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Blind Break: Set Out for the Unknown.
By Accor
Wednesday, 1st April 2015
 

Have no idea where to go for your next trip? Can't make up your mind between Thailand and South Africa? Or perhaps you and your friend can't agree on the destination? Close your eyes and leave it to chance. 

Do you get excited about the thought of leaving?

Each year since 2004, a French show called Voyage en Terre Inconnue (Journey to an Unknown Land) has taken a celebrity to meet a little-known people. The programme's creator, Frédéric Lopez, goes with the stars, who don't know where they're heading until they are on board the aircraft.

In fact, it is only then that they learn which one of their suitcases was loaded onto the plane: the one packed with warm-weather clothes or the one filled with winter gear. For instance, Adriana Karembeu, the famous model, went to Ethiopia to meet the Amharas [1].

Blind booking will never take you to see the Masais or Dogons, but it lets you enjoy the fun of flying off to the unknown. The idea came about in the 1990s, when Priceline [2], the online booking site, launched a service called "Name your own price" [3]. Customers say how much they want to spend on a flight, car rental or accommodation, and then wait to see whether or not the airline, rental company or hotel accepts their bid.

To take the first steps in the art of adding a bit of mystery to your trip, it's a good idea to start with a hotel blind bookingservice. You're aware of your destination and have all your flight information, but don't know which hotel will accommodate you. On Priceline, you choose the neighbourhood where you want to stay, the number of the hotel's stars and the price. Then you pay. But careful, there are strings attached: if a hotel accepts your bid, you can neither cancel your reservation nor change your room.

The price of mystery

The biggest advantage is deep price discounts. For example, Julia Vallelunga paid $80 for a night in a four-star hotel in San Diego instead of the usual $350 for the same room [4]. Why are the prices so low? These sites let hotels fill their rooms at the last minute while avoiding publicity about unusual rates. In short, everybody's happy.

However, sometimes there are unpleasant surprises. For instance, a young woman named Aude was disappointed, to say the least, by her room in Athens. The hotel was in the right place and had the requisite number of stars, but she was unhappy with many details, like the carpet, which needed a good shampooing. Obviously, Aude could have avoided disappointment had she chosen the hotel and searched the Internet to find out what other travellers thought of it.[5]

Others, like Mathieu Dubois, have had excellent surprises. He and his wife blind booked a room in Florence. They weren't disappointed. "It wasn't our kind of place", he said, "but we took pictures of the room! The king-size bed was covered with a thick comforter and plenty of cushions. […] The clientele was quite well-off and we were travelling with our backpacks!" [6] 

To the unknown and beyond!

Vanessa, who is German, put it very well on her blog "Traveling Macaron" [7]. "As I see it", she wrote, "there are two kinds of people in the world: the ones who love surprises and the ones who hate them […] If you are a person who likes to be surprised, I suggest you try an airlines' blind booking" [8]. The airline promises to offer its passengers surprise flights. You know where you're taking offâ€"Germanyâ€"but not where you'll land.

Travellers are surprised but not completely disorientated. The blind booking service lets them choose the kind of break they want (or need!): festive or gay-friendly, urban tourism or winter sports, a cultural destination or a shopping spree. All it takes is a few clicks, and the customer finds out where he or she will go right after paying.

For those with an unquenchable thirst for the unknown, there are specialised travel agencies like Canada's Traditours, which since 2010 has been offering mystery trips [10] that come closest to those on Rendez-vous en Terre inconnue. For a price ranging between $6,000 and $10,000, travellers take off for a mysterious destination; the only hint being what kind of clothes the agency tells them to pack.

Customers don't find out where they're going until they reach the airport. And even then, they don't know if they'll stay there the whole time or go someplace else as well. To add to the sense of adventure, there's no TV or Internet, sometimes not even a phone!

The idea dawned on Jacques Rodier, the agency's president and founder, with a joke. One day, when he didn't have time to explain to a passing customer which destination he was working on, he said it was a secret. The word spread and many customers were enthusiastic about the idea of a mystery trip. Proof, if any were needed, that there are more people who love surprises than you think.

[1]  www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJAIUtxeDmc 

[2]  www.priceline.com/promo/name_your_own_price/hotels 

[3]  www.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/business/booking-a-high-end-hotel-without-knowing-its-name.html?_r=0  

[4]  www.lapresse.ca/voyage/trucs-conseils/201103/07/01-4376711-etre-pret-a-tout-pour-payer-moins-cher.php 

[5]  http://sosconso.blog.lemonde.fr/2014/10/29/les-bonnes-et-les-mauvaises-surprises-du-blind-booking-hotelier/ 

[6]  www.lapresse.ca/voyage/trucs-conseils/201103/07/01-4376711-etre-pret-a-tout-pour-payer-moins-cher.php 

[7]  www.travelingmacaron.com/blog/2014/10/13/have-you-heard-of-the-european-blind-booking

[8]  "As I see the world, there are two kinds of people out there: The ones that love surprises and the ones that hate them. […] If you are the person who likes to be surprised, I suggest you try Germanwings blind booking."

[10]  www.traditours.com/departs/mystere/mystere.php

NB: Article on hotel industry treds drafted by the Accor Group's communication department.

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