Help, I need to narrow down my search for a hotel in early April for me, my husband, and 2 sons 11 & 15. I am overwhelmed by the info out there and would like to know if anyone knows of a great website to use with the best rates. Or should I go to the hotel websites? Thanks, ckei

Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, Quikbook, Hotels.com, HotelKingdom.com, PlacesToStay.com, Hotwire, and Priceline (BiddingForTravel.com).

I have not found any one website to be the best so I start stalking all the websites two to three months before I go.

First two weeks of April are peak family travel times so I would book a cancelable backup and start hunting. Rates for that time probably will not drop until around the third week in March. Possibly sooner but doubtful.

Where are you going?

GoTravel, Thanks for the info, I am going to fly into las vegas on March 26 to attend a wedding in Phoenix but then drive back on April 8 and stay 3 nights before flying out of las vegas. I am going to start searching!!

cheapovegas.com provides great info about the vegas hotels, their amenities and locations. It is also very entertaining.

For Vegas, use Travelaxe and then also check the deals on all the hotels websites, i.e. "bellagio.com". You can sign up for room discount emails on these websites.I just got an offer for Mandalay with many nights at $109 (Sun-Thurs) through April in a package deal with 2/1 breakfast and shopping discounts at Mandalay Place. Vegas is different than most cities in that the individual hotel websites tend to offer the best deals, especially at the higher end places. It's also rare to ever get a deal there through Priceline except for last minute $79 rooms at Venetian.

One of my favorite travel websites is "Johnny Jet"; he provides an extensive list of links to other websites, (hotels, airfare, etc) --- www.johnnyjet.com
More recently I crossed paths with a site, www.nettravel.com, which is not as all encompassing as Johnny Jet, but also can route you to helpful sites and URL's.

I have had good luck with cheaptickets.com. Bets prices so far, but I have noticed that some places are cheaper on different sites, so you got to surf around. tripadvisor.com has a good number of reviews of alot of different hotels all over the world.