Looking for opinions

[MissBubbles]

and advice for anyone who has any info to give me on HotWire, Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, etc. I'm very tempted to try one of these for a more reasonable hotel room in California for our stay in May but am leary since I've never tried one of these and don't know of anyone who has.

For me, this is probably the biggest reason why I would rather go to Florida than California is the cheaper hotel rooms in Florida.

Any and all advice, gripes, etc. will be much appreciated.

 

[tirby]

My advice. And again I am NO DL expert! But I find that AAA, If you have it is great. I don't use the travel agent a lot. But MANY hotels give you a 10% discount for using the AAA rate. (just need to be a basic member) (lots of other uses too) Most places we book online directly...or their web site...Like choice hotels ect.. most prices we were quoted $70-$120 And these were ALL walking distance. on the main road at DL entrance. Most online bookings through the big name places were more. I was told, can someone confirm or correct me, that some of the online things, like priceline ect... Not sure which ones or all of them? charge a NON refundable depo. That just doesnt work for me.
Again only an opinion.

 

[TinkBellRellaMom]

If you have the Entertainment book there are quite a few hotels that offer a 50% discount. We are staying at Hojo's in a couple weeks using the entertainment card and the rate is only $54 each night.

 

[blackjackdelta]

I quit using most site ie: Expedia and the like since most of the time things have not gone well traveling. I would use AAA or Costco if you have that option. A lot depends on the dates you are traveling in May. Just some thoughts.

Jack

 

[labagit]

Do you think the packages with Costco or AAA are the way to go, or can you generally do better purchasing the tickets through them at the discount and getting the hotel on your own (using the AAA or other discount)? There is no value in some of the extras in the packages (i.e. commemerative coin, lanyard, free drink refills) to me.

 

[funnygarcia]

I've used Priceline in the past. Stayed at the Marriot and the Hilton over by the convention center for under $50 a night. They charge as soon as you win the bid, guarentee only enough bedding for two people (not ideal for families).
Hotwire guarentees enough bedding for 4 if that is what you enter when purchasing. Better Bidding web site is handy for looking up what bids are winning and where for Priceline and hints to match up descriptions for Hotwire.

I used a Travelocity package onece for air and hotel. Better deal then I could find for the same dates.. not always the best deal , you need to know what the average price is for each hotel and if any special offers are available (like Entertainment rate) to compare.

TravelAxe is a cool download program that compares prices for a bunch of hotels in the area. It searches several web sites to find the lowest price for each hotel.
Kayak is another web site that is handy to use.. I used it for air fare this time. Found it kinda clunky to use for hotel searches , too broad of an area.

During a high season time, I found a great rate thru a GetAwayToday package. They don't price out each part of the package , I subtracted out pass costs and then figured out nightly rate. Found a rate lower than any I had found for HoJo's. Not finding a great deal during the low season thru GetAway when I checked for my upcoming trip. It was cheaper to buy passes and hotel seperate on my own.

If you want HoJo's, but don't have AAA, they have an "E" Disney fan discount coupon of 10% off best available rate. Same price as it would be for AAA. Laughingplace and Mousesavers both have links to the web site with the coupon.

Good luck!

 

[hlbtimes2]

My advice- research the hotels you are considering before you book. Take location in to account. Do you want to be close enough to walk? Will you have a car and are you willing to take the time and expense to drive to the parks? If you will have a car, does the hotel charge for parking? Do they offer a shuttle or will you have to use ART? Do you mind using ART? Don't believe them when they say "one block" or "across the street". Its not always what it sounds like.

There is some hotel info here at the Dis., take a look at tripadvisor.com, ask the board for opinions and experiences before you book! Most of the hotels that are close are going to be older motels, that were built in the 50's and 60's. Some people dont care for the doors that open to the outside, and prefer new hotels with in door walkways.

My personal favorite hotel is the candy cane inn. However, you can only book direct with them (www.candycaneinn.net) or with Disney travel. (probably AAA as well, but not costco). The location is ideal, they offer a shuttle if you dont want to walk, and the free breakfast is plentiful and fresh.

I have booked thru expedia, orbitz and travelocity for various trips, but never for Disney as we always book a package for that. The only problem I ever had was with flights on Orbitz. United was making changes and Orbtiz wasnt making sure that the connections would work. Not sure if that is Uniteds problem or Orbitz. They were easy to work with and I would still use them. Priceline and hotwire can get you great rates, but you might not be in a hotel that is actually close by the parks. You'll want to consider that before you "blind" bid on something.

 

[dizzyami]

I booked hotel rooms through expedia, travelocity and travelworm for my husbands work. The only time I ever had a problem is if there had to be some sort of change or cancellation to the plans. This becomes very difficult and costly. That has really been the only "risk" that we have ever encountered when using these companies. Many times though if you call the hotel, or check out the specific websites you can get just as good of deals as the travel websites offer.

 

[mystic_path]

I was in the same boat as you a few months back and just recently again for a disney trip. To be very honest, i've looked into the costco thing, AAA thing and yes all of them have good deals, but I found the best way for me to go was to go through

www.travelocity.com OR www.orbitz.com

I have looked into expedia and other sites, but those 2 by far have the best deals I found on hotel and flight packages.

But when it came to park tickets to universal, disneyland or even the southern cali city pass I went to

www.getawaytoday.com

They had fab prices on tix. I got my disneyland passes through getawaytoday, but although they had amazing prices on other tix such as Universal, Sandiego Zoo, Sea world, etc. I went to the direct websites of these other places (Universal, zoo, Sea) and got their free transportation day pass, just cause I didnt have a car and it was so convenient having someone pick me up at my hotel and drop me off there.

If I had a car, I would have gone to getawaytoday to get my passes for everything cause they have good prices and their service is something so wonderful I cant even tell you.

 

[mikayla73]

We have used Expedia for almost all of our trips, any where. You do have to do some separate searching for info on the hotels that you are considering, but it has been worth it in our experience. Trip Advisor is also a good place to do some research.

We even had an issue with a place we choose to book, when we went to DL last year. It was horrible. Yes we did our searches before and we were only looking for a place to shower and sleep, it turned out that I would do neither in that place. We called Expedia, got booked into another hotel (they even did the searching for me since I didn't have access to the Internet) I gave her a list of places we would stay and they were able to book us there, and gave me a coupon for the $ we were charged from cancelling the original booking. We were penalized (by the hotel, not Expedia) and had to pay for one night since we cancelled after we got there.

The "hotel" was called Parkside Inn & Suites. The name is close to other DL area hotels, so be sure not to get it confused.