outscore a good-value resort's modest sale. The score also weighs how much money you'd save, whether the price is low for that kind of trip in that place, whether anything still has to be confirmed, how recently we checked, and how serious the catches are. A trip has to clear the bar on every check: dates, a full total, every required cost priced, enough savings on good enough evidence, a recent check, catches listed, and a way to book it.
What the labels mean
- Verified: every check passed and nothing else has to happen for you to book it at this price.
- Steal if: it passes, but something outside our control still has to happen, such as an owner confirming the dates. The condition is stated first on the page.
- Gone: sold or expired. We keep the page as a record, marked clearly, with how long it lasted.
What we never do
- Sell placements or let a commission decide what we publish. Some booking links may earn us a commission at no cost to you; a deal that pays us nothing gets the same treatment. You book directly with the seller.
- Call a subtotal "all-in" or hide a required fee.
- Use a seller's "was" price or a brochure discount as proof.
- Pad the page with ordinary deals when nothing clears the bar. An empty list is an honest answer.
Prices change
Every steal shows when we last checked it, and we re-check live steals regularly. If you find one gone or the price changed, use "Tell us" on its page and we'll re-check it.