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Before you book, click
By MICHAEL SHAPIRO Until the advent of the Internet, it was hard to get reliable answers to questions about hotels ranging from "What's your best rate?" to "Just what do you mean by 'adjacent to the beach?' " The Net cannot answer every question with precision, but by showing you images of the rooms -- sometimes 360-degree views -- and by providing access to hotels' catalog of rates, it can help you make more informed choices. Naturally, hotels showcase their finest rooms on their Web sites, so your room may not quite look like the image on the Web page. But many leading hotel sites also show their budget options, and if you can find a site with aerial views of the properties (such as www.wizardpub.com, which features Hawaiian lodgings), you can see how creatively a hotel defines the term "on the beach." Bargain hunters appreciate the Web because it has brought more deals directly to consumers, from hotel specialists such as Hotels.com and Quikbook (www.quikbook.com), and from big booking sites including Expedia.com and Travelocity.com. Not only do these sites show images and prices, they also complete their hotel pages with maps, dining options and lists of amenities. And the sites may offer their negotiated rates, often lower than the prices available directly from the hotel. "Expedia, Hotels.com and others have brought home the message that there are great deals online," said Henry Harteveldt, a senior analyst for Forrester Research. Last year, 3.3 percent of all lodgings reserved by U.S. leisure travelers (as opposed to business travelers) were booked online. This year, that figure is forecast to leap to 8.5 percent, Harteveldt said. Beyond booking, the Net provides valuable hotel reviews. I recently perused the comments at www.cheapovegas.com to see detailed opinions about Las Vegas lodgings. (And I mean detailed: Cheapovegas even describes the free toiletries in the bathroom.) Other regional sites, such as the European site www.venere.com, are regional guides. Use search sites such as www.yahoo.com to find these guides, or examine the Usenet archives through groups.google.com to find local hotel sites. What follows is a seven-step strategy for finding lodgings online: DEFINE WHAT YOU WANT: With a flight, one coach-class seat is similar to most other coach seats, but when shopping for lodging, you have a wide spectrum of options. Do you want a full-service hotel with fine dining? Are you on a tight budget? Are your dates flexible? This is important because room rates at many destinations can become expensive during high season or when a big convention is in town. Online deals can be alluring, so be clear about what works for you before reserving a room. Before booking, I often use online guides such as Frommers.com and Fodors.com to evaluate hotel rooms, as well as reader-review sites such as www.hotelshark.com and www.tripadvisor.com. CHECK EXPEDIA.COM AND TRAVELOCITY.COM: The two largest online booking sites have become excellent hotel-space distributors because the size of these sites enables them to negotiate good deals with hotels. So the sites may have better rates than the hotels. Both of these general booking sites also offer packages that include air and hotel. In some cases these deals are no better than buying each component separately, but sometimes they offer significant savings. (Travelocity recently acquired Site59, which packages last-minute weekend getaways at a discount. These trips are available at www.site59.com.) Expedia's hotel maps are superb. CHECK HOTELS.COM AND QUIKBOOK.COM: These companies predate the Net, but the Web has helped them greatly expand their offerings. Covering more than 250 destinations, Hotels.com offers far more properties than Quikbook. Preferring a more selective approach, Quikbook lists fewer hotels for each destination but has special pages for "Economy Class" hotels in New York, Orlando and other popular destinations. Hotels.com guarantees "the best prices at the best places" but doesn't always deliver. However, if you book at Hotels.com and find a better price for the same room within 24 hours of making your reservation, Hotels.com will refund the difference. Quikbook has the same guarantee. Because both services reserve blocks of rooms far in advance, they may have rooms at hotels that are sold out through other channels. CONSIDER PRICELINE AND HOTWIRE: For travelers willing to be flexible, these online outlet stores sometimes have the best prices. The catch is that you cannot choose a specific hotel; instead you select the neighborhood and quality ranking, such as a four-star property in Manhattan's Times Square. At Hotwire (www.hotwire.com), the price is displayed; at Priceline.com you bid. So you can check prices at Hotwire and then make a lower bid at Priceline. Though it sounds risky, I've found the three- and four-star properties at both sites live up to their billing, or at least come close enough for comfort. CHECK REGIONAL DIRECTORIES: Though too numerous to list here, consider regional directories, such as TravelBook (www.travelbook.com), which offers a selection of New York hotels rooms for less than $100. To find these directories, check search sites such as Google (www.google.com). Official tourism offices are another good source of local listings; to find these agencies, see Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory (www.towd.com). CHECK THE HOTEL'S SITES: Some hotels offer incentives for booking online, such as lower prices or bonus loyalty points to regular visitors. Hotel sites are often your best bet for learning about what a property offers, from meeting rooms to nearby restaurants. One of my favorites is the site for Luxor in Las Vegas, www.luxor.com; it shows room rates for each day on a calendar for the next six months (click "Online Reservations" to see the calendar). Even if you don't end up staying at the Luxor, this calendar can help you gauge when Vegas room prices are lowest. CHECK RATE-COMPARE SITES: This step is suggested with a couple of caveats, but read on. A new search tool called Travelaxe (www.travelaxe.com) presents a grid of hotels, enabling you to compare prices. Travelaxe searches 16 online agencies, such as Expedia, as well as hotel sites, and it can show you the total price, including taxes. However, Travelaxe's multiple screens can be confusing to navigate, and privacy is a serious concern because Travelaxe is not a Web site. It must be downloaded to one's computer. Before downloading software to my hard drive, I want to trust the company, and I have to wonder about Travelaxe, because the company's founder has posed as a satisfied Travelaxe customer in online discussion groups. Another downloadable fare-compare tool is SideStep (www.sidestep.com), which has been around for a couple of years and has a good track record. The above strategy requires you to spend time, but it is best for seeking mainstream accommodations. If you are looking for a vacation rental, B&B or hostel, you'll need to check other sites, such as www.vacationspot.com. - Michael Shapiro is the author of "Internet Travel Planner" (Globe Pequot, $17.95). For a list of his favorite travel sites by topic, see www.nettravel.com, which includes an archive of Shapiro's newspaper columns.
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