booking direct at hotel, cheap as on line sites
 

Just booked my hotel room for 10/4-5 at Fallsview Marriott in Niagara Falls & it was just as cheap if not cheaper than some of these .com sites. I was quite surprised. Anyone else have this experience?

It varies. I recently booked a Radisson at a third-party site for an excellent rate when their own site was showing nothing available at ANY rate (there was a major event going on). Some booking sites maintain an inventory of pre-booked rooms and they can end up taking losses on those that they can't re-sell, I think. Six Continents hotels (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, etc.) are now saying they will not be undercut by third party net booking services.

Did you book through www.marriott.com or www.niagarafallsmarriott.com?<BR><BR>I've been booking online for several years and have learned that each booking is a completely new endeavor. In January, I booked the Radisson Fallsview for the end of September at C$179 (Sat)/C$159 weeknights (King, Fallsview) and kept on shopping. Over time, the rates got higher and higher. As of about a week ago, here was no availabilty for that type of room. I just re-shopped (as I've been doing off and on and every Saturday for the last month). When shopping from the US for hotel rooms in Canada, you have to pay close attention to whether the rates you're looking at are in Canadian or US dollars. For our dates, when checking the Marriott Fallsview, the rates were 50% higher at www.marriott.com than at www.niagarafallsmarriott.com. Actually, I think the rates given at www.marriott.com are actually given in American dollars, because the difference is nearly exactly today's exchange rate, but "(CAD)" follows each and every rate on the results page. Another interesting resource is www.niagaralive.com - lots of specials there, too - some higher, some lower than on the various hotel websites and phoning directly. I ended up changing our reservation to the Hilton. For falls view, the Mariott Renaissance and the Hilton have the very best views because they are located BETWEEN the American and Canadian Falls, whereas the Radisson, Sheraton Fallsview and Marriott Fallsview are almost behind the Canadian Falls. The rates were significantly different at www.niagarafallslive.com, www.hiltonniagarafalls.com and www.hilton.com (the highest). You also have to keep in mind that there are different fallsview rooms within the same hotel (some differentiate "standard" from "deluxe" to "premium", etc., others give you the floor numbers). To make things all the more confusing in Niagara Falls, there's the Marriott Fallsview and the Marriott Renaissance, the Sheraton Fallsview and the Sheraton On The Falls, etc.<BR><BR>I don't think shopping for fallsview rooms at Niagara Falls on the Canadian side is typical for booking hotel rooms in general, though. Everything turns on how far in advance (or not, which can be an advantage or disadvantage) you book, your dates (what festivals or special events are happening), the days of the week, etc. There is a much broader variation in room ammenities and rates in Niagara Falls than just about anywhere else. Even if you're paying attention and diligent, it's often difficult to compare apples to apples.<BR><BR>I am not convinced that hotel booking sights actually maintain an inventory of rooms they've purchased. It just doesn't seem feasible that rooms for the same hotels would be available through dozens of websites if they've all been pre-booked.

Now that we're so used to doing our comparison shopping on the Internet, we often forget to contact the hotel itself directly (as well as placing a call to the central 1-800 number, if it's a chain). Via e-mail or phone call directly to the hotel,I've managed to beat the best rate that I had found elsewhere on a few occasions. Other times, an Internet booking was cheaper and, once, I went from a front desk to a lobby phone in order to secure a better rate than the desk from the chain's reservations call center. Now, I try all three: booking sites, central reservations and the hotel direct.

For my own curiosity I went to niagarafallsmarriott.com & their price was $ 730 CAD and the marriott.com site was $ 640 CAD ; which is price I paid for the room for 10/4-5 (Fri-Sat). I tried several other sites too & they still came up the best. Now keep in mind that I wanted to book a 'specific' hotel, in a 'specific' room. Thanks guys...

I've had great luck using a program I downloaded from Travelaxe.com. It searches many travel-dot-coms and shows you each price. I booked rooms in Vegas last year using it and a room in Washington DC this year. Give it a try. It's free and easy to use.

I recently booked a room the one of the Holiday Inn's in Vancouver. When I checked the website one of their cheapest rates was like $85-89 Canadian. I phoned the hotel direct and she quoted me a higher rate. I mentioned about the website, and she said that is the price if you book over the web. I said I would think about it. Then she said "Okay I will give it to you for the web price." I don't know how often this happens, as I don't travel that much.

My experience has been the opposite. The Loews Vogue in Montreal quoted me a rate of $280US/night. I got the same category room at Travelocity for $110US/night using their "Good Buy" rates. I can cancel up to 24 hours in advance.