How do you book hotels?

corblimey

Just wondering if people use generic hotel booking sites (like booking.com, hotels.com, etc). I use TripAdvisor all the time to find a place to stay, but would never dream of using it or any of the other sites it links to to make my final booking. I feel a lot more comfortable going on the hotel website and spending maybe a little more (but not always) for that peace of mind. I know there tends to be massive savings when using one of these sites, but I'm of the mind that even if my reservation isn't lost or something (and the hotel blames booking.com and booking.com blames the hotel), then the hotel will just stick me in the basement or in a room with no roof or something (exaggeration for comical effect)

Am I mad?

(As an aside, I'm using Avios points for a booking on a forthcoming trip, and it's the only hotel I'm at least a little worried about, so it's probably the same mind block as above)

faceman

Yes you're mad.

I use Tripadvisor and Trivago to price hotels up and then decide from there.

I've got silver status with Hotels.com and the same the the HHonors scheme.

(I travel alot)

Utah

I think booking.com is great. We've had 2 issues ever and booking.com customer service went above and beyond for us.

dory

What are avois points?

I use booking.com all the time. I'll often cross check with trip advisor as I prefer the review format there, can see easily what other people think. Also , the off time they'll have an agoda.com price that's cheaper. Also with most bookings you can cancel up to 48 hours before the stay. Usually the hotel will write to you to confirm via booking.com. If they don't you can easily message them. I've never heard of a booking going missing.

xabi

Don't recall ever using a Hotels own site to book accommodation, I use Trivago and go with the cheapest option, never an issue.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Skyscanner Hotels is handy for checking the cheapest site.

iwillhtfu

I use hotels.com with work I'd be away 10+ days/month.

I used to use booking.com but you don't get any rewards and figured that a bit tight considering the amount of business I was putting through them.

I'm not sure if I'd use hotels.com if booking a family holiday for 2 weeks or similar.

I have had lost bookings on numerous occasions or not yet entered bookings as I may have booked last minute and each time I've been given a room as normal and if no rooms are available or have not been cleaned I usually get upgraded to a suite.

On the one occasion the hotel was full and my booking wasn't on their system, I was moved to a suite in a sister hotel no need to contact hotels.com although at this point I'm in their upper level of customer care and thankfully have yet to experience the benefit of it.

intheclouds

It kind of depends on the context and how far in the future Im booking.

Ive been stung twice by sites going out of business and me arriving to find no reservation so I am wary of booking too far ahead and would tend to use the hotel website only for something far into the future.

And if I am going to a luxury hotel where I want to specify some requirements I tend to use the hotel website too.

If I decide on a whim to go to London this weekend I would use another site.

Although Im a fierce creature of habit and know the hotels I want to stay in in some cities so just use their sites.

athtrasna

I usually use booking.com to find a cancellable rate I'm happy with and keep an eye out for bargains in the meantime. I probably cancel about half my bookings with them.

dory

iwillhtfu wrote: »

I use hotels.com with work I'd be away 10+ days/month.

I used to use booking.com but you don't get any rewards and figured that a bit tight considering the amount of business I was putting through them.

I'm not sure if I'd use hotels.com if booking a family holiday for 2 weeks or similar.

I have had lost bookings on numerous occasions or not yet entered bookings as I may have booked last minute and each time I've been given a room as normal and if no rooms are available or have not been cleaned I usually get upgraded to a suite.

On the one occasion the hotel was full and my booking wasn't on their system, I was moved to a suite in a sister hotel no need to contact hotels.com although at this point I'm in their upper level of customer care and thankfully have yet to experience the benefit of it.

Yea good point . I would prefer to use hotels.com as you can get rewards with them, but they often have zero hotels available for the places I go. It's good for European breaks.

corblimey

Thanks all.

intheclouds wrote: »

It kind of depends on the context and how far in the future Im booking.

Ive been stung twice by sites going out of business and me arriving to find no reservation so I am wary of booking too far ahead and would tend to use the hotel website only for something far into the future.

And if I am going to a luxury hotel where I want to specify some requirements I tend to use the hotel website too.

If I decide on a whim to go to London this weekend I would use another site.

Although Im a fierce creature of habit and know the hotels I want to stay in in some cities so just use their sites.

I think this is closest to my mindset. I do tend to book hotels generally 4-5 months out (or longer if it's a National Park or a small town with limited room) where these sites may not have the massive savings they claim to have. And maybe that's the best approach for the next time I'm going somewhere on limited notice, just use one of these sites, and live with the risk.

iwillhtfu wrote: »

I'm not sure if I'd use hotels.com if booking a family holiday for 2 weeks or similar.

