New Search Engines for hotels

Like many here I have for several years started my search by using Kayak.com to check hotel prices. I have been successful. I have been referred by KIayak to Booking.com and more recently to EasyClickTravel.com for some great prices. Several times last year there have been other sites mentioned that folks use as well as KAYAK.com. I always jot these new leads down on a piece of paper and put them into the file for next year's trip.

This year I booked my flight with SWA in August and got a pretty cheap trip by being flexible when I flew. I don['t think I will be able to better the price but will rebook if I can improve the flight times or find flights with a shorter duration. On the other hand I held off for a better room price at EC from booking.com and instead the price went up about $100 on my 7 nights there. Easy Click Travel introduced some rooms and I can cut the increase in half but I was hoping to do better. I went to look at the notes I slipped into the folder and cannot find them.

Has anyone done well with another search engine? I continue to check Kayak, booking.com, i4vegas.com, travelzoo.com, expedia, Travelocity, priceline and the others I can recall but I know the ones mentioned were different from these. I would appreciate any other sites folks have done well with. Thanks.

Jimbo338

 

Kayak is my go to point for air travel. Always find great airplane fares. Yet sometimes if you are diligent JetBlue can offer even better deals to all the other traveling sites. Last year I was checking out Hotel+Flight packages to the Wynn/Encore. Expedia, Orbitz and the Kayak/Wynn website combo gave me a range of $700 to $820 for a three day stay. The leave time was 8:00am JFK and coming back from LAS at 10:30am. Then I checked JetBlue and gave me an awesome deal at $580 with $100 credit. Also if you are checking out prices better to do so in a Tuesday to Thursday.

Also you can check www.tripres.com. They will have great deals too. I saw a hotel flight combo to Treasure Island for $520 while all the other sites were $600 to $680 for 4 days. If you have the travelocity app you can find great bargains from there. I have never used them but on occasion I open the app to see what was offered and find very surprisingly low prices for hotels.

In most cases though if you want things much cheaper best to carry the casino's player card so you can get room discounts or even maybe have the rooms comped. Then head over to kayak to find good airfare prices.

Didn't know about easyclick. Thanks for the tip.

 

How much is the rate now? What days do you need? Which hotel are you trying to book?

 

I have never liked kayak. For some reason, it just never worked well for me. I use Trivago a lot now, as I find it more user friendly. Cheaptickets.com has had the best pricing for me lately, with their 20-30% off codes. Some of the newer players like Olotels.com, and Otel.com have some good pricing too. Another tip, use European versions of regular websites. For instance, our hotel is currently running a 4th night free, but only on Expedia.de. For car rentals, Expedia.ca often has some great specials that beat even the Costco rates.

Best advice I always offer, is book something, anything you can live with, right away, that is cancellable. Then watch for deals.

 

booking.com more often than not is the rack rate. Sometimes even more than the rack rate. when i worked at a hotel we could not change the rate and give a senior discount or anything because booking.com charged us based on the rate they told the customer.

I use kayak to compare airfare, but usually book rooms through expedia. I have never had a problem with them and if i need to get refunded (on a cancellable room) they are always fast about it. I don't trust a lot of sites, only the major ones, because if the smaller ones shut down you are out of luck with your money. Virtually there is nothing you can do to get it back, so that makes me leary.

 

Tripres.com is one of the ones that I wrote down and lost; thanks. I am looking for the El Cortez for 7 nights in the Towers 2-25-14 to 3-4-14. It was about $328.with taxes and now up to $505 on Booking.com. Hotel.com is now $384. but I jus found $298 at EastClickTravel! it is about $15/nigt more than the Vintage rooms and offers a desk for the laptop, a love seat and more room to stretch out in over a week. Last year EasyClickTravel had the best prices on EC Tower rooms at about $22/NIGHT. They just came out with rooms a few days ago. I wonder if the prices will bounce around or just go up from here.

Jimbo338

 

Thanks, tatter,
Good to have new options; you never know who's gonna have the best deal! Your advice is spot on!

Jimbo338

 

Cheaptickets.com for your dates. $330.69 all in. Cancellable.

