How to book your hotels for the best prices?

[Fedup]

I use Trivago a lot and mostly booking.com. I have hotels.com and Rocketmiles to extend my frequent miles. And hotel websites. I take the best and most flexible rate.
That's why booking for travel is a full time job.

 

[audreyh1]

We may start with booking.com or tripadvisor but we invariably try to contact the property and book direct. Quite often we get better terms, a breakfast included, or a refused rate. Last month we stayed at a family operated resort in Costa Rica. We saw it on booking. We emailed them directly. We realized. 15 Percent discount by doing this and by paying cash. We have this at numerous other properties.

It is also our policy to book directly with the hotel/property when possible. We've never seen lower rates on the booking sites. I've used them a few times when rooms were not available directly, but still available via a booking site. This seems to happen more in the US.

I did have one case in Europe where only pre-paid rooms were available directly with the hotel. Initially I made a cancelable reservation with booking.com, then once I was really sure I took the pre-paid option directly which was much cheaper. I had another where a Europe B&B/inn directed you to booking.com to reserve there.

Our main concern is about hassles if reservations were messed up with a third party involved. I had already been burned once long ago by Expedia not getting a reservation to a US hotel. They were able to accommodate me after a bit of investigation - glad reception wasn't busy at the time. And a few years ago I read numerous complaints by people using booking.com about reservation mix-ups in Europe.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

i like to save a few bucks like most people, now that im retired, and i have a small grasp on this computer searching i spent days going to each travel website, bookings.com hotwire,(not trivalgo they were not out yet), turns out the bride called the hotel we wanted to stay at. they threw in a free breakfast and matched the price, so i figured we saved about 200 dollars for the 7 day trip, i still tipped the staff at breakfast but just handed them coupons for the price of the meals

 

[Bamaman]

Now when traveling in the U.S., I'm big on using coupons obtained at the welcome stations on interstate highways--often lime green in color. You can also look them up on the internet.

I'm very comfortable traveling without prior reservations to most places because of the availability of such accommodations. Worse come to worse, and I'll use my Chromebook to lookup rooms at a Starbucks, McDonald or even pulling up to the front door of a hotel to catch a WIFI signal.

Prices on domestic hotels are getting surprisingly high in many popular cities. I was talking to a cousin the other day that's manager of a large hotel in Nashville, and their cheapest rate is $160--bot $300 on weekends. Sorry, but I don't spend half that much when traveling.

 

[brett]

I have looked at Trivago a few times. It has no value to us. Did not see any benefit on the four or five times that we compared their offers with what we already had using our other resources.

 

[walkinwood]

Those who CALL the hotel for a reservation. How do you go about asking for a discount? Is it as simple as hotels.com say $x, what can you do? What's the conversation like? Does it work with large chains?

 

[Lsbcal]

Those who CALL the hotel for a reservation. How do you go about asking for a discount? Is it as simple as hotels.com say $x, what can you do? What's the conversation like? Does it work with large chains?

First I would check the "internet rate" on the web site. Then call and frequently you will get that or just ask for the internet rate which they may or may not know about. Also check for discounts for membership in AAA, AARP, etc. on the web and when calling.

 

[audreyh1]

First I would check the "internet rate" on the web site. Then call and frequently you will get that or just ask for the internet rate which they may or may not know about. Also check for discounts for membership in AAA, AARP, etc. on the web and when calling.

+1
Many times we've shown an internet rate when appearing with no reservation and gotten that price - US hotels when driving long distances.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

what we did was....

Those who CALL the hotel for a reservation. How do you go about asking for a discount? Is it as simple as hotels.com say $x, what can you do? What's the conversation like? Does it work with large chains?

hello, i saw a rate for xxx per night on such and such website, could you beat that or throw in a free breakfast?, after a 1 minute hold "Sir my manager has authorized me to offer you free buffet breakfast for 2 for the length of ur stay if you book now". i gave her my credit card number it was a Holiday inn. real breakfast too, eggs, bacon, pancakes, juice, coffee all the regular stuff cereal etc,

 

[brett]

We have rec'd some great discounts by calling the hotel at 5PM or so just prior to our impending arrival. This only works of course if there is a vacancy. We only do it when we are on a road trip.

We pick several hotels/motels. DW calls between 4:30 and 6PM depending on what we are doing. She mentions that we are in the car, on our way in to town. We invariably have one or two preferred target properties.

She then asks the desk for their best rate. The hotel knows that they have one chance at this. If she gets a price she like, DW will also ask if breakfast is included. We have enjoyed some very good discounts by doing this. From the property's perspective they have to make a choice....discount the room or loose the revenue.

 

[Fedup]

That's leaving it too close for my comfort. LOL!