Can I ask why you're less comfortable using it for family holidays vs business trips? Is it because your SO will give out stink

munchkin_utd

I'd be 50-50 on the booking with 3rd party or hotel direct

With the likes of accor brands (novotel, ibis etc) or hilton you can get great deals direct from the hotel which include the otherwise expensive breakfast
With Accor you also have a fairly good points system which with some cunning points booster schemes you can accumulate a heap of credits which then equate to real cash savings.
They are fairly badly represented in Ireland but in the UK and on the continent theres 1000s of hotels.
Accor also have crazy half price sales every so often which mean you get a 4* hotel for as little as 35 or 40Euro (combination of a base price being low as large business hotels at the weekend are often empty, then slash it again!)

For booking hotels in Ireland or non chain hotels abroad then the 3rd party websites are often the cheapest, and something like Trivago which collates a few booking sites is useful as you might get a brekkie thrown in for the same price as room only else where.
Hotel rooms are a funny product in that they are only worth something if they are filled so for the hotels its a fine balance between getting as much as they can, and not being too stupid about it with the price that the room goes empty and they get not a cent for a room lying empty for the night.

Eponymous

I use booking.com mostly (and have never had an issue) but also book direct in some places as I get deals for staying as a repeat customer.

I've also used AirBnB once and found it great.

I'd have no hesitation in using most online services to book, however the fact that the majority of places on Booking.com are pay on arrival and free cancellation swings it for me.

Bored_lad

Mostly we'd use booking.com, checking hotel reviews on Tripadvisor. In some cases where we are report guests, members of a chains reward programme, or if its a small hotel such as members of Relais and Chateau we will book directly with the hotel. Obviously some hotels aren't on booking.com so they have to be booked direct too. Booking.com's customer service is second to none and we can also avail of a 10% discount off certain properties so it's a no brainier really.

miamee

I often use hotels.com or booking.com and have never had any issue really. Once I booked a room very last minute on Booking.com, I got a confirmation email from the hotel and thought "Happy days" and left the wifi I was using and went about my business for the rest of the day. I turned up to the hotel at about 9pm only to be told that they were fully booked. Lo and behold, they had emailed me shortly after the confirmation to say sorry, we made a mistake and the room is no longer available. I was able to just book another room on the site for a nearby hotel. The hardest part was getting a connection to make a booking

I'd have no issues with using those types of sites. I usually check reviews on TripAdvisor when possible then book on the other sites...I have yet to use the new TripAdvisor hotel booking system.

iwillhtfu

corblimey wrote: »

Can I ask why you're less comfortable using it for family holidays vs business trips? Is it because your SO will give out stink

Ah it's an irrational fear to be honest but if I do end up with a booking issue and have to pay an exorbitant fee for a hotel room last minute, work would cover the cost. If the same were to happen albeit very unlikely on a holiday trip then I'd be coughing up and getting the evil eye.

I have one caveat though when booking hotels if I'm out in the sticks and booking a small family run place. I'd usually book directly with them or at least put in a call and explain that I usually use hotels.com and they'll throw in breakfast or a meal. I figure it's a tough enough game without losing 15-20% to a booking agent.

FYI hotels.com marketing will promise you night stays when you get 10 I think it is but the small print is it's a nights stay to the average value of your previous 10 nights. So if you're average is €150/night it's a decent hotel stay for free, if it's €50/night its an average room or a decent room outside peak bookings/weekends

Yamanoto

corblimey wrote: »

(As an aside, I'm using Avios points for a booking on a forthcoming trip, and it's the only hotel I'm at least a little worried about, so it's probably the same mind block as above)

I book quite a few hotel stays through Rocketmiles, as they reward you by crediting 1,000+ Avios per night. Kaligo operate along the same lines, though I've yet to book with them. Avios post to my BA account quickly which is great.

Most of my travel is organised last minute & I find Priceline's bidding function & express deals consistently deliver great hotels at significant discount, particularly so in the U.S.

https://www.rocketmiles.com/

https://www.kaligo.com/ba-avios-promo

otnomart

I use booking.com for the free cancellation, and as a frequent user I got the Genius discount which is another incentive for me.
Tend to rely more on reviews there (as you can only review if you actually stayed in the property) as opposed to those on Tripadvisor.

mel.b

I use booking.com for probably 90%+ of my bookings, however I'll always compare with the hotels own website and if the price is the same I'll generally go direct. I tend to only book rates where you can pay on arrival rather than in advance as I'm wary of hotels or the booking company etc going bust or my plans changing.

I booked once in the past year with hotels.com and when we checked out we were told that it had already been paid. I didn't remember paying for it in advance and it turns out they took it out of the credit card I used when I made the booking and sadly the card was at its limit which meant I was charged an overlimit fee. I wasn't very happy about that as I had the cash with me to pay so I'm hesitant to use hotels.com again.

