Cheap Hotel Prices Article Discussion

BrightonR

I work for a a fairly large hotel booking website and we (and all our competitors) are actually not allowed to undercut the hotels own online prices and we get threatened if we do. This is why the hotels can offer "best rate guarantees" because they have pretty much fixed all the prices so that they know they are cheapest! Its really out of order. Some sites do undercut them sometimes for as long as they can get away with it, but the big players like expedia never will.

So, taking that on board, how can you get a cheap room? The best rate guarantees only apply to 'visible rates'...ie not sites where you cant see the names of the hotels such as hotwire, priceline and lastminutes topsecret hotels and the company i work for does a similar thing (which i wont name as i suspect my post will be removed!). Because these sites are selling rooms 'opaquely', they can undercut the hotels. The other trick is to buy a room as part of a package (with theatre tickets, flight, meal etc) because then the hotel will claim that the customer can not prove the actual value of the hotel room and therefore they cant prove it is cheaper.

agathajun

Hi all,
I've just booked a truly stunning deal with www.opodo.co.uk and got the 5 star Westin Place Hotel in Madrid for under £40 per night. I don't know what the date range is for this deal but here's how I got it.

I searched in June for one night, at the Westin, for one person. The rate that came up for a standard room was £51.67 - the cost of a 2 star hotel. When my eyes stopped falling out of my head, I clicked on the price. £51.67 for a standard, £81.67 for a deluxe. THEN I chose the standard room, and when I added it to the basket it said the price had DECREASED to £39.10 !!!!!!! So I went back and checked the price of the deluxe room. It decreases to £61.57 when you put it in the basket. A double room is £81.67.

If you search for multiple nights it only gives the £81.67 per night option. So I booked a series of one night stays for the four days I wanted. It's paid and confirmed through Opodo so as far as I understand that's the final price.
The normal rate is £265 per night. When I clicked on this option it said it included breakfast, which must be the most expensive breakfast in the world.

It may only be June, it may be a glitch, it may be all Westins - let us know if you find more Definitely worth booking a city break.

agathajun

I have called Opodo and they confirm it's really the rate, so we'll see when I get there.
I found this by using Tripadvisor's Quick Check function, a different way of price comparing the really came through in this case.

kathryn2

The Westin cheap rooms on Opodo are now all gone. I foolishly was waiting for my friend to get back to me to confirm she could come with, and so missed the deal!

I was getting 3 nights in July up for £114 total this morning!

Oh well, I knew it wasn't going to hang around for long!

gertie

MSE_Natasha wrote: »

This thread is specifically to discuss the content of the

Cheap Hotel Prices article

To discuss or ask a question about the article, click reply

for advance bookings you can book a £29.,95 room with Innkeeper's Lodge, payment in advance required. Used the one at York and was very pleased with accommodation and the free continental breakfast. Also doing a 3 for the price of 2 weekend packages. Both are time limited.

Gertie

georgiaes

Next weekend we are going to a wedding in Essex and I've been searching for the best deal on a double room for 1 night. I called the hotel for a rate and was quoted was £167/night with the 'wedding party' discount. Online, the cheapest rate quoted by expedia.co.uk was £219. BUT I then went on expedia.com (USA website) and booked the same room for £95!! I gave my UK address and had no problems using my UK credit card for the booking.

This is not the first time I've massively cut the cost of travelling by using American websites. In January, I flew to the Caribbean for 2 weeks and the cost of the flights with both BA and Virgin was a third less using the US sites than the cheapest quote I could find in the UK.

CarpenterA

Hello,

It's common knowledge that when booking flights, with scheduled airline at least, the earlier the booking the better the price. When is the best time to book hotels?

Many thanks,

Blue264

Money_Shaving_Expert wrote: »

Hope this helps as much as Smooth Hound has helped me!

On my first day as a hotel consultant, my boss introduced me to Smooth Hound as it's an industry favourite research tool. It's been on my favourites list ever since. So many of my clients only have a postcode reference when they make a booking request and this is where Smooth Hound wins the day

freeganneist

blindman wrote: »

I hope you posted your winning bids on either if not both web sites you mentioned.

I used to moderate one of the websites you're talking about, so yes, of course. But I'm curious why you asked?? It sounded as if you thought I wouldn't, for some reason.