***oops, I missed where you found it on Easyclick.

 

Good points, sweetcanadian!

 

Sent you a crazy deal PM

 

I usually book my airline tickets and hotel reservations directly with the airlines and hotels, unless there's a price difference. If there's a price difference between an OTA and hotel, I file a Best Rate Guarantee claim with the hotel (if they offer it). The reason I book directly with the airlines and hotels is so that I don't have to deal with the OTAs when it comes to cancellations/changes. It's much easier to do the cancellations/changes directly with the airlines and hotels.

If I have firm dates for my travel, I use Kayak to give me a quick overview of the airfares and hotel rates. Once I find the rates and airfares that I like, I book it through the airline's and hotel's website.

If I don't have firm dates for my travel, I use Matrix ITA Software to give me a quick overview of airfares from different city pairings during a specified time period. Once I find the dates and airfares that I like, I book it through the airline's website. For hotels, I still use Kayak to give me an overview of the hotel rates.

Keep in mind that booking packages can sometimes be more expensive. So, take a look at the hotel rates and airfares during your travel period to confirm whether or not you'd be saving money that way. Vegas is a bit tricky for a good majority of us because we qualify for comped or discounted hotel rates, which usually makes travel packages less beneficial to us.

 

I know your asking for El Cortez, but I got an insane deal if interested. I can get you 7 nights at The Venetian for $345/$375 with resort fees included. The room would be either Luxury($345) or Bella Suite($375)!

 

Also Golden Nugget in Rush Room for $104!

 

Where are you finding these donovanrs28???

 

One more option for hotels: lasvegasdirect.com usually has some decent deals, especially for downtown properties.

 

when looking for rooms I usually start with kayak to check rates. as you mentioned, it usually directs me to booking.com or other sites. I like booking.com because in many instances they only charge the first night. Other sites like hotels.com, expedia and others require you to pay for your entire stay upfront.

I also like kayak because there is a box you can check that will include all taxes and fees when you do a search so you won't be surprised of any charges or resort fees. Be forewarned as some hotels will not give you all their fees until you actually get close to booking your stay so it may appear that the hotel (like Palace Station) is cheap until you actually start booking, then you may find added charges over the rate given on kayak. :Þ

be aware that many of these sites like booking.com and hotels.com have a price matching guarantee so if you find a lower price you can call the site to get the lower rate. Even though they have a place you can email or post your lower rate there is no guarantee that they will get to it quickly (by that time the lower rate went away) so I usually call their site so they can verify on the spot where I found the lower rate and credit me for the lower rate. Hotels.com also has discounts if you book more than 10 nights, they give you a free night (at the lowest amount you paid) so if you stay in hotel rooms a lot then hotels.com might give you even more discounts over quoted rates on your next stay.

Another thing would be to go to the hotel's site and check prices. On my last stay in March I booked my res through the el cortez site and it was lower than all the other sites. I checked for your stay but the EC site was expensive, the vintage rooms cost more than your third party tower room quotes.

I haven't used trivago yet, just started seeing the commercials so I may try it. Kayak has some "glitches", it sometimes asks me to refresh my screen or always gives me their "popular" choices when I do searches (irritating), I would rather set my parameters (priced low to high) so when I do searches for different dates I don't have to keep changing it to the low to high search.



for car rentals, I also use kayak to check prices but then I go to the costco site and even (for vegas) go to dollar or thrifty site, they have a "local" vegas rate that is sometimes lower than costco or other sites.

I'm still trying to find an airline site where I can get info on price changes, I have to check out the recommendations given to me in another thread.

 

Last year I couldn't get a decent price for EC or Gold Spike so I called GS and she quoted me 8 days with tax and resort fees for $252 total. I asked her to repeat it twice. I had to check my flight and called back the next day and got a different person so I asked if the rate was still available. She looked and said that she had quoted me the $17.50/Night rate........leading me t believe they have several rates that they may quote you, so I guess it doesn't heart to ask for the lowest rate, and to call back during a different shift and ask.

EasyClickTravel has the lowest rate now for a Tower room at EC but it is about $50 more than a week ago and is "requesting" it from EC rather than firm......and is twice what I paid in may!

Jimbo338