I also have a rocketmiles account and BA frequent flyer account so I really should rocketmiles more to get the ff points but again a lot of the rocketmiles hotels seem to be pay in advance.

vicwatson

Aren't booking.com and hotels.com one and the same? I Put info in one after an other the other day and hotels logged the exact same info as booking even though prior to going into booking first I deleted history, hotels.com had pulled same info that I entered into booking.com

mel.b

vicwatson wrote: »

Aren't booking.com and hotels.com one and the same? Put into in one after an other the other day and hotels logged the exact same info as booking even though prior to going into booking first I deleted history, hotels.com had pulled same info that I entered into booking.com

I don't think they are. I have been looking at hotels in Lisbon and hotels.com had a much wider range of hotels still available. Booking.com seemed to have a lot more apartments for Lisbon as well. Prices can often be similiar though.

vicwatson

Just weird how when I went into hotels.com my dates number of people city etc was already there, after being in booking.com.

mel.b

Had you been on hotels.com on another day with the same destination & dates?

Hotels.com seems to be part of expedia, Booking.com part of priceline.

iwillhtfu

Hotels.com is Expedia if that helps at all.

ProudDUB

Have made hotel bookings using both the hotel website and on 3rd party websites. Never had a problem with either. OP, I don't really understand your paranoia over having to book directly with the hotel. If the booking gets "lost" then it's lost. You are back to square one, regardless of how/where you booked it.

Wanderer2010

I've never gone wrong with hotels combined it's a lot easier to use than trivago plus spits out all possible hotels of every budget in mere seconds. Great website.

corblimey

Ok, so it seems that the general opinion is to go by price, use one of the aggregation sites to find a cheap price, then go with it, whether it's booking.com, hotels.com, the hotel website or anything else. I just checked a couple of places for my next trip next year, and the hotel website is cheaper (it's Mercure, and I get 10% off for being a member of Accor) or the same price as anywhere else I've checked, but it's good to know that I shouldn't dismiss the likes of booking.com just because I'm uneasy about the process.

Gatica

I'm also mostly a booking.com user. I use tripadvisor to find best rated hotels and then compare prices, but usually booking.com is slightly cheaper than the other sites. The odd time I've booked with a different site without issues.
In my experience direct hotel booking works out more expensive than through other hotel broker sites.

iwillhtfu

Gatica wrote: »

I'm also mostly a booking.com user. I use tripadvisor to find best rated hotels and then compare prices, but usually booking.com is slightly cheaper than the other sites. The odd time I've booked with a different site without issues.
In my experience direct hotel booking works out more expensive than through other hotel broker sites.

Just an FYI hotels.com price match so if you take a screen grab of a cheaper price with the same booking dates they'll match it.

Mr rebel

I swear by booking.com and I've used it often enough by this stage that I get great discounts from them on some hotels.

Living Off The Splash

I certainly use Bookings to have a look at the pictures of the hotel. However I often find that booking direct with the hotel is better as they will often guarantee the best price and you can email ahead with requests.
I am a member of Accor, Melia, NH, Best Western and a few other hotel reward schemes that can offer discounts on the price, free breakfasts etc.

spurious

Mr rebel wrote: »

I swear by booking.com and I've used it often enough by this stage that I get great discounts from them on some hotels.

I get these too, but I will always check the hotel website too in case they have a cheaper price, or extras not included in the booking.com offer.

Hmm_Messiah

spurious wrote: »

I get these too, but I will always check the hotel website too in case they have a cheaper price, or extras not included in the booking.com offer.

I use trivago, tripadvisor, booking.com and hotels.com ( though hotels.com app discount seems a ploy as the discount is never less than on other sites - in my experience)

I usually settle on a hotel through booking.com as I find it easier to navigate - and then google that hotel for different offers

Laterooms used to be excellent but not so these days

Sadly I must be the exception as recently LOADS of problems with booking.com
(1) Full payment taken months before the trip - and then they said the hotel would sort not them . it was 600 GBP. more contact - asked for my bank details - I answered " realistically if you took the money you had my bank details" " - eventually a refund and then the sterling difference was big enough - eventually paid by Booking.com but the trail of emails was crazy

(2) Recently allowed me book a room for 4 people when the accommodation was " student only" - luckily I had noticed it on other versions of same accommodation and had rang ahead. 2 travelling were OAP's

(3) Last week gave me what I thought was a "goodish" rate for London - I assumed it was showing a bit low as there was then an additional 80 GBP cleaning fee for 2 days ! - all booked and heading, same morning an email saying that there was an error and the price was 80 GBP more

