When it comes to making travel arrangements, the hunt for cheap airfare is typically the activity that receives the most attention. However, it’s not usually the thing with the highest price tag. It is certainly possible that the cost of your hotel stay will be the most expensive component of your holiday, but this will be determined by where you are going. Therefore, it is in your best interest to employ some degree of strategic planning regarding the hotel booking websites you check when looking for a decent hotel offer.
If you click on any website in the following list, you will be taken directly to that website and able to begin your search there. Alternately, you can scroll down to read our reviews, which detail what you will get from each site, the strengths and weaknesses of hotel booking sites, tips for finding the best hotel deals for families and groups, and strategies you can use across all of the different hotel booking sites to ensure that you always get the hotel room that is best suited to your budget, requirements, and preferences.
The Best Hotel Booking Sites
o Hotels.com
o Expedia
o Orbitz
o Travelocity
o Priceline
o Hotwire
o Kayak
o Agoda
o Google Hotels
Advice for Individuals, Families, and Groups Seeking the Best Possible Hotel Deals
The greatest websites for booking hotels do not only provide a list of low-cost hotel rooms; rather, in addition to versatile search and filtering options, customer service, and ratings of individual hotels, these websites also make it possible for users to receive assistance whenever it is required. And if you’re looking to reserve a hotel room for your family, those little extras can sometimes be the deciding factor in which place to stay.
There are a lot of different hotel search engines available online, and they all claim to be the finest one. The fact of the matter is that there is not a single website dedicated to the booking of hotel stays that will always provide the greatest value. But several online booking platforms for hotels are distinguished from one another in significant ways. Some of them provide more effective ways to search for things and narrow down the results. Some hotels have a more extensive selection of rooms than others. There are a select handful who, on average, provide better hotel deals than the others.
How can you make a decision when there are so many different hotel websites from which to choose? We have conducted exhaustive research and comparisons across the leading hotel booking sites in order to assist you in selecting the sites that have the best chance of securing the hotel stay that you desire for your family.
1. Get a head start on your search by giving yourself plenty of time so that you can analyze price patterns.
Those of you who like to plan ahead, this is your moment. Start doing price comparisons for hotels a few weeks or a month before your individual deadline for making reservations (this deadline will vary depending on how comfortable you are leaving things open-ended until the last minute). You will have the information at your disposal to determine whether the price of a hotel room is going up or down as a result of this change. If you are searching for the greatest deal on a hotel room, nothing beats keeping eyes on pricing changes on your own. Some websites will flag pricing trends for you, but if you are looking for the best price, nothing beats keeping tabs on pricing fluctuations on your own. It adds a little bit of work, but it ensures that you won’t miss out on any opportunities for discounts. In addition, it gives you a reason to think about your upcoming vacation months before you actually go on it, which increases the anticipation you feel about traveling.
2. Make pricing comparisons across different hotel booking websites.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was only one website for booking hotels that consistently offered the lowest prices on hotel rooms? Up until that point, it will be up to you to compare prices not only from one week to the next but also between different hotel booking sites. However, you don’t need to go to such great lengths: If you do your search using two to four different sites, you will almost certainly have covered enough ground to be able to identify shifts in the data.
3. Check with the hotel, as well, at all times.
Because hotels want you to book directly with them, you may find that they are willing to match or even beat the price that you found on an online travel agency (OTA) website like Expedia or Kayak. If you have a problem with your hotel booking or need to make changes to your reservation, taking this option allows you to work directly with the hotel, which can make the additional work involved in the process worthwhile.
4. Be sure to compare total pricing
On some hotel websites, taxes, fees, and resort fees are always included in the total price. Some vendors may not include those costs in the total price that they show. When you are doing a price comparison across different hotel booking sites, it is important to make sure that you are comparing like with like. One way to do this is to check both the room type and the total cost if you are seeing a very low rate at a hotel.
5. Be sure to carefully read all of the terms and conditions.
When it comes to hotel stays, there is a great deal of legalese to decipher. In the event that you have to cancel, what percentage of your money will you be able to get back? At the time of check-out, will you be hit with any unexpected resort fees or other price increases? Read the fine print carefully before making a reservation so that you are aware of what you are agreeing to.
6. When making travel arrangements, be sure to take into account the requirements of your family or your group.
Other types of tourists have different requirements for their hotel stays than families and groups. When traveling with children or with a large party, having adjoining rooms, suites, kitchenettes, and other types of floor plans can make a significant difference. So do amenities like swimming pools. There are some hotel booking websites that are more suitable for families and groups than others; thus, you should make use of the online travel agencies (OTAs) that are described below because they offer these advantages.
Our Unbiased Opinions and Reviews of the Top Hotel Booking Websites
1. Booking.com, of course
The ability to assess numerous types of lodgings in one search, filters that cater to families, and accessibility filters are all pluses.
