good hotel search engines

[claytonsmama]

i am looking for some good hotel search engines. i have used expedia, travelocity, travelzoo, book it.com, and lastminute.com. any other suggestions would be great!

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

I haven't tried it but there's also one called something like kayak.com

 

[cassandrap83]

www.tripadvisor.com is the best! I won't book a hotel unless it checks out there first!

 

[eduk8r26]

kayak itself isn't really a search engine--it takes a bunch of websites and compares the prices. There's also orbitz, priceline, hotwire. Sometimes I'll just google "cheap hotel rates." And often if you go to the hotel's website you can get deals.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Kayak IS a travel search engine.
Orbitz, Priceline, Hotwire, etc., are online travel companies.
Big difference.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

*This* is a great tip! It let's you know how to discover what room you're getting at lastminutetravel.com before you actually purchase it "blindly"

 

[RangerPooh]

We usually stick with Expedia, Yahoo travel, or travelocity. We also double check with the hotels website to see if it's cheaper to book with them directly. If we are staying in an area that we know and are willing to take a chance we'll do Priceline or Hotwire. I do occasionally check Hotels.com and orbitz but rarely book with them.

We've never used Kayak to check for hotel rates, only airfare.

 

[njmom47]

I get emails from Bookingbuddy.com which is a comparison site.

 

[sissy_ib]

I used priceline to find hotels for an upcoming trip to Europe. I like priceline because it seems to be the most user friendly. I was able to set the filters I wanted(price, location, number of stars). Then when I found a hotel that looked good I did a google search for it to see what tripadvisor said. Took a while but I found what seem to be very nice hotels in my price range in both cities I need.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

I've recently gotten addicted to using betterbidding.com and then purchasing through Priceline or Hotwire! It's great when you aren't 100% hung up on a particular hotel.

 

[librarygal]

I have used Priceline many times but recently tried Travelocity Top Secret hotels for the first time. There are some benefits over Priceline and Hotwire. First, there is no "processing fee" on the reservation. This will save you about $7.00. Second, there is no bidding. In addition, you can see the amenities and rating (smiley faces) before you purchase. We got a Holiday Inn in Richmond for $41 plus tax. Priceline could not beat it. The hotel price was $89.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

I often use hotels.com. I like the fact that I can cancel as late as a day before my trip and still get a refund. Their 48 hour sales (tues/weds) have really good prices.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

I always use www.sidestep.com to search for hotels, flights or rental cars.

 

[sameyeyam]

Being in the hotel industry, I can tell you that all of the major sites (Expedia, Travelocity, etc.) are just giant advertising sites. The more money the hotels pay them, the higher their hotels gets put on the page. You are not necessarily going to get the best rates on any of those sites.

What I recommend you do is look at Trip Advisor and find a hotel that appears to be in your price range and that gets good reviews. Then see what they are charging on their own website as well as Expedia, Travelocity, Hotels.com, etc. Now you have an idea of their rates. Call them directly and see if you can get a little bit better rate. Try calling the hotel directly, NOT the toll free reservation line. If they are charging $100 on Expedia, they are only going to get about $80 of that money for the room. The remaining 10-20% will go to Expedia for a commission, as well as a few bucks for different website processing fees. So offer them $85 if you book directly instead of going thru a website. Odds are they will accept the offer. They will make more money and you will pay less. Essentially you are cutting out the middle man.

I recommend you call in the middle of the day. The general manager will usually be on duty and can approve rate requests. If you call during check in or check out times when the front desk is busy, you might not have as much luck negotiating a rate.

Sometimes you can also get a 1-2% discount by paying cash. You can guarantee with a credit card, but then agree to pay cash when you arrive. This saves the hotel 1-3% on credit card processing fees.

Also, if you are staying multiple days, ask if it's possible to get a discount and only have housekeeping every other day if you don't mind making your own bed.

In addition, ask if they have any less desirable rooms for a cheaper rate(ie, parking lot views, etc). I've also been able to get discounts by agreeing to let them charge my credit card in advance and agree that it is non-refundable (but only if I know for sure that I will go).

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

Cool update................thanks for the info!