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Does anyone know of any good vacation websites to reference? I'm looking for a quick trip to somewhere like Cancun, or the Caribbean and the most economical rate possible. It seems like all the inclusive hotels are roughly 1k or more per person, but when checking online numerous ppl share that they were able to find cheap deals for less than that but they never say where! If you have a website I can reference I would greatly appreciate it!
We like to take several vacations a year so we shop around.
Funjet - good for bundling air and hotel. Not always cheapest however
Expedia - also good for bundling and prices here are typically lowest. If you find another site lower it often includes a fee or taxes that bring it up. I typically use Expedia to baseline what certain dates and locations will cost. I then try different things like shifting dates a little, going to Hotwire etc. to see how the price changes.
Definitely try Hotwire for the hotel. If you look at it close enough you can normally identify which hotel it is and get a better price. Sometimes a way better price.
A trick with Expedia is to make sure you have an account, then book airfare only. Expedia will then start to offer you pretty good discounts on hotels. A recent trip we were getting discounts of 25%. You do have to book before it expires, I do not recall how long the offer lasted, maybe a week. In this case the savings here were better than what would have been saved by bundling.
Oh, also sign up for Hotwire and start looking around while logged in. Shop around but do not complete a booking. It is very likely you will be emailed a coupon code.
I forgot about Tripadvisor. Not only is it my favorite place to read reviews and see guest photos of destinations they will have special rates sometimes that you can only get by booking through them. Even if the link appears to take you directly to the hotels booking site it is not the same. It is coded different and you can get way better deals. Definitely check here too.
On Hotwire it is honestly not hard to find out the secret hotel before booking. Many times the listing will be identical to the one where it lists the hotel name. For example the star rating, location and number of reviews will all match. It is literally the same listing only with the name missing. These guys can help you find out as well: https://www.betterbidding.com/
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Originally Posted by joee5
Kayak or tripadvisor is what we use. Hotwire won't tell you certain info, such as hotel, until you've already submitted your personal information.
The best deals are often caught at escapehouston.com . Its exclusively for flights from Houston.
I also prefer booking packages from the airline sites or bank travel sites itself. If you are a member, you get additional miles or points. United and Amex worked well for me.
Most of these travel websites having different names , end up with the same parent company.
I used priceline initially, but seeing my recurring pattern, they creep-ed up the price of the same car rental and I end up booking from the direct car company which is way lower.
They specialize in short notice 90 day or less window stuff. Great deals. They do the traditional stuff too. Vacations does cruises and Resort does all the resorts.
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