The challenge: Which
web site
should be used to shop for hotels for travel within the US?
Where do you
quickly and easily find the lowest prices? I took some of my
hotel stays in
the US and compared prices for trips over the next few months.
I included
AAA, AARP as well as corporate discounts, and priced a room for one
or two
people for trips of one to seven nights. If you really don't
care about the
specifics of your hotel, give Priceline
or Hotwire
a try. There are very
helpful message boards that are a "must read" before bidding, so
visit
Bidding
For Travel and
BetterBidding
first.
Bottom line: Use
Kayak &
Travelaxe but also check the hotel's web site. The
combination of
Kayak, Travelaxe and the hotel's web site found the lowest price
100% of the
time. Both Kayak and Travelaxe have an excellent
user interface with lots of filters to make shopping easier.
They sweep other sites for
prices and then take you to the site with the lowest price.
Unfortunately
many of the sites do not have "real time" prices so occasionally you
find
that a rate is no longer available. When that happens, go back
and select
the next lower price and try again. Be aware that many hotel
chains do not
give "frequent guest" credit unless you reserve directly on their
web site.
Travelaxe is a program that you download to your PC (no Mac
version). It
updates itself when necessary and does not include any "spyware" or
malicious code. I have been using and testing it for 3+
years. The only
"downside" is that it takes a few minutes to complete a search due
to the
fact that it depends upon other web sites for prices. Some of
those sites
can be slow to respond and until all sites have returned results,
the lowest
price may not have been found.
Join their frequent guest
programs:
Although I don't usually stay in the same family or chain of hotels,
by
joining frequent guest programs, I've been upgraded many
times. It's worth
the time and effort.
If you are looking for advice
about which hotel is
best for your trip, I suggest the forums at
TripAdvisor
and
Fodors.
There have been
articles written that suggest some reviews have been authored
by hotel
employees. I suggest that you check both sites for the most
complete story.
Tips to save more:
If the hotel
that you prefer is priced too high, you may find less expensive
rooms
near-by. The mapping feature of these sites can be very
helpful in finding
something next door or across the street.
Full payment for your reservation
is often required
to get the lowest prices from both the hotel chains' sites and
sites
searched by other sites. Severe cancellation penalties and
charges for
changing a reservation are the norm for the lowest prices. If
your
reservation does not require advanced payment and a cancellation
penalty, it
may be worth checking at least once a week to see if the price has
dropped.
If it has dropped, you should cancel and re-book at the lower price.
When calling reservation centers,
you MUST ask for
their lowest available price, not just AAA or AARP.
How to get a hotel
room when they're all
booked: Trying to leave Chicago O'Hare, it was 4:30
PM and snowing
heavily. The airport was shutting down; very few flights were
getting in or
out. I called our corporate travel department and asked them
to find a
hotel room for me. There was nothing available within 20
miles! I
remembered that most non-guaranteed room reservations are canceled
at 6:00
PM. I went to the luggage area and viewed the board that
displays all of
the local hotels. I started calling listed hotels (using my
cell phone
because the board phones were in use) and asked how many
non-guaranteed
reservations they had. The first hotel I called was on the
airport property
and while they were officially "booked-up," they had more than
enough
non-guaranteed rooms to assure a room for me.
How to get a good hotel
rate when you're
stuck due to weather: Very few airlines
will help you with hotel
reservations unless you have elite status or unusual
circumstances. Most
"walk-up" hotel rates are near the maximum even if you try AAA or
AARP.
However, if you use the words "distressed passenger rate" and are
kind/courteous at the check-in counter, you may get a lower
rate. That
translates to "take pity on me, please." Don't try this if
it's 80
degrees and sunny.
Hotel's lowest rate
guarantees:
many hotels are claiming that the lowest prices are available on
their web
site or through their reservation centers rather then via various
other web
sites. The fine print often stipulates that group discounts
(AAA, AARP,
etc.) can not be considered in the low rate guarantee. I find
that this
exclusion makes the guarantee worthless.
Hotels
have reduced the number of rooms that they sell at a discount to
other web
sites and consolidators. This poses real challenges for these
sites; their
best option is to promote packages of airfare and hotel to mask the
individual component prices.
Credit was given (in red text)
for a web site if
it had the lowest of price (or close) without visiting the hotel's
web site.
