What's your tip(s) for surviving the cesspool of Hotel booking websites?

[albatross710]

I'm ok with the cashback providing some better pricing. But it's more than price. Are there other hacks that we have?

Achieving better flexibility?
Cancellation policy consistency?

I wonder what / who decide cancellation policies? Sometimes a venue will have non-cancel then next time I look the site will say can be cancelled up to 1 day before. Then next site will say something different. I think this is intentional confusion strategy as I sometimes even see things like "Yes has cancellation" then somewhere will say "for the next 48 hours only" yet I'm booking three months ahead.

Another one I see is "price range". I might set a price range at say $200-$300 then the search results will include $200-$400 properties.

As for location, "Sydney CBD" results will often include Parramatta hotels.

These last two are just booking site marketers being smart.

 

[laffer]

I have to say I am quite stunned at some of the prices Euro hotels are trying to gouge for in Winter. Hotels close to triple the price of what I have previously paid. Despite my searches there seems no relief in sight other than star downgrades and even then the prices are inflated. I taken up the option of an Air BNB in one city. Maybe I need to be more ready to book them?

 

[JohnK]

Apologies this is older thread but I think still relevant.

It's been getting harder to and harder to book hotels in Thailand. Hotels getting older and in need of maintenance yet room rates ever increasing.

I try to look for bargains. Try to spend as less as possible but avoid dumps. We don't usually change bed sheets (every 3-4 nights) so not much need for housekeeping. Breakfast is optional and totally depends on what's charged. Latest hotel we stayed wanted 200 baht per person for very basic breakfast. Room already included breakfast for 2 so wife and daughter went to breakfast. 2 boiled eggs at golf is 30 baht. Don't need more.

Whenever checking websites many had non-refundable room rates so almost always end up at Agoda as their cheapest room rates were fully refundable. What I've noticed the past couple of months is that almost all Agoda lead-in rates are now non-refundable. It's not that they're offering cheaper room rates. It's they've taken away flexibility.

A few months back September/October room rates were looking ridiculous. Now they're looking a little better but no flexibility. I'm a little sceptical booking something 5 months out without any flexibility. Thailand tourism is suffering. This is going to be a really low low season. May see further discounted room rates if they don't achieve desired room occupancy.

 

[Haplo]

The lower mid brand of Accor (Mercure, Novotel) is quite reasonable at around $120 a nightm. Understand you want bargains but that is a fairly good price for a chain hotel.

 

[CaptJCool]

While there’s lots of brands in the hotel booking websites, it’s usually the case that all roads lead to one or other of Expedia or booking.com

Booking direct is usually better but not always
Qantas hotels (as a shopfront for Expedia) as an Australian merchant does the exchange rate adjustments and then your CC bank cannot charge you the ubiquitous 3% foreign exchange fee.

 

[Haplo]

It's usually better to book direct on local currency, then pay on the local currency with a fx fee free card.

Qantas hotel still applies an FX margin when they cnovert to AUD.

 

[SYD]

While there’s lots of brands in the hotel booking websites, it’s usually the case that all roads lead to one or other of Expedia or booking.com

Booking direct is usually better but not always
Qantas hotels (as a shopfront for Expedia) as an Australian merchant does the exchange rate adjustments and then your CC bank cannot charge you the ubiquitous 3% foreign exchange fee.

QF Hotels has also introduced a “deposit” system instead of the full upfront payment (including for “flexible” bookings). Min is 20% but since they’re taking the forex risk, why pay any more?

Have two long stays in the US later in the year, booked before the slump in the AUD! In both cases, they were significantly cheaper than booking direct (which is my usual default approach).

 

[Scarlett]

I usually navigate it by just booking most accom on hotels.com and taking the nearly 10% of the cost each night and use it as a discount in the future.

Pay in AUD each time (as I navigate direct to au.hotels.com) and the displayed price always includes taxes and fees so I know what I’m paying.

I’ll often compare with booking, Agoda and the online direct price, but I’m not calling around different accom places. Hotels.com are usually competitive.

 

[CaptJCool]

I usually navigate it by just booking most accom on hotels.com and taking the nearly 10% of the cost each night and use it as a discount in the future.

Pay in AUD each time (as I navigate direct to au.hotels.com) and the displayed price always includes taxes and fees so I know what I’m paying.

I’ll often compare with booking, Agoda and the online direct price, but I’m not calling around different accom places. Hotels.com are usually competitive.

And owned since 2001 by Expedia

 

[NamarrgonFlyer]

Hi all,

I'm a hotel manager and I deal with OTAs and other agents daily.

Here are my recommendations.

1. Avoid Agoda! They may have a good sharp rate when you compare against other OTAs, but their currency conversion is scammy and will hit you and leave you worse off compared to other OTAs.
Their customer reviews of hotels have inflated scores.

