Whether it’s booking hotels or apartments or flights, it’s become so easy for anyone to do so with confidence and the customer is really in control.

Flying over the land of the long white cloud on my way to Queenstown, I had a chance to reflect on the booking journey that got me on this Air New Zealand A320 flight from Auckland this afternoon (November 4).

And I can’t help thinking how easy it is for anyone to book travel these days once you know what you’re looking for. It really has become about me.com as travellers get more empowered to plan and book their travels on the web.

What I wanted this time was to stay put in one place for a while and because I am travelling with a first-timer to New Zealand, I decided on Queenstown as a good base. I hadn’t been for a couple of years.

I asked a friend whom I trusted (no, not on Facebook but on WhatsApp) – she’s a regular visitor to Queenstown and we have pretty similar tastes – for a recommendation on where to stay. I didn’t want a hotel, but an apartment.

She came back instantly with a couple of places. I went online to booking.com and hotels.com and checked prices for The Rees. Both sites displayed similar rates for what I had in mind. I chose to book on hotels.com because I wanted to check out their Welcome Rewards scheme. The booking was painless and my points were instantly credited to my account.

I then googled flights from Auckland to Queenstown and checked webjet.co.nz for best fares. Jetstar showed the best fares and so I went to their website, found the flights I wanted and proceeded booking.

But the process was tedious – different fares, too many steps and each step asking me if I wanted to add this or add that, with conditions at every stage I felt I had to read so that I’d know what I was getting myself into. By the time it got to the baggage part, I gave up – I couldn’t decide at this stage how much baggage I’d have and needed – and by the time I added it all up, it was showing almost S$500 for two tickets.

I decided to switch to Air New Zealand, found two types of fares on offer which included everything (baggage, ability to change, etc) and decided to book right away. Couple of steps and I was done – it cost more than Jetstar – but I didn’t mind paying for the simpler experience.

This is where low cost airlines have to be careful – I think customer fatigue among customers will set in as they try and squeeze ancillary revenues from travellers at every stage.

A week before my flight, I get an email from Air New Zealand reminding me of my flight, and advising me about the weather in Queenstown, cars I could rent, hotels I could book and what I could do. I liked the huge visuals in the email – it made me look forward to my trip.

I have booked countless times on Singapore Airlines and the only thing you get is a boring text email advising you of your flight details – bland and anonymous even though I am supposed to be a Kris Flyer Gold member.

I also like the way ANZ injects personality into its inflight experience. The safety video this time is a parody of Lord of The Rings – it’s fun yet it keeps to safety regulations. The last time I flew with them, fitness guru Richard Simmons was doing the safety instructions.

In Auckland, I decided to look for an apartment to stay (again instead of a hotel). I googled “Auckland short term apartments” and booking.com came up. I found what I wanted – a city location, two bedrooms, wifi and gym included – and booked immediately.

Where hotels.com pushes loyalty, booking.com is big on personalisation. I like the intuitive user interface, which tells you while you’re deciding, its rating, how many people looked at this place, when was the last booking made, if you can get a refund, how many are left – it prompts you towards making a decision with trust and confidence.

Upon booking, I get an instant confirmation, I create my account and it’s super simple to manage my booking. Plus it offers me the option to share my booking if I wish to.

This to me is the secret sauce to booking.com’s success – they’ve made the customer experience so simple and intuitive that anyone can book with confidence, and perhaps this is what wins customer loyalty more than points.

So anyway that was the online part of my journey, I’ll tell you more in my next post about my actual experience on the ground in Queenstown. Can’t wait to get out there to breathe in that fresh spring air.