Originally Posted by
21x2
Thank you very much for your answers.
When you have booked a refundable room directly at the hotel site do you also use afterwards the hotel compare sites such as kayak or tripadvisor ?
The problem which I see now is that amoma , getaroom,otel do have prices which are too good to be truth.
When a market price will be $145 for instance they offer the room for $55.
So I do use priceline and hotwire a lot and I save a lot off $ but I use them the most for 5* Hotels.
Are the big sales off Hilton always at December which I do use once or are there other fixed sales periods ?
Yeah, depends on the market, but happens sometimes and unfortunately the price differences are real. In these cases I'll sometimes forgo the points and book with these other sites found from Wego.com, Hotelscombined.com, Kayak.com, etc. So many chains won't honor rates that issue a voucher, which those you mentioned all do. I've gone back and argued numerous times, why would they rather pay a consolidator or third party site to sell their rooms than price match and sell directly for no commission, but except for one particular chain, most won't budge. I will always try a BRG if possible though before resorting to other sites, not as simple with non-refundable rates though with most chains.
Hilton sales come and go depending on the region. I want to say the Middle East, Africa, Europe sales I use most frequently come quarterly or so. Asia sales I've noticed nearly as often. Domestic USA, I have absolutely no idea but so many properties in the US are allowed to opt out of Hilton promos it's almost pointless anyway.
Originally Posted by
pinniped
Echo what others said...book the best refundable rate you can find the moment you think you're going to take the trip. (Or, the moment you've bought the nonrefundable airfare.)
For me, Priceline is either for one of two cases:
- 5* hotels in their nomenclature (I realize these are often really more like 4* hotels), especially when I am likely to get a Fairmont, OMNI, or other niche brand that doesn't penalize a lack of elite status or penalize a Priceline user for, well, using Priceline. Often booked the morning of the stay, or now (with many "regular" rates having a 1-day cancel rule), 24 hours prior.
- Rural 2.5* hotels where elite status is irrelevant. Cases where my choice is to pay $90 for an HIX or $40 for the same HIX and not earn points. I will often book these *after* I drive around the hotel and confirm that it's a clean-looking place.
I hate Priceline with a passion but have used them for these same reasons too. I really hate giving up my status benefits and points if I don't have to, so I try my best to find a BRG that they will match though before giving up on booking with the chain.