Priceline will buy meta-search engine Kayak.com for $1.8 billion. Readers of Loyalty Traveler may know I am a frequent user of kayak.com. Both sites rank in the Top 10 travel sites in the USA.

Priceline makes most of its money from hotel bookings. Kayak makes 80% of its revenue from flight search referrals according to the Financial Times.

It should be interesting to see how the Priceline/Kayak partnership takes on the Expedia online travel network.

Priceline.com is the biggest competitor to Expedia.com who owns TripAdvisor.com, hotels.com and hotwire.com.

Then there is Google who owns itasoftware.com.

The online travel market is consolidating into technology empires.

TopTenReviews has an informative article 2013 Online Travel Sites Comparison with reviews of leading online travel sites and a highly detailed chart of their features.

Best Western has a new Low Rate Guaranteed policy for a $100 Best Western Travel Card if you find a lower rate on another online travel agency website within 48 hours of booking a hotel at BestWestern.com. The  lower rate is matched plus a $100 hotel credit for a future stay. Great Deal! Right?

Best Western says submit a claim when you find a lower rate for the Best Western hotel within 48 hours after booking on BestWestern.com. Best Western reservations made within 48 hours of hotel arrival are not eligible for claims.

The online travel agency room rate must meet these conditions:

• same hotel
• similar room type
• same dates
• same number of people on reservation
• same currency and at least US$1 difference in rates on other website.
• the rate must be bookable by the general public when Best Western customer care agent validates claim.
• opaque sites that do not reveal the name of the hotel until after booking, like Priceline and Hotwire, are not eligible for claims.

Points or miles earned are based on room rate actually paid after Best Rate Guarantee claim processed.

This Best Rate Guarantee policy is only for residents of U.S., Canada and the Caribbean when staying at Best Western hotels in the U.S., Canada or Caribbean.

Other international locations and residents of other regions are still only eligible for a 10% rate discount on the lower rate found on a third party travel agency for approved claims.

 

Loyalty Traveler analysis

A $100 BW Travel Card is a good value Low Rate Guarantee if you have a claim approved.

I still object to the fact that no hotel chains follow the terms of Starwood Hotels and Hyatt Hotels who allow guests to file a Low Rate Guarantee claim before making a reservation on any site.

What good is a Best Rate Guarantee when I see a lower rate on a competing website, and I am faced with the choice of booking the lower rate or booking the higher rate on Best Western and file a claim?

He said, “We haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine” Eagles- ‘Hotel California’

While Kayak has lost its usefulness it once had when hotels could be filtered by hotel loyalty program, the fact that all Best Western hotels are in one brand means Kayak is still useful for filtering Best Western Hotels.

Kayak.com is a useful website for finding hotels eligible for Low Rate Guarantee claims.  On the left side of the page is a box for “Hotel Name/Brand”. Type in Hilton or Starwood or Marriott or Best Western and Kayak gives the selection choice to filter hotels for only “All Hilton brands” or “All Marriott brands”. I filtered this search to “All Best Western brands”.

EasyClickTravel,com is an online travel agency that I have used before for approved low rate guarantee claims. The $92 rate on EasyClickTravel.com listed is $17 less than the BestWestern.com rate.

EasyClickTravel.com has a rate of $105.75 after tax. BestWestern.com shows $125.90 for this same room after tax.

Bottom line: Best Western may approve my claim and I get a $100 gift card and the lower rate.

If Best Western rejects the claim for some reason I can’t see at this point, then I paid $20 more than I needed to pay for the same room.

Hopefully the Best Western Rewards points I earn from the hotel stay are worth at least $20 that I overpaid for the room.

For me personally, a Best Rate Guarantee that requires me to book the hotel room on BestWestern.com first is only useful if I have a rate that can be cancelled in case my Low Rate Guarantee claim is not approved.

When I really need a hotel room though, I don’t want to play booking games poker. In this post I have shown how easy it is to find a Low Rate Guarantee claim. I found this hotel in about five minutes. But I don’t want to gamble on whether the room shown in this post is an eligible Low Rate Guarantee with Best Western.

