Travelocity, Priceline, others, which do you like?

[Fred]

Anyone have a favorite service that you would recommend for booking hotels? Thanks!

 

[TomT]

Just booked one in New Orleans on travelocity. They were the cheapest. Always helps to check with the hotel direct and see if they will meet or beat the others prices. In this case they wouldn't but many times they do.

 

[Nik Hoffman]

I have always had excellent service from Expedia. I used them when we booked our trip to Rome and got a really good deal. I dont think I will ever go with anyone else.

 

[Conrad AlbertoJr]

I always use Hotwire. If you google "Better Bidding," that website shows you which hotels match the starts on the hotwire website.

 

[user 66225]

Also SideStep.com

 

[eric huskey 2]

I recently use expedia and everything went fine. I would use them again.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

I've used Expedia several times with great results.



TJR

 

[Ed Fenwick]

Aloha,

We recently went to Honolulu, Expedia booked the room. I asked at check in if I could have gotten a better rate if I called myself. The lady said that rate was the best one. So other than staying in the islands, I will go back to Expedia.

Ed

 

[Fred]

Thanks for the info, all.

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I use Booking.com They are almost always the cheapest, and what I like the best is that your credit card isn't charged until you arrive at the hotel. Also, you can make a booking and hold the room until 24 hours before normally, without being committed, you can just cancel if your plans change.



Many times I know I will have long weekends in advance, and I will book at a couple different places. I can have a reservation at the beach two months in advance when the prices are low, and also have a reservation at the same time in a nearby city. If the forecast calls for rain on the day I planned for the beach, I cancel that reservation and go to the city instead. I save a bunch of money this way because I can get the best rooms at much lower prices.



Booking.com also has more hotels , B&B and hostels than any website I have ever visited. They also have guest reviews which are very helpful. Many guests will post about nearby construction noise or renovations currently going on in the hotels. The also will mention details about the restaurants close by.



My second favorite is Expedia. Sometimes it is cheaper, and last year I booked enough days to qualify for their premier membership. They sent me a lot of discounts in my email as a result and that saved me a couple hundred dollars. I won't use them for business travel anymore though. I booked through them on a trip to Prague. My work ended one day early and it took two months to get my money back for the last day of the trip.



TripAdvisor.com is also a good website. There are a lot of guest reviews there as well. The internet is a great tool for making travel plans. Do your research on these three websites and you are sure to get a great room at a great price.



For airline tickets Expedia and Kayak.com are my choices.

 

[George T]

I like Hotels.com, but Travelocity is also good. Havent used any other ones.

 

[Dre L]

You know, I booked a lot of hotels recently and found better prices directly from the hotels.



I used hotels.com to get user reviews from people that stayed there, then scoured the hotel websites for deals. Many of the direct prices were better than the travel sites.



Some of the wholesale clubs like BJ's, Costco, Sam's offer great discounts also.



Also try different dates if you can be flexible. Monday vs. Friday for example.

 

[Bo Loo]

I've been car rental shopping lately and found the best online deal on Hotwire, but got a much better deal by directly calling the local rental office.

 

[user 64847]

kayak.com allows you to check prices against the others, i.e., expedia, travelocity etc.

 

[Les]

Be careful with Travelocity. I am currently in a dispute with them regarding their locations. I booked a room for 2 nights that was suppose to be about 8 miles from my destination, and their map confirmed this. When I got to the hotel, it was 25 miles from my destination. Once you make your reservations through Travelocity, the hotel can not help you. As it turned out, their was no savings and I could have just gone to the hotel's site for the same money.

 

[Bill V]

Priceline. I've never seen anyone top what they can get when you go with their "name your own price" service.



You need to do some homework to get the best price there--See sites like www.biddingfortravel.com for more on that. But if you do the legwork, you'll never beat 'em.