When Should You Use Discount Travel Sites for the Best Deal?
This post is going to be a short one because the answer is very simple. Discount sites (Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotels.com, Booking.com, BookIT, etc.) are really only useful for two reasons.
REASON ONE:
Comparison.
It is good to see when it is cheapest to fly/stay and where to book by looking at a discount comparison site. My favorite is TripAdvisor. It compares all of the major discount site prices without opening popup windows or giving outdated pricing information. I use TripAdvisor to find the most affordable time and which site is advertising the lowest price. I then go to the cheapest site to confirm legitimacy (this should be a no-brainer) and then sign up for their newsletter. I get a lot of travel spam, but i have an email just for that! Then I check the website of the actual hotel chain or airline that appears to be the best deal. Most of the time the Hotel will be offering the same or similar prices. Airline sites will ALWAYS show the same price as discount sites. Don't book airfare on discount sites unless you want to be dealing with a middleman when your flight has complications. This is part of why you won't ever find Southwest flights on a discount site.
If you ever doubt a discount sites' authenticity, google it. Some discount sites (BookVIP.com) are selling timeshares and there is a LOT of fine print involved in those bookings. Make sure to research any fishy-looking or too-good-to-be-true deal site (or you can shoot me an email and I can check it out for you!)
REASON TWO:
COUPONS
It is always better to book directly through the airline for your flights (this is so important, it bears repeating) but Hotels sometimes do have better offers on discount websites. I subscribe to my favorites (Tripadvisor for comparison, Hotels.com for their rewards program, Travelocity for their 10% off coupons, and Booking.com for their book-now, pay-later options which I LOVE). I check my email daily for deals but I know what to look for. If you use tripadvisor and already know which hotel and which week is the most affordable, keep an eye out for special sales in your inbox and run the dates to see if the hotel you are watching has gone down. You can also subscribe on TripAdvisor to get hotel price-drop updates. Typically when discount sites send "special secret prices" it isn't much of a deal, but it doesn't hurt to look. The deal to look out for is when these sites give out coupons for 10% or 20% off a booking of a certain number of days or more. Hotels.com also has a deal where you can book 10 nights and get one free, just read the fine print because there is a deadline to book and use your rewards. If you are waiting on a tax return or big bonus to book your trip you can still find the best deal and use booking.com to book now but your card won't be charged until you get to the hotel. This is awesome if you know you'll have the money for your trip but it isn't in your account right now.
My fave deals: I got $200 off of a week in Jamaica by watching my booking.com emails for a promotional sale. Travelocity's %10 off coupon that they frequently send out is a good last resort when I can't find a cheaper price than the one the Hotel website offers.
Other notes on discount sites...
Don't get tricked by Groupon.
I love Groupon, truly I do. Most deals on Groupon are legitimate money-savers but often with hotels and Getaways, the deals are not much different than the hotel's website price. Plus, there are not as many reviews on Groupon to know if the hotel is as spectacular as the photos. Just make sure to search TripAdvisor for reviews and prices before booking on Groupon to know you are getting a deal. As far as those airfare/hotel deals, just search for those prices separately to see if it really is a deal and keep in mind many Groupon deals include airfare from only certain airports, so you need to get TO the airport also.
There are many combination sites that offer flight/hotel/car/meals/tours and many times these add-ons jack up the price. My favorite example of this is when people come to Nashville for our yearly Country Music Festival. Many tour groups charge people thousands for hotel, tickets and a tour and people think they are getting a deal. But if they used Uber to get around, organized a meet-up or asked for recommendations from locals on the community Facebook pages and bought their own meals they could save over a thousand dollars from the tour group price. Making a spread sheet of how much you would spend on these add-on items individually will help you avoid overpaying. Also make use of social media for recommendations and see if there is a tourism page where you can get tips from locals and ditch the pricey tour.
Don't be afraid to sign up for travel sites' newsletters. Go through the spam, find the coupons, travel for less.
Happy Traveling!
Steph
