I needed to book a hotel for 4 nights (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday). I first went to Orbitz searched for the dates. I found a motel for $45 a night. But then I noticed that I had the dates wrong, and had us checking out on Thursday. I changed the check out date, the price jumped to $79/night. What? Ouch! I decided to see how much that last night was. And it came up as only $56/night. What? So the frist 3 nights were $45, and the fourth night was $56, but if I book all 4 nights together it jumps to $79/night? That doesn’t make any sense. But further research revealed that place wasn’t very nice. I search more, and found a place for $80/night. The reviews sounded pretty bad for that one too. I wasn’t looking for anything fancy. Just clean, and in not too bad of an area. I start searching Priceline and Hotels.com. I found various hotels, in various areas. They were either expensive or holes!
I finally found an Econo Lodge that was built in 1999 for $60/night. There were no reviews though. I know the area, and it is not too bad. So I decided to book it. Hotels.com showed the room for for $60/night. With the $37.84 Tax Recovery Charges & Service Fees it came to $277.84. I was about ready to book it, but decided to look and found Orbitz showed the room for $59. Hey it’s $4!!! When I looked it was actually $59.99. But I book often through Orbitz, and thought I would got through them anyway if they are the same price. But when I was going through the register process, I found that the Taxes and Fees came to $46.81 and the total price was $286.76! About $9 more!! Ouch! I went back to Hotels.com and was halfway through booking the room when I decided to check Priceline.com. Priceline listed the room for $59.99/night, but the Taxes And Fees were only $28.80 and the total price $268.76. So I booked the room through Priceline.com and saved $18 on the Taxes and Fees!
I only thought about it today that I should have checked Expedia.com to see what their prices were.

Posted by RJ in Travel on June 4th, 2007 |