on-line booking

I need some more information to answer these questions.

Do you mean:
Why is there a range in prices for the same place from different websites?
Are any websites unsafe for booking? Do you mean, internet in general?
Are there hidden fees when you book online?
Do lodgings honour online bookings?

Exactly. Thank You

I can't answer all the questions:

If you book online, be sure you see the yellow padlock on the webpage to indicate a secure website. But this maybe different on different portals (not sure about this). I have a crdit card I use for online purchases which has a low limit, so if the number is stolen it'll reach the maximum quickly. And never never send your credit card information by email. If you must send your credit card number then split it into at least three emails, so only a person can reassemble the number. Or better yet, phone if the website is not secure.

Lodgings should honour bookings, but be sure to print the confirmation.

Why are there different prices for the same thing? I don't know. But I do know that on any given flight don't expect to pay the same as the person sitting beside you, or behind you or in front of you.

Jean,, I have booked all my hotels online,, but I book directly on the "offical " hotel sites,, not through middle men agencies...

I really don't know about these booking sites, and the only negative I have heard is occaisonally people arrive and there is no reservation,, but , I would just use a reputable well known agency( if you are determined to use one at all) .. like Venere or Hotels.ca .

When you book a hotel/b&b be sure you get a confirmation e-mail from them. Take a printout of that confirmation with you. I always do this and really needed it only once when the hotel gave me a better room than I had reserved (their mistake). I showed them my e-mail reservation, and they charged me at the lower rate for the room.

You can sometimes get a better deal when you book directly on a hotel's website, but not always. Sometimes, third-party companies, such as hotels.com, will have special discounted rates. However, it's always a good idea to compare before you buy.

I sometimes use Expedia.com to book hotels. They have a wide selection, and often they will have cheap hotels, too, rather than just the expensive chains. But, you have to be careful. If you see "Expedia Special Rate" for a hotel, watch out. This is a deal where you pay in full, in advance. It might be a good deal, but you need to read the terms and conditions, as sometimes, these rates turn out to be totally non-refundable, sometimes there is a penalty for cancellation. etc. Always read the "fine print."

Thank you everyone. I have booked direct with hotels with no problem. Ive used Hotwire, travelocity and Expedia in the past. I was concerned about the lesser known bookers(found on google). After getting excited about prices and realizing they were in Euros not US #, I'm reading carefully.

I like using www.hrs.com as I find their prices to often be lower then many of the other sites. Many small hotels and B&B's do not even have their own website, simply due to cost or the languages, etc. and so if you do not look on websites such as HRS, you will never find them at all.

"Many small hotels and B&B's do not even have their own website ... so if you do not look on websites such as HRS, you will never find them at all."

Jo, I really have to respectfully disagree with that statement. In my experience, using a booking site (like HRS) is like buying point to point tickets from RailEurope - it's easy, but they only show you the more expensive properties, almost never the small hotels and B&Bs, and when they do show you a place, it is almost certainly more expensive than going to the hotel's site itself.

In the past two years I have stay in Germany for 26 nights in 14 different towns.

I found every one of those accommodations from their own websites under Ünterkunfte on the town websites.

For two of those towns, I could find nothing available from HRS.

Only three places where I did stay were actually shown on HRS. I spent an average of 15% less by booking from the hotels' sites than I would have through HRS. In only one case, Königshof in Mainz, did I spend more (€1) than I would have through HRS.

In the other nine towns, HRS had other accommodations listed, but not the ones where I stayed. Their best listings were 36% higher than what I found in that town.

I think I worded my answer wrong. I did not mean to say that HRS always had the lowest prices when compared to the hotels own website, though that is sometimes the case, believe it or not.

My point is that there are some hotels that do NOT have a website so how are you to find them other than using a site like HRS?

When looking for a hotel, it is always recommended to use a variety of ways to find them, along with how to find the best price and there is no perfect, always correct way, as different hotels use different methods. Just as some B&B's will be listed under one website, and a different one in the same town will be using something else.

I have worked a few years in the hotel business, so I am fairly familiar with this.
P.S. I just checked prices with Hotel Monopol which I often recommend on here. It was 69 € directly with the hotel and exactly the same with HRS and with booking.com. So, one CAN often save money by booking directly but not always.

Jean, I've recently come across some too-good-to-be-true deals on hotels through Kayak recently--sites linked from a Kayak search. I wouldn't hesitate to use hotels.com, expedia, etc--the big guys--but I'd never heard of some of these sites. I did some googling and found all sorts of scam warnings for these lesser known companies. What usually happened was that the person booked, then the conmpany would email right before the trip to say they had to cancel the booking. Often they never issued a refund. So I'd be wary booking on a site you've never heard of. Google the company name at least, maybe with the word "problem" or "scam" and see what turns up.