On-line Travel Sites?

[peter78]

I am planning a vacation for next month and wanted some opinions on some travle sites and what on-line travel sites you use if any. I find sometimes by checking the sites for a price, I find it sometimes better to just call the hotel and ask them for a price. I find it is better then the so called cheap travle sites.

Two that I have used and kind of like are priceline.com and vacationstogo.com .

I first used priceline by going to a travel forum and this one guy recoomended using the site and what to bid and where and you would get this great hotel. The thing about bidding on Priceline, is you cannot see what the name of the hotel you are bidding. You can choose where you are bidding and how many stars you can bid on. After you bid, if you get the bid, your credit card will be charged, whether you want the room or not. Kind of scary, huh. On my first bid, I got a different hotel, but it was a good savings. A 2 1/2 star hotel in Fort Lauderdale. I bid $90 and it was $145 on all the other sites. Two things happened. The first is that you can only bid for 2 people and I had three, so I was concerned about just getting one bed. They did offer a king bed, but they did change to two beds when I asked. Also, they charged $18 for parking, on top of my bid.

I also got a 2 1/2 star hotle in Tifton, GA for $52, The Fairfield and this month I got a 3 star hotel in Ocala, FL for $55, the Ocala Hilton. At the Hilton, my son tried to use the internet and I found out, it was a $4.95 charge, still I am happy overall with all of my bids and please with all the hotels.

I also use vacationtogo.com for crusie ships. I book with them once, but I use them mainly to get an idea of what is offered. I use thier search site to see what ships are out there and how much they are. Two things, you have to give them your e-mail to use the search engine and if you book, the price jumps up a little to get the exact room you want. The second time I crusied, I called the crusie line. (I use a hotmail account for just junk e-mails such as this.) In seconds you can get an idea of what is out there for anywhere in the world.

So, what do you reccomend? Any bad stories from any sites? I am also interested in Hot Wire, They have a set price, but you still don't know what hotel you get. Any other sites you recommend? Lets hear your stories.

 

[downpour11]

Check out World Ventures - DreamTrips Life

 

[nated05]

I have had good luck with Expedia, especially when booking hotel and airfare together. Last fall I went to Cancun for a wedding, I got a package price from Expedia and the wedding travel agent matched it. Airfare seems to be about the same no matter where you go.

 

[peter78]

Check out World Ventures - DreamTrips Life

I checked it out, in the film the guy talked fast, I never trust anyone who talks fast. When I looked inot sighning up, it said "Please specify the Referral details". So, I am a little warey of this site. Also, it looks like you may have to pay to join. Can you give me more information about this site? I am somewhat interested, dispite the fast talk.

 

[theizzardking]

i travel a fair bit around the world, and rarely use the same site twice, instead i use a meta search engine for travel, like kyak.com but there are many others and they pull from different places, if your not fully trust worthy of certian sites that kind of limits you to just kyak.com reallly, they have a good policies and are big enough to back them up, that said, i have no fear when purchasing stuff over the internet, it's the law that your credit card company is on the hook for the bill until you actaully recivce the goods or service under the
Fair Credit Billing Act so worst case your out that bit of money for a while.
so basically i just go with the cheapest after reading a few reviews and give it a shot, i've only had a problem 1-2 times ever out of 50+ trips to uk,asia,europe and other places.

a good intro in to meta-travel sites
Meta-search Web Sites to Find the Best Fares - NYTimes.com

that said, use your best judgment someitmes it is worth it to pay a little more to have a better sense of security in your travel plans, i won't even begin to tell you some of the places i ended up just going for the 1-star deals when backpacking through eastern europe. the extra $10-20 would have been well spent imo.

but as far as reliablity goes, i book with almost any site, get my conformation code from them then call the hotel or airline directly and confirm with them personally to make sure everyones on the same page and my room or flight purchase is reflected in thier system as well.

Good luck man, safe travels and happy journeys, i'm off to thailand on sunday, sooo excited!:surfer:

 

[downpour11]

I checked it out, in the film the guy talked fast, I never trust anyone who talks fast. When I looked inot sighning up, it said "Please specify the Referral details". So, I am a little warey of this site. Also, it looks like you may have to pay to join. Can you give me more information about this site? I am somewhat interested, dispite the fast talk.

I manage a printing company and I do a lot of printing for people in world ventures but to me it's kind of a pyramid scheme. But if you travel a lot it is worth it. It's basically like a costco membership - you pay a monthly fee, or annual fee, and you get airfare and cruises and whole package deals for extremmmmeelly cheap. But if you join, and you keep getting people to join, you apparently make money from it. Some of the people I do printing for have joined world ventures and quit their careers after 1-2 years because they are making twice as much money getting people to sign up. Like I said, to me it sounds like a pyramid scheme and no, I'm not a member, but it might be worth looking into if you travel a lot. I think it's like 50 bucks a month? But if you get 4 people to join you don't have to pay the monthly fees anymore? I can't remember. I've been to a couple of their meetings but was never interested so I didn't pay much attention I just ate my free food.

 

[Mark86]

I just found hotels.com and saved a lot of money! You have to plan ahead because the rooms at their rates sell out quick.

 

[peter78]

Up-date

I finished figuring out my vacation. I am going to the outer banks in North Carolina. I looked at all the on line services for finding a hotel, but I ended up by finding a small motel / cottages that was not on any site.

Cottage Vacation Rentals Hatteras, Outer Banks | Sea Gull Motel

It suited our life style better than getting a large hotel with 10 floors right on the water. Sometimes, by going to smaller sites on-line, you can find something more up your ally.

I did bid on a hotel on price line in Columbia, S.C. on the way up to the outer banks. I bid on a 3 star hotel for $45 and did not get it, but the next day I bid $50 and I got it. Dobletree by Hilton. I guess I should of bid $46 the next day, instead of $50, huh. :naughty:

I am also thinking of taking a ferry back from the outer banks on the way home, just to experience the 2 1/2 hour trip on the water.
http://www.ocracoke-nc.com/ferrytoocracoke/

 

[techno]

Hope you have a great vacation.

I travel regularly and like others have said, I use nearly all the travel sites. One day Travelocity will give the best deal, Orbitz the next. I've got great deals on Hotel before, but then also found going direct to the business sometimes wins.
One of my favorite sites is Travelzoo. They send out a weekly email with the best deals they have found on the web.

The best deal I have had recently was round trip airfares to Melbourne Australia from Pittsburgh on United for $850. I used the Priceline name your own price thing.