tidy

I often see where people have used the different discount sites to book hotel rooms, etc.I have never done that , I usually go directly to Hotel's website when possible. What has your experience been like for those of you that have used these different sites? Do you have a favorite site?

Southam

There is no simple answer to your question. Of course you can book hotels from many different travel sites; it's become a big business. But because of the arcane and mysterious ways the hotels manage their inventories, the prices offered for the same room in the same hotel can vary widely from site to site. I've picked up rooms from agencies cheaper than the hotel's own site was offering. Some of the biggest sellers have access to sell-offs or blocks of rooms. The only solution: Shop around -- carefully, paying attention to methods of payment and cancellation policies as well as price.

CarolA

For small "family" owned it's often only possible to book directly.

For others I do look at all my options. Generally I price the hotel website and at least one TA type site (expedica, booking etc..) For high priced places, like London, I will check everyplace I can

outwest

I've used booking.com many times and have had no problems. I also check hotel websites directly and have sometimes found better prices that way but often they're the same price as booking.com. I like booking.com because I'll see hotels that I wouldn't have known about otherwise.

I always write to the hotel afterwards to confirm my booking, though.

hetismij2

It depends on teh hotel.
For smaller hotels i usually go direct to the hotel, though I do always check their price on Booking.com or hotels.com first.
For big hotels I nearly always use a booking site - though I always compare the prices carefully to see which is best, a booking site or the hotel.

A couple of years ago my nephew was getting married at a hotel near York. The hotel offered a special wedding rate, which was lower than their rack rate - but on booking.com I found the same hotel offering the same standard of room for half the price of the wedding rate. Needless to say I booked it that way.

Rastaguytoday

Also check www.venere.com - a pretty good European website.

The things I like about these folks is that they show hotels on maps and have actual reviews of folks who stay there.

Given that, I almost always book the hotels individually.

LSky

I don't mind shopping, so I shop around. Sometimes I get a good deal, sometimes I find out that the deal I got was the best.

I always confirmed before I leave.

Weegie

These days I use Trivago. Pulls together all the booking agencies and ranks them by best price for any particular hotel. Very useful.

ira

Hi t,

I often use booking dot com.
Usually lower prices, free cancellation and modifications.
In a recent transaction, I was able to change dates and keep the same rate, even though it had risen since my original booking.

I have not found that I've been treated less well because of how I made the reservation.

tidy

Thanks, certainly a few new sites I had not heard of.

qwovadis

priceline.com best big city values bidding for up to 70% off
www.betterbidding.com hotwire.com good values easier for newbies
booking.com also owned by priceline for discount no bid.
eurocheapo.com budget tips and lodging.
In europe I always use a credit card
if dealing with smaller hotels apartments many scammers
Have seen good folks lose thousands by not being careful.
Reputable booking sites that take CC always wiser for me.

Happy Planning!

Mathieu

I use booking dot com, hotel dot com, hotwire dot com and priceline for hotels only, and have had advantageous price experiences with all four. Hotwire tells you almost everything except the name of your hotel until you book and pay (I've had good experiences with this in all cases) and one of them (I forget which one) even compares their price with venere and two others once you investigate a particular hotel. My best advice to you is to go on the sites and familiarise yourself with them and you'll see how they work. Once you've done that, check with the hotel's website, just in case.
I've never found the hotel's website to give me a better price, but I have found that they have more hotel locations that the discount wholesaler sites offer, and for obvious reasons.

I've also found the booking and confirmation processes to be efficient and easy to use for all of them, and have never had a problem when checking into a hotel.

Mimar

I almost always communicate directly with the hotel. I seek out smaller hotels with lots of local character. Even if these hotels are available through a booking service, often the best rooms aren't or only a few of the best rooms. And, after an exchange of emails, I find I get more personal service when I arrive. After all, they won't have to pay a fee to the booking site.

PatriciaOne

I've used Priceline successfully and pleased with the result. I pick out the area we want to be in then choose no less than four star facility. Bids have been $100 per night and accepted. All my hotels were in good areas and all the rooms were fine....some better than others but none we had to bail on.

annhig

I usually end up using booking.com. IME they to have the best overall prices and the most userfriendly website. for example, I just needed to book a hotel for work in Bristol, and realised that I'd inadvertently booked rooms over the bank holiday. it was the work of a moment to go to the website and modify my booking.

if I'm looking for something smaller, eg with our trip to Holland in April, i started off with Trip Advisor and the big consolidators, but ended up booking direct.

