Most rewarding hotel-booking site to go with? Hotels.com?

Kamran

Dear all, hope you're having a good week :T

I undertake a fair bit of business travel (let's say once a month) and whilst the flights are booked and paid by my company, the hotels are chosen and booked by me (reimbursed later).

My question is which hotel-booking services offers me the best rewards? Hotels.com vs Booking.com vs expedia etc etc etc.

I've been to all the major websites and the only company that seems to offer me any rewards is hotels.com which gives you a free night's stay for every 10 nights booked with them. the free night is worth the average of your 10 nights. Booking.com don't seem to offer anything, nor expedia or any other major company that I'm aware of.

Can anyone advise of another booking company that give something back to the customer like hotels.com?

FYI, I would always try and be a member of that particular hotel's loyalty scheme, and of course try and use a reward credit card (currently Amex Gold works well for me), but my question is specific to the hotel booking process.

Thanks very much!:T

Doshwaster

Don't forget to use a cashback site. I book a lot of hotels and typically get about 10% back trhough Quidco (http://www.quidco.com/accommodation/) - though it can take a few months to get the cash.

Also look at hotel loyalty schemes if you are regularly using the same chain. The problem with them is most only give full points if you book directly with them rather than through a discount website but there can also be other perks. So your choice is either a) book direct and get reward points b) book though a 3rd party and get cashback.

DTDfanBoy

Doshwaster wrote: »

Don't forget to use a cashback site. I book a lot of hotels and typically get about 10% back trhough Quidco (http://www.quidco.com/accommodation/) - though it can take a few months to get the cash.

Also look at hotel loyalty schemes if you are regularly using the same chain. The problem with them is most only give full points if you book directly with them rather than through a discount website but there can also be other perks. So your choice is either a) book direct and get reward points b) book though a 3rd party and get cashback.

Quite a few of the larger Hotel chains are now on the cashback sites so if you're lucky you can get the best of both worlds

Kamran

Doshwaster wrote: »

Don't forget to use a cashback site. I book a lot of hotels and typically get about 10% back trhough Quidco (http://www.quidco.com/accommodation/) - though it can take a few months to get the cash.

Also look at hotel loyalty schemes if you are regularly using the same chain. The problem with them is most only give full points if you book directly with them rather than through a discount website but there can also be other perks. So your choice is either a) book direct and get reward points b) book though a 3rd party and get cashback.

thanks, great idea. Just trying to do the mental arithmetic. Let's say I need to stay 10 nights in Berlin at £100 per night.

Option 1 is to go with hotels.com and a) gain the welcome rewards of 1 free night per 10 stayed and b) to have clicked through via topcashback/quidco and get upto 10% cash back.

Option 2 is to book directly with the hotel, and get cashback, but surely option 1 gives me far more, given the free night's stay AND csahback?

Wish I had started doing this sooner!

Kamran

Kamran wrote: »

thanks, great idea. Just trying to do the mental arithmetic. Let's say I need to stay 10 nights in Berlin at £100 per night.

Option 1 is to go with hotels.com and a) gain the welcome rewards of 1 free night per 10 stayed and b) to have clicked through via topcashback/quidco and get upto 10% cash back.

Option 2 is to book directly with the hotel, and get cashback, but surely option 1 gives me far more, given the free night's stay AND csahback?

Wish I had started doing this sooner!

by the way, on an aside, is there a consensus as to the best cashback site? It used to be topcashback AFAI can remember, but is Quidco also back in the mix? Any other players?

littlereddevil

ebookers gives you cash bonuses to use off your next booking. they also usually have a code of some sort, currently 18% on their app site which i find is making them cheapest for me at the moment

lea2012

Personally I have found that hotels.com are not usually the cheapest hotel only site to book with. Surprisingly prices can vary a lot from agent to agent, and also between direct hotel booking and agent too.

I wouldn't worry too much about sticking with one site, unless that site is giving you the best deal at the time. I would use a combination of quidco and topcashback as again offers can vary between these two, and then look through the various agents / hotel chains to find the best deal and cashback offer.

If that happens to be hotels.com then great, use them. But if it desn't then there is no point in sticking with their 'loyalty scheme' as you will only be paying more in the first place, thus paying for your 'free night'. I would also suggest checking out the t&c's regarding the free night too as often there are restrictions in place to stop you from using it at certain times or making you use it within a certain timeframe too.

PeacefulWaters

TopCashback > Hotels.com is my usual approach.

But always check other sites first. Hotels.com sometimes lack in availability and aren't always cheapest.

budgetflyer

Assume cheapest is not the priority as company is paying.
Kaligo and Rocketmiles give airline miles with hotel bookings. Whether that stacks up better than Hotels.com, it really depends on what reward u prefer flights or hotel stays.
If u can pay with Amex then there may be some value in that too.

dawyldthing

Trivago is good for searching for the cheapest hotel of them all. Them I'd go through topcashback to get the cash back