But I do know that with Hotels.com you have to press the BOOK button on a given selection to get the true full price to compare to the hotel quote.
That's absolutely true with Hotels.com And it's a good habit to get into regardless. Whether you're booking a hotel, or airfare, or a rental car, or whatever every company and every site does things differently. And many of them show you an initial price that doesn't include all the charges.
So yes, absolutely click through until you get a final, final price. I'd do that with hotel sites, too.
And because I have nothing else to do, I went back through my Portugal bookings and checked what I paid vs. what I'd have paid using the hotel site. And here's what I found . . .
Hotel | Booking Site. . . | Price Paid. . . | Hotel Site Price. . . | $ Saved . . . | Rewards Earned. . . |
Short Stay Apt | Hotels | $586.76 | € 684.00 | $172.48 | $43.40 |
Casa da Pendoa | Booking | € 186.00 | € 192.00 | $6.66 | $0.00 |
Moov Hotel Évora | Booking | € 90.00 | € 90.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
Nazaré Hotel Magic | Booking | € 180.00 | N/A | N/A | $0.00 |
Riversuites | Hotels | $133.14 | € 165.00 | $50.01 | $11.00 |
Quinta da Pacheca | Hotels | € 360.00 | € 360.00 | $0.00 | $33.00 |
Porto Shining View | Hotels | € 350.00 | € 350.00 | $0.00 | $38.85 |
Total Saved | | N/A | N/A | $229.15 | $126.25 |
| | | | | |
So the short story is that I saved $229 on these bookings, which is a 12% discount. I also will earn $126 off future bookings after I complete my stay, for a total savings of about 19%.
Now some of those prices reflect previously earned rewards. But had I booked through the hotel website, I wouldn't have had those discounts to use.
One of my Hotels.com bookings reflects a "price match." The original Hotels.com price was €30 higher but I got the hotel price anyway plus I'll earn rewards for using the third party site.
One of the hotels didn't publicize prices on their site and required me to send an e-mail booking request to check availability and prices. So it's possible I might have found better prices by contacting them directly but somethings are just too much of a P.T.A. - hotels that don't have instant online booking are one of those things.
Now I'm not saying things always work out this way. But it does pay to check.