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Old 04-17-2017, 01:18 PM   #21
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I'm a perpetual traveler and I first go to Booking.com--filtering my room search from lowest price to highest price. Then, I look for customer ratings that are dramatically higher than other properties in the same price range. Then, I'll will read what the people are saying in their comments on TripAdvisor.com. I've never been dissatisfied using this method.

We left Rome earlier today and flew to Budapest staying in a friend's apartment. The Rome B&B was 200 yards from the Vatican in the best location possible. My only complaint was a 24" x 24" shower as I'm a big guy. But the price was half of the other properties in the area and it was spotless with a great bed.

I find Hotels.com and AirBnB.com to charge you when the reservation's made in most cases--even if you're not going to be there for 6 months. I don't like that.
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Old 04-17-2017, 03:14 PM   #22
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...
We left Rome earlier today and flew to Budapest staying in a friend's apartment. The Rome B&B was 200 yards from the Vatican in the best location possible. My only complaint was a 24" x 24" shower as I'm a big guy. But the price was half of the other properties in the area and it was spotless with a great bed.
...
And I thought our experience was unusual. We are not big people and the shower in Rome was a real weird experience. But the rest of the hotel was great.
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Old 04-17-2017, 03:46 PM   #23
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We approach this as the best price for a night in an area given our requirements for the stay. Sometimes, it is a hotel other times an apartment or house. We choose based on cost, ratings, location and amenities.eg. do we need parking, laundry, will breakfast be convenient? Only then, if feasible, will we try to get the best price for that property. Of late, we've used hotels.com a lot, but are not loyal to any site or brand.

Seems obvious, but if you start with a site or brand rather than your requirements, you could end up paying too much or not getting what you want.

Edit: I must admit though, that we are getting less price sensitive or at least our average nightly costs have creeped up a bit over the years, as we get more comfortable living in ER.
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Old 04-17-2017, 03:50 PM   #24
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We approach this as the best price for a night in an area given our requirements for the stay. Sometimes, it is a hotel other times an apartment or house. We choose based on cost, ratings, location and amenities.eg. do we need parking, laundry, will breakfast be convenient? Only then, if feasible, will we try to get the best price for that property. Of late, we've used hotels.com a lot, but are not loyal to any site or brand.

Seems obvious, but if you start with a site or brand rather than your requirements, you could end up paying too much or not getting what you want.
I've just realized that what I did. I had a certain hotel name in mind but now I decided that I don't care anymore.
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Old 04-18-2017, 08:42 AM   #25
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Does anyone use Travago? I have tried to use it along with Hotwire and/or booking.com and can see no advantage.
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Old 04-18-2017, 09:59 AM   #26
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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.
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Old 04-18-2017, 10:14 AM   #27
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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.
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Old 04-18-2017, 10:30 AM   #28
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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
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Old 04-18-2017, 01:00 PM   #29
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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.
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Old 04-18-2017, 01:21 PM   #30
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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.
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Old 04-18-2017, 03:38 PM   #31
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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?
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Old 04-18-2017, 05:57 PM   #32
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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.
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Old 04-18-2017, 06:21 PM   #33
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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.
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Old 04-18-2017, 06:31 PM   #34
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what we did was....

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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,
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Old 04-20-2017, 07:32 AM   #35
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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.
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Old 04-20-2017, 08:11 AM   #36
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That's leaving it too close for my comfort. LOL!
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Old 04-20-2017, 09:06 AM   #37
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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!
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Old 04-20-2017, 11:14 AM   #38
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I prefer to book using hotels.com for the ~10% discount.

But I use other sites for research, such as tripadvisor, booking.com, expedia.
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Old 04-20-2017, 11:23 AM   #39
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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?
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Old 04-20-2017, 11:30 AM   #40
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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
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