Bargain holiday sites and travel deals you should know about

Travellers have a lot to gain by exploring these lesser-known websites. Photo / Getty Illustration

For the past two decades we've been asking the internet to help plan our holidays for us.

From finding bargain flights to looking for that summer holiday bach in the sun, there are few queries and questions that travellers haven't tried to type into a searchbar.

With the likes of Google and Airbnb holding a 'virtual monopoly' on holiday searches, it's easy to overlook some amazing opportunities out there on the world wide web.

From international pet-sitters to cut-rate lounge passes, you'll want to make some space in your bookmarks ahead of reading this article.

Here's our list of travel sites to inspire tech savvy travellers:

The dog house: pet-sitting holidays

Bargain holidays with geat company. Photo / Trustedhousesitters.com

Looking for holiday accommodation on the cheap and don't mind a canine companion?

TrustedHousesitters.com

is a network of 1000s of pet owners and sitters around the world. First impressions are that the site is huge. You could be looking after terrapins in Tasmania, or mutts in Manhattan. We even found a charming nanny goat called Muriel in Interlacken Switzerland, who is looking for a sitter next April. It costs around $160 a year to join the programme and there is significant . . . erm, vetting of applicants. Yes, you're essentially paying to sit other people's animals, but the discount on accommodation is enormous. The company is another plus.

My house for yours?

Swap: holidays for the sharing economy. Photo / Lovehomeswap.com

Lovehomeswap.com takes the 'sharing economy' to its logical conclusion. For an annual signup fee of $17 you can join the programme. Essentially you put up your house in an Airbnb-like listing and look to trade for someone else's pied- à –terre. Once you've found someone willing to trade it's a simple swap arranged through the website. This could be anywhere in the world, or a simple exchange in the school holidays. There are over 260 listings in New Zealand alone.

Lounge access for less

Air travellers can lounge around in business for less. Photo / loungebuddy.com

Got time to kill in an airport but not money to burn? This app claims to get you into airport lounges without the need to spend loyalty points or splash out on a first class ticket. Loungebuddy.com allows you to buy access to lounges for as little as $40. We found access to lounges in the hubs of Dubai ($62) Singapore Changi ($42) and London Heathrow ($72) for a little over the opening rate. While Auckland's Air New Zealand lounge claims to be on the list of airports "coming soon", which is sure to not help with Koru crowding.

Lug less luggage

Lug around less luggage. Photo / sendmybag.com

The luxury of travelling light and still have your stuff at your destination is something people will pay for. Sendmybag.com is a courier service specifically for excess luggage. The site comes with a guarantee that the won't be beaten on price for door-to-door deliver. Having said that, the quoted price is a bit over what it would to send a standard check-in size bag via a New Zealand Post international courier, ($340.00 vs $265.54 for a 30kg bag). However the service comes with tracking and says it can collect a parcel with 48 hours' notice.

There's also a dedicated ski and snowboard service, so your gear will be waiting for you at the chalet ahead of your arrival: https://www.sendmybag.com/ship-skis