wary of internet and website hotel deals?
 

There are so many internet hotel booking services (expedia, hotels.com, etc...) and also "deals" listed on a hotel website. Are we to trust these great rates? Are these sub-standard rooms in any way? What experiences have people had with these bookings and the rooms they actually get?

This has been a topic of countless threads; just do a search on Howire and/or Priceline on either his board or the US.

Sorry, I meant Hotwire. I supose Howire is for discounted, um, special services.

Do you get to pick how many "stars" on "Howire"?

I would NOT want to get "sub-standard"!

;)

Best wishes,

Rex

I haven't used priceline, or sites on which you have to "bid" for rooms. But the "regular" internet booking sites, such as venere.com - and there are tons of them, where you can get somewhat lower rates than the hotel offers themselves - these sites are fine. Of course personal recommendations are best, but if you know which hotel you want, then getting a good price on one of these sites can be a good deal. On the other hand sometimes the hotel will offer rooms for the same as less. You just have to check a variety of places. But if you're asking if these sites have decent hotels (they do, but also some dumps), and if they are reliable to use for reservations (e.g. not loosing them, etc) then yes, they are great ways to find hotels. I ususally use several of these sites, plus tripadvisor reviews, plus recommendations here, plus the hotels own site to decide where to stay and then go with the best price.

Is there a pricline? Wouldn't want substandard there either :)

Now I suppose the thread will be pulled for being equally offensive to both sexes?

But in response to the actual question, I have generally NOT heard of assignment to sub-standard rooms from bookings on "major" (expedia, travelocity, orbitz) - - or "discounter" (hotels.com, countless others) - - or "bidding" web sites (priceline, hotwire).

There is considerable discussion on sites like biddingforauction.com on whether customers can detect any lesser service with a priceline room, to use the main example. The overwhelming majority seem to report no detectable difference in room or service - - and usually no mention of it. My one and only experience with priceline (San Francisco, 4 rooms, 3 nights in May 2004 at a savings of over $1500) was exactly that: the rooms were no different from any others in the hotel, as far as I know, the service was not different, and there was no mention of the price we paid. I think that our reservation simply showed pre-paid, and quite possiby, the hotel staff did not know what price we paid.

regarding hotels, it probably is luck of the draw. If I get a discounted rate, whether through the hotel itself, a booking website, through 'points', or whatever, I don't necessarily expect the highest level of room in the house unless I'm confirmed for something specific like 'superior room overlooking the ocean.'

Usually the booking agencies like expedia, etc only mention something like 'standard room' for their best deals.