2. Be careful with non-refundable rates on OTAs. They will often be supplied by B2B Bedbank companies and if things go south, good luck. The OTA agent you speak to will make up stories and lie about why you won't get a refund.

3. Booking.com is probably the most transparent booking platform - just watch out for those non-refundable rates ('partner offers'). Expedia also pretty good.

4. There is some merit when you combine flight and hotel bookings via Expedia, you could get an extra 10% or so off the hotel booking with packaged pricing.

 

[aikman]

. Avoid Agoda! They may have a good sharp rate when you compare against other OTAs, but their currency conversion is scammy and will hit you and leave you worse off compared to other OTAs.

This reminded me of Agoda's "book now pay later" scam. They charge a 5% fee for doing this which I only found out after my credit card was charged. I went back to check their T&Cs and found it hidden in their fine print.

 

[aikman]

It's interesting how the way of finding the cheapest hotel rate evolves over time.

In 2025 my method is by bringing up the hotel in Google Maps. It shows the rate on all OTAs including the price on the hotel's own website. Quick and easy.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

My hotel booking strategy really depends on where I am travelling to. For instance, when I was in Australia, the first place I'd go to (instinctively) was Accor directly as chances are they had a hotel where I was travelling to, my Accor+ rate often was amongst the cheapest I could get for a hotel (often paying $100 AUD/night) and as a Platinum I knew I'd get treated well in terms of perks like breakfast and upgrades.

Travelling to Europe and North America, things are a little less clear. Sometimes I would start with the chains prevalent in the area (i.e. Marriott, IHG) to look at pricing. If the price was right and there was promotions, it would be a no brainer. For instance, I stayed at a Four Points near Toronto's Pearson Airport a few weeks ago. The price was $135 CAD/night (incl taxes) which was a little more than I'd like to spend. However, I had a Marriott offer where I'd receive 6,000 bonus points on the stay, a further 1,000 bonus points (and an additional elite night) plus a cash back offer so it made sense.

If I can't find something competitive at my usual suspects, I'd then start looking at if there are hotels where I can book it cheaply using my hotel points or hotel instruments. Two examples from recent travels come to mind. Last Summer, my partner and I spent several days in Vancouver. As some of you can probably appreciate, hotel prices weren't cheap. Oddly enough, there was a Worldmark apartment hotel in Vancouver which could be booked cheaply using Wyndham points which was what I ended up using. Imagine having a 2 bedroom apartment with wash, dryer, kitchen and everything else after spending 3+ weeks on the road. It was a real godsend. More recently, my partner and I were in Santiago, Chile. Hotels here were cheap, although we wanted to stay in a nicer part of the city (Las Condes) so I burned one of my Intercontinental ambassador free nights (which also meant I got a guaranteed upgrade, a 4 PM late check out and $20 USD to spend at the restaurant).

Now I must confess, yes I will use Expedia and the hotel booking sites, particularly when I don't see great options at the major chains either as a cash booking or with points. In those instances, I'll use the site to get an overview of what some quality hotels are available. Going back to the Santiago trip, we were there for a week so whilst the Intercontinental free night was helpful it didn't solve the whole booking needs. So I searched on Expedia and found a good hotel close to the Intercontinental. From there I started looking around, checking to see whether AmEx travel could beat the price (it could). Ultimately, I found that booking direct with the hotel was best as their rates included breakfast for $5 USD/night more. Additionally, for Chile specifically you tourists don't have to pay the 19% sales tax on hotel accommodations provided you arrange the booking so that you end up paying at the hotel rather than prepaying everything (including the sales tax) to Expedia.

So to summarize, my approach is chains then if it doesn't match my price/location/quality criteria then I'll use Expedia to get a lay of the land and from there book using whatever channel is best.

-RooFlyer88

 

[Scarlett]

And owned since 2001 by Expedia

Yep. When checking in it’s usually referred to as ‘an Expedia booking’.

Interestingly, Expedia doesn’t give the effective 10% in account credit that their hotels.com front end does, but normally has the same price.

 

[JohnK]

I usually navigate it by just booking most accom on hotels.com and taking the nearly 10% of the cost each night and use it as a discount in the future.

I went to hotels.com after reading your post. Very poor when it comes to the 10-15 hotels I have on my checklist for Pattaya. Room rates worse than most other sites with more restrictions.

I definitely agree about paying in AUD. I did see quite a few rates the past few days where they charge credit card close to arrival in the hotel's currency. No thanks.

We have sort of settled on a hotel for September. Non-refundable rate of $48/night amd refundable rate of $67/night. I'm not comfortable with the refundable rate so may just bite the bullet and pay for the non-refundable rate.

We have some basic rules for Pattaya.

- Stay in or very near to Soi Buakhow as that has the best street food available plus better access to do it yourself laundries (avoid going past 3rd road as ot can be very difficult to cross the road even very late at night)
- Try not to stay in same hotel for consecutive stays as staff cannot gauge how often we travel to Pattaya