Does someone have a tip on how to find a hotel's own web site? When using Google, for example, and you search for a particular hotel, you get every booking agent in the world (HRS, bookings.de, Virtualtourist, etc.) but finding the hotel's own site is nearly impossible!
Any tips?
Is there a particular hotel that you're having difficulty finding? I don't usually have those problems... Maybe I can help.
Sometimes it can be challenging, but if are persistent enough you should find it eventually. Don't be afraid to use Yahoo for searching as well, sometimes you get better results. Guidebooks usually list the direct website. But, there are some hotels out there that don't have there own site. I recently booked a hotel in Paris, and the only website they had was with their booking agency Utell.
I have used Yahoo, also. It just seems that you have to drill down so far in search result pages that it becomes a chore. I was hoping that someone had some tip.
I found a web site once that listed hotels in, say, Munich, and then it had a direct link to that hotel's web site (If it had one, of course.) But I can't remember what site it was.
I too use Yahoo. And true, the first thing that often comes up are links to www.tripadvisor.com. Others looking for your business are there as well. Just be patient and scroll down a bit. If the hotel or B&B has a website, you'll soon see it. We're planning a 3-week trip to England for later this year and we are encountering the same thing but we are finding the website we are looking for.
As a suggestion, you might want to click on the Trip Advisor links. I put in the city or town that we want to visit and I read the ratings and reviews. We've listed great ideas on where to stay from Trip Advisor.
Yeah, I know. That's really frustrating - the reason I hate these booking websites and won't use them (and that includes Tripadvisor). If these search engines were really interested in helping us, rather than just making money, they would list the official website first.
In Germany, if you go to the town's own website, www.[town name].de, you will probably find the hotel listed under "Unterkünfte" (accommodations)or "Übernachten" (overnight). You might also try things like www.hotel-[name]-[city name].de.
I think that Yahoo is making more money these days from other travel sites who pay to be listed first.
Go to Yahoo and search from the Yahoo.uk or yahoo.(whatever the country code is). You can switch to another country's Yahoo from the fron page.
Use the native spelling for the town, i.e. Firenze and not Florence. You'll likely get the hotel's website faster that way and then most have an English translation of the critical information. Good luck!
I happen to like HRS.com and find that their prices are almost always the best. Once I find a hotel there, I then look up the website, check out trip advisor, and really see where the best deals are.
Believe it or not, there are some hotels who do not have their own website, they deal exclusively with hrs or booking.com. That may be why you are not finding their website. I just found this out not too long ago and it did surprise me, but I think it may cut down on labor costs for little hotels. Good property management software programs can be very expensive, and perhaps this allows the hotel to not need one. Saving you, the guest money.
Sometimes it helps to change your language default to search for pages in the native tongue of the country where the hotel is located.
Thanks everyone. A kind poster suggested going to Google itself and type in the name and city. So far, the hotel's web page has been the first one listed!
I just booked six hotels in Europe over the past few months, and did not have this problem. As someone above said, tripadvisor always popped up first, but as I scrolled down, I almost found the hotel's site. Only in a few rare instances, and they were all B&B's, could I only find a booking site instead of a homepage. I'd love some examples because I feel like it would be a challenge for me to find these hotels! ;)
Tom, I never knew you could change the language options on your internet page. How do you do that?
I love Tripadvisor. Although they're obviously in it for the money, I love it because the ratings are based on user reviews. I've contributed to that site many times and it is one of the main internet tools that I use before booking a hotel. They probably make their money partly off of people who book using their search engine, but I never use that anyway... I'm only there for other traveler's opinions. The same reason I come here!
Amy - I use Tripadvisor, too to read reviews. But I prefer to deal with a hotel directly.
Me, too. Nowadays, most hotels have the best rates because they try to compete with the discount websites. I LOVE it because I never worry about a reservation when it's booked direct, and also, you can't cancel reservations made on Orbitz, but most hotels allow you to cancel up to one day before. Thank God for the internet. I don't know HOW people used to plan trips in the olden days! ;)
I agree, it's always a good idea to check rates and conditions on the hotel's own web site, because sometimes the price can be lower if you book directly.
Speaking of booking agents, I generally like Expedia.com for booking airline tickets, but I find their hotel booking annoying, because a lot of the hotels they come up can only be booked with an "Expedia special rate". While these rates are sometimes a bargain, sometimes they are very close to what you would pay if you booked directly, and they always require that you pay for your hotel stay in full, in advance. There is no option to just hold the room with your credit card -- even at a higher rate. Plus, there is always some kind of cancellation penalty, and in some cases, they are not cancelable at all, so you lose all of your money.
