Watch out with Expedia

[MWC]

I just booked our hotel for Labor Day weekend in Montreal. I used Expedia because its search engine works best with my mindset. Got the best room rate, then went to book the room. Suddenly there were additional fees, that effectively added about $70 night to the rate. Pooo!

I went directly to the hotel's website instead. Their "internet best" rate included all the taxes, etc. and while the "per night" rate was a little higher, the 3-night total came in at around $300-and-change Canadian; Expedia, for the same exact hotel and room, was going to be $600-plus American!

It pays to be a computer geek for vacation planning.

[Andiline]

Originally Posted by MWC

I just booked our hotel for Labor Day weekend in Montreal. I used Expedia because its search engine works best with my mindset. Got the best room rate, then went to book the room. Suddenly there were additional fees, that effectively added about $70 night to the rate. Pooo!

I went directly to the hotel's website instead. Their "internet best" rate included all the taxes, etc. and while the "per night" rate was a little higher, the 3-night total came in at around $300-and-change Canadian; Expedia, for the same exact hotel and room, was going to be $600-plus American!

It pays to be a computer geek for vacation planning.

I am always very careful with my trip bookings via Internet. I did it only once via Expedia when I needed a hotel room because I had to stay longer in New York than anticipated and could not remain in the appartment I was staying in. So I was already there and the booking worked out okay - didn't have the additional fees problem. Usually I prefer to book with agencies or on websites which allow to cancel the room until 24 hours before arrival. I don't usually cancel a trip but nowadays you never know what happens....

Andrea

[denisea]

I usually use the major travel engine sites as research tools only. When ready to actually book, I try to do so directly with the hotel, airline, car rental agency, etc. My experience has been that the actual provider web sites offer the same if not better rates than those offered through the major travel engines. I'd surmise that this is because the actual providers typically don't add on additional fees or commission and/or many times offer an additional discount for booking directly online through their sites.

[Beachnutt719]

What's the exchange rate now. 300 CD may be nearly 600 US

[MWC]

$1 us = $1.19 CAD

[birdman]

All these outfits seem like scams, whether it's expedia, priceline, cheaptickets, ect. I have never been able to beat the price using them that I can get myself with just a little bit of leg work. I can just barely turn this damned comptuer on, just think how much I could save if I were a computer geek.

[vacationstar]

Originally Posted by birdman

All these outfits seem like scams, whether it's expedia, priceline, cheaptickets, ect. I have never been able to beat the price using them that I can get myself with just a little bit of leg work. I can just barely turn this damned comptuer on, just think how much I could save if I were a computer geek.

I agree Birdman. Used to be that they could sometimes find the better deal. Not any more. Hotwire when it came on line had really good deals but you couldn't pick your time of flight. Now I can beat them consistantly going thru airlines directly. It pays to spend that extra half hour on the computer doing your own leg work.

We used Expedia while on the road and found out afterwards that the hotels we used we actually cheaper than what we got online! So I'm only going to use them to see what the rates are and to read comments but I'll book directly.