Quote:
Originally Posted by Wormius
Yeah, it sounds like it may be a better way to go.
I have been considering just winging it on the trip and hopefully not getting screwed on day-of prices or not getting a room. Though I did some comparisons of prices if I wanted to book for tonight versus a few weeks away and the price didn’t change much.
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I usually use a combination of booking.com and the hotel directly. Booking allows you to cancel reservations up to 48 hours/24 hours before so you can always pre-book a room to ensure you arent going to get left in the cold
I recently just went to Europe and basically monitored hotel availability in the cities i was looking at going to - to ensure i wasn't going to be left holding the bag with limited availability.
If you are willing to make last minute bookings, i would suggest two things:
- Monitor booking sites in the week leading up to the dates you intend to stay there. What happens is someone may have booked the hotel and then cancelled (for whatever reason). Booking or another partner will still have the hotel room (if the booking was non-refundable i believe) and will offer the room up at a large discount - they are usually listed as "Partner Offers". Booking also offers "late escape deals" in some circumstances as well.
- If you arrive to the place you are planning to stay the day of, check Booking/expedia etc. for the rates and availabity of the hotels. Find the one you want and go to the hotel and book directly. If Booking is cheaper than the hotel is offering, show them that and they will usually match the Booking price or offer you an upgrade etc.