The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Can using a VPN save you money when booking a holiday?
Using a virtual private network (VPN) could help travellers save money while booking holidays this summer, according to a new study. Research released by cybersecurity company NordVPN has shown that those living in Britain are being charged hundreds of pounds more for hotel stays and car hire than overseas customers.
The study found that a two-week package holiday to Bali cost 35 per cent more (an additional £460) on the UK version of the agoda.com website, setting Britons back £1,774 for two adults as opposed to the £1,314 quoted on the Indonesian version of the site.
So would British travellers be better off booking their next holiday with a VPN? We reveal how the technology works and what savings it could bring.
WHAT DOES A VPN DO?
It allows users to browse the internet from a different location, without leaving their home, by creating an encrypted connection or “tunnel” between their device and a remote server in another country, through which all of their web traffic passes.
HOW MUCH CAN YOU SAVE? Following its research, NordVPN concluded that consumers are subject to “wildly fluctuating” prices for car hire, cruises and theme parks depending on where they log on – so Telegraph Travel put this to the test.
While there was no variation in flight prices when we searched both the British Airways and easyJet sites, nor in the prices quoted by some major hotel brands, car hire costs varied enormously. There was a staggering £164 difference in the cost of renting a small car in Faro, Portugal, for a week in June.
Using Hertz.com from a virtual location in the United States, we were quoted £52.36 to hire a Fiat 500. This rose to £196.95 when we searched from a location in the UK and £216.73 when we did so from Portugal.
The available dates for some holidays also varied from country to country. For example, searching for a Norwegian Fjords cruise from the US offered only August departures – at twice the price of the July departures available to searchers in the UK and Australia.
Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at NordVPN, says: “Never assume you are getting the same deal as everyone else. Your location, the number of times you visit a website, and how your search fits in with the school holiday schedule can all influence the price you are offered. Online tracking used by travel websites means they can tell what holiday we are looking for before we do, while algorithms can adjust holiday prices to the spending power of different countries.”
There was no clear pattern on which country gave the best prices, so finding bargains will take patience and effort – and it is vital to read the small print when booking to ensure you are not breaking the law.
IS IT LEGAL TO USE A VPN TO GET LOWER FARES?
While some governments ban VPNs or place restrictions on their use, most of Europe, Canada and the United States permits them to be deployed.
“It is legal to use VPNs in most countries, so there are no laws against using [one] to access better deals,” says Briedis. “In most cases, using a VPN to search for better travel deals is perfectly legal. However, falsifying your address details to make it look as though you are a resident of the country you are visiting is not best practice, as the hotel may question this when you arrive.”