What website do you use to book travel?

[97guns]

Airfare and hotel, I usually use Priceline and orbitz, just booked a room with Agoda and their pricing beat both Priceline and orbitz. As always I’m looking for the cheapest alternatives with everything I buy, you got any Gems?

 

[mpeirce]

I usually end up at the actual company site. I often stay at Marriott properties and always book on their site. Likewise for Southwest Airlines.

I might use google flights and orbitz to find flights - especially international. But I usually book on the airline site once I figure out which flight I want.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I like to play around with TripMasters for European trips with hotels, air, intercity transport. We’ve now booked twice through it (get a trip set up online and then calling)—a little funky but easy and great pricing. For just airfare, or just hotels, directly through airlines.

 

[Jeffrey J.]

Airfare and hotel, I usually use Priceline and orbitz, just booked a room with Agoda and their pricing beat both Priceline and orbitz. As always I’m looking for the cheapest alternatives with everything I buy, you got any Gems?

Sometimes start with Google Flight...
Then carry it over to Momondo.com (Good flight tool, sometimes, comes up with a gem!)

kayak.com sometimes too...

Remember to CLEAR YOUR BROWSER! Or go into private mode, even then, clear it...

Hope this helps

 

[athena53]

I usually end up at the actual company site. I often stay at Marriott properties and always book on their site. Likewise for Southwest Airlines.

I might use google flights and orbitz to find flights - especially international. But I usually book on the airline site once I figure out which flight I want.

This is my tactic, too. I feel a little guilty about using the software of one site to compare prices and then going elsewhere to book, but inserting that extra layer in between (Orbitz, Kayak, etc.) can sometimes backfire when things go wrong and each disclaims responsibility. You also have to watch for bargain hotel fares that are paid at time of booking, 100% cancellation penalty and don't give loyalty points. Fine if you accept it, but that may be the reason for the discount.

Good advice about clearing cookies. I suspect using the DuckDuckGo search engine would also avoid storing cookies. Right now TripAdvisor is spamming me with ads for hotels in Hawaii because I checked current pricing on one I plan to book in November- of 2019.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

Generally if it's just a night or 2, say on a road trip, I try to find a ham in hotwire. Then close the tab, login to ebates then back to hotwire and book through there for additional cashback. Used hotwire for years. Only one bow wow in maybe 12 years. Look for 95pct plus reccomendation rates and its usually a solid hotel. I always ask the price for a room when we checkin amd they quote 30 plus dollars more. Then I'm like no I have a rez prepaid.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

Generally if it's just a night or 2, say on a road trip, I try to find a ham in hotwire. Then close the tab, login to ebates then back to hotwire and book through there for additional cashback. Used hotwire for years. Only one bow wow in maybe 12 years. Look for 95pct plus reccomendation rates and its usually a solid hotel. I always ask the price for a room when we checkin amd they quote 30 plus dollars more. Then I'm like no I have a rez prepaid.

Gem not ham

 

[Cobra9777]

For flights, I still have a gazillion miles from my road warrior days at Megacorp. So I usually use the American Airlines site. If I can't or don't want to use miles, I usually start with Expedia but often end up booking at the airlines site.

For hotels, we usually figure out where we want to stay using Google Maps and reading Google and TripAdviser reviews. Both sites have pricing and links to various booking sites. I probably use Hotels.com and Expedia the most. We increasingly use VRBO and HomeAway for lodging as we don't really like hotels.

For cruises, I usually start out with the 90-day ticker on vacationstogo.com. So far, we've only used Celebrity and I always book through their website. But only after finding the best online advertised package deal (price/extras/freebies). Celebrity matches any online deal.

 

[Freedom56]

For flights, I use Kayak or Google Flights to search for the best deals but I book with the airline directly. We fly only business/first class for any journey over 4 hours. We stick to the premium carriers that fly newer planes for those long journeys. For hotels, it's Expedia, Agoda, Orbitz, or the hotel directly whoever is cheaper. It's usually the hotel directly. For car rentals, I book directly with the rental car company.

 

[cathy63]

Sometimes start with Google Flight...
Then carry it over to Momondo.com (Good flight tool, sometimes, comes up with a gem!)

kayak.com sometimes too...

Remember to CLEAR YOUR BROWSER! Or go into private mode, even then, clear it...

Hope this helps

I used to like Momondo a lot, but since they were acquired by Kayak last year, it seems like both sites give the exact same info, so I've pretty much given up on it and just use Kayak now.

I still like Google Flights because you can search for flights in and out of multiple distant airports at once.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

Prefer to book directly on the airline's site or the hotel's site as it's easier to address issues with no middle man. But it's really situation dependent.

Hotels sometimes add in perks booking directly with the hotel (free breakfast, free transfers, etc). Some of our preferred hotels don't show up on booking sites and may offer further advanced bookings if you have a loyalty card (eg Toyoko Inns in Japan).
Of course if the hotel is not on a booking site, how do you know they exist? You can search "hotels" on google maps, find leads on travel blogs or travel websites like Travelfish, WikiTravel, etc.