I've never found that there's been any difference in attitude with reception staff according to how I booked, in fact one or two have remarked what I good rate I got booking the way I did.

I think that the only answer is to play around with the various sites and the hotel's own website til you get the best deal - there is no "one size fits all" with hotels.

Pepper_von_snoot

I ALWAYS use www.kayak.com to find the cheapest flights and hotel rooms. Kayak allows you to comparison shop.

And I usually find that booking through Expedia gets me the best deals.

Tschuss,
Pepper

Tentek

Another plug for hotwire.com. I have used Priceline and expedia too. I find that I always ended up paying more that I should on Priceline. You are bidding against yourself, because you don't know where the floor is exactly. Hotwire tells you its lowest price for the 4-star or 3-star hotel or however many stars you want in the neighborhood you are targeting.

I also have used it for car rentals but only within the US.

annhig

tentek - out of interest i just tried hotwire.com for booking Bristol, but you can't see where the hotel is, and i want to be able to walk to court where I'll be working for the week.

so it doesn't really work for me.

suec1

My experience has been that pretty much the only time you find a lower price on a booking site is if you pre-pay which I really don't want to do. I prefer to deal directly with the hotel for a variety of reasons. I recently booked a hotel in Portugal - I had emailed them a question before booking and in their response they offered me a 10% discount for a direct booking - nice. I do usually check a few sites before going to the hotel webpage to get an idea of price, but almost always booking direct is the same as any of the travel engines.

simpo

I would suggest you deal direct with the hotel.
On March 29, 2012, I booked a no deposit, free cancellation, breakfast included stay at a hotel for September, 2012. I checked very carefully with the fine print and terms and conditions that no deposit would be charged and there would be free cancellation. Immediately after I filled in the credit card info and submitted the booking, the confirmation I got back from Booking.com was Non-refundable, breakfast not included in the title, but free cancellation and breakfast included in the body of the confirmation. The confirmation also said no deposit has been paid.

I immediately contacted Booking.com via email and told them about the discrepancy in the title and body of the confirmation. The reply from Booking.com was that they checked with the hotel and that it should be non-refundable and breakfast not included. They apologized for the confusion and inconvenience but refused to rectify the mistake.

I replied to them that if it is non-refundable then I did not want the booking because that is not what was shown at the Booking.com website and please cancel the booking, which they did not do.

Then a couple days later we saw a charge of $730.43 (for the entire stay) charged to our card by some company in the city I am travelling to, but not under the hotel name. The charge was made March 30, 2012 , one day after I complained to Booking.com about their mistake. I logged in on Booking.com to our account to see our booking and still saw the booking showing as no deposit has been paid.

After two emails to no avail, I called their 1-866 number and told them about the charge to my credit card, and asked why the Booking.com confirmation says no deposit has been paid. When I show up at the hotel half a year later, how can I proof that I paid in full already.

Booking.com at first said they would not charge our card but they have no control what the hotel would do after Booking.com has supplied the hotel with my credit card info. So they were not going to do anything. I insisted that Booking.com provide me a receipt or confirmation of my payment for the entire stay at the hotel because the confirmation they have provided me says otherwise, meaning that even though I have paid the entire sum half a year before I arrive, I have no proof and might still be asked to pay again. Only then did they agree to call the hotel to see if the charge on my card was done by the hotel, and they did find out from th hotel that the charge was for the hotel stay and they did get the receipt from the hotel and emailed me the confirmation.

So I still end up having to absorb Booking.com's mistake. I did not want to pay for the hotel 6 months up front, I ended up having to. Booking.com, while acknowledging it''s their mistake, said that if I wanted to cancel it, they will only refund half of it! Also, now it is totally non-refundable, and cannot be cancelled. No breakfasts included either.

Lessons learned:
1. DO NOT BOOK THROUGH BOOKING.COM
2. If you really have to book through them, make sure you do a Print Screen of the rates and free cancellation term of the deal you are booking first, before you proceed to fill in their booking form. The Print Screen will also show the time of your booking. Then they cannot say you misunderstood or misread anything or clicked on the wrong special.
Anyway, in my case, they knew it was their mistake because even the confirmation shows the discrepancy, saying non-refundable in one part, and free cancellation in another part. They just refused to rectify it.