Hotel Reservations

If you are making a hotel reservation online this summer you may want to stop at HotelReservations.com and run a price check first. I typically start with the usual suspects (Priceline, Kayak, Travelocity and Expedia), but that might change. I saw an add for Hotel Reservations and had some time to kill today so played around with the site. The site surprised me. Most places claim that they can undercut other vendor's prices, but in practice they are all the same. I did not find this when I used Hotel Reservations. I'll explain more below.

On Hotel Reservations you can choose from hotels, motels, resorts, and vacations rentals among other things. I ran a quick Kayak search and compared the results to HotelReservations.com and the prices were surprisingly worse on Kayak. For purposes of my not so scientific survey, I conducted a search for Milwaukee, WI hotels. Based on the results of my search, it looks like the mid-tier hotels are about $20 cheaper on HotelReservations.com than the travel spider sites. In my particular search I compared two hotels the Ambassador in Milwaukee as well as the Hyatt. The Ambassador was $120 on Hotel Reservations vs $159 on Orbitz. The Hyatt was $150 vs $178 on Expedia.

As an added bonus, right now the company has a deal running where you can get a $30 rebate if you book a two night stay through the site. If you add in the extra $30 savings, the deals begin to look even more attractive. The site also has flights and cars available, but I was not able to compare the pricing on these for this post.

So head over, you might save some cash the next time you make Hotel Reservations and of course it is free. I think I am working the site into my usual rotation of travel searching.

Calculate The Fuel Cost of Your Trip

If you are planning a trip to relocate for a job like me, you might be wondering how much your trip will cost based on gas prices. AAA has a nice tool that will help you calculate fuel costs based on the various states you will drive through and their current average fuel prices. The only potential problem is the calculator limits you to major cities, but it does have a wide selections of car makes and models to choose from.

Link
Fuel Cost Calculator @ AAA

Cross Country on Grease

Everyone knows that ethanol is the new big thing making farmers in Iowa and other farming heavy states see dollar signs... but what if you could power your car on something other people gladly get rid of?

The Adler family took a cross country trip in their diesel RV and didn't fill up at a single gas station. Not the most unheard of feat, but when you learn the family filled up their RV at waste frying oil things get a little more unbelievable. Net cost for the journey - nothing, nada, zilch. The site says he was only refused oil one time when he asked on his cross country trip. They filled up at McDonalds, Chinese buffets and other greasy American staples.

Let me just say that it makes me feel a little uneasy about my day to day nurishment if a byproduct from it can power a RV.

Link

Cross Country on Grease

5 Ways to Find Cheap Gas

Do you like getting screwed on the regular by OPEC & Co.? Yeah, I don't either and I'm not that guy who drives a Hummer and then complains about how awful gas prices are. Well I'm here to help. Here are five ways you can find the cheapest gas around without putting in much time or effort.

1) Install Widgets:

like "GasWatch" for PC

and "Gas" for the Mac

2) Visit websites that will let you search by zip for gas prices and view locations on a google maps type interface.

like GasPriceWatch.com

3) Text messaging: If you are handy with a cell phone you can text the guys over at 411sync with your 5 digit zip code and you will get a listing back of prices in your area.

4) Mobile web: Another one for those of you with a capable cell phone. If your cell phone, blackberry, or PDA surfs then head over to www.gasbuddytogo.com

5) GPS system: StreetPilot and a few of the other new in-car GPS units will offer this information to you directly. If you can afford a GPS system you probably don't care if you save 3 cents on a gallon of petro, but if you do the option is there.

Full Story Here

Saving Cash on Travel Series: Kayak.com (Article 4/4)

While it is overshadowed by expedia, orbitz and some of the other better known travel sites, my favorite travel website out there is Kayak.com. Why not just use the big boys? First off orbitz is owned by American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, and United. Important to know because your search won't bring back fares from any of the other airlines which may give you a better deal than those five carriers. Expedia actually has a pretty good reputation as far as online travel services go, but I like Kayak because it seems to give me more options.

