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Orbitz, Expedia, Hotwire, Priceline, etc...Which is best to use for good hotel rates?


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We've had good luck with Travelocity. But we've had the best luck by calling the hotel directly. We're going on vacation in a couple of weeks and here's what we just did:

 

Find a comparable hotel on Travelocity, Orbitz, etc. to the one where you want to stay. Call the hotel during the day and ask to speak to the manager (the day managers have more power to change their prices than night managers IME). Explain why you'd prefer to give them your business (you've stayed with their hotel chain X # of times, you love their service/atmosphere/whatever), but you need it to be at X price like the hotel on Travelocity. Mention the other hotel by name and the site where you saw the other rate - sometimes they have to verify the rate in order to match it. See if they'll beat the price. We told the hotel that we'd love to stay for 4 nights, but also we'd have to do a 3-night stay instead if they couldn't match the price. Also, don't call more than a couple of weeks in advance and expect them to haggle - they agree to lower their prices to fill empty rooms. If you call 6 weeks in advance, they're still hoping someone will take the room for full-price.

 

For the hotel we wanted to stay at, the Travelocity price was 98.99/night. Other websites and their own hotel website listed their price at over $100/night. By doing what I said above, they gave us a price of 65.99/night.

 

This is the second time we've done this at this hotel and probably the 10th time at various hotels and had similar results each time. I had no idea it was possible to "haggle" for hotel prices, but it apparently is.

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:iagree:

 

When we went to CA in March I found the best prices at the hotel chain's website, their published rates were better than any of the discount site rates were. What killed me was the number of discount sites that had rates higher than it was to go through the hotel chain itself.

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Clark Howard just talked about his tonight on his radio show.

 

 

http://www.clarkhoward.com

 

There should be a link to a new site that he raved about that basically bids and shops a price for you. If you haven't listened to Clark Howard, he's a syndicated radio guy, sort of the Dave Ramsey for consumers. Loves to travel and find the best travel deals. You might take a look there.

 

HTH,

Lisa

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Clark Howard just talked about his tonight on his radio show.

 

 

http://www.clarkhoward.com

 

There should be a link to a new site that he raved about that basically bids and shops a price for you. If you haven't listened to Clark Howard, he's a syndicated radio guy, sort of the Dave Ramsey for consumers. Loves to travel and find the best travel deals. You might take a look there.

 

HTH,

Lisa

 

Thanks. I love Clark Howard! He's such a nerd! LOL :)

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