Hoping to find the secret to unlocking the best deals on hotel bookings? We are, too!
It’s hard to know which method or travel booking site is the best.
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Boston Consumers’ Checkbook, a non-profit consumer watchdog group, had its researchers try to score the best possible deals on hotel rooms. They tried everything -- booking rooms for 75 stays, doing nearly 2,000 searches of hotel websites and 22 travel booking websites, and calling hotel front desks.
After all that effort, Checkbook researchers found they were offered the same prices, pretty much everywhere.
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“One reason you won't see a lot of price variation from different websites when you're doing searches for hotels is that the hotels don't want to be undercut on price from third party booking sites,” says Kevin Brasler, executive editor at Consumers’ Checkbook. “And the third party booking sites, which are all largely owned by Expedia and Booking Holdings, don't want to have to discount either. So they've all come to these agreements where no matter where you look, you're going to see the same rate over and over again across all the different platforms.”
You can find some deals if you are flexible.
Don’t restrict yourself to a specific hotel or chain and compare prices among properties that offer roughly the same amenities. If you can, shift your travel dates by a few days or weeks to see how the room prices may vary.
Most hotels and sites now offer lower rates if you pay upfront for a non-refundable booking.
And hotels and travel booking websites are increasingly offering special rates to people who join their frequent traveler clubs and supply email addresses. Checkbook typically saved 8-12% doing that.
Don’t forget to ask about discounts if you’re a student, senior, in the military, a teacher, or belong to AAA, or AARP.
You can stack your savings by clicking through a cashback shopping portal like Rakuten or BeFrugal before booking. And pay with a travel rewards or rebate credit card.
But you have to be a little bit daring to get the very best bargains.
“Really, the only way to save significantly we found, is booking what's called a mystery deal,” says Brasler. “Hotwire calls it Hot Rate, or Priceline, Priceline calls it their Priceline Express deals. And the way this works is they show you search results as all other websites do, your specific properties for the stay. You selected prices per night and they show you information on star level of hotels and average user reviews and things like that. But, for these mystery deals, they don't show you the specific name of that property for that special rate. You don't learn that until you click through, purchase the stay, no backing out, it's nonrefundable. And then they tell you where you're staying.”
More for consumers
Checkbook has had good luck with mystery bookings and says there are plenty of controls to make sure you don’t land in a bad spot.
After booking, keep monitoring prices. And rebook if they drop or call the hotel and ask them to match the lower price. Some hotels, like Marriot, have a Best Rate Guarantee. If you find your room listed cheaper, you fill out their claim form and get refunded the difference.
Calling the hotel front desk may not net you a cheaper rate, but they may be willing to offer you some additional perks like a free upgrade or breakfast.
You can read more about Consumers’ Checkbook findings by clicking here.
