Hotel Prices

Some hotels charge more or less depending on the season of the year. Often, the lower rates are for winter months. I've used Venere and Hotels.com successfully.

The options and quotes I am looking at are all for the same dates in October. It is good to hear that you have been successful with Venere and Hotels. Did you get to specify things like twin beds, no-smoking, en-suite baths, ??

I don't know what to tell you about Spain, but my experience with Germany is that those booking websites are almost worthless. Occasionally I find those sites a little less than the property's own site, but usually they are more (although they claim huge discounts, compared to what?). Often they only appear lower because they "unbundle" things like breakfast, which they then show as an option. Usually when you add it back in, it makes them even more expensive.

And that's in competitive markets, like major hotels in big cities. In smaller towns, they often have nothing or only the most expensive properties. I find I do much better in small towns using the town's own website, usually www.townname.de.

Yesterday I booked a night at a hotel in Lucca through Expedia. I compared different booking websites and the hotel website and got the best price on Expedia. It includes breakfast and allowed me to choose the bed size and if I wanted smoking or non-smoking.

I have booked 20 nights in various accommodations in Italy and that is the only night I used a travel site. The rest of the nights were booked directly through the place where we will be staying.

The best thing to do is compare the various sites to see what gets you the best deal. Make sure you are comparing apples to apples though. If you can book it for less and the only difference is breakfast, ask yourself if the difference is worth it. If I found a place that was 25 euros less without breakfast I would eat elsewhere!

I had a similar situation last year when trying to book a room in Spain. The hotel's website quoted one rate, but I found a significantly lower rate on a hotel booking website (can't remember exactly which one, but think it was Expedia).

Wanting to book the room with the hotel directly, I contacted them and asked if they could match the lower rate. They replied that they were unable to, as the lower rate was part of some sort of arrangement they had with the booking site where they "sold" off unbooked rooms to them, hoping they'd be filled. So no worries, I booked the hotel at the lower rate on the booking site, followed that up with a confirmation email directly to the hotel to make sure they had the reservation, and the room was ready when we got there.

The only downside to using a site like Expedia is that you pay the full amount upon reserving the room and it is difficult to make any changes to the reservation once it's been booked. Each booking site has a different policy, however, but it would behoove you to make sure you understand the cancellation/change policy before you book anything.

Happy travels to Spain!

I like HRS.com as it makes it easy to find hotels in the price range I want and with the amenities I want, as well as whatever neighborhood I want. Have not really found any difference in prices. I like that I didn't have to pay a down payment ahead of time either. For more information on which websites are best, do a search on Trip Advisor.

There are a lot of small hotels who do not have websites, mainly because they don't have employees who speak multiple languages to handle all the reservations, etc. nor do they want to pay someone to handle all of this every day, or they don't have the money to buy a competent property management software, These can be quite pricey. Easiest and cheapest for the hotel is to go with a website like HRS or Venere, or whatever. Reviews are available in multiple places.

Having worked in the hospitality industry over here one learns quickly what is most cost effective for a small business and putting your hotel on a site such as HRS can be a great money saver that you can pass on to your guests as well as keep your hotel fuller.

Today I had an experience booking 2 rooms with twin beds in Garmisch Ptenkirchen Germany....for the last week I have found Booking.com and other sites saying one hotel had no rooms available, or just one room..so I wrote to the (they had a much better rate and good location than other hotels) hotels' e-mail and they DID have two rooms available. Booking.com had one room avail and a better price (just 4-5 euros) but since they only had one room I am assuming what others have said about these booking sites having deals with a limited number of rooms is true.
I have also heard that some web sites may have good prices but the worse rooms (traffic noise etc) in some hotels. I have had good luck with Orbitz and hotels.com in the past, But I booked 3 hotels personally this trip...it was the best way to be sure I got 2 rooms with 2 twin beds (some sites do not let you get specific)

Regarding Susan's statement "I have also heard that some web sites have good prices but the worse rooms", that is something I have found to be untrue. When you check-in to a place they can tell what website you booked from, but they are not able to see how much you paid. For example, last October we were in Boston. I booked our hotel on Priceline, using the "name your own price" option. We paid $70 for a room that is usually about $300. When we checked in, we were upgraded to a better room with a fantastic view. Some websites will give you a free night if you stay a certain number of nights.

I use whatever method gives me the best price, whether it is through the specific location or with a booking site.

If I may address the breakfast issue. Hotels that are in cities with international airports will often have the breakfast seperate. Why? In former times, every hotel offered breakfast with the room, but because so many people have early flights, guests started asking if they could have the breakfast price removed if they weren't going to eat it. Also, if you have a lot of international guests from Asia, the Middle East or India, they really don't want to have things like brotchen, ham, salami and cheese for breakfast. They prefer to have something else, so they too ask if they can have the breakfast price removed. Many large cities in Germany, France, or Italy have big conventions and guess what, breakfast meetings are popular, so these people also want the breakfast removed since they won't be there.

Thus, many hotels decided to it was easier to book them seperately. It makes it more cost effective for all concerned. For those big, 5 star places that charge 20 euro for breakfast, you do get what you pay for, a very extensive buffet, food that will be accepted by many countries with items such as rice, olives, tomatoes, feta cheese, and so on.

So, it isn't really about "bundling" items up to make more money, it is more about giving the guests what they want. In smaller towns, breakfast does almost always come with the room. There are plenty of hotels in the city where you can also find free breakfast available, just that it is becoming less and less for the reasons I stated above.