Travelers, lets discuss hotel sites.

[Jesda]

Priceline has let me down twice now, beaten by the easier to use and much cheaper Travelocity Secret Hotels. The Travelocity ads emphasize "no need to bid" which seems silly until I discovered that Travelocity is also consistently cheaper.

Examples:

Oklahoma City
Tried booking a 3-star on Priceline for $64 including fees. Didnt get it.
Travelocity got me a 3-star in OKC for $60 total.

Washington MO
Tried booking a 2-star on Priceline for $55 Didn't get it.
Travelocity got me a 2-star for $50.

Corpus Christi TX
Tried a 3-star on Priceline for $80 plus fees. Didn't get it.
Travelocity got me a 3-star for $72.

Travelocity was also a little bit quicker and easier to use. The disadvantage is that you cant use the Secret Hotels in all towns, but it works in most large and medium size cities.





Anyone have similar luck with Orbitz or Expedia? Is Hotels.com any good?

[RCA]

I have nothing to contribute but am here to show my support because I am interested.

What is the word on kayak.com?

[PapaSmurf2k3]

I use Kayak for flights all the time, but never for hotels. In fact, I rarely ever book hotels online. Pretty much the only time I DO book a hotel, is for a NICO event, and at that point its already pre-determined which hotel it is, as well as the group rate.

[ADDirishboy]

I usually do all my bookings on Expedia. Never had any problems, but never really compared any other sites to it or anything.

[nissangirl74]

We use Expedia for flights, cars, and hotels. Excellent service, great prices (I've only found flights cheaper through Southwest), and a fantastic rewards program. We have one of their Rewards cards which we use to pay for everything we buy. About every six months we earn enough to stay somewhere for free for 3-4 nights.

*they are also almost impossible to beat if you want a package that includes airfare, hotel, and car rental*

[krimsonviper]

I work for a hotel and can let you in on a little tip: call the hotel they've listed on the site, and see if it's not cheaper to book directly. Generally, if you're just using those sites to book a hotel without flights or rentals, it's cheaper to speak with the hotel directly. When you call them if you work for their state or have AAA or AARP or federal gov't let them know, there might be a discount rate.

Use the sites to give you available rooms and phone numbers, book directly.

[krimsonviper]

If you do insist on websites hotels.com is the most popular, followed by orbitz, expedia, travelocity, and I've yet to see a priceline.

[Jesda]

I work for a hotel and can let you in on a little tip: call the hotel they've listed on the site, and see if it's not cheaper to book directly. Generally, if you're just using those sites to book a hotel without flights or rentals, it's cheaper to speak with the hotel directly. When you call them if you work for their state or have AAA or AARP or federal gov't let them know, there might be a discount rate.

Use the sites to give you available rooms and phone numbers, book directly.

I like to do that with airlines, but I always get quoted outrageous rates as a hotel walk-in guest. Maybe now, with the popularity of online booking, walk-in and call-in pricing is more even with internet pricing.

Example: I stayed at a hotel in West Orange NJ for $200 plus tax. There was no discount, no special rate, nothing. Just straight up buttrape. I was dead tired, not so much from a lack of sleep, but from dealing with the awfulness of NYC and fighting my way to respectable civilization (in New Jersey of all places).

I always figured Priceline and other sites were used to fill extra rooms that would have been left empty anyway, thus the reason the pricing is cheaper. Anyone in the business know if thats how it works?

[Dattebayo]

I work for a hotel and can let you in on a little tip: call the hotel they've listed on the site, and see if it's not cheaper to book directly. Generally, if you're just using those sites to book a hotel without flights or rentals, it's cheaper to speak with the hotel directly. When you call them if you work for their state or have AAA or AARP or federal gov't let them know, there might be a discount rate.

Use the sites to give you available rooms and phone numbers, book directly.

It most certainly does NOT work that way at all. I've been to a sh*t load of hotels and they all were cheaper through a website. Hotels.com always gave me the worst rate compared to Travelocity or Expedia. But I only used Expedia for flight and hotel...

[frapjap]

IMO, the best rate when I'm in a bind is priceline. On a trip to New Orleans during the jazz festival, I got a 3 star Holiday Inn, barely a block away from Burbon St for $50/night. Pretty fair. I've done well with them during ski season in the mountains too. 1-2 star motels for 35-40 bucks a night after a day of skiing rocks.

Expedia can suck it, as with travelocity (in comparison to hotels.com and priceline). For work travel, I typically stay in Fairfield Inn and other Marriott properties. Points and always a free, well equipped continental breakfast FTW. Air travel is almost always Southwest, as much as possible, whenever possible; they're just my personal preference. Avis is my rental car of choice, plus it doesn't hurt to have a personal lifetime free upgrade code number.

