Book Hotels Cheaper

Free E-Book - Hotel Reviews: Finding and Understanding

In the spirit of this economic recession, I have made the decision to give away my e-book Hotel Reviews: Finding and Understanding. I previously charged $12.95 for it alone and it is now yours FREE as a gift.

As a matter of chance, there has been a 'dust-up' recently over reviews posted on TripAdvisor, a source I mention often in my book. It appears Chris Elliott of MSNBC fame has taken TripAdvisor to task over a recent revelation that some reviews are 'manipulated' by hotels. I laughed when I read the whole sordid affair as it was the same thing I mentioned over one year ago in my book! If you would like to see the sequence of comments and the article itself from Chris's blog, look here. (I actually commented on it myself - look for comment from DCR)

If you truly care about hotel reviews and whether or how effective they are, you may also want to read his interview with the CEO of Trip Advisor. I found that interview very worthwhile, perhaps because much of what I wrote is what the CEO says also - not only showing I know my nuggets but that understanding reviews is problematic.

So what have you got to lose (my book is FREE) except a few auto-emails from me till time everlasting (actually a couple months only). Sign up in the column at the right top and download your MP3 or digital e-book immediately!

How to Best Use Priceline and Hotwire

I've cautioned readers before about the dangers of making low-ball offers on sites like Priceline but it probably never hurts to remind people of what they are getting into. This topic was prompted by yet another Priceline report we recently received that shows us how many 'offers' and money we missed out on by NOT participating with them. I suppose this is their way of trying to drum up business - show all hotels what they missed out on.

I'll state again where I see a problem. Admittedly, it may not be a problem for some people but it will be for those who expect a decent hotel or motel room even though they make a low ball offer. Such as the fellow who called me weeks ago and offered me $30 for a room that has a 'sticker' price of $93. He added 'I see it on Priceline for $30' but of course he didn't know which hotel he was really seeing. And therein lies the rub.

The hotel he was seeing rents rooms for $39-44 per night EVERY NIGHT. They end up getting $25-29 net if booked thru a Third Party site like Expedia so getting $23 off a $30 'bid' is nothing out of the ordinary for them. But here are the exact last 5 review headlines for this hotel off of Tripadvisor: 1) "A Cheap Place to Stay", 2) "Price is the Overiding Reason to Stay", 3) "DO NOT STAY HERE", 4) "Worse Than Any Third World Hotel I've Been To", and 5) " I also do not recommend you stay here". Within these headlines, people wrote things like "THe bed and linens were dirty as was the shower stall and carpet", "Bed Bugs devoured my daughter, even though mattress appeared to have a waterproof cover.", " The advertised free internet was way too weak to use in the room. The TV, that I had to plug in, got 4 channels." and "What an unbelievable, decrepit, dump!".

Things You Don't Want To DO on an Airplane

Readers of this blog know by now that I converse regularly with airline personnel, especially pilots and flight attendants. And yes, occasionally we 'rant' about peoples' behaviors on an airplane or once they landed and arrive at their hotel. I recall years ago learning (I admit I did not know this) that attendants are NOT allowed to help passengers with their carry-ons because the carriers do not compensate them if they get injured on the job helping a passenger store their luggage! So not only could they end up on unpaid disability, they could eventually lose their job if they were unable to return to work.

Recently, an article on Yahoo caught my attention. It was titled "7 Ways to Annoy a Flight Attendant". At first blush, it would have all the trappings of a flight attendant gripe session but as I read the article, it made sense to me that EVERYONE should read this because some of it is not stuff we might think about. Such as airplanes having diapers on board for parents who have run out or their being required to move people from or into roomier bulkhead rows due to FAA regulations. (Not in this article but since we are talking about diapers, F.A.s 'hate' passengers trying to hand them dirty diapers to dispose of. These are the same hands that serve your food and beverages! Would you want your attendant clutching a freshly soiled diaper to throw away and then hand you a cup of coffee? Not me!)