 

[brucethebroker]

DW has also had luck dealing direct with the hotels, asking for AAA or senior discounts. Hadn't considered asking them to throw in free breakfast, though. Great ideas!

 

[tulak]

I prefer to book using hotels.com for the ~10% discount.

But I use other sites for research, such as tripadvisor, booking.com, expedia.

 

[audreyh1]

I prefer to book using hotels.com for the ~10% discount.

But I use other sites for research, such as tripadvisor, booking.com, expedia.

I think you mean stay 10 nights get 1 night free?

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

DW has also had luck dealing direct with the hotels, asking for AAA or senior discounts. Hadn't considered asking them to throw in free breakfast, though. Great ideas!

im too embarrassed to do it in person, but on the phone we tried it i think 3 times and each times it was a yes

 

[tulak]

I think you mean stay 10 nights get 1 night free?

Yes, that's what I mean. It's usually not quite a 10% savings, but close enough for my calculations.

 

[walkinwood]

Yes, that's what I mean. It's usually not quite a 10% savings, but close enough for my calculations.

The "one night free" is quite a flexible perk. You should use it for a hotel that is equal to or more expensive than the value of the free night.

From hotels.com

• You can redeem your free night for a night of greater value and pay the difference.
• You can redeem your free night for a night of lesser value and forfeit the difference.

From the hotels.com web site
"The value of your free night will be the average price of the previous 10 nights you collect. You only pay taxes and fees"

 

[Fedup]

Do you actually have to select free night or does it do automatically for you. I haven't booked for 10 nights yet.

 

[tulak]

Do you actually have to select free night or does it do automatically for you. I haven't booked for 10 nights yet.

It's been awhile since I've booked a room, but if I remember correctly it is given to you as an option at checkout.

I remember that it was easy to redeem.

I looked for instructions and yes, it's during checkout.

http://hotelsen.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/14339/~/redeem-hotels.com™-rewards-nights

 

[Fedup]

So I booked something today, but they were all cancellable. They are place holders. One is where I wouldn't mind staying and the other one is very good value, good location. But I buy myself 9 months of cancellable option.

 

[Fedup]

So update with my search on French Polynesia travel plan. I was able to cancel one hotel on OWB, it was expensive and from what I've read the water is shallow, has no view. So it's a waste of money. However, I was managed to replace it with right on the ocean lodging for less than half the price. Pretty sweet spot. Kind of ideal. This is on Moorea island.
On Bora Bora, I made inquiry to one of the Marlon Brando OWB on vrbo, but my research shows that this area has strong currrent and I have to pay $80 a day for extra car rental; I need a car for this area because it's remote. But it has fantastic views. So overall it looks like I will keep my Bora Bora booking until I find better upgrade, not booking on VRBO.

 

[Gumby]

I just learned a good lesson about Travelocity. Over Labor Day weekend, we flew out to Missouri for a wedding. As I have done before, I booked the plane tickets through Travelocity. They offered a "package deal" with the plane tickets and a hotel. Since all the hotels out there are virtually the same, I took them up on it.

When we got back home, I saw on my credit card statement that the hotel had charged us for the stay, which they shouldn't have done, because it was prepaid through Travelocity. I called Travelocity and they got things straightened out in a day, with the hotel giving me an offsetting merchant credit. So kudos to them for that.

But here's the catch -- the charge directly from the hotel was $20 less per night than what I paid Travelocity. The lesson? Always check the price of the hotel on their own website before you take the Travelocity package "deal."

 

[Nemo2]

As the Romans used to say, Caveat Freakin' Emptor.

 

[ivinsfan]

I just learned a good lesson about Travelocity. Over Labor Day weekend, we flew out to Missouri for a wedding. As I have done before, I booked the plane tickets through Travelocity. They offered a "package deal" with the plane tickets and a hotel. Since all the hotels out there are virtually the same, I took them up on it.

When we got back home, I saw on my credit card statement that the hotel had charged us for the stay, which they shouldn't have done, because it was prepaid through Travelocity. I called Travelocity and they got things straightened out in a day, with the hotel giving me an offsetting merchant credit. So kudos to them for that.

But here's the catch -- the charge directly from the hotel was $20 less per night than what I paid Travelocity. The lesson? Always check the price of the hotel on their own website before you take the Travelocity package "deal."

Since this is a package how do you know the hotel portion of the Travelocity bill,I'm just curious because I thought that was pretty opaque pricing...

 

[Gumby]

Since this is a package how do you know the hotel portion of the Travelocity bill,I'm just curious because I thought that was pretty opaque pricing...

My American Express bill tells me, because the Travelocity charges for the two plane tickets are separately billed (one charge for each ticket/passenger)and are explicitly designated as plane tickets with the ticket number, itineraries and such included. There is a third Travelocity charge on my Amex bill representing the hotel portion.