[Roosh]

Just wanted to give some props to this site. I don't use it all the time, but I love how it's so painless and intuitive for booking short term stays (7 days or less) in both hotels and apartments.

In some second-tier cities, it can blow away airbnb with a selection of apartments that are often cheaper than if you go the manual route with google. It also has last minute deals on 4-star hotels that I've splurged on a couple times (in Sweden and London).

[Hencredible Casanova]

(03-05-2013 08:05 PM)Roosh Wrote:  

Just wanted to give some props to this site. I don't use it all the time, but I love how it's so painless and intuitive for booking short term stays (7 days or less) in both hotels and apartments.

In some second-tier cities, it can blow away airbnb with a selection of apartments that are often cheaper than if you go the manual route with google. It also has last minute deals on 4-star hotels that I've splurged on a couple times (in Sweden and London).

Never even heard of this site. Will add it to my repertoire now. Thanks.

[InternationPlayboy]

I like the way booking.com books. Instead of paying them you pay the hotel and it makes everything less of a headache. For example, if you are staying at a hotel and you want to leave early and you booked through a third party, you will have to contact the third party first, have them contact the hotel, and wait for the result. With booking.com, you only have to deal with the hotel. At least this is how it worked at the hotels I've worked at. I've never even booked with them, but I appreciated the easy of their reservations while working at my hotels.

[FretDancer]

Thanks for the suggestion Roosh.

[Laner]

I have used them for countless bookings and I have never had an issue.

Big ups.

I also get some great last minute deals emailed to me. It seems to keep track of places I have booked, recommends similar rated hotels and lets me know of good deals.

[Greek kamaki]

Good and convenient in general.They accept electronic Visas.Often no need to pay before appearance.Good cancellation policy(booking.com pays the cancellation fee to the owner).Only downside once you book for a certain period you cannot leave earlier otherwise you pay the whole amount nevertheless. Also some reviews about hotels are not true although booking.com seems to make an effort to clear out fake reports.
As I also found out booking.com system has caused problem to Greek hotel and apartment owners on islands who do not want the price of their room on your face compared to the others.That is why they try to confuse the system or completely stay out of booking.com to lower its reputation as catering for the ones who cannot find easy clients.
This was at least my impression.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

I've always been leery of it because of its high prices (at least it seems like that when you compare a same establishment there and on hostelworld (where you can also book apartments and hotels)), but I will give it a second look.

[Marco]

Great site, I use it occasionally, good prices, a lot of info per hotel/apt.
I once had an issue in Ukraine which the cost of the transport was eventually much higher that what was agreed via the site and the Ukrainians force me to pay it.
Later Booking.com send me back this amount - great service as well.

[Vicious]

These days I always book directly on the hotel chains website in order to get the point and status. However I then move on to make a Best Rate Guarantee claim for a lower rate I've found at a third party site. These BRG rates typically drop 20% FROM THE MATCHED RATE. The total price can thus after matching and percentage slash be as much as half the advertised price.

For my upcoming stay in NYC I have a couple of nights in a swanky downtown hotel whose listed price at the official website was $380/night. I'm paying $190/night.

[reino341]

I used kayak.com last time I was backpacking.

The weird thing was, I might've called to a certain hostel to inquire if they had free beds and got a negative, meanwhile online I would've been able to make a reservation. I even mentioned this over phone and they were oblivious to why it might've been. Maybe they have free beds that are reserved for online booking and the receptionists weren't aware.

[michelin]

Great site.

Agoda.com is OK for some deals, but once I had a terrible experience (in Hungary) with a fake appartment owner. Agoda gave me a refund though, but the guy was a real crook.

[tiggaling]

Been using it for years and years and they also have an iphone app now.

If you ever have disputes with the hotel about something, I have found booking.com are very good at resolving the situation very quickly! Can't think of a number two site. I used to use cheaperthanhotels but they went shit.

[solo]

Be careful though. Sometimes you have to pay a hefty fine if you want to cancel your reservation and there is little or no info about this beforehand. Happened to me.

[Hencredible Casanova]

I just used this site to book for Playa del Carmen this weekend. I was supposed to go there last week but the snowstorm in DC fucked up my plans as the airport cancelled thousands of flights and the airline had a deep backlog.

