If you want to compare the prices try the different online booking sites for that particular hotel - they sometimes have special offers but rarely as cheap as say booking.com or expedia. Hope this helps

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That, apparently, gives the lowest status/priority and makes you the first one to bump in an oversell.

It's not just flights. I worked in the hotel industry and guests who booked through a third party site such as Expedia are not valued as much as those who book directly through the hotel. I've had instances where we'd have to walk guests to the closest property because the hotel is completely booked. Hotels give favoritism to those who book directly.

Agreed.
I will use Orbitz for hotel and rental car availability and I use Google Flights for airline availability but I always go directly to the provider’s site to actually book the reservation. If you ever have to make a change to an existing reservation and you used a 3rd part site the actual provider will not deal with you. They will push you off to the 3rd party that you booked with. At least that was my experience and once was enough to convince me to book direct. Also, I never have to pay more than the price I find online to book direct.
Third party sites are great for seeing what’s out there but always book direct with the actual provider.

+1. I have had a couple of bad experiences with the hotels. In one case, they wanted to fix my problem and make it up to me, but since I had booked through a third party, they couldn't give me a refund. They asked Expedia to do it, but I never heard anything from them. I have had good experiences booking through American Express (I get 5x miles for bookings done through them). The hotels seem to like AmEx better than the other third party sites, and AmEx itself seems to have better customer service. For airlines, I always book directly with the carrier after a couple of bad experiences with trying to rebook a cancelled flight, etc. I use google fights to find general fares, and then book directly with the airline.

I have also found that booking.com's rates are higher than others for last-minute bookings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That, apparently, gives the lowest status/priority and makes you the first one to bump in an oversell.

It's not just flights. I worked in the hotel industry and guests who booked through a third party site such as Expedia are not valued as much as those who book directly through the hotel. I've had instances where we'd have to walk guests to the closest property because the hotel is completely booked. Hotels give favoritism to those who book directly.

Agreed.
I will use Orbitz for hotel and rental car availability and I use Google Flights for airline availability but I always go directly to the provider’s site to actually book the reservation. If you ever have to make a change to an existing reservation and you used a 3rd part site the actual provider will not deal with you. They will push you off to the 3rd party that you booked with. At least that was my experience and once was enough to convince me to book direct. Also, I never have to pay more than the price I find online to book direct.
Third party sites are great for seeing what’s out there but always book direct with the actual provider.

Yes, this has been my experience, too. Orbitz and others are essentially selling you two one-way flights and they're not under the same Record Locator.

I once had my outbound flight canceled because of a hurricane but neither Orbitz nor the airline would refund the RETURN portion (which I couldn't take because I wasn't actually THERE). Very expensive lesson -- always book flights directly with the airlines.

It is always best to book flights and hotels directly! Booking through third parties do not usually give you a cheaper price nor will they accommodate you when a problem arises especially for international trips. I have always found cheaper hotel rates and airfare by booking directly with the particular hotel or airline chain. Especially in circumstances like the strikes in Paris last year. The people I knew who used third parties were SOL.

I have had people swear by Costco for car rentals, but I have never found them to be cheaper than other sites. Am I missing something?

I use Kayak to find flight but then always book directly. I like hotels.com because I use it enough to get free nights, but sometimes I will book directly with a hotel if I have loyalty points with them.

I used Expedia once, and when I got to the hotel (which had been overbooked) they already had a letter waiting for me saying that there was no room for me. I believe it was because I was an expedia customer. I always book directly though the hotel website now as I am their custom not expedia's. Expedia doesn't save you any money anyway.

I have no preference for booking flights, but almost always use hotels.com for hotels because of the book 10 nights get one free feature. That means I am ultimately getting an additional 10% off.
The other factor you may wish to consider is the card you are booking with. One of my cards, the Capitol Once Venture gives you 10x points for hotels.com bookings. That isn’t my primary card, but I always use it to book hotels. There is another card (I think a premium Amex) that multiplies points at a higher rate when booked directly through an airline, but not with Expedia etc.

I check out travelocity and google flights and hotwire. And then, like others have said, it is better to book directly with airline and hotel once you determine the best deals.

Anonymous wrote:Skiplagged for flights. Best prices and eaiest interface. For hotels, the hotel brand websites. Car - my bank’s referral website.

I've never heard of this site, and was skeptical about the claim--in the past, I've compared various websites like Expedia, Travelocity, etc. and they all had the same prices.

I put in an international flight I recently booked in both Skiplagged and Google Flights to test which is cheaper. Surprisingly, the Skiplagged flight showed a price of about $1350, which was $100 less per ticket than what popped up in Google Flights.

Perhaps other results will vary, but for this one example, it seemed to point to Skiplagged as cheaper than Google Flights.