Now if I saw this with a Starwood Hotel or Hyatt Hotel, then I would be filing my claim and see if I could get a great rate deal for San Francisco. Starwood Hotels’ Best Rate Guarantee gives 10% off the lower rate, but I almost always take 2,000 Starpoints and a match of the lower rate. Hyatt’s Best Rate Guarantee will reduce the lower rate by 20%.

This is a good effort from Best Western and some guests are going to be excited to get a $100 Best Western Travel Card.

BestWestern.com Low Rate Guarantee.

The complete pdf Best Western Best Rate Guarantee Terms & Conditions.

April 9, 2010 Article update:The Kayak.com hotel search feature I lament over in this piece has been returned. It turns out I was not the only user using the feature of hotel chain filtering when searching hotel rates on Kayak.com. Kayak.com maintains its competitive edge for this loyalty traveler.

[original post content is below]

Kayak.com recently dropped one of its best hotel search features for this loyalty traveler.

Just a month ago I was raving to Randy Petersen about Kayak.com as a great resource for quickly comparing room rates across different hotel chains. If I was looking for a Starwood Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts I could filter the search results down from 279 hotels in just two clicks to show only the Starwood Hotels. This was a tremendous time saver when comparing hotels across different loyalty programs for any city. Two more quick filter clicks and I could see all the hotels in the nine brands of Marriott Hotels like the Courtyards and Fairfield Inns. Two more filter clicks and all the Hilton HHonors participating hotels like Hampton Inns and Hilton Garden Inns would be revealed.

This feature was one of the major competitive advantages of Kayak.com that you will not find when searching hotels on Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, or Travelocity.com.

Kayak.com has dropped this hotel chain filter feature in favor of a hotel brand focused filter. Kayak.com has just sent me back to the hotel websites for hotel searches. At least if I check SPG.com or Hyatt.com I can see all the hotel brands for the hotel chain in one simple search without the need to run numerous filters to check all the different brands. Wyndham Rewards has 13 participating hotel brands.

Now you have to be a brand expert to effectively use Kayak.com for your loyalty program hotel searches.

Loyalty Traveler quiz on your hotel brand expertise.

Name the parent hotel chain for these hotel brands?  Answers are at the end of this post. 

1. Andaz
2. Ascend Collection  
3. Autograph Collection
4. Homewood Suites
5. The Luxury Collection
6. Le Meridien
7. MainStay Suites
8. Motel 6
9. Park Inn
10. Staybridge Suites
11. TownePlace Suites
12. Travelodge

The picture below shows what I am referring to in the Kayak.com hotel search filter. In December I was searching hotel rates in Denver, Colorado. I wanted to quickly check rates for Hyatt and Starwood properties as I needed Starwood Hotels to reach my Platinum elite renewal goal and Hyatt for its earn free nights and stays count double promotion. The left sidebar would clear all the hotels with one click and then allowed the user to filter hotels to only show hotel brands from specific hotel chains. This was incredibly useful for hotel loyalty program members seeking potential hotels for loyalty promotion stays.

I used to have the ability to check all the Choice Hotels in one filter search. Choice Hotels has ten different hotel brands and checking each brand is a whole lot more work. I might as well go to the Choice Privileges website for a quicker search option of Choice Hotels. That is great for ChoiceHotels.com, but not so great for Kayak.com since they are losing eyes on their website.

The hotel chain filter feature is no longer available on Kayak.com.

I noticed the Kayak.com hotel search filters changed sometime in March 2010 when I conducted searches for San Francisco yesterday and saw the left sidebar now looks like this.

Only a selection of ten hotel brands with starting price quotes is shown in the left sidebar. And why are these ten hotel brands shown on the “short list”? There are no Marriott, Hyatt, or InterContinental Hotel Group brands shown on the “short list”. Did these ten hotel brands pay Kayak.com to get their brand name listed?

