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These "guaranteed lowest prices" are a load of baloney. They're only based on prices that are available to *everyone*, so if you're an AAA or AARP member, these booking services refuse to match those rates. If the hotel is running a "special" for whatever reason, the booking services will often not even match those prices. The "Stay 10 nights, get 1 free" deal is nice (it amounts to almost a 10% discount), but I just kept finding lower prices elsewhere, and after about the third time that they refused to price-match, I said "to hell with it." On one occasion, I literally *double-paid* for a room (once to hotels.com, once to the hotel itself) because I went through such a hassle getting a refund that it was worth the extra $100 (or so) to just forget about it. The hotel, although sympathetic to my plight (they genuinely felt sorry for me), simply couldn't refund my hotels.com reservation (which they couldn't find), since I paid hotels.com and not them (although I ended up paying them too). hotels.com customer service wrote me back and said that since I stayed in the hotel, they wouldn't refund my money. Are you *kidding* me? Of *course* I stayed in the hotel. The discount is also not as great as it sounds, since you get the room cost only (you still have to pay the taxes which are considerable). This isn't unreasonable; I just thought I'd mention it. Joe is right: Book with the hotel, or the airline, or the rental car agency - directly. I've learned my lesson, and after I cash in my free stays, I'm done showing any loyalty to hotels.com (I was a Gold Member up until recently, which requires 30 stays in a 12-month period). Whose loss is that: mine or theirs? I'm making this a separate thread about hotels.com since I've stayed over 60 nights using them in the past three years, and feel like I'm qualified to voice an intelligent viewpoint - I suspect other booking services are similar, but I can only really say all these things for sure about them. (They were purchased in 2001 by expedia.com, by the way.) This is off-topic, but if I may lend my wisdom to others for a moment ... I have *never* gotten suckered into these Staples Discount Cards or CVS Club or Borders, or whatever - I just give them the phone number of a friend who's a member (this person's a member of *everything*, and they get the credit for my purchases), and I get the same discount as if I was participating. Although it might cost me twenty, fifty, a hundred bucks a year, or maybe "20,000 free miles" if I sign up for a United credit card, I have no cards to keep track of, and lead a blissfully hassle-free life when it comes to shopping. Obviously, some of these programs will benefit certain people, so what works for me won't necessarily be the best option for someone else, but I have *no* regrets about "just saying no" when I'm at the cash register of Best Buy, or wherever. That said, I found a credit card that gives me *three percent cash back* on restaurant charges (not everyone would be eligible, so don't get too excited). But can you imagine what that means for me?- 5 replies
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