Want an awesome family vacation without having to do any planning? Why not buy someone else’s? Transfer Travel is like eBay for vacations and it lets you buy someone else’s already booked travel tickets and accommodations they no longer need.

Simon Powell founded Transfer Travel after he was stuck with his own fully-booked trip to Dubai thanks to an unplanned split from his partner. It was the receptionist at Powell’s hotel that prompted the idea when she asked if he could find someone to take his hotel room and pay him back for it.

Just like eBay, sellers can list their tickets or hotel rooms at full cost (the Buy It Now price), but there’s also plenty of room to score a deal as buyers can make lower offers. Any additional fees, like the cost of changing names on a booking, falls on the seller. Transfer Travel confirms each listing to make sure it’s a genuine booking. To protect buyers, the site also waits to release the money to sellers until after the booking is used.

On the flip side, if you’ve ever had to give up that family trip because of sick kids, this service can ensure you won’t lose your vacation and your money. According to research from Transfer Travel, illness is the number one reason vacations get canceled and around 220,000 booked and paid hotel rooms go unused in the United States each year. Currently, you can find around 1,000 open listings at Transfer Travel.

—Shahrzad Warkentin

Featured Photo: Free-Photos via Pixabay

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