If you select “Show more brands” the list expands to 72 hotel brands for a San Francisco search.

But, you will not find Starwood Hotels listed. Starwood Hotels is not a hotel brand.

Starwood Hotels is a chain of hotels consisting of 9 hotel brands. It will now take ten or more filter searches to do what used to be possible in two clicks on Kayak.com when trying to check all the Starwood Hotels room rates in a location. 

Please bring back the hotel chain filter Kayak.com!

This Loyalty Traveler loved that hotel search filter feature on Kayak.com.

Please leave a comment if you know of another hotel search website that filters by hotel chain rather than hotel brand. I don’t know any others.

Answers to Loyalty Traveler Hotel Brand Quiz:

1. Andaz (Hyatt Hotels – Hyatt Gold Passport)
2. Ascend Collection   (Choice Hotels – Choice Privileges)
3. Autograph Collection (Marriott Hotels – Marriott Rewards)
4. Homewood Suites (Hilton Hotels – Hilton HHonors)
5. The Luxury Collection (Starwood Hotels – Starwood Preferred Guest)
6. Le Meridien (Starwood Hotels – Starwood Preferred Guest)
7. MainStay Suites (Choice Hotels – Choice Privileges)
8. Motel 6 (Accor Hotels)
9. Park Inn (Carlson Hotels – goldpoints plus)
10. Staybridge Suites (Intercontinental Hotels Group – Priority Club Rewards)
11. TownePlace Suites (Marriott Hotels – Marriott Rewards)
12. Travelodge (Wyndham Hotels – Wyndham Rewards)

San Francisco’s 72 Hotel Brands in a Kayak.com Hotel Search

San Francisco seems like a good place to hang out for St. Patrick’s Day. There are quite a number of Irish pubs in the City.

Tuesday night hotel rates in San Francisco can be astronomical at any time of year.  Find yourself in town on a convention night and the upper upscale hotel room is going for $350+ per night. Hit a quiet weekend night or holiday and rates can plummet to $90 for a four star and $120 for a five star hotel and all its associated loyalty program benefits.

Starwood Hotel Rates

San Francisco,

Tuesday night March 17, 2009 (St. Patrick’s Day)

Westin St. Francis	$249
St. Regis San Francisco	$399
W San Francisco	$299
Westin Market Street	$189
Palace Hotel	$249
Le Meridien	$259
Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf	$139

 

Fisherman’s Wharf is the best rate, but a Union Square/Market Street hotel is going to be more conducive to a pub crawl.

San Francisco has a 14% hotel room tax and at $189 for Westin Market, the one night hotel rate is going to cash out at $216 for a night. I want a better priced option than that.

Kayak.com Comparison for Hotel Rates

A quick survey of Kayak.com rates showed discrepancies between Westin Market Street displayed for $129 at Hotels.com and The Palace Hotel at $119 at HotelClub.net.

I tested the Palace Hotel with HotelClub.net and the system kicked me out near the end of the booking process. When I restarted my search the room rate for the Palace Hotel increased to $249. I also tried other sites still showing a $119 rate for the Palace Hotel and all searches resulted in a rate change with the third party online travel agency to the rate shown on Starwood Hotels sites.

I tried the Westin Market Street through Hotels.com and the rate actually came up even lower at $109 for a Traditional room and the rate was bookable. Even better, an added value certificate for $50 on a future two night Hotels.com booking would accompany the $109 room rate.

I rechecked the Starwood site and the lowest priced room for the Westin Market Street was $169 and called a Grand Deluxe. The Starwood Hotels internet rate had dropped $20 on the room between 6:11pm and 6:53pm.

The Palace Hotel had also dropped in price during the hour, from $249 to $211.

I filed a Best Rate Guarantee claim for the Westin Market Street citing the $109 rate at 6:57pm, March 12, 2009.

 

Westin Market Street Hotel, San Francisco

The Day After

I checked my email this morning and there was nothing from Starwood Hotels Best Rate Guarantee.