The reason I post this is NOT to provide a sounding board for flight attendant's gripes but because some of these points may have impact upon you. Such as passengers putting carry-ons in the FIRST compartments even though they are seated in the back. So in all honesty, I post them to help YOU when traveling so you can avoid these mistakes. Ignore them at you own peril!

Now Is the Time to Book Australia!

You probably do not remember but last Fall/Winter, I announced reductions in fares to Australia for 2009. But I also suggested waiting because of Virgin Australia;s introduction of service to Australia might result in lower fares than what we were seeing in Dec.I noted in November that I saw fares on Qantas of $1160 from LA, though there were sporadic $770 fares available but with 'book-by, fly-by' restrictions.

Just like clockwork, TravelZoo just announced $600 fares (incl. all taxes and fees!) from 'several' airlines serving Australia, also from LA. The better news? The fares are good through ALL of 2009! They did not indicate whether there was a purchase by date but they test booked this fare and found several dates from July through December available. They noted it is best to be flexible with your dates and try to go mid-week for the best savings.

I myself tried Qantas and entered several dates in August and September. While I was unable to get the fare as low as the $601 reported, I easily found rates in the $600s, including on weekends with Sydney as the destination. (Click on the "View Lowest Prices Around This Date" option for the lowest fares) Assuming you get a $49 fare to LA, even paying $725 round trip is as cheap as Australia has been in years. I saw similar fares (albeit higher) for Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Kalgoorie, etc.

Ironically, V-Australia not only does not have these fares available, I could not even FIND fares from the US on their site. Where it asks for your country and you choose USA, it immediately defaults back to Australia and shows no US destinations or origin cities. So the airline that started this fare war appears to not even be bookable. (What fares I did see from LA in their advertisement is over $900 to boot!)

The Dominican Republic - the New Costa Rica?

While I was researching travel spots in the Caribbean for the Ultimate Honeymoon book we recently released, I came upon something new - at least for me. The Dominican Republic as a valid destination locale. Long saddled with being the neighbor to Haiti, with all the baggage that goes along with that impoverished country, most people dismissed the Dominican Republic as a vacation place, thinking it was a sister country for Haiti. But D.R. has come a long ways and I was very surprised at the world class resorts I found for honeymooners. I was especially appreciative of the prices as well, since they cannot charge the high prices other islands get in the Caribbean until they get more established. This is why I am suggesting it might be the NEW Costa Rica.

You remember when C.R. was all the rage. EVERYONE wanted to go there, expenses were low and it had all the amenities a vacationer wanted; beaches, sophisticated cities, nice hotels, restaurants and resorts and did I mention it was inexpensive too? This is where the Dominican is right now and I suggest it is worth a look if you have been all around the Caribbean and need a new place to go.

One site (DR1.com) has ALL the information you would need to visit the Dominican Republic. Suggestions for golfers, nature lovers, family vacations, bargain hunters, windsurfers and even those in love with alpine mountains (at 10,125 feet, D.R. has the tallest mountain in the Caribbean) are offered on this site. The Dominican even has gambling and of course the real prize: cigars! While this site has a plethora of resorts and hotels to check out, none appear to have room rates available but my earlier research suggested downtown Santo Domingo hotels can run as low as $45 and outer resorts in very tropical locations are only $125.

For more sites will lots of financial information like flights and hotel rates, check out the following.

http://www.godominicanrepublic.com/

http://dominicanrepublic.com/index.php

http://gocaribbean.about.com/od/hotelsandresor2/tp/DRallinclusives.htm

http://www.wheretostay.com/caribbean/dominican_republic/lodging-c55-Dominican_Republic.html

Warning on start-up airline "Jet America"

Usually it is good news when competition increases in the marketplace. The airline industry is one marketplace where that doesn't seem to apply however. Increased competition has meant bankruptcy for some airlines, necessity to merge for others and lay-offs and downsizing for almost all the rest. As airlines struggle to make profits, they have resorted to a strategy of abandoning certain areas or regions - usually the small market regions. This allows them to concentrate their equipment and remaining staff in the higher revenue markets. This was one of the pitfalls to deregulation of the airline business in the 80's - the abandoning of certain markets - because before deregulation, the airlines were being propped up by subsidies to serve smaller markets.

