LEISURE - TRAVEL - 25.06.2018

Finding a cheap hotel room

Sites

You’re probably familiar with sites such as Booking.com, Hotels.com and Expedia.com, which let you compare the prices of hotel rooms all over the world. However, the prices shown on those sites may differ from each other as these services charge differing commissions. Fortunately, there are platforms which collect the prices of all these booking sites. A well-known one is Trivago ( https://www.trivago.co.uk ), but HotelsCombined ( http://www.hotelscombined.com ) and Hotels Scanner ( http://www.hotels-scanner.com ) are also worth trying.

Booking direct

Such platforms are handy, but hotels have to give a percentage to the platform, and this amount is inevitably passed on to the client in the hotel room prices which are shown here.

Tip. It’s best to call or e-mail the hotel directly and check the prices on their own website. Indeed, in many countries hotels are now allowed to offer lower prices than those on the platform.

The best time to book

It’s best to postpone the reservation of your hotel room for as long as possible. A recent study from the British SAPConcur ( https://goo.gl/QBWskH ) shows that a last-minute booking may produce savings of up to 30%. If you book a room in a period in which there are frequent cancellations - i.e. between 48 and 24 hours in advance - you can get a good deal.

Note. If you postpone your booking too long in busy holiday periods, you may run the risk of not finding a suitable room.

Let Tingo check everything for you

You can call in the assistance of Tingo ( http://hotels.tingo.travel ). If you book a hotel room via this site, it will keep checking for price reductions, e.g. temporary actions, or because of new last-minute rates, up until the moment when the free cancellation period expires. If Tingo finds a lower price, it will cancel your reservation automatically and the room will be rebooked in your name, but at the lower price.

Tingo transfers the amount you save to your credit card after your stay. We didn’t put this to the test, but the fact that Tingo is part of the well-known review site TripAdvisor attests to its credibility. What’s more, we often found lower start prices here than via Trivago or HotelsCombined.

Alternatives

DreamCheaper ( http://www.dreamcheaper.com ) does the same thing as Tingo but withholds 20% from the refunded amounts. The similar Service ( http://www.getservice.com ), which was launched recently, requires you to sign up, and you’re obliged to link your Gmail or Hotmail account to this service. We think this will deter users. It also charges a 30% commission on the refunds, unless you take out a flat-rate subscription of $49 or £36.50 per year.

Tip.Kayak ( https://www.kayak.co.uk ) keeps you informed via e-mail of any price reductions it finds in the hotels which you looked up via this service - you don’t even have to book a room.