I checked SPG.com for St. Patrick’s Day hotel rates in San Francisco. The Westin Market Street was still listed at $169 for a Grand Deluxe room at 8:00am, March 13.

I saw another opportunity for a BRG claim at the Le Meridien San Francisco for this weekend at $119 on Hotels.com compared to $139 at Starwood Hotels sites.

I checked a few times today looking for the Starwood BRG email, but nothing came.

5:40pm March 13, 2009; Starwood Hotels response came 22 hours, 43 minutes after filing my BRG claim for the San Francisco Westin Market Street. My claim was approved. The Starwood rate is $233.75 and if I book a room at that rate within 24 hours, then my rate will be adjusted to $109 and I will also receive 2,000 Starpoints (a $70 value) for a successful BRG claim.

The $233.75 rate puzzled me so I went to SPG.com and searched rates.  The Westin Market Street rate was displayed as $289. When I selected the hotel rate , the rate dropped to $159 for a Premier room. Premier is a higher category room for $30 less than last night’s initial search showing a Grand Deluxe San Francisco hotel room on the Starwood sites for $189.

The fundamental question I considered these past 24 hours was whether a hotel chain, not Starwood per se, but in general,  ‘Could a hotel skirt the best rate guarantee by just altering inventory to move cheap rooms through third party sites?’ 

A hotel chain could maintain higher category rooms at higher prices on its own sites at times for the guest who doesn’t search around to get better rates or from loyal customers who may not go elsewhere to compare rates.  Best rate guarantees that do go through could technically be voided because the room types are not the same when a lower category room is on a third party site and that room is not bookable online at the hotel chain’s own site.

The point was moot anyhow since Starwood Hotels honored my Best Rate Guarantee claim for $109, a rate $60 less than the $169 Starwood rate for the Westin Market Street, San Francisco, despite the room types being different between the Starwood Hotels and Hotels.com sites.

Hotels.com showed the rate at $229 for March 17, 2009 when I checked just after I received the email of my successful Best Rate Guarantee claim.

Analysis of Hyatt Hotels Nonrefundable 21% Off Sale, December 1-12, 2008 

Loyalty Traveler Trip Tip: Shop Other Rates Before You Drop a Prepaid Bundle on this sale

The Offer: 21% Off ‘Prevailing Rates’ using offer code LTO107.

Discount rate is eligible for Faster Free Nights promotion.

Requires nonrefundable prepayment for hotel stays booked with this offer.

Blackout Date: 12/31/08

Booking Timeframe: In USA, Canada, Caribbean – Must book by December 12

Park Hyatt hotels worldwide*, Hyatt’s top-tier hotel brand, and Hyatt hotels in Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia/Pacific and Latin America (including Mexico) require 7 days advance booking for stays through January 31, 2009.  The December 12 date is not the timeframe limit for Park Hyatt or Hyatt Hotels in most international regions. 

*Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort, Colorado is an exception and must be booked by December 12.

Hotel Stay Timeframe: Rate applies to stays through February 1, 2009.

 

Loyalty Traveler Analysis:

Hotel rates are dropping faster than home prices in many locations.  I have family traveling during the December holidays and I focused my searches for the Hyatt 21% LTO107 sale on California and Arizona hotels.

Best hotel rate findings are mixed.  The Hyatt sale is a good deal for some locations and the offer is an opportunity to book a Hyatt hotel at its lowest rate of 2008. 

I also found Hyatt locations where comparable AAA rates are available.  In several searches the prepaid, nonrefundable 21% discount rate saves only $10 to $15 per night compared to a refundable AAA rate.  Paying an extra $30 to $50 for a $600 stay can be a smart insurance policy on unforeseen circumstances that may result in a missed stay and a hefty loss if your vacation plans fall through on a prepaid hotel.

I try to avoid nonrefundable rates at every opportunity.

