Introducing new travel packages to make ordering easier

JetSetBabies recently added new baby vacation packages that include an array of baby travel supplies perfect for your week at the beach, week in the woods, week at a hotel with a pool, or a week on the ski slopes. Each package contains baby bottom care products such as diapers, wipes, changing pads and disposal bags, some feeding utensils, bath products, and then items specific to each trip. The week on the beach adds swimmers, sunscreen, bottle cooler, beach blanket, and other items to make ordering your baby supplies a breeze !

Now you just click on one item in the shopping cart and make your diaper brand and size choices, wipes brands, and all the other selections from one screen for quick ordering. Baby food, formula, snacks and other items can be added to the order - and you are on your way to a fabulous vacation with baby.

Simple, fast, affordable shopping for your trip. Just one more way that JetSetBabies makes travel with babies and toddlers easier! And our new photos are so fun!

Week at the Pool:

Week at the beach:

Think you got a good travel deal? Check your math.

Everyone is offering specials and deals to entice the traveler to their locations this summer. But before you fall for the headlines, recheck the math. For example, a hotel offering a special that includes "the fourth night free" equates to a 25% savings on the rate. This sounds like a great deal and many fall for the "FREE" offer, but an overall 30% off the entire stay will result in a greater savings. Another gimick is 50% off of one night. However, if you are staying for five nights in the hotel, this equates to only 11% savings overall based on the price, or 14% off when comparing the fourth night free deal.

If you have your heart on a particular hotel, ask for a discount, and don't be afraid to haggle. Many hotels are not filling up and will offer discounts to get your business. Keep in mind that even if they won't lower the room rate, they might be able to throw in extra amenities such as free breakfast, or discount tickets to a nearby attraction.

Other cost saving measure is to consider paying the extra money for a suite with a kitchen and preparing your own meals. With the cost of eating out rising, this could save you a lot of money on your trip. But again, do the math and make sure you will use the in-room kitchen often enough to save the money on eating out. Personally, eating out is part of the vacation experience and something we seldom do when at home, so I don't mind paying the extra money for restaraunt food. Don't forget to look for the "kids eat free" deals at many hotels. This is a great way to help you save money.

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Green Hotels

Hotels are finally getting on board and doing more to help the planet than limiting their washing. Wyndham Hotels won an award in March for implementing uniforms made from recycled plastics.


My favorite green story is one that appeared recently in our local paper. It reported that the Sheraton housekeeping staff in Santa Monico has ditched their skin-chapping bleach and pungent ammonia for spray bottles filled with electrolyzed water to clean toilets and sinks. Electrolyzed water is also being used to disinfecting produce making the lettuce last longer. This whole process saves money and is safer for the guests and the environment. I personally hope more hotels go in this direction.



Looking for other green hotels? Check out the list on the "Green" Hotel Association website.

Kudos to the Disney Swan Dolphin Resort

My view of judging a company's customer service is not how they do things right - but how do they respond when something does go wrong. We ship packages on a daily basis to the many Disney resorts in Lake Buena Vista Florida at Walt Disney World. In the six years of doing business with Disney I can't remember ever having a problem or a lost package. So I was very surprised when last Sunday night our JetSetBabies phone rang and it was a customer who had just arrived at the Disney Swan Dolphin Resort and had been told they could not find her JetSetBabies package.



I first looked through our notes on the package and we had called the hotel a few days prior and spoken with an employee at the Concierge Desk and he confirmed that he had the package and it would be held there until the guest arrived Sunday. I called the concierge desk immediately and talked to the person working that night. The employee we spoke with had already left for the day, the package was not there, and it had not been logged in their book. He stated that he had put in a call to security to look for the package.



I then called my employee who had spoken with the hotel earlier in the week. He stated that he still had the number for the Receiving Dept at Swan Dolphin and he had originally spoken with the department manager - he would call again and see if he could reach anyone.



Well, this is where I think Disney really shined. My employee dialed the number. The Receiving Department was closed but the phones forwarded to Department Manager's cell phone who answered our call at 8:30 p.m. on a Sunday night. He said he remembered everything clearly - he knew exactly where the package was, and if the security guard was unable to find it, please call him back and he would drive into work and get it for the guest!! Now that isn't just good service - that is what I consider great service.



By the time I called the concierge back with this information, they had already found the package, and had delivered it to the guests room. I called our customer as she was unpacking the box. She was thrilled and I was thrilled. So hats off to Disney Swan Dolphin for an opportunity for both of us to show our great customer service skills!

Trekaroo - kids, trips and tips.

Trekaroo is a trip planning website that is designed specifically to help parents overcome the stress of traveling with kids. Trekaroo takes intuitive tools and combines them with the power of a fast-growing, grassroots community of moms and dads. The website is designed to connect users to a community of families who have traveled to popular destinations all over the world. Parents can use search tools that allow them to discover tips and ideas based on their budget or their children’s ages.

Trekaroo is a fast-growing, grassroots community of parents who are passionate about exploring the world with their kids. It’s a guide filled with thousands of activities and places to stay ranked by the reviews of moms and dads and also a place to get your travel questions answered by knowledgeable parents who’ve already been there.

Next time you are ready to plan a trip, find tips or have travel questions please visit http://www.trekaroo.com/ to see how is works.