So sure enough, some small regional airports (Spokane for instance) or small large market airports (Cleveland) saw service slashed in many cases. The newest start up airlines (like Spirit or Virgin) tended to either serve the larger markets (New York, L.A., S.F., Florida) and did not completely take up the slack left by the legacy carriers in the smaller market areas (Charlotte, Montgomery, etc), though Spirit did set up Detroit as a hub and offers great fares to and from there.

So it is hoped that into the void steps start up airlines with hopefully lower cost structures to serve the abandoned markets. And that is exactly what is happening with Jet America. A start-up airline (July 2009) that serves airports like Charlotte, Toledo OH, Lansing MI and South Bend IN, which will offer $9 fares to the first 9 people who purchase tickets. (The average ticket otherwise is around $200).

Europe Alert! Low Fares Abound

I love being right. (Conversely, I HATE being wrong, who doesn't) But, I was right on last winter when I wrote my newsletter for 2009 titled 2009 Travel Outlook. In it, I predicted that even though airlines were promoting great discount fares for 2009, it would be best to wait because these fares probably would not lure enough traffic to the airlines so that they would/could RAISE fares for the summer and end the discounts.

Well guess what? Not only have I been blogging about more low fares and more sales since January, it appears the mother of all sales has hit home just as the travel vacation season starts. I still think airfares will be even lower after Labor Day (it's a seasonal thing) but now is the time to book for this summer.

The N. Y. Times In Transit blog notes that FareCompare just reported that sales are bounding to lots of domestic, international and especially European locations. Such as these round trip fares from New York: Paris for $349 (all taxes incl!) Zurich $237non stop, London $529 and Rome $296.00

From Chicago, go to Cancun for $253, Paris for $634 and Frankfurt for $506. And from LA: Paris $825 , Bangkok $703, Frankfurt $521 and London $817. More lower international fares are available also, such as LA - Manila $699, Puerta Vallarta $325, Rio $480, Sydney Aust $591 and Tokyo $598.  

Even if fares dropped some more, how can you beat these prices? It isn't worth the risk of them selling out just to save another $40 so I suggest if you are going overseas, now is the time to buy. As the blog notes, these fares are 50% off what they were just (days) ago. With gas prices surging once again, fares may rise soon (or fuel surcharges raised) and it makes no sense to wait any longer to book these flights.

Beware RyanAir: Europe's Most Hated Airline?

Ryan Air is an Irish discount airline that has generated tremendous amounts of news since its inception. There was a row last year about arbitrarily canceling tickets bought on Third Party sites. Recently, the flamboyant (and often considered annoying) CEO went public with a comment that RyanAir will charge an extra fee for anything they think they can charge for - and boy did they!

Now they are in the news again because less than 1/3rd of registered patrons to their website taking a survey voted 'overwhelmingly' to charge a 'fat tax' on overweight passengers. (Since when is 30% for and 70% against considered overwhelming?) I decided to see what complaints have been registered against RyanAir and while I realize ALL airlines generate hundreds if not thousands of complaints, the nature of RyanAirs complaints brings to mind bait and switch.

Now to be sure, they are far cheaper than the European legacy carriers. People reported a 30 euro cost versus a legacy airlines charge of 300 euros is just one example. But here's the rub, they charge for just about anything common to mankind. Pay with a debit card? 20 Euros. More than one bag? Extra charge. Excess WEIGHT on baggage? up to 280 euros. Want to check in manually? 20 euros. Take a purse onboard? That's considered a bag too: extra charge. Priority borading? Extra charge. One reviewer noted they paid for a beverage with a 20 euro note and NEVER got 10 of their change back 'because the staff "didn't have (and couldn't find) a tenner". So they KEPT the money! A reviewer summed it up this way: "So our 'cheap flight' that cost a reasonable amount to book ended up costing probably more than other airlines who don't fleece you at every turn." You can see this website here and read about many more complaints too.

