Testing Expedia, Priceline, Travelticker and Voyage Prive
After a lot of posts from our camping adventure, it’s time to talk about the other side of our travel equation – sleeping outside of a tent.
We love us a great travel deal. Maximizing value on the road is key for us, especially when searching for a hotel. We like to get our hands on incredible deals at decent places. When we can’t, we book a budget accommodation and are perfectly content.
Here’s a round up of our experiences putting Expedia, Priceline, Travelticker and Voyage Prive to the test over the last several month. The links will take you to our Snapshots of each property.
Expedia
When we were planning our lengthy visit to the Palm Springs area, we couldn’t decide which part of the expansive area to stay in. In the end, we decided to check out hotels in three different communities.
We started out in Indian Wells. This area, about 20 miles east of Palm Springs proper, is upscale and beautiful. Although the bonanza of gated communities is a bit off-putting, it’s hard to resist the charm of this spacious and scenic area. We used Expedia to score a decent deal at Hyatt Grand Champions. The setting was ideal for relaxing – scenic and breathtaking. At $85/night, Expedia had a better rate than any other site (many offered discounted rates well over $200/night).
We’re sad to report, though, that – since this time – Expedia isn’t as golden as we thought. There’s nothing like showing up to a sold out hotel to find that your reservation doesn’t exist. What’s worse? The way that Expedia handled it. Watch for details in a separate post.
Priceline
Remember our mindful mileage run? At the end of that travel madness, in Boston, we secured The Sheraton via Priceline. We had a great stay. Our $95/night bid was accepted, and we paid less than half what we would have paid via other sites.
The best part is that we were upgraded to a mini-suite. Yep… with a Priceline rate. Thus, our (mostly) love / (some) hate relationship continues with that tempting Priceline Negotiator.
Travelticker
Early in the year, when we went to SanFrancisco, we spotted a nice deal for Hotel Diva on Travelticker. We secured our room for approximately $80/night – about half of the lowest price we found anywhere else.
Travelticker has had some ups and downs over the last couple of years, but we still include the site as a starting point for hunting down deals. After all, it’s nice to find a deal and to – unlike Priceline – know what in the hell you’re booking.
Voyage Prive
OK… Are you going to say it or should I. What’s up with that name? Now that that’s off my chest…
Back to our mileage run. Only in Prague, where we stayed at two hotels, did we break Priceline’s hold on us. We booked our first hotel, Moods, via the relatively new Voyage Prive, which promises dream travel within reach. We had never used the site before and were impressed with the deal we found. We paid just over $100/night. As part of the deal, we also received a free upgrade, a bottle of champagne and a Thai massage.
This was a heck of a value for an impressive hotel. We couldn’t find any other offer that touched this. Voyage Prive is on our “must check out” list, despite the name!
As you can see, all-in-all we had positive experiences with all four companies.
If you’d like to check out the Snapshots from our other hotel stays during the first part of the year, here they are:
It’s always so tough to figure out which angle to hit when looking for the best deals. And the trouble is, I struggle to see consistency.
So every time, I end up spending a chunk of daylight seeking, hunting, and destroying everything in my path for that perfect deal.
On the plus side, a lot of the times I think I get it.
I love good travel deals! Admittedly, I am not up on hotel deals so appreciate your advice on where you got these. Gives me some guidelines as to where to search for hotels in the future. Airfares I can find, hotels not as good.
I’ve been really reluctant to book through these sites, so all input, like this post, is appreciated. The few times that I have used them, I feel like I got second-class service and accommodations than if I had booked directly — granted, at a higher rate. Can’t wait to hear about your most recent Expedia experience.
Haven’t heard of Voyage Prive before but I’m all for a place that throws in a Thai massage. Certainly is a weird name
I’ll have to check out Voyage Prive. I’ve been using Agoda.ca and Latestays.com here in Asia — they both have pretty decent deals…
Do you have to book these at the last minute? I love looking for deals on accommodations but hate not knowing what type of room I’m going to have or where I will stay the next day. If I weren’t traveling with kids, I wouldn’t be so rigid!
No, you don’t have to book any of these at the last minute. Priceline is the only option that doesn’t allow you know what kind of room you are going to have).
Great! It sounds like these sites are really worth it. Thanks again for posting this useful info!
I had a great experience with Priceline getting a nice hotel room in downtown Denver for $50 a night. I haven’t heard of these last two sites. I’ll have to check them out.
I usually just use Hotels.com for the stay 10 nights anywhere, get one free, but I just used Jetsetter for the first time (ironic as I’ve written for them since they launched–and no, correspondents don’t get discounts or anything for free, harumph!) and was super pleased with the experience. Then again, you have to just happen to be going to a place when they launch their flash sales as you can’t really pick any date, but still…
While on the lookout for travel deals, I don’t bust a gut hanging out for them tending to decide where we want to go and when, and work around that. And as you say, turning up there and finding out I’ve been had is not a risk I want to take.
We will definitely check out some of these more thoroughly. We used Priceline and were not entirely pleased when we stayed in Boston.
We also have Choice Priveliges memberships and earn points toward free hotel stays. I am not promoting credit card debt but using the Choice Priveliges credit card for almost everything and then paying it off is a great way to earn points, of course they do not always have accommodations where we want to stay but it is one strategy anyway.
Thanks for the great info!
I’ve used Epedia once or twice when I was living in the States but I don’t think I’ve tried booking anything through any of the other sites. Thanks for sharing this information, Voyage Prive looks like a pretty slick site.
I use hotels.com too- but for a free Thai massage I might start switching!
I wonder if the $85 a night Expedia deal was just too good to be true so the hotel didn’t believe it was real? haha. I have never heard of Voyage Prive but with deals like that I will certainly check them out for future hotel needs!! Thanks for sharing.
Some of these options are new to me. I’ve become pretty savvy on using Priceline’s Negotiator, and I have to admit it’s pretty fun. It’s a dopamine generator, like gambling!
Didn’t know about Travelticker – real lapse on my part. Thanks for alerting me to it
Great sites. We have planned a trip to the US for January. We are from Australia. Can we use these sites? Really would like to know for Voyage Prive… Thanks