The Art of “On-Line” Hotel Booking

Over the past few years I have become somewhat of an aficionado of on-line hotel booking.

I know I am not alone! I have a large group of primarily female friends who openly admit to spending hours obsessing over the perfect hotel room for the best deal. Searching every possible website, some even going as far as to report on the quality of hotel rooms to certain member-based websites (you know who you are). So what is it about shopping for the perfect room? Is it the desire to get your money’s worth? To ensure that the bathroom is not in the hallway, or the bed isn’t as hard as a board? Or is it merely an issue of controlling every last possible detail of your hard-earned vacation? I believe it is a combination of all of the above. Regardless of the reason, and since I fancy myself a successful and consistent on-line booker, I thought I’d spend a bit of time giving some hints to those newbies among us, especially since many of you will be shopping around for hotels in Banff for our upcoming nuptials.

The first stop I recommend is www.tripadvisor.com. Trip Advisor’s motto is “get the truth, then go.” Well that is exactly what they offer, they are a website that individuals can join, or browse for free and search information on hotels. The website gives ratings on the quality of hotels all over the world, based on member feedback. You can get an idea of what a hotel does or does not offer, many members post real pictures from their trips of the hotel rooms and provide detailed (often scary how much time people have on their hands) accounts of their stay. Not only that, trip advisor also gives you an idea of the average room rate, and provides a search engine based on date, availibilty, and quality of hotel. It has booking links to expedia, hotels.ca, and orbitz along with a few others. I highly recommend checking out any hotel on trip advisor before booking! However, keep in mind that standards vary between individuals so focus on the average score, not on one persons posting if they had a terrible or overly wonderful experience.

So, after carefully and obsessively reading all the feedback onTrip advisor you narrow down a few hotels that suit you! What’s next, well check out the prices of course! I often go to sites like expedia, travelocity, or hotels.ca to see what sort of availability there is and also what prices they are offering. But don’t despair if the prices seem too high, there are still options. The first thing to do, which many people forget, is to go directly to the hotels website, often their prices are slightly cheaper then the larger sites like expedia, not to mention there is no service fee. I recently looked in to booking a hotel in Montreal over the May long weekend. I searched and searched and ended up with an amazing deal on a beautiful hotel in Old Montreal based on a special directly off the hotel website. Often these deals will have certain rules, such as no cancellations etc. But let’s say you have tried all these options and still can’t find a hotel in your price range….what’s next?

The final option, which although slightly risky can be very rewarding. Recently, Levi and I headed down to Boston for a fun weekend getaway with some friends. Well, for some reason Boston was booked solid and we couldn’t find anything for less then 300 to 400 a night. Since we were not too picky about where we stayed within the city, we decided to try out Priceline.com. This website at first glance looks like your typical travel website, where you enter in particulars such as date, general hotel location (downtown, airport etc) and then they give you all available options. BUT what they offer that other sites do not is a special added feature, at the bottom of the page or sometimes in between listings is the following:

BEST DEAL – Name Your Own Price^® and Save up to 50% GO

So using this feature, you basically enter in what class hotel you want, where and when and then YOU list a price that you are willing to pay. I know for Boston, I entered in as low as $25 to see what i could get, unfortunately i didn’t have much luck at the price point with a four-star hotel but you can keep going higher until something works. The catch is, you have to take what they give you, so start with 4-5 star hotels and work your way down. If you have no luck, Start again with 3 star hotels and low price points and work your way up. This is a great last minute option and you can get some pretty amazing deals. We ended up with a BEAUTIFUL hotel room listed on expedia at $450 USD a night, for $199 USD a night right in downtown Boston. Not too shabby!

Anyway, if you are a bit more flexible give it a try, you have nothing to lose and it’s a great shot if you are booking at the last minute.

**** If you do find a good deal, pass on the information through this blog or at least to Levi and I because it would be a lot of fun if everyone stayed at the same hotel.

That’s my little tidbit of knowledge if you have anything to add let me know!

Happy holidays everyone!!!!