The search is fast and aggregates results from many of the major and not so major carriers. I'm not sure why but in my very unscientific tests I seem to get more results that are on average a little cheaper than its competitors. I don't know if 1) the site shows results from the airline itself where there aren't additional fees, 2) the searches I have run just happened to come out cheaper, or 3) it picks up more matches than other providers but it has worked for me in the past so give it a try - it's free.

Saving Cash on Travel Series: FareCast.com (Article 3/4)

Ever buy an airline ticket only to watch the price slide after you have already been locked in? Or more than likely waited too long only to have OPEC give you a present in the form of an inflated ticket price?

This website is in Beta still but may be helpful for those of you out there on the fence about whether to buy a ticket now or later. FareCast lets you type in where you are going and when, then will predict based on a bunch of factors (some historical some current). The site will guess how much the fare will go up or down in the next seven days and give you a confidence rating. It is quick and easy to use and probably worth if you are in the market for a ticket.

Saving Cash on Travel Series: Hotwire.com (Article 2/4)

A similar - but different service that can save you money on travel is Hotwire.com. Hotwire provides consumers with the ability to purchase hotels, airfare, packages and cruises at a discounted fixed price. Hotwire like Priceline lets you purchase excess inventory at many major chain hotels (except you won't know what you are getting till the deal is over). The catch also like Priceline is that you won't know exactly what carrier, chain or service you are purchasing and your purchase will be non-refundable. The difference is that you don't bid with Hotwire, the prices are fixed. The site will give you a quote usually good for an hour but will not reveal details about the itinerary until you confirm your purchase.

If you want to take the guesswork out you can again use Better Bidding for Travel to see what hotels other people have purchased by the state.

Things to keep in mind before using Hotwire:

• I have heard mixed stories of success with the service and heard reports of people buying a room on Hotwire only to find that they could have purchased a room directly from the source for less money, but have also heard people raving about a deal they got there.
  
  
• Hotwire lets you see amenities on hotels before you confirm, the quality, and general area. This makes it easier to pin down what hotel you are looking at.

Saving Cash on Travel Series: Priceline.com (Article 1/4)

I cringe at endorsing a company or product with William Shattner as a spokesperson, but here goes. Aside from being known for it's terrible advertising Priceline is known as a website that allows users to "name their price" on hotels, airfare, cruises and rental cars. The site has an inventory of excess supply that companies are willing to dump as a steep discount. That is one of the reasons that people with some luck and persistence can get a steal by using the site. The company does not disclose what hotel, flight or rental car company you are bidding on, but you can pick by star level on hotels or flight times for airfare. If your bid is too low it will be denied in which case you either have to 1) raise your offer 2) add another "zone" or area to your search or 3) decrease the level of stars of quality of hotel you are willing to settle on. There are two catches though the first is that you have a limited number of re-bids before you have to wait 72 hours before bidding again and if the company accepts your bid you are on the hook for the cost and generally can't cancel.

I recently booked a weekend stay in a large midwestern metropolitan area with Priceline.com and saved a considerable amount of money (I paid $50 per night for a $120 per night room, a savings of $70 per night sounds good to me for a four star hotel chain). Nothing earth shattering here, but if you play you cards right you can game the system much easier than blindly naming your price.

Enter Better Bidding For Travel and other sites that aggregate user submitted winning bids. Users often submit what zone or area they bid on, what price bids won and failed, and their resulting hotel brand. This is incredibly valuable for people like you and me. It gives us an idea of what hotel locations have been won recently in a given area and what price we should start at bidding without low-balling too much. Had I checked Better Bidding first I would have known that I overpaid $5 from another user's bid a week before my trip. Not that I'm splitting hairs over $5 but you can understand that this could add up in a high rent area like Manhattan where the nightly room goes for considerably more.

Things to Consider Before Bidding:

• A standard Priceline room is double occupancy and does not specify smoking or non-smoking. You can contact the hotel directly after winning and specify your preference for a king bed or non-smoking, but from my experience it will never be guaranteed only noted.
  
  
• The steepest discounts are on 4 and 5 star properties simply because they have the most margin to work with in the first place.
  
  
• Be not afraid of the process, it is not as complicated as it may sound. Forums like Better Bidding have members who are particularly friendly and helpful for those who may be new to the game.