There are travel apps and websites that can help travellers make their vacations easier and more comfortable. Users can check hotel rates, look for nearby restaurants, compare flights, get directions, and find things to do in a new city without having to do a ton of research across multiple websites.

However, there’s one thing that users should pay attention to: the fact that the information they receive depends on their location. How is that possible? It’s all due to IP geolocation.

Understanding What IP Geolocation is

An IP address refers to the particular network that’s used to access the internet. This information is used for IP geolocation in order to approximate your location. The system can usually provide the country or region, but not your exact home address.

Travel-related websites make use of this information in a number of ways. For instance, an online booking site may present you with prices or other deals depending on the country it determines you’re visiting from. A mobile travel application may also customise its services depending on your apparent location.

This might be useful in many ways, but it might also lead to some confusion when the location recognised by the website doesn’t match your actual location.

Location Can Change What You See

Imagine you’re planning a holiday from the UK. You search for hotels in Spain and see a particular price. Later, you’re already in Spain and check the same hotel again. The results could look different because the website now sees your connection as coming from another country.

Location can affect more than hotel prices, too. Some websites display different currencies or payment options depending on where visitors are connecting from. Others may show different local deals, availability, or content altogether.

This doesn’t necessarily mean a website is deliberately changing things to charge you more. There can be several reasons for regional differences, including taxes, local pricing, contracts, and availability.

Maps and Travel Apps Use Location Differently

IP geolocation is particularly useful when a website wants a rough idea of where you are, but it isn’t the same as GPS.

GPS on your mobile device can give much more accurate data about your location. That’s how navigation software can determine your current location even at street level and help you locate the nearest café. IP geolocation is more generalised. It can tell what city or area your connection appears to be coming from.

This can be very important when travelling. The website might think that you’re in one place because of your IP address, while your phone knows that you’re at a completely different location.

One way to see how much your IP address affects what websites detect is to connect through a different server. For example, a free VPN trial for Windows can let you test how a different IP address changes the location shown by a website.

Public Wi-Fi Can Make Things Less Predictable

Travel often means connecting to networks you don’t normally use. You might switch between hotel Wi-Fi, airport networks, cafés, mobile data, and other public connections throughout the day.

Each network can have a unique IP address, which doesn’t provide accurate geolocation all the time. For example, the IP address of a hotel network may show that the network is located in another city than the one you’re actually at.

In such a case, a travel site may occasionally show something that’s far from your location or show incorrect information.

What Travellers Should Keep in Mind

IP geolocation is helpful; however, it shouldn’t be considered a precise way of determining your geographical position. For example, if your travel app gives you the incorrect city or currency options, then there might be a problem with the IP address it’s picking up.

Additionally, it might be useful to pay attention to your device’s location settings as well as the location services that you allow for separate applications. And if you need high precision in your location, it’s better to use GPS rather than IP geolocation.

Once you know how location detection works, odd results on travel websites won’t be as confusing.