Good thing is I've already seen the spot that I booked as I tried staying there for BPM as a walk-in but everything was full.

I would do what Vicious says if this was a chain but it's an independent hotel.

[Sherman]

I used this site when I lived in Europe. I learned about it from the company I was working at which used it to book their hotels.

[thegmanifesto]

What is the theory behind it?

Is it cheaper than booking directly with the hotel or what?

[chyamor]

was just on it. http://www.hotelscombined.com searches all those types of site (hotels.com, expeida, etc) and booking.com always comes out the best

[Pete]

I've used Priceline, Travelocity, Expedia, etc.

The most savings I've had is on Priceline. I stayed at the W New York for about $1,200 incluiding airfare for 2 from PR to JFK.

[Tail Gunner]

(03-11-2013 10:45 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  

What is the theory behind it?

Is it cheaper than booking directly with the hotel or what?

It seems to depend on the location. I just did a price comparison of hotels on Bookings.com for a particular South American city with which I am familiar. The prices on Booking.com were the same or a bit higher than the prices that I was quoted directly from the hotels.

But other people (Roosh and Vicious) have found savings in other cities, so I will add the site to my repertoire. The map is also useful, because it shows where all the hotels are located relative to each other, government offices, museums, and other tourist attractions.

As Greek Kamaki noted: "Only downside once you book for a certain period you cannot leave earlier otherwise you pay the whole amount nevertheless." If true, that is a huge disadvantage. So, be sure that you get a great discount and be sure that your plans will not change.

[thegmanifesto]

(03-12-2013 12:55 AM)Tail Gunner Wrote:  

(03-11-2013 10:45 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  

What is the theory behind it?

Is it cheaper than booking directly with the hotel or what?

It seems to depend on the location. I just did a price comparison of hotels on Bookings.com for a particular South American city with which I am familiar. The prices on Booking.com were the same or a bit higher than the prices that I was quoted directly from the hotels.

But other people (Roosh and Vicious) have found savings in other cities, so I will add the site to my repertoire. The map is also useful, because it shows where all the hotels are located relative to each other, government offices, museums, and other tourist attractions.

Yeah, I just checked it in Florida and it was the exact same price.

Real brick.

But then again, this technology crap never seems to work out for me , so I am sure it will work amazing for everyone else.

[The Pirate]

I only use these booking sites for searches and I try to contact the hotels directly if I can. Sometimes I just book one night through the booking-channels and I negotiate a better place on site. Agoda.com ALWAYS add extra to the original price. It`s how they make money.

Booking.com is btw owned by Expedia.

[Vicious]

There are several properties on booking.com that allow free cancellation, don’t now what GK is on about.

It all depends on the rate plan and property. Always check out the rate details which is provided before booking, for some sites you have to click the book link and proceed to the next page to see the rate details but as long as you haven't put in any payment info you're always fine.

[thegmanifesto]

Again, what's the benefit of this?

[Vicious]

(03-12-2013 07:47 AM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  

Again, what's the benefit of this?

Not sure what you mean.

Having booked probably over a hundred trips online (I have been managing a lot of representation for clients and incentive awards for co-workers through work) I can speak with authority on online travel agents. I can say that there’s nothing magical about booking.com. It’s a good booking site, I like it more than hotels.com and it’s definitely better than the horrible Travelocity.

There is however never a single site that’s going to be the best for every trip. Booking.com is one of the mid-size travel sites after giants such as Orbitz, Expedia, Priceline and the ones mentioned above among others. To stay competitive Booking.com has to slash their margins compared to the giants. This is not always the case however. Industry giant Expedia for example (which I actually like) has such coverage that they can also offer deep discounts frequently, and they remain one of the best choice when booking a flight and hotel on the same trip.

I could get into this more but I realize I’m long overdue to write a travel hacking guide that should be a separate thread/data sheet.

[Hencredible Casanova]

(03-12-2013 07:47 AM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  

Again, what's the benefit of this?

Basically, add to this to the mix of tools you use (airbnb, etc) to hunt down spots when you're planning a short trip. Value seems to depend on the location. For Playa del Carmen and Mexico DF this seems to be pretty clutch.