When using Booking.com, your search options are not restricted to just those pertaining to hotel stays. The search results on this website for reserving accommodations include not just hotels but also hostels, bed and breakfasts, vacation homes, and even apartments. You can sort hotels based on pricing, reviews, and even the activities available on the resort itself. In addition, you have the option to narrow down your search results based on factors such as price range, hotel chain, number of stars, location (distance from the city center), and property type (apartment, hotel, hostel, etc.). There are filter options for families and groups that allow them to search for family-friendly accommodations, family rooms, and bed types (twin, double, etc.). There is also a more recent choice available to promote hotels that place an emphasis on environmental responsibility.
Booking.com also provides a comprehensive filter list for accessibility choices such as elevators, wheelchair accessible rooms, roll-in showers, and many more of these features. Sometimes, taxes and fees are included in the price (depending on the location), but other times, they are published separately, which implies there may be an additional step involved in calculating the entire cost of the purchase.
You also have the option of sorting the properties based on whether or not they have health and safety measures in place. Once you click through on a property, you will be able to browse the property’s and the room’s amenities, as well as reviews, questions and answers about the property, and a pricing breakdown by room type, all in one location that is quite comprehensive but is still relatively simple to read. There is also information that is not difficult to locate, such as that on prepayment, cancellation, and the flexibility of bookings.
2. Hotels.com
Advantages include a wide variety of property types (even castles! ), the identification of cheaper and reduced hotel rooms within search results, as well as the capability to restrict search results to just include hotels that provide free cancellation.
The Hotels.com website has a user interface that is simple, straightforward, and quick to navigate. There is an exceptionally diverse range of property types available, such as hotels, condo hotels, castles, bed and breakfasts, holiday rentals, and many more. You have the option of narrowing your search to only see family-friendly accommodations or by providing additional filters for features such as childcare, bathtubs, pools, and cribs. The hotel reservation website makes it quite obvious how many people, including the number of children, can be accommodated in each different type of hotel room. You also have the option to look for hotels that allow you to cancel your reservation without incurring any fees. Overall, the search experience on Hotels.com is very user-friendly, and the costs are comparable to those offered by other hotel booking websites.
3. The online travel agencies Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity
Pros: It’s simple to use, there are search options that are suitable for families, and the overall experience is comparable across all three hotel booking services.
Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity—three of the most well-known online booking platforms for hotels—share another thing in common: ownership by the same company, Expedia, Inc. Although there is some variation in price, the general experience, design, and pricing are relatively comparable among the three options. Which, to some extent, is liberating: When looking for a good price on a hotel, all you have to do is pick one of the three options that you like best and include it in your search.
The star rating of the hotel, the property type (hotels, vacation rentals, apartments, B&Bs, and more), the area, the proximity to prominent attractions (which is an easy way to judge how near you’ll be to the city center), and other factors are all available as filter options. When it comes to vacation rentals, the fact that you may choose the amount of bedrooms that you need or desire is something that is sure to be of special appeal to families. You also have the option to specify that you are looking for a list of accommodations that are appropriate for families; however, in order to locate this option in the “Traveler experience” section of the page, you will need to scroll all the way to the bottom of the list of filters that is located on the left side of the page.
4. Priceline
The website offers a variety of hotels and other sorts of accommodations, as well as a steep-discount finder option, simple navigation, and a flag for places that are presenting with prices that are cheaper than the average.
Priceline is a well-established online travel agency (OTA) that has a loyal customer base and a web design that is simple to use. The filters do not cover a wide range of categories, however they do allow users to reduce their search by price, search by amenities (such as free breakfast and swimming pools), hotel star rating, neighborhood, and hotel brand. Priceline has listings for a variety of non-traditional lodging options in addition to hotels. These non-traditional options include apart-hotels, bed and breakfast establishments, and rental apartments.
Priceline highlights accommodations that are listed at rates that are substantially lower than the norm. Priceline, much like Hotwire, provides customers who are looking for severe discounts with the ability to book a cheap hotel stay and then find out the name of the hotel only after they have reserved it through ExpressDeals or Pricebreakers. Pricebreakers are only available for double occupancy, which is fine if you are a family booking multiple rooms that each hold two people, but it won’t work if you are looking for a single room that will hold more than two people. ExpressDeals can be adjusted to include more than two people per room. Pricebreakers are only available for double occupancy.
5. Hotwire
Finds cheap hotel bargains, provides price notifications, and is a wonderful source for finding hotels with good last-minute rates.
Hotwire maintains the ease of use of a traditional hotel booking website style while also providing a lot of the filtering options that customers have come to expect from the most reputable hotel booking websites of today. Hotwire’s Hot Rates are quite popular among customers since they provide discounts on hotels that are not disclosed until after the customer has booked their stay. Hotwire also provides price notifications, which can be accessed by a button in the search results. This feature is useful for customers who wish to postpone booking accommodations until the nightly rate is reduced. Additionally, it is a fantastic place to look for hotel discounts that are available at the last minute. It is also important to note that Hotwire is putting a strong emphasis on its mobile app and stating that the company’s best rates are always reserved for reservations made through the app.