Jesda, catch me on email if you're staying somewhere a week or more at a time.

[Bubba1]

Example: I stayed at a hotel in West Orange NJ for $200 plus tax. There was no discount, no special rate, nothing. Just straight up buttrape. I was dead tired, not so much from a lack of sleep, but from dealing with the awfulness of NYC and fighting my way to respectable civilization (in New Jersey of all places).

I always figured Priceline and other sites were used to fill extra rooms that would have been left empty anyway, thus the reason the pricing is cheaper. Anyone in the business know if thats how it works?

Heck, Jes, I'd have charged your sorry butt $300 ... . Actually it was your choice, to stay at a hotel as a walkin in one of the more expensive areas of the country. Had you gone a few miles farther from the city you could have saved yourself $120.

I just booked a room in Boston this past week (for an upcoming family trip). I looked at hotels.com and expedia.com. Both were easy to navigate and both provided good lists of hotels with amenities in the section of the city I targeted. The prices were very close to each other. I then called the hotel directly, asked a few questions, and ended up with a even better rate. I don't know if that happens every time, but my recommendation is don't forget to call the hotel directly as they may surprise you.

[Dattebayo]

but my recommendation is don't forget to call the hotel directly as they may surprise you.

I think I need to say that once, ONCE, in Florida, I did have this work out for me. But after trying it out several times, I was told higher rates every time.

[krimsonviper]

Don't know what to tell you Dave, but I JUST looked at expedia.com for my hotel, and my standard rate $89.99, expedia is sellng it for $90. That's not with a discount being offered like the ones I've mentioned. Maybe it's a little different on the east coast. Maybe you're in town that had some sort of celebration going on in which case effect rates period, but I constantly notice the rate I'm told through the computer is either the same or slightly higher, more often than lower, and both hotels I've worked for tells me not to tell them that rate because that's not what the guest paid for for the room.

Do NOT tell a guy, who doesn't give a damn about his job to keep industry secrets, that something doesn't work that way. Especially when he's been at the job for about 4 years.

Hotels have many methods of trying to get your money, but selling a room is better than an unoccupied room. Always ask them AAA, AARP, federal, military, state discounts. Hell, some contruction companies or service companies like IBEW or PG&E get negotiated rates as well, meaning they have a rate that's consistant no matter what's going on and time of year.

I also didn't say that my advice is 100% of the time.

[HashiriyaS14]

This has nothing to do with the thread really, but I'm currently interviewing for a job with Marriott/Ritz Carlton in which I would be helping to develop hotel properties.

This would involve finding sites, negotiating the acquisition, finding capital, supervising construction, and supervising initial operation. It would also involve a lot of flying all over the country/world, getting to know markets, watching huge complicated construction machinery in action, and generally meet with fascinating people.

What sucks is that due to the travel I probably can't even do it, since I'm still in grad school. Hopefully the job, or another like it, will be there when I graduate. It's likely, since both Marriott and Hilton are now located in the DC area.


Anyway, what I'm driving at is that Jesda, this would be the PERFECT job for you. You don't want to go to med school. You want to be this guy:

[Dattebayo]

Do NOT tell a guy, who doesn't give a damn about his job to keep industry secrets, that something doesn't work that way. Especially when he's been at the job for about 4 years.

All I was trying to say is you only worked at one or two hotels, and I've called all around the US for hotels. I was relating my personal experience since I had to do all my own arrangements and keep expenses under a certain given number each month! I did the method you told us many times and it only worked about 1% of the time.

[krimsonviper]

Dunno what to say then man. My area is most likely different compared to others. Since the hotel industry is largely franchised it's probably the case. Bad luck with hotels maybe? They can change their rates on the fly. I know I've brought the rate up 200% to a guy that's being a smart a** to me.

[Dattebayo]

I know I've brought the rate up 200% to a guy that's being a smart a** to me.

I'm all business when it's business brah

[krimsonviper]

Well if any of you guys decide to stay in Vacaville, if I'm on duty, you're a Jehovas Witness in my eyes and they get 69.99 a night. If you're staying longer than two nights and you want a single bed, then you're a Baldi Brother worker and it's 59.99 a night. Plus tax. I can't do anything about that.

Shoot me a PM and I'll see if I can do something for you.

[Bubba1]

I'm all business when it's business brah

Wait, you conduct business while wearing a brassiere??

[Dattebayo]

A lot of people say I am too immature and it is going to erect a barrier between my career and my personal life.

Ha ha ha, I said erect