Where to find cheap hotel rates?
 

Other than Priceline, that is.

I'm trying to get the cheapest possible rate on a one-night stay at the Radisson Laval on a Saturay in the near future. I'm thrilled (sarcasm) to discover the general-purpose booking engines seem even more broken than before.

I've tried Expedia, Travelocity, ITN, TravelWeb and CheapHotels, in addition to Radisson's site. Are there any other favourite sites for beating these prices? Anywhere for a possible extra reduction Wednesday before the weekend?

Here's what I get so far.

Radisson's site:
C$99 (HotDeal, prepaid) or C$109 (SuperSaver)

Expedia.com:
If I ask for a whole week, I get $82.84 MWT and $77.76 FS with Tu sold out. Or I can ask for just Saturday and get $69.68! I'm guessing these are U$ but why is Saturday-only cheaper than Saturday (individually broken out) as part of a week!?

Expedia.ca:
$96.30 which I figure must be C$ and reinforces that expedia.com is U$

itn.com:
C$109.00 (same as SuperSaver) but I had to login to get it, not-logged-in it just kept telling me it didn't recognize "Montreal" as a serach city.

Travelweb.com:
C$109.00 although I had to click and click and click to get to it (didn't see a way to filter).

Travelocity.ca:
U$75.95, now this is really stupid, a Canadian site giving me (logged in with a Canadian address) the price of a Canadian hotel in U$!! Also excessively expensive.

Thanks!
andrew

Glad to see you didn't consider Destina. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I didn't consider it, after all the negatives I've seen posted. But then I decided to give it a shot after reading your reply, and here's what happened.

I gave it "Montreal" and the date, it returned three possible airport codes (I hate it when they tie hotels to airports) and I picked YUL. It returned Radisson Laval and Radisson Longueuil, the former with rates $109-$179 same as the other sites. I picked the hotel to see the rate details and got this back (Empress you'll love this http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif):

andrew

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Decoding that message - 'This site is useless.'

Though I'd not use it to actually book the rooms, in part because they charge a non-refundable booking fee, it's by far the quickest, easiest, and most complete listing of discounted hotel rates. I never find a rate elsewhere that is cheaper than those listed here. They may be the same, but not less. Anyway:

http://www.1800anyhotel.com

Note that you can leave the city field blank and it will list all properties in the state or province. You can also specify your currency of choice.

[This message has been edited by Ken hAAmer (edited 05-25-2003).]

Thanks Ken, just tried that one. Had to specify Laval and not Montreal in order to get the Laval properties.

It returned "C$95-C$179" which gave me hope until it turned out everything less than $109 was a federal or provincial goverment rate.

Looks like a good site for getting _all_ the hotels listed.

andrew

I don't know why you're asking for specifically the Radisson in Laval, but you might get a cheaper rate on priceline?

Bidding for Travel shows that its the only 3* in Laval...

http://pub210.ezboard.com/fpriceline...picID=35.topic

I've had success as a Canuck on priceline.com , namely by using a Mosaik Mastercard, and entering in the information as follows

Name: YYC Ollie
Address 1: 1234 I live here Lane
Address 2: Calgary Alberta T2A 1A1
City: Calgary
State: CA
ZIP: 99999

Don't know if you want Radisson points either, but you often don't get them on PCLN stays.

Better yet, just specify Quebec, and leave "City" blank. You'll get all the hotels in QC listed.

I assume you considered Hotwire (www.hotwire.com)or is the fact that they do not allow you to specify the hotel the problem? It has "Laval" as an option in Montreal and the rates are probably better than what you are seeing.

www.hotels.com

www.all-hotels.com

I'll check those sites.

Probably, but I need the Radisson stay credit.

True, but I wanted to focus in on the one hotel. I guess if I filtered on Radisson it would have worked.

Yup, I need a Radisson stay credit so I can transfer some GoldPoints to an airline program.

Thanks for all the advice, as you can see I have to specify Radisson (Ottawa is marginally more convenient but $10 more expensive so I'm focussing on Laval).

andrew


[This message has been edited by Andrew Webber (edited 05-26-2003).]

FWIW, both return U$75.95 for Radisson Laval.

andrew


[This message has been edited by Andrew Webber (edited 05-26-2003).]

Sadly the short answer on where to find cheap hotel rates is Toronto.

Yeah, Radisson has "$95 and up" including $99 at Queen's Quay. I might be down there in a few weeks but not soon enough for this purpose.

andrew

Radisson Hotel & Suites, Buffalo

4243 GENESEE STREET
BUFFALO, NY 14225
(716) 634-2300
$70 US