In addition, complaints have been heard because of the incessant in flight advertising. An article from About.com noted this: "Flying Ryanair can be like watching a home-shopping channel late at night. You’ll be offered all sorts of things at "great prices", including lottery tickets and calendars featuring scantily dressed flight attendants. Depending on your mood and outlook on life this can be amusing or annoying." Even landing in the city you bought a ticket to is dicey - to go to Hanburg, you actually fly into Lubeck! All legal the article noted. Problem is, if you were connecting in Hamburg, landing miles away is not likely to allow you to make your connection.

The article also noted that the CEO has been compared to Simon Cowell - the man you love to hate. No wonder he was able to say what he said about charging for anything and everything - he's outspoken and his airline is somewhat outrageous. In the end, buyer beware seems to truly apply to RyanAir!

Is Expedia's "Biggest Hotel Sale Ever" Really a Sale?

As usual when dealing with on line booking agents, it depends on certain parameters as to whether the 'sale' is really a sale. A New York Times blog apparently doesn't think it is much of a sale and they are SPONSORED by Expedia! So hat's off to NYT for being honest at least.

For starters, they pointed out that the "..up to 30% off" discount only applies when you book 3 nights or more. As a hotel worker for many years, I can guarantee you that less than 2% of our reservations/bookings are for 3 nights or more. In fact, 90% are for one night and maybe eight out of a hundred are for 2 nights and the rest more than 2 nights. So there is little risk to advertise a 30% off sale when few people want that option.

The Times also noted (as I have time and again) that rarely are the prices any lower than what you can get elsewhere, though the blogger noted that often it was CHEAPER than what the hotels own web sites offered. What they failed to mention is that the hotel probably honors any lower price you find on line - just as our hotel does - so there is little to fear about overpaying anyway.

In the end, when you consider that you have to PAY for the booking at time of booking (versus when you check out) and that canceling a 3rd party reservation is a hassle (I was on hold for Expedia last week for well over AN HOUR on a Saturday night) because you can't cancel it with the hotel, it is often easier and just as cheap to book directly. I won't go into the other half dozen reasons it is better to book directly than through a Third Party - I've offered those reasons time and again in blog posts.

So get out the hip boots and waders when you read "Biggest Hotel Sale Ever' when it comes from someone like Expedia or Hotels.com (which the NYT blogger didn't know was OWNED by Expedia!) because something is coming your way and it isn't much of a bargain.

Vacation Home Rentals: The Affordable Alternative to Hotels

Once again, as part of my research for the Ultimate Honeymoon on any Budget book we recently introduced, I investigated alternatives to staying in a hotel. We all know about B&B's, we know for certain vacations you can rent an RV and of course there is my personal favorite; camping. But shlepping an RV around Hawaii or a Caribbean island is not a pleasant thought nor is camping in a winter storm. You would love to have an apartment with a full kitchen but who is going to rent one out for only 5 days?

A not exactly new market emerged in the last few decades that has many travel sites all abuzz, especially when talking about places like Europe or Hawaii, where you are likely to be staying for 2-3 weeks: Vacation Home Rentals. In my personal research, I found numerous sites with available short or longer term apartments and homes in premier spots around the world. Some rent for very high prices - upwards of $10,000 per WEEK - but some were very affordable, such as $650 a week in Hawaii. What mostly dictates the price is of course the location (on a beach, near a major town, etc) and the size and amenities (3-4-5 BR's, with pools, on garden grounds, etc.

But before you consider something like this, read this article about Vacation Homes to see if the idea fits you and your needs. One considerable drawback is that is most places you have to clean the unit befor you leave and many vacationers do NOT want to clean a 5 BR house - that's what they are trying to get away from! So read the article and see if you are a home rental person in the making. If you then want to know some of the sites I found, simply comment here and provide your email address and I will find some suitable options for you.