Why do people use Travelocity, Expedia, etc?

[Anonymous]

I don't use third party sites for flights, but I sometimes do for hotels. I always start with a search on hotels.com and then compare with the cost on the hotel site. Often hotels.com is cheaper.

[Anonymous]

Hotels.com is owned by Expedia

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hotels.com is owned by Expedia

As are Travelocity, Orbitz, VRBO, Hotwire, Trivago and a number of others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been making my reservations through Orbitz for many years. Has always been fine.

It’s fine until there is a problem or you need to make a change. Then it’s not fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hotels.com is owned by Expedia

As are Travelocity, Orbitz, VRBO, Hotwire, Trivago and a number of others.

The point is that sometimes it is cheaper to book through one of these sites. I always compare, but if I can save money on a third party site, I take it. I travel all the time and have never had an issue at a hotel having booked this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been making my reservations through Orbitz for many years. Has always been fine.

It’s fine until there is a problem or you need to make a change. Then it’s not fine.

I've used Expedia a lot for over 20 years, and have made many changes, and have never had an issue. I always confirm the flight on the airline site (pick my seat, etc.) and always book using my frequent flier number as well. I had airline and hotel reservations that for a trip I canceled due to Covid back in 2020 and it was no problem.

Maybe it is an issue with foreign carriers or something but I have never had any problems and I travel a lot. I have, however, had issues booking directly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The point is that sometimes it is cheaper to book through one of these sites

I’ve never seen these sites be cheaper when doing an apples to apples comparison. How much cheaper are you finding?

[Anonymous]

Last time I checked into a hotel, a family of 4 was also checking in. They had used some other site and were not guaranteed a specific room. They only had 1'king bed available and the room was non refundable. They were discussing buying sleeping bags when we left

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been making my reservations through Orbitz for many years. Has always been fine.

It’s fine until there is a problem or you need to make a change. Then it’s not fine.

I've used Expedia a lot for over 20 years, and have made many changes, and have never had an issue. I always confirm the flight on the airline site (pick my seat, etc.) and always book using my frequent flier number as well. I had airline and hotel reservations that for a trip I canceled due to Covid back in 2020 and it was no problem.

Maybe it is an issue with foreign carriers or something but I have never had any problems and I travel a lot. I have, however, had issues booking directly.

The “issue” is that on top of the airline change fee, you pay an Expedia change fee.

[Anonymous]

It’s because they don’t know better. I had to teach an exBF how to book travel as he thought the only way was Expedia.

However I do use booking occasionally - sometimes that’s the only way to book the hotel. Ran into that a lot in Iceland in the rural areas

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hotels.com is owned by Expedia

As are Travelocity, Orbitz, VRBO, Hotwire, Trivago and a number of others.

The point is that sometimes it is cheaper to book through one of these sites. I always compare, but if I can save money on a third party site, I take it. I travel all the time and have never had an issue at a hotel having booked this way.

The point is that searches on any of those sites produce the exact same results, even if they want you to believe they don't with their advertising.

[Anonymous]

So that you don't leave " cookie tracks" looking multiple times at the hotel or airline itself. Rates quoted often go up when airlines + hotels track you looking at their sites

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hotels.com is owned by Expedia

As are Travelocity, Orbitz, VRBO, Hotwire, Trivago and a number of others.

The point is that sometimes it is cheaper to book through one of these sites. I always compare, but if I can save money on a third party site, I take it. I travel all the time and have never had an issue at a hotel having booked this way.

The point is that searches on any of those sites produce the exact same results, even if they want you to believe they don't with their advertising.

Right, but my point is that I don't care, if the price is cheaper than booking directly through the hotel. I have logins to all those sites so I'll book on any of them if it is cheaper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The point is that sometimes it is cheaper to book through one of these sites

I’ve never seen these sites be cheaper when doing an apples to apples comparison. How much cheaper are you finding?

I find these sites to be cheaper around 50% of the time. I will book third party if I end of saving $50 or more total, so it often depends on how many nights I'm staying.

[Anonymous]

OK so as a test, I just looked up the Eaton Hotel in DC for one night, Feb. 1-2. On hotels.com you can get a queen room, fully refundable one day in advance, for $243 total. Booking directly, for the same room and same cancellation policy, it is $277.

This is why I sometimes use hotels.com.