Booking Disney and Universal hotels- advise on ebookers, expedia and hotels.com

didntgotoplan

Hi guys,

I'm heading of to Florida from the 14th of Sept to the 24th and can't decide where to book the hotels. Normally I would book from American holidays but I thought they were expensive this time round.

I've seen a lot cheaper prices on ebookers, expedia and hotels.com but not sure about them as I've not used them before or have heard people I know use them.

I'm looking to send the first week in a Disney value resort- mainly looking at Pop Century and then the 20th -24th in one of the Universal hotels with the fastpass.

I'm going solo but have friends staying on a hotel on I-drive who we can drive to parks together outside of both resorts.

Any reviews/comments on any of these websites would be great

Thanks

ProudDUB

Have never used ebookers, but I have used Expedia and Hotels.com a lot. I have never had a problem with either of them. They are American websites. That may account for your not knowing anyone here who has used them, but they work just as well for people outside of the US.

Only down side about them (or any third party travel website really) is that if your plans change, or any unforseen complications crops up, it can be harder to get to speak to someone and get your problem resolved or your questions asked, than if you simply pick up the phone and ring up Aer Lingus, or your own local travel agent here.

Hotel in the US also have a reputation for not giving the best rooms in the hotel to people who have booked with third party websites, and not with them directly. I don't mean that your room will be crap or majorly different to others in the hotel, just that is may over look the car park as opposed to the sea, and stuff like that. So if something about your room doesn't appeal to you when you get there, pop down to the front desk and ask if they have something better to give you. They may not have, but they very often will.

Other than that, they are fine.

didntgotoplan

ProudDUB wrote: »

Have never used ebookers, but I have used Expedia and Hotels.com a lot. I have never had a problem with either of them. They are American websites. That may account for your not knowing anyone here who has used them, but they work just as well for people outside of the US.

Only down side about them (or any third party travel website really) is that if your plans change, or any unforseen complications crops up, it can be harder to get to speak to someone and get your problem resolved or your questions asked, than if you simply pick up the phone and ring up Aer Lingus, or your own local travel agent here.

Hotel in the US also have a reputation for not giving the best rooms in the hotel to people who have booked with third party websites, and not with them directly. I don't mean that your room will be crap or majorly different to others in the hotel, just that is may over look the car park as opposed to the sea, and stuff like that. So if something about your room doesn't appeal to you when you get there, pop down to the front desk and ask if they have something better to give you. They may not have, but they very often will.

Other than that, they are fine.

Thanks for letting me know what you think of the websites!

I won't be booking the hotels until closer the time so I hopefully that will be okay for plan changes (however knowing me, I always change my mind so maybe it is a good thing to wait until a few months beforehand!)

View isn't really important for me to be honest so to be given a car park/road view will not annoy me (my first holiday to Florida and I was given a room with a huge tree trunk covering most of the light but it was great for blocking out the rain that hit the window during a freak storm!)

readytosnap

hi we have used ebookers & expedia many times, never had a problem with any of them. Daughter had a problem for a return flight last year the ticket was for end of march but circumstances changed and she needed to get back to Ireland asap, I got in touch with expedia and explained the situation they said they would try and see if they could help (originally booked through them) within 24 hrs they got back to me with the option of a flight the next day but i would have to pay any surplus charge levied by the airline, which seemed fair enough, anyway turns out they changed the ticket and didnt cost a bean so gotta hand it to them. As for ebookers i cant go into too much detail but i booked for a friend plus 1 to australia via them, booked 5 months in advance, anyway plus 1 no longer part of the plans and wanted a refund despite me explaining thatit was a non refundable fare hence the low cost ( think it was 720 approx) anyway friend & plus 1 cannot be in the same space as each other :rolleyes: so i contacted them (ebookers) knowing there was no refund but i explained that they cannot be seated together (if both travelled) they did what they could to help, had them at opposite sides and ends of the plane for leg 2 and 3 of the journey but couldnt do anything about leg 1 (irl-uk) as seats dont be allocated for that leg. they rang me back and sorted all this out within an hour very helpful for what was really a silly situation where they could of just said tough!, so i would not hesitate recommending them to anyone.
one other thing i noticed about ebookers they do good deals, but a few times i only booked the flight and within a couple of days i would get an email offering me 10-20% off hotels for the same trip, which more than once has worked out cheaper than the combined package original price.;)

we have used ebookers at least 12 times and expedia at least 5 times.

didntgotoplan

readytosnap wrote: »

hi we have used ebookers & expedia many times, never had a problem with any of them. Daughter had a problem for a return flight last year the ticket was for end of march but circumstances changed and she needed to get back to Ireland asap, I got in touch with expedia and explained the situation they said they would try and see if they could help (originally booked through them) within 24 hrs they got back to me with the option of a flight the next day but i would have to pay any surplus charge levied by the airline, which seemed fair enough, anyway turns out they changed the ticket and didnt cost a bean so gotta hand it to them. As for ebookers i cant go into too much detail but i booked for a friend plus 1 to australia via them, booked 5 months in advance, anyway plus 1 no longer part of the plans and wanted a refund despite me explaining thatit was a non refundable fare hence the low cost ( think it was 720 approx) anyway friend & plus 1 cannot be in the same space as each other :rolleyes: so i contacted them (ebookers) knowing there was no refund but i explained that they cannot be seated together (if both travelled) they did what they could to help, had them at opposite sides and ends of the plane for leg 2 and 3 of the journey but couldnt do anything about leg 1 (irl-uk) as seats dont be allocated for that leg. they rang me back and sorted all this out within an hour very helpful for what was really a silly situation where they could of just said tough!, so i would not hesitate recommending them to anyone.
one other thing i noticed about ebookers they do good deals, but a few times i only booked the flight and within a couple of days i would get an email offering me 10-20% off hotels for the same trip, which more than once has worked out cheaper than the combined package original price.;)

we have used ebookers at least 12 times and expedia at least 5 times.

Ha! Those two friends sounded like my sister and me last year! Anyway, thanks for letting me know about them, they do seem good.