Booking hotels on the internet
 

I have never booked a hotel through any of the discount web-sites for two reasons. First, on some of them you don't know the name of the hotel until you've purchased. And secondly, there is absolutely no cancelling these reservations.

I am confused when I read here that someone has booked two hotels through a discount sight and is asking for opinions before cancelling one. How is this possible?

Am I missing something? Is there one site that is consistently better than others? Is it always better to book a hotel room this way?

Thanks!

Some discount sites, like Priceline, are instant-purchase but others do offer the option to cancel. In general, the fewer your options, the better the prices.

You don't know the exact hotel you're getting, and there's no refund on Priceline.com. If you decide to take this route, make sure you go to biddingfortravel.com and learn about the process. If you do it correctly (and don't have to stay at a particular hotel), you can save a lot of money.

If you want to choose the hotel, you can go to various booking sites like hotels.com or expedia.com, etc. They may have some "exclusive" offers which may have more restrictive cancellation policy.

If you want the most flexible cancellation, you should try booking on the hotel's website directly. Most of the time, you can cancel within 24 hours or even less.

Read the cancellation policies carefully for the type of offers you're getting. They are different from hotel to hotel, from deal to deal, even from the same website.

If you're using Expedia, you know the name of hotel, address, location on the map, amenities, etc... They charge $25 per cancellation. Read the cancellation policy on Orbitz, Hotel.com, Travelocity, etc... If you are a AAA member or have another discount card the policy may differ.

Thanks so much for this info ---

Do you tend to get an inferior room in the hotel if booked this way?

No. You don't get the penthouse suite but I haven't received the broom closet either. You get a standard 'Run of the House' room.

You really need to go to places like Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, Sidestep, Quikbook, PlacesToStay, and Hotels.com and start punching in dates and start researching.

It really doesn't sound like you've done any research so if you get on the sites and look around, it may ease your mind.

I've booked and cancelled hotel reservations numerous times through websites. Most of the consolidator websites (Expedia, Orbitz, Hotels.com) charge a small fee for cancelling and refund the difference.
If you book directly through a hotel's website, you can cancel without a penalty, usually from 48 hours to the day of the reservation. Also, most hotel chains will beat any offer found on other websites, so it's worth checking into.

Try www.quikbook.com. They have all major US cities and resort areas. They have two ways to book, some hotels are only one way or the other. One is prepay, which I have not used, but maybe gets better discounts. The other is pay when you stay, which I have found has good rates. They have good descriptions of the hotels. The cancelation policies are spelled out clearly. The cancelation policy depends on the hotel. There is no fee to quikbook if you cancel. I have used them many places, but mostly New York and Chicago when it is hard to find a decent priced room there.