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I am looking for a nice hotel at a decent price in December. Is it cheaper to go through the hotels website or to use something like Travelocity, Expedia, etc..?
I used Expedia a few years ago for plane tickets and it seemed pricey to me. Wouldve been cheaper if I had just used the actual airlines website (Southwest).
Southwest always has good rates. If I'm not mistaken, Expedia doesn't include SW flights but I could be wrong. They also do packages, so it may come out cheaper if you did it through them vs. going on another website.
I usually get the same or better price through the hotel's website directly, but I've also used Priceline (if you aren't picky as to what exact hotel you're getting) or hotels.com before too. Most recently in the Middle East (Dubai), we were looking for a hotel room and we found the exact same price on the hotel's website and on hotels.com, but it wasn't available to be booked on the hotels.com website so we booked directly.
It depends on when you are traveling. I always check the hotel website directly when booking on a site like Expedia. Just did it last week in fact and the rates were the same. This won't always be the case though and often times you pay an additional fee for booking on sites like Expedia. Good luck!
I'll actually be driving but it's close to Christmas so Im guessing thats why the rates are kind of high
Hotel rates around Christmas are GENERALLY lower as there is nearly NO BUSINESS travelers our there. I get some phenomenal deals around the holidays through Priceline and Hotwire. Do remember that some of the services are curtailed around the holiday and some of the hotels really slack around the holidays.
As for airfares, I always book direct with the carrier. When there are issues, it is easier to deal with them than some call center a thousand miles away.
I am going to a Cowboys game in December and Im looking for something close to the stadium. I think thats why it's so pricey.. And they still want to charge for shuttle service to the stadium when it's only 6 min away
I've been using Trivago recently for my hotel reservations. it consolidates many different booking sites and lists all the prices, and highlights the cheapest one. When I find the cheapest price, I compare it to the hotel website price. If they're the same I use the hotel website, since that way if there are any problems it's easier to deal with. If the Trivago site is cheaper I go with them. Just be cautious with websites you're not familiar with. They are not necessarily a scam, but you need to use due diligence. The last time the cheapest price Trivago directed me to was from a website called Amoma, which had sketchy reviews. I used it anyways and ended up saving a bunch. There were problems with the website so I talked to someone over the phone and to make sure everything was done right and also called to hotel to confirm my reservations. In the end everything worked out fine and I saved money. Took me about 30 extra minutes but was well worth it. There is no one website that's consistently the cheapest, it just depends on each individual situation.
Pretty much all the major chains offer "best rate guarantees" that the brand website will have the lowest publicly available rate. Keep in mind memberships such as AAA might offer some type of discount then "best available rate", but again the brand website should match or beat third party's such as Expedia, Hotels.com, Travelocity, etc.
Most of the brands advertise if you find a better publicly available rate on another website, the hotel will offer some sort of compensation (including up to a free room). Note there is usually fine print you have to follow to get that compensation, but point is brand.com is usually the best deal (or same as third parties).
The one caveat is Priceline and Hotwire where you don't know what hotel you'll get until you pay on non-refundable basis. That is not considered a publicly available rate so hotels might offer something lower. You get a lower rate and trade off knowing which hotel until you pay - and the hotel can still offer a higher rate in return for you knowing which hotel you'll get upfront.
In the end, hotels have a strong incentive to book you on their own websites. Even if the rate is the exact same to you on brand.com vs. third party, the hotel pays the third party 15-25% of the rate in commission for booking the reservation for you. It's expensive to the hotel to have you book on another website and means they have to cut corners somewhere to cover their costs.
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