Displayed Hotel Prices on Booking Sites

Bungle73

Does anyone else find it as annoying as me, that when your searching for dates, on either a booking site or a hotel's website, a lot seem to be in the habit of only displaying a price per night instead of the total price. Why the hell do I need to know the nightly price?? What I want to know is how much in total I need to pay!! I shouldn't have to dig out a calculator to find that out!!

mr_stripey

That is not my experience at all. 

Most the sites I use (including booking.com) display the total price?

Marvel1

Yes, I was using Google maps, 2 nights, thought decent price for 2 nights - only for it to be the 1 night price.

mr_stripey

I wouldn't really regard Google maps as a booking site.

All the other ones I have used show the total price for a multi night stay

Albermarle

mr_stripey said:

That is not my experience at all. 

Most the sites I use (including booking.com) display the total price?

Same for me.
Although the headline price is of course for the cheapest room, no breakfast and non refundable.

saajan_12

Depends on the site, with many you can toggle between nightly and total price. 

People have different preferences, so someone's going to have to calculate. Personally I'd prefer nightly rates, as I have a rule of thumb of say £x per night in most places, £y per night if its particularly fancy or a popular area, etc. If those get multiplied up by a 5 or 10 or 15 day holiday, then the numbers feel out of context. Also for multi-step itineraries, its easier to see the £ per night in each city so as you tinker with the dates, its still clear how much you're paying per night. 

IF you had a total trip budget you could always divide the accommodation price by the number of nights once, and then compare everying on a given booking site with that.. saves doing the calculation multiple times. 

Hoenir

Price per night provides an easy direct basis for comparison. 

Bungle73

saajan_12 said:

Depends on the site, with many you can toggle between nightly and total price. 

People have different preferences, so someone's going to have to calculate. Personally I'd prefer nightly rates, as I have a rule of thumb of say £x per night in most places, £y per night if its particularly fancy or a popular area, etc. If those get multiplied up by a 5 or 10 or 15 day holiday, then the numbers feel out of context. Also for multi-step itineraries, its easier to see the £ per night in each city so as you tinker with the dates, its still clear how much you're paying per night. 

IF you had a total trip budget you could always divide the accommodation price by the number of nights once, and then compare everying on a given booking site with that.. saves doing the calculation multiple times. 

So why can't you do any of that with a total  price? You're not paying the one night cost (unless you're only staying for one night), so it's totally irrelevant.

Bungle73

Hoenir said:

Price per night provides an easy direct basis for comparison.

Surely it's easier with a total price, as that is more accurate?

lookbook

mr_stripey said:

That is not my experience at all. 

Most the sites I use (including booking.com) display the total price?

That's correct.  But for those that don't Every phone has a calculator. 

Also poundland sell calculator for £1.

Exodi

Bungle73 said:

saajan_12 said:

Depends on the site, with many you can toggle between nightly and total price. 

People have different preferences, so someone's going to have to calculate. Personally I'd prefer nightly rates, as I have a rule of thumb of say £x per night in most places, £y per night if its particularly fancy or a popular area, etc. If those get multiplied up by a 5 or 10 or 15 day holiday, then the numbers feel out of context. Also for multi-step itineraries, its easier to see the £ per night in each city so as you tinker with the dates, its still clear how much you're paying per night. 

IF you had a total trip budget you could always divide the accommodation price by the number of nights once, and then compare everying on a given booking site with that.. saves doing the calculation multiple times. 

So why can't you do any of that with a total  price? You're not paying the one night cost (unless you're only staying for one night), so it's totally irrelevant.

To complement what saajan_12 says, when I booked my 2 week trip to Japan last year, we were staying in various different cities for various different time periods. I used Google hotels and I found it easier with my budget of ~£80 per night to search for hotels displaying the night rate. Appreciate if you're only staying in one hotel for the whole trip then total price may be more intuitive for you.

Bungle73 said:

Hoenir said:

Price per night provides an easy direct basis for comparison.

Surely it's easier with a total price, as that is more accurate?

Why would it be more accurate?