Apart from booking directly, for flights, we've search on Kayak and booked on sites like: Flight Network, Flight Hub, CheapOair. Sometimes they're able to hack a fare together for a return trip on carriers that don't code share.

For hotels when not booking directly, we'll use: Agoda, Booking.com, and Expedia. We've had some luck internationally in some countries using Hotwire and Priceline's opaque and bidding services but IMO it's getting harder from a risk/reward perspective. We'll also use specialty sites like Cross-Pollinate for Italy,

I wouldn't necessarily rule out using a Travel Agent either because they sometimes have a line on cheap rooms if their company books a block or can offer perks like free breakfast. But we generally don't go the process with a TA because we'll feel bad if we make them jump through hoops and then don't book through them.

 

[RobbieB]

I book direct with everything I book.

 

[mpeirce]

Oh - forgot to mention rental cars.

I always look for a local Sixt, but they aren’t everywhere. Next I try Costco travel. They have a matrix of companies and car levels. There is usually an obvious choice with them.

 

[rodi]

I find the flight through google flights and/or kayak... and book directly through the airline.

Since we're usually travelling with the kids I avoid hotels in favor of vacation rentals... so airbnb and vrbo get my business. If I'm travelling without the kids (say a gal's getaway) we discuss and go with whichever hotel the most of us have points/rewards with. With one group of friends that's marriott... with another it's hyatt... then we look for the best hotel location/price scenario.

Agree on sixt for car rentals... And if it's for more than a few days - I book off airport sites... For example a 12 day trip I just got back from it was $500 cheaper to book at Pike Place Market vs at Seatac... so we Uber'd to Pikes Place, got the car (and left it in the garage) then went to dinner... before driving out of town to our friends house. The Uber was far cheaper than the inflated airport fees.

 

[davebarnes]

Amex travel for airplane trips. We have decided to fly business class and their prices are good and I get points.
AirBnB for lodging. I am a fan. Want a washer in my unit.
Local rail authority in country. We travel by train and don’t rent cars.

 

[ohyes]

I love seeing this question pop up, because I almost always learn of new travel booking sites and ways to use them.

On the road, we use Hotwire or Priceline (going through ebates). I usually start looking mid-afternoon while it is DH's turn to drive. I usually, if not feeling road-sicky queasy by this time, compare with rates on the hotel's website.

A few years ago, I favored PL because we could save a few extra dollars. These days, I prefer to skip the bidding hassle and pay the extra $5-$10 for a Hotwire deal.

 

[Bamaman]

For airfares, we carefully research specific airports in Wikipedia and ITA Matrix or Google flights. We usually book direct with the airline, and most often use a budget European airline. (We seldom do any U.S. travel other than to get on an international flight or cruise.)

For rooms, it is Booking.com. I filter my search for lowest price and then look for customer ratings substantially higher than other like priced properties. I read on Trip Advisor what people have to say about the property before I book direct. I also will often pull cities up on Google Maps, magnify the page and start looking for hotel icons to click on where I want to stay.

 

[DrRoy]

Delta.com, IHG.com, Booking, Costco for cars.

 

[iloveyoga]

I look at expedia to get an idea for prices, but then I go to the actually site.

 

[Newventurer]

On a recent trip I used TripAdvisor to search for hotels in the area we were visiting. They (I think it’s Booking.com?) gave their ‘best price’ for a room at a Marriott property, we went to the Marriott site and found a room that was less money still fit our requirements. Apparently the hotel had only given the third parties a higher level of room to sell, so it was their cheapest but the hotel had less expensive inventory on their site. Lesson learned. I frequently use Expedia to book car rental as it seems to return pretty good results and booking is easy.

 

[Nemo2]

AirBnB for lodging. I am a fan. Want a washer in my unit.
Local rail authority in country. We travel by train and don’t rent cars.

Saves me posting.....(except that we look at Google Flights, Fare Boom, Flight Hub, Expedia, etc, for flights........oh, and VTG for repositioning ships to get to or from...)

 

[sengsational]

The heavily advertised "trivago" hasn't shown up here, lol! I tried it once, and it seemed to have just high priced rooms (no budget stuff).

"ebates" came up a few times. How does that work?

I've used "opaque" booking on Priceline (express deals), but Priceline screwed me on price match of a bid style booking, so I'm done with them forever. Nice to know Hotwire has an opaque option... might try that.

As to the price match guarantees, has anyone really made that work? First of all, once I get the room, I quit looking. Then, if you check the details, the match only is valid for the first 24 hours after booking. I now presume all price match guarantees are fiction or too much trouble to bother with.

 

[audreyh1]

I almost always go direct.

I search for flights with Google Flights. They send you to the airline to book directly.

Rental cars I usually go through Costco.

 

[goingtotravel]

We fly mostly using points and use a paid tool to help find our seats and then we book directly on the airlines website. For example, we have a lot of American Airline points but they won't show Cathay Pacific availability on line so we can use the tool to search for seats then call AA to book the flight. Saves a ton of time trying to figure out availability.

 

[Red Badger]

I book direct with everything I book.

+1. I also leverage my Marriott/Chase co-branded credit card for hotels and CSR for planes, cars, meals.If one travels a good bit, the CSR card has some great perks over and above the points.