Some Decent Hotel Prices

[WiganTony]

Just a heads up that Hotels.com seem to have some very good prices at the moment. I was looking for August, and a search for 7 nights arriving 4th August came up with:

WDW Dolphin - £912 (instead of £2,000)
WDW Swan - £1,065 (instead of £2,000)
Gaylord Palms - £763 (instead of £1,169)
Maingate Lakeside resort - £241

Also note that you can get 8% cashback through Quidco on Hotels.com

 

[wayneg]

Hi Tony, I always find them expensive, they are same group as Expedia, probably about the most expensive group out there unless you see a real bargain(rare)

Checked the same week here are prices I found.

Hotelopia use code "quidcosales" to get this price then 13% Quidco (no cashback on room tax)
Maingate Lakeside resort £185.62

Ebookers 12% Quidco off this price
Gaylord Palms £566.02

HotelProto 10% Off this price
Swan £882.00

Dolphin, nothing showed with a quick search so hotels.com/Expedia possibly OK price.

 

[WiganTony]

Fair point on the prices. Have to admit I noticed the prices for the Swan and Dolphin as we had the possibility of having to find an extra night's accommodation at Disney due to the AF flight cancellations, and the Swan at least was as cheap as the Disney moderate hotels.

 

[Kath2003]

Yeah, nothing cheap for me. Some of the hotels on "offer" there are still twice the price of other sites. It's a shame - hotels.com used to be cheap, now they seem to just set deals with Expedia, HotelClub etc. and all charge the same prices. Why bother having a bunch of different websites all doing exactly the same thing?

 

[iHEARTflorida]

Do you guys never book you hotels direct through their website, or do you always you sites such as Expedia [or not as the case maybe], Hotelopia , Ebookers and Quidco?

 

[crabbie1]

It depends as booking direct normally works out more expensive which seems silly to me but yes by using say alpharooms or hotelopia through a cashbacksite like quidco works out cheaper. The only ones i hv booked direct with are disney and universal hotels

 

[wayneg]

Do you guys never book you hotels direct through their website, or do you always you sites such as Expedia [or not as the case maybe], Hotelopia , Ebookers and Quidco?

Almost always use an agent, they usually get better rates than you can buying just 1 room direct. There are exceptions though you need to check all options.

The week I quoted above at Maingate Lakeside resort would be £164.51 after Cashback direct on their own website $384.72 (£246.61)

Often you get a better cancellation policy direct but you need to check, again using this example at Maingate Lakeside resort, direct you can't cancel on this rate yet the lower £164.51 with Hotelopia could be cancelled for a £15 fee.

The rate I quoted at Gaylord/ebookers is a standout rate to me, direct the rates are not available yet but I would expect it to be around £1,000-£1200 when released. ebookers after cashback around £500, that seems very cheap for that hotel.

 

[iHEARTflorida]

Thanks wayne, how you ever experienced probelms though, such as your reservation not showing when checking in?

What about flights, do you use agents for those, or direct?

 

[Kath2003]

For me:

Very rarely book direct with the hotel; have never experienced any problems using agents such as hotels.com.
Book direct with the airline but would be happy using someone like Expedia etc. if the price was right.

Have never booked a package holiday; once you calculate the premium you put on using one company, you realise how much they can make (though sometimes it can be cheaper, though we've always found a 20-50% premium on what we wanted).

 

[wayneg]

Thanks wayne, how you ever experienced probelms though, such as your reservation not showing when checking in?

What about flights, do you use agents for those, or direct?

Thankfully never a problem, I do my research and book with reputable companies. I have used Expedia many times, they are the largest travel company in the world, were part owned by Microsoft(not sure if they still are)
http://www.expediainc.com/
Another I listed above is Hotelopia, which is part of the Tui group, they also own Thomson holidays, also part of this group are Hotelbeds, one of the largest hotel room suppliers.
Many others I use, most are part of a large company or independant and been trading 20-30 years.

Nearest I came to having a problem was Aug 09, I booked Regal Sun via a UK agent at a great rate of £25/night, less than half nearest competitor. Day we checked in the company went bankrupt, I went straight to see the manager who assured me the account had been pre-paid.

I have saved so much money over the years if i do eventually book a bad deal I would just accept it, this next trip is costing £4,500 compared to VH quote of £10,445. Packages and booking direct with hotels is usually an expensive way to go for us but never rule out these options.

Same with flights, the main one that sticks out in memory is my 1st Business class flight, Booked with Expedia for £470pp, direct with Delta £1,700pp.

Pay with credit cards and buy insurance early just incase anything goes wrong.