Hotels.com Review

I do a lot of travelling and, like a lot of people these days, I do most of my booking online. A few years ago I started using Hotels.com, and have never looked back.

My first experience with Hotels.com was several years ago when I made last-minute plans to travel from New Zealand to Florida, to spend Christmas with my folks. A word to the wise: "last-minute" and "Christmas travel" should never, ever become a reality in your life, if you have any interest in remaining sane. Anyhow, the only flights I could get in order to make it to Tampa on Christmas day involved flying from Wellington, NZ, to Auckland, NZ, to Los Angeles, and arriving in Washington D.C. late on Christmas Eve. The first flight from D.C. to Tampa wasn't until 7 am, Christmas day. I could not, for the life of me, find a vacant hotel room in D.C. that wouldn't bankrupt me. Via Hotels.com, not only did I find a moderately-priced room, but an extra $15 got me round trip shuttle service. After having flown for 18 hours, the last thing I needed was to figure out how to get from Dulles to my hotel in the snow. At night. All went without a hitch - the shuttle was there when my third flight of the day landed. Within 20 minutes, I was in my hotel room, taking a shower and getting ready for a decent night's sleep. The next morning, the shuttle picked me up and dropped me off at Dulles in plenty of time for my flight to Tampa. No worries, and the whole D.C. detour cost me about $85, including the shuttle. On Christmas Eve/Day!!!

 No surprises

Some discount hotel booking sites promise a discount, but don't actually tell you what hotel you're booking, until after you've committed and given your credit card details. I found this to be the case with Priceline and a few others: the best they'll do is tell you they can place you in a 4-star room for $120 a night that's "close to Times Square." I'm sorry, but that's not good enough for me. Being from NYC, I know that "close to Times Square" could mean a great, conveneint location,or a really awful and unsavory location that I wouldn't want to walk around in at night. This is true of every city in the world.

Hotels.com doesn't make anything a secret. Basically, you type in the city you're interested in visiting, or even a landmark, and they list hotels in that area - names and all -  that have rooms available at a discount. You can filter by distance to a particular landmark, price, or by star rating. For each hotel they handle, Hotels.com provide information, photos, sometimes virtual tours, a full list of amenities, and customer reviews. Of course, they also list rates for different types of rooms.

Booking directly with Hotels.com is simple. You can open an account or just book as a guest. I've never opened an account, because I don't really have any need for Hotels.com spam. Even without an account, it takes just a few minutes to book, and email confirmation is immediate.

I know that other sites - the ones where you aren't allowed to know what hotel you're booking until you've commited - guarantee the lowest prices. But, you know what? I've always found good deals on Hotels.com and, even if I end up paying a few more bucks per night than I may have using Priceline, I think it's worth it, because there are no surprises.

Some tips

Don't just look at Hotels.com. Check out other sites that are transparent about hotel bokings. Include the hotel site, itself. For instance, if you want to stay at the Honolulu Hilton, check out the the rates on a standard room for your specific dates at the Hitlon website. Then check with Expedia or Travelocity. Last, check the same dates with Hotels.com. Most times, Hotels.com will have the lowest rate for the same room. If they don't and you have documentation of someone offering it for a lower rate, Hotels.com will match that rate. It pays to do your homework.

Recent experience

More recently, I had my heart set on staying at one of the Jois de Vivre hotels for a holiday weekend. Very upscale. The prices for that weekend spiked on the Jois de Vivre site, but Hotels.com kept the discounted rate. I saved $40 a night by comparative shopping and using Hotels.com to book.

Hotels.com is an "old reliable", as far as I'm concerned.