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Websites - to aid with travel

ChrisDauer

Workshop Member
A new thread to help w/ planning of trips. It sounds like a few other members travel like I do. Independent. Don't want to be locked in on a huge tour, but also don't want to sleep in pup-tents/hostels.

For Hotels:
http://www.wotif.com/


I used this extensively while in New Zealand. We often didn't know where we would be more than 2-3 days in advance. Once we figured that out, we'd pull up Wotif.com; find a good hotel and at rock bottom prices. In some cases, I saved more than 50% on the cost of the room.

If you have a website you use extensively for helping prepare for travel, please post it here.
 

Lisa

New member
The tripadvisor.com web site is great for hotel reviews, which are customer-generated. I've used it a lot the last couple of years, with quite successful results. I've found some great places to stay that don't pay to make it into the standard series guidebooks (yes, we had one hotel confirm that they have to pay the guidebooks to get included in them).

You need to not look at just the rankings, though, but read through the customer reviews for the higher-ranked ones - the site seems to increase the ranking for places with more reviews, leaving some with very high customer satisfaction but few reviews lower than you would expect in the rankings. Reading the customer descriptions also gives you a good idea about the style of the hotel, so you can decide if it's the style of place you're looking for.

I just wish they would do the same for restaurants!

Lisa

P.S. Hi, Chris!
 
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Stuart Richardson

Active member
I like Tablet Hotels.com. It is usually on the expensive side, but the hotels they list are all pretty much excellent. They tend to focus on boutique and designer hotels...smaller, more interesting than giant places. Usually the best thing to do is look there and then go to the hotel's website...you can often get a better price. They often have special deals too, so you can find an incredible hotel at a decent price. But it is definitely not going to find you the cheapest place it town. It is more about finding the nicest, most interesting place in town at a better price.
 
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ChrisDauer

Workshop Member
Yeah, whilst in NZ, we stayed at a LOT of B&B's, and talked w/ most of them. Wotif.com won't take any place that doesn't have at least 3 of the same kind of room. This would rules out every B&B we stayed at. Sometimes it's harder to find those tiny boutiques. Most of the B&B's we stayed at had only 2-4 rooms total. Thanks for the link Stuart!

Chris
Ps. Hi Lisa! It was actually a few of your posts about your last trip that made me think about starting this thread. :)
 
E

eastcolo

Guest
My husband and I joined Marriott rewards and can't believe how fast our points have added up. We usually stay at the top tier hotels, JW or Marriott Resorts, and have always had great experiences. There are Marriotts pretty much everywhere, and if you get their highest level credit card (the black one) for everyday expenses, you will have free nights galore. Also check the website regularly for bonus promotions and make sure you are signed up. You can also use (but not earn) points at Ritz Carlton.
I would also 3rd the vote for trip advisor. I have used that site extensively and have found all of the reviews (hotel and restaurants) to be extremely helpful.
 
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