Having said that, if you are searching for something that can accommodate a family consisting of more than two people, it may be difficult to discover options that are suitable for your needs. When I ran a search for accommodations in Paris for two adults and two children, I first had to click on individual properties to be able to view the many sorts of rooms that were available in order to identify those that could accommodate more than two people.
6. Kayak
Pros: Sleek design, a variety of different sorts of accommodations, filters that let you view the whole price, and lodgings that are suitable for families (although you will need to pick such filters). Cons: You will need to select those filters.
You can easily compare prices among OTAs using Kayak’s listings, which not only highlight the lowest available price but also enable you to view nightly rates across a variety of other hotel booking websites. Kayak is not only straightforward to use but also incredibly easy to explore. This is particularly impressive given that it is a website for booking hotels that provides a significant amount of information. You will be presented with search results for a range of different types of lodging, such as hotels, vacation rentals, resorts, and bed & breakfasts automatically. (If you want to reduce the number of available lodging options, you can deselect the ones that you do not want to view.)
It is important to keep in mind that the kind of search results that is defaulted to you will not show you the hotel prices that are the least expensive initially. If this is what you are looking for, you will need to select “Sort by Price.” You have the option of viewing pricing either by the nightly base rate, the nightly total rate, or the price of the entire stay inclusive of taxes. You can choose how you want costs presented. Choose “Family” from the “Style” dropdown menu to narrow your search for accommodations that are suitable for families. You will need to do some digging before you can construct the perfect search, but if you are willing, the tools are available for you to use. In addition, Kayak provides price notifications, which may be activated by toggling the switch located at the top left of the listings page.
7. Agoda
The opportunity to define family size and room preferences, as well as booking functions for both small and large groups, as well as a design that is user-friendly and offers several search options.
Agoda’s homepage features a search bar that is straightforward but adaptable, allowing users to specify family travel (or group travel, in the case that they are traveling with multiple generations of their family or numerous families traveling together). You are able to select the ages of the children in both the family and the group focused searches. You have the option of giving precedence to family rooms when searching for hotels using the family option, and if you search for hotels using the group option, you will be able to obtain group pricing if you are booking more than 10 rooms.
This hotel booking website has results pages that are simple to read, similar to the straightforward search box on the homepage of Agoda, but they don’t leave out any of the essential information. You can search for hotels, resorts, vacation homes, and other types of accommodations (depending on what is offered at the destination) by using a filter that is specific to property types. You can simply drill down within any of these categories to search for the cheapest hotel rooms, hotels with the best reviews, and hotels that are a certain distance from the most famous sites in a city. You can also view hotel rates at a significant reduction by using the Hot Deals page, which displays even greater savings. This page will also occasionally offer Secret Deals, which will only provide the neighborhood and star rating of the hotel, but not the hotel’s name (until you book).
8. Google Hotels
The combination of useful destination information and hotel listings, as well as location-centered hotel listings and metasearch hotel pricing listings, are all considered to be positive aspects of the service.
You can access Google Hotels in one of two ways. The first way is to go directly to Google’s Hotel page, which is integrated with Google Maps. The second way is to conduct a Google search using the term “hotel” along with the location that you would like to stay in. Because the hotel tool is integrated with Google maps, it can be useful for people who are more visually oriented and who are seeking for hotels that are in just the perfect place.
Similar to Kayak, Google Hotels is a metasearch engine; once you click through on a hotel, you can compare the costs offered by other hotel booking websites all in one place. In general, there aren’t very many criteria to choose from, but if you click on Amenities, you’ll notice options like “Kid-Friendly” and “Pool,” among others. However, in terms of a clear hotel booking metasearch option, it is a good alternative, and it is one that appears instantly whenever you conduct a Google search.
Additional Questions and Answers Regarding Hotel Reservations
1. Which websites offer the most comprehensive hotel comparisons?
If you begin your hotel search on any of the websites that we’ve discussed above, you’ll have a solid base upon which to build your search. However, you should also keep in mind that there is no replacement for taking the time to compare costs over a period of time on a number of various websites (including the website of the hotel itself), since this will yield the most accurate results. If you keep a watch on how prices are moving, you’ll be able to take advantage of a good deal when it presents itself and feel sure about the cost of the reservation you make.
2. Which online booking services provide the best discounts on accommodations?
There is no one booking website that consistently has the greatest prices for hotels. When comparing hotel rates, you should make sure that you are comparing “apples to apples,” meaning that you are comparing the exact same room type and that your comparison includes the exact same taxes and levies. When it comes to obtaining the greatest deal on hotel stays, there is no substitute for doing price comparisons and beginning your search in plenty of time so that you can keep an eye on pricing for a while before deciding whether or not to make a purchase.