There were a few other times when payment was taken when the listing said " card only to reserve, pay at hotel" etc - in those cases the money was not taken but was locked on the debit card - if that makes sense


The thing with Tripadvisor is you need to really learn how to read the reviews - some people you just wonder what they expect, and then you see they have done 11 reviews and you think god maybe they do know, but their comments in contrast to the general reviews are just odd

Mr rebel

Has anyone any experience with using amoma.com?
I was on TripAdvisor yesterday and Amoma were showing rates for hotels that were almost half the price of their nearest competitor.....I don't understand how they can do rates that cheaply compared to everyone else?!
I was tempted to book but thought they looked too good to be true and there's probably lots of hidden charges or something.

cbee20

I saw amoma.com on TripAdvisor also but after googling reviews of them, I thought it wiser not to use them. I usually use Trivago and eliminate the first three smiley faces and see which hotels with good reviews are left. Have used booking.com and hotels.com and also venere.com. Sometimes it is cheaper to book directly with a hotel but not always.

Citizenpain

Nearly always start with hotelcombined.com
Used to get great rates on otel.com but very poor choice on it now. They always had a 'booking through Facebook' discount !

Curb Your Enthusiasm

cbee20 wrote: »

I saw amoma.com on TripAdvisor also but after googling reviews of them, I thought it wiser not to use them. I usually use Trivago and eliminate the first three smiley faces and see which hotels with good reviews are left. Have used booking.com and hotels.com and also venere.com. Sometimes it is cheaper to book directly with a hotel but not always.

Used Amoma for a hotel stay last week. No issues at all and by far the cheapest site I could find.

Google any company and you'll find both good and bad reviews. Their trustpilot score is 7.8/10... https://ie.trustpilot.com/review/www.amoma.com

MillField

I use booking.com and Trivago for hotels and SkyScanner for flights. Really useful!

dudara

I'm platinum status with both Marriott & IHG, so I tend to often book through their websites as they have good rates for elite.

I often use aggregator sites to get a feel of the market, but I always check the hotel website to see what promotions they are running. I really dislike paying the full amount upfront, so being able to select a cancellable rate is a must.

L1011

After some poor experiences with "lost" bookings or worst room in the place setups with aggregators I nearly always go direct. A fair few chains have price guarantees and once you learn all the rules they will honour them. Radisson in particular I have found will match a cheaper pre-pay even if you'd booked a pay later rate (once its cheaper than their pre-pay at that time, that is).

Usually use trivago or similar to find the hotel to begin with, though.

Utah

Utah wrote: »

I think booking.com is great. We've had 2 issues ever and booking.com customer service went above and beyond for us.

Just booked a hotel today.

Booking.com - €199
Direct from hotel - €139

This is not always the case and I've had good luck with booking.com in the past but this was the first time I've seen a hotel directly offer a cheaper price (I always double check.)

That being said I usually go with AirBnB over a hotel so I don't book hotels very often.

Office girl

I use either booking.com or book directly with the hotel now. On the one occasion I had to amend a booking because of a mistake on the booking form I rang up booking.com and found them very friendly and helpful. I am also very wary of using other websites as I had a very bad experience with otel.com a few years back. Basically I booked a non-refundable room for nine nights with them about two months before my holiday. Shortly before the holiday I realised we would be delayed and would not arrive until the second day of the booking. I contacted otel.com by email and advised them that I would be delayed. They replied saying that the dates could not be changed and my booking stood as it was (fair enough as it was a non-refundable booking). However when we arrived at the hotel on the second day our reservation gone - we were told we were a "no show" so they had given the room to someone else. They said they would charge otel.com for the first night only. When we contacted otel.com they refused to give us our money back. It took months and months of correspondence through our credit card company before we were finally refunded. Never again!

second74

Hi I booked a night stay in July in Dublin with AMOMA website, I went to try and contact them and the contact number for Ireland and England are numbers that do not exist. I tried emailing them but to no avail, I have facebook messaged them but no answer as of yet. I have emailed the hotel directly seeking confirmation of booking but have had no response yet.
Anyone book with this crowd recently?

iwillhtfu

second74 wrote: »

Hi I booked a night stay in July in Dublin with AMOMA website, I went to try and contact them and the contact number for Ireland and England are numbers that do not exist. I tried emailing them but to no avail, I have facebook messaged them but no answer as of yet. I have emailed the hotel directly seeking confirmation of booking but have had no response yet.
Anyone book with this crowd recently?

Never heard of them or used them but wouldn't be surprised if they're associated with expedia or one of the more common providers.

Why not Call the hotel and ask them?