The problem with buying a nonrefundable rate hotel stay at the present time is hotel rates are dropping.  Hotels are seeing some serious deflation in the past two months.  It is hard to know a good deal unless you are highly informed about the rates for a particular hotel over the past several years.  I have followed San Francisco Bay area hotels for the past five years and I am seeing some hotel rates fall back to 2003 levels.  Other hotel rates are still in the bumped up range from the 2006-2007 huge room rate increases and have not fallen back to the post-9-11 lows of 2002 and 2003.

Some Hyatt Hotels are a good deal at the 21% discount rates, however, they may not necessarily be the best deals of 2008 for that property.  I think the Hyatt rates are likely to be about as low as rates go for December, but I would be reluctant to prepay a resort like Hyatt Regency Resort Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona  for a late January stay.  Resort properties may be slashing rates for January even more in the coming weeks if the reservations don’t roll in for the major hotel players with deals like this Hyatt Hotels 21% discount promotion.

Hyatt Regency Resort at Gainey Ranch, Scottsdale, Arizona

 Rate Comparisons for Hyatt Hotel Stays in December and January

Hotel, Location, Date	Limited Time 21% rate – Offer Code: LTO107 (prepaid-nonrefundable)	AAA rate (usually refundable – rules vary from 48 hours prior to arrival to day of arrival)	Hyatt.com (prepaid-nonrefundable)	Prevailing Rate (rules vary)	Special Offer Rates (hotel specific)
Hyatt Regency Orange County, Garden Grove, CA  Fri 12-26 to Sun 12-28 (2 nights)  *prices shown are total rate for two nights	$243.32 King   $338.12 King suite or 2-bedroom kids suite	$277.20 King   $385.20 King Suite or 2 bedroom Kids Suite (cancel up to 24 hours before arrival)	$298.00 King   $418 Suite	$308 King   $428 Suite	‘Suites on Sale’ Special Offer - Suite $368.00 (may cancel up to 24 hours before arrival)  Refundable rate helps if little Julie comes down with the flu.
Hyatt Regency San Francisco Fri. Dec. 26	Deluxe King $141.41   Regency Club $200.66	Deluxe King $152.15   Regency Club $215.90 Cancel up to 24 hours   AAA Hot Deal rate includes breakfast for 2 and 25% off valet parking   Deluxe King $161.10   Regency Club $236.10 Cancel up to 24 hours	Deluxe King $159.00   Regency Club $234.00	Deluxe King $179.00   Regency Club $254.00	San Fran on Sale Deluxe King $161.00   Regency Club $236.00 (includes a $25 food credit and may cancel up to 24 hours)
Grand Hyatt San Francisco Fri-Sat Jan. 16-17	$330.22 King   Regency Club $448.72 (RC is complimentary for Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond members)	$376.20 King AAA Hot Deal includes breakfast for two daily ($80 value) – May cancel up to 48 hours before arrival   Regency Club $526.20 (negates value of free breakfast)	$418.00 King Regency Club $568.00	$418.00 King No option for Regency Club shown online.	No applicable special offers
Hyatt Regency Scottsdale, AZ Gainey Ranch 4 nights-Fri-Sat Jan 16-20	$1,061.20 King (30% off prevailing rate of $1,516.)	$1,212 King Cancel up to 72 hours.	$1,436 King	$1,516 King	$1,137 3 For Free group/corporate #: 22828 (includes free one category room upgrade and credit for 4th night) Cancel up to 72 hours.
Hyatt Regency Scottsdale, AZ Gainey Ranch 2 nights -Fri-Sat Dec  12-14	$404.60 King	$462.40 King Cancel 72 hours prior to arrival	$538.00 King	$578 King Cancel 72 hours prior to arrival (AAA has $116 value for this stay)
Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego 2 nights Dec 26-28	Not Offered	$238.50	$288.00	$338.00	Hotel Site Special Offer – Winter Getaway $198 Cancel 24 hours prior to arrival
Hyatt Regency Mission Bay, San Diego 2 nights Dec 26-28	$248.00  (40% discount)	$334.56	$388	$408	$298 Holiday Rate special offer.  Cancel by 24 hours.