P.S. - keep watching for a chance to win some great prices from Trekaroo and JetSetBabies!

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Travel Deals

Two weeks ago I purchased airline tickets for my family to travel to Washington DC this summer. The Northwest Airline tickets from Minneapolis to Washington DC were a great bargain at $250 each! However, ever since them I have been hearing stories of airline ticket discounts and worried - did I pay too much? I just finished checking on Expedia and discovered the tickets are actually higher today by $48 than when I bought them. That's good new for me...but made me wonder about other travel deals.

Here are a couple of great items I found in about 15 minutes of research. Expedia currently has a "No Booking Fee" special going on for a limited time. This is worth looking into further.

And of course my favorite travel site Travel + Leisure has some fabulous bargains on hotel specials right now. The one that I liked the best was Caribbean Beach Resorts from $125! That's a great deal and we have alot JetSetBabies customers traveling to places like Aruba, St. Croix, St. Maarten, and other islands right now. In addition, to great airline discounts, and great hotel rates, international shipping prices are down slightly also. So shipping your JetSetBabies packages are also a bargain compared to six months ago.

For more great travel bargains, including airline tickets from NYC to Spain for $150!! check out Travel + Leisure Hot Deals.

Kids Travel Happy

KidsTravelHappy.com is a website dedicated to high quality, unplugged travel games, toys, lap trays, books and activities for kids of all ages. Items are great for on the go, or play at home. They also have a small storefront in Bethel, Maine that’s open 3 days a week.

Their goal is to help other families embark on the great adventure of travel with their kids. With a little luck, their products make the whole experience a bit easier and less stressful for all involved. Another unique aspect of KidsTravelHappy.com is that they provide 7 options for on-the-go playing surfaces (trays and lap desks depending on age, car seat type, travel mode etc.). Then, one can shop by tray type to find which toys work best for their choice. OR, there is the ‘no tray necessary’ category.

Please check them out at KidsTravelHappy.com for more info.

http://www.kidstravelhappy.blogspot.com/

Tastybaby - organic baby food

Are you looking for some great organic baby food? If so Tastybaby takes strides to make sure their baby food is high in nutritional value, healthy & delicious. They make 100% USDA-certified organic products gluten-free and as unrefined as possible by leaving out any preservatives, trans-fats, sugar or salt. They want to ensure that you or your child can enjoy Tastybaby without the worry of an adverse reaction. They are happy to assure you that all 10 Tastybaby flavors are 100% USDA-certified organic & gluten-free. Packed with vitamins & nutrients (thanks to state-of-the-art blast-freezing technology), easy single servings are as eco-friendly as they are palate-pleasing. They use BPA-free / recyclable containers & biodegradable cardboard printed with vegetable-based inks.

At Tastybaby, they embrace the idea that foods should be processed or altered to the bare minimum. Ideally, they would all live on farms and grow the food we eat. Some lucky folks, like the Organic farmers who grow our ingredients, actually do. The rest of us have to recreate that organic simplicity in our own lives.Organic foods are grown without toxic pesticides and fertilizers and are minimally processed without artificial ingredients, preservatives, irradiation or cloning. Organic foods are produced without antibiotics, synthetic hormones, genetic engineering, sewage sludge and other dangerous practices.And Organic food tastes great! The color and vibrancy of natural ingredient are left unadulterated, so the delicious, natural flavor of fruit and vegetables is undeniable.

I tried these great products out on my son and he loved them. The shipping was quick, the packing was great and they were easy to store.

Check out http://www.tastybaby.com/ for more info.

Latest in baby travel gear - the POP-A-TOT

The lastest baby travel gear item is now available at JetSetBabies, and its wonderful. The Pop-A-Tot is a portable stationary activity center for babies 6-18 months. PopATot gives you a safe environment for your child when you're busy doing something else; and it goes everywhere! Literally, take it everywhere, because you never know when you need a safe place for your child. The perfect travel gear for baby - use it in your hotel room, at the beach, at the park. PopATotTM opens and closes in seconds with one hand -- while you hold your child with the other. This high quality sports gear for your child comes with a shoulder bag and is perfect for camping, backyards, baseball and soccer games, Grandma's house, the beach, or wherever you need a safe place for your child. It's the most practical baby sports gear in your collection of kids stuff.

We tried one out before offering to our customers and we loved it - as did the children of the moms who work for JetSetBabies. Its light (only 8 pounds) and compacts small and comes with a tote bag for easy carrying. It sets up easily and has loops to tie down baby's toys, and has cup holders for babies drinks and snacks.

We think you'll love it, too! And for a limited time, we have it on-sale so check it out today.

Making sense of all the airline baggage fees

It's been difficult to keep up with all of the different airline policies and prices on number of bags allowed in carry-on and checked baggage, as well as the various overweight bags. In additional to the three different types of fees, the prices change depending on whether you are flying first class, economy, national or international and more!

Now there is a source of information that has all this information on one website and the data is accurate and easy to understand. The website is Airline Ala Carte and it is the perfect resources to make sense of all the confusion.

In addition to containing baggage fees there is a great page containing other resource information to websites that track flight status, travel documents, the TSA, and other resources.

Airline Ala Carte is definitely the place to go for reviewing baggage charges and policies!