 

 

 

Hyatt Regency Orange County, Garden Grove, California (near Disneyland).

Fri-Sat night weekend stay for December 26-28, 2008.

A hotel special offer for a full suite or a 2-bedroom kids suite is available through the “Suites on Sale” special hotel offer at only $15 more per night than the 21% nonrefundable rate.  The Suites on Sale rate may be cancelled up to the day before arrival.  That is relatively cheap insurance to protect your vacation money.

 

The lowest priced one bedroom King room is available as a refundable AAA rate for just $17 more per night than the nonrefundable LTO107 room rate for the 21% discount.  To reiterate, $34 extra for a room rate that may be cancelled up to day before arrival is a good insurance rate to protect your cash from a cancellation of travel plans or a rate drop between now and the hotel stay dates.

 

Hyatt Regency San Francisco at the Embarcadero

Friday, December 26, 2008

Some of the major cities in the USA and Europe have their lowest rates of the year during the December holiday week when business travel is near non-existent.

 

The LTO107 discount rate offer of $141 for the night is only slightly lower than the basic AAA rate of $152 that may be cancelled with no charge up to day before arrival.  An extra $20 for the AAA Hot Deal rate of $161 includes breakfast for 2 guests and 25% off valet parking.  The breakfast deal alone is worth at least $40 at the rates charged in the Hyatt Eclipse lobby restaurant.  AAA is a better deal.

 

A “San Francisco On Sale” special offer rate of $161 includes a $25 food & beverage credit which could be a better deal for someone with Diamond elite status who will receive complimentary Regency Club access for complimentary breakfast.  This special offer rate may be cancelled up to day before arrival.

 

San Francisco Bay view from Hyatt Regency at the Embarcadero

Grand Hyatt San Francisco

Friday-Saturday, January 16-18, 2009

 

The 21% discount LTO107 rate of $330.22 ($165/night) is the lowest available rate for this hotel.  There are no applicable special offer rates for these dates at this time.

 

AAA Hot Deal rate is an extra $23 per night and includes breakfast for two each day.  The AAA rate may be cancelled up to two days before arrival making this a comparable rate to the LTO107 with the value-added breakfast component.

 

The Holiday Sale rate for the Hyatt Mission Bay, San Diego did not appear when searching AAA rates for the two night December 26-27 weekend stay.  By checking both the LTO107 rate and the AAA rate I saw the special Holiday Sale rate with the same cancellation terms as the AAA rate for a savings of $36.  Paying an extra $50 (20%) to avoid the nonrefundable LTO107 rate is a choice that needs to be weighed against the probability of a change in plans for the hotel stay.

 

San Francisco Bay view from Grand Hyatt

Hyatt Regency Resort Gainey Ranch, Scottsdale, Arizona

January 16-20, 2009

 

The LTO107 four night rate for this hotel is $1,061.20.  This nonrefundable, prepaid rate is a $37.50 per night savings on the $1,212 AAA rate which has no value-added component except for a cancellation policy up to 72 hours before arrival.

 

There is a free night and free one category upgrade hotel special offer at $1,137 for the four night stay.  This rate allows cancellation up to 72 hours before arrival and brings the refundable room rate to just $16 per night more.  The special offer rate at $60 more to protect an $1,100 hotel investment for your vacation may be a wise choice.

 

At the pace hotel rates are dropping there might even be lower rates that become available for this stay 7 weeks away.

 

And the best deal of all for the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort at Gainey Ranch may be booking the room through an online third party site.  This hotel stay listed for $969 for the 4-night stay, January 16-20, 2009 through GTAHotels.com link found through Kayak.com. This is $90 less than the Hyatt.com LTO107 rate.  Regency Club is $1,155 total for these dates.

 

This stay may qualify for Hyatt’s Best Rate Guarantee which would reduce the $969 rate by an additional 20% and bring the nightly rate down to $776 or $194 per night compared to the $265 per night rate using the LTO107 rate.  Loyalty Traveler has made several successful Best Rate Guarantee claims with Hyatt Hotels and Starwood Hotels based on GTAHotels.com rates.

 

 

Hyatt Regency Resort at Gainey Ranch, Scottsdale, Arizona

Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego, California 

December 26-28, 2008, two-night stay

 

The 21% Discount LTO107 rate is not offered at this Hyatt property.  There is a AAA rate of $238.50 which is $50 less than the nonrefundable Hyatt.com rate.  Even better is a hotel special offer rate “Winter Getaway” for $198 for the two night stay.   

Kayak.com showed a rate of $95.09 per night on Hotels.com for this stay.  This could be another Best Rate Guarantee claim that, if successful, would reduce the nightly rate to just $76 per night.  Now that is a hotel bargain you can’t beat for one of San Diego’s top hotels.

Hyatt Regency Mission Bay, San Diego, California 

December 26-28, 2008, two-night stay

 

The 21% Discount LTO107 rate of $248.00 for the two-night stay is actually a 40% discount on the prevailing rate of $204 per night.  The AAA rate is $47 more per night and does not include any value-added component except for the more liberal cancellation policy.

Hyatt Mission Bay has a hotel “Holiday Rate” special offer of $149 per night.  The additional $25 per night for a cancellation policy up to day before arrival may be a better choice for some.

 

 

Kayak.com is not your best friend for hotel rates.

I haven’t gone through my OTA rant in a few months now.  OTA is Online Travel Agency. 

Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz are the dominant players in travel searches for hotels.  The value of an OTA is the ability to get a quick snapshot of prices in a city and then quickly book your hotel stay.  Recently all the OTAs have had sales claiming 20%, 40%, even 50% off room rates. 

Kayak.com is on a lot of travelers “Favorite” list for hotel rate searches.  I use Kayak to get an idea of the prevailing hotel rates for an area when I start planning travel.  Kayak.com is a meta-search engine and not an OTA. 

Kayak.com does not actually sell hotel rooms.  A meta-search engine quickly goes through the hotel rates or airfares for a variety of OTAs and pulls up the prices.  Kayak.com takes you to an OTA like Expedia or Orbitz for booking your hotel room or flight once you make a specific selection among the hotel or airline search returns.

Kayak.com is very useful for finding low airfares, but much less useful for hotel rates.

The problem with Kayak.com and OTAs in general is the inability to locate special offer rates or group rates commonly available like AAA and senior group discounts.

Renaissance Eden Roc, Miami Beach – A Tale of Two Travelers

Ellen is a busy executive, but a do it yourself travel planner.  She gets a thrill from looking at websites and picturing herself in the perfect bathing suit, on the perfect beach, in perfect weather, at a great hotel, at the best price.

Ellen goes to Kayak.com and finds the Renaissance Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach listed at $330. 

Kayak.com shows Eden Roc Renaissance, Miami Beach for $330

 

 

A pop-up window search for Travelocity.com shows $369 for this Miami Beach, Florida hotel. 

Travelocity hotel rate for Eden Roc, Miami Beach $369

Based on Renaissance Eden Roc’s TripAdvisor ranking of #23 of 207 Miami area hotels and its 4-star rating, Ellen believes the $369 rate pulled up on Travelocity is a fair market rate for this hotel and compared to other hotel rates on Miami Beach like the Fontainebleau.

TripAdvisor Rating for Eden Roc, Miami Beach, #23 of 206 Hotels

Kayak.com search shows $330 per night through gtahotels.com website.  This may be a good way to save $78 and tax for the two night stay. 

GTAHotels rate is $330 for Eden Roc, Miami Beach (Kayak search lead)

Ellen is a savvy traveler and she knows Marriott.com should have the same $330 rate. She will earn Marriott Rewards points by booking through the Marriott website. 

She heads over to Marriott.com and rechecks the rate for Eden Roc, Miami Beach, January 11-13 for two nights.  The rate shows as $369 on Marriott.com for a 14-day advance reservation rate that allows a no penalty cancellation up to 3 days before arrival.  A reservation canceled within three days forfeits one night’s room charges of $416.97.  She doesn’t see a $330 rate on Marriott.com.  Perhaps this is a potential “Best Rate Guarantee” claim with Marriott.

Marriott.com rate for Renaissance Eden Roc, Miami Beach is $369

Always Check Hotel Rate Rules for the fine print on cancellation. 

From the Marriott Website for this $369 rate:

Rate Rules

Holding Your Reservation

·         We will need a credit card number to reserve your room.

Canceling Your Reservation

·         You may cancel your reservation for no charge until January 8, 2009 (3 day[s] before arrival).

·         Please note that we will assess a fee of 416.97 USD if you must cancel after this deadline.

If you have made a prepayment, we will retain all or part of your prepayment. If not, we will charge your credit card.

This fee equals 1 night of your room charge plus tax (for the first night of your reservation).

Modifying Your Reservation

·         Please note that a change in the length or dates of your reservation may result in a rate change.

·         Your current rate may be available if your modified reservation still includes:

·         A reservation made 14 day(s) before your expected arrival.

 

Ellen knows AAA usually brings the rate down even more and repeats the rate search on Marriott.com with the AAA box checked.

Marriott.com AAA rate for Renaissance Eden Roc Hotel, Miami is $386

Oddly enough, the AAA rate is actually more than the 14-day advance reservation rate.  Reading the rate rules, Ellen sees there is no advantage or benefit to the more expensive AAA rate.  The AAA rate also allows a cancellation up to 3 days before arrival date.

Ellen books the two night stay at the Eden Roc Renaissance Resort for $833.94 through the Marriott website because the points and stay credit make the higher price a better value for her hotel lifestyle than the $39 + tax per night she would have saved through her Kayak.com search using gtahotels.com for her booking.  Ellen will earn at least 7,380 Marriott Rewards points for her two night stay at $369/night.

Marriott.com Total rate for Renaissance Eden Roc Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida

January 11-13, 2009  $833.94

Hotel Special Offers are Where the Best Deals are Found

Loyalty Traveler booked the Eden Roc Renaissance Resort for the same room type, on the same dates, on the same Marriott.com website and paid $291.54 for his two night stay.  And Loyalty Traveler will earn a $100 hotel credit for his next stay at the Eden Roc Resort.

Marriott.com $129 Special Offer Rate for Renaissance Eden Roc Hotel, Miami Beach, FL 

Why is there a $542.40 difference in the Marriott.com room rates?

The Loyalty Traveler took the time to look through 12 pages of Marriott Rewards special offers found here.   An offer on page 9 for the Eden Roc Renaissance Hotel showed a $129 special rate valid through January 31, 2009 for Marriott Rewards members:

Marriott Rewards Members’ Sneak Peek of the Bold New Eden Roc

Resort and Spa!!

Includes a great introductory rate, welcome amenity, and a $100

Resort Credit to be used on a return stay in 2009.

Resort Credit cannot be used on current stay*

Resort Credit cannot be applied to room and tax*

Based on Availability*

Restrictions may apply*

Valid 10/24/08-1/31/09*

Marriott.com Special Offer Rate of $129 for Renaissance Eden Roc Hotel, Miami Beach

Special Offer Rate of $129 even includes a $100 credit towards a future Eden Roc stay.

And remember to check the fare rules:

Canceling Your Reservation

·         You may cancel your reservation for no charge until January 8, 2009 (3 day[s] before arrival).

·         Please note that we will assess a fee of 145.77 USD if you must cancel after this deadline.

If you have made a prepayment, we will retain all or part of your prepayment. If not, we will charge your credit card.

This fee equals 1 night of your room charge plus tax (for the first night of your reservation).

 

The fare rules for the special offer rate of $129 are the same cancellation rules as the higher $369 rate.

Hotel Corporations are in the business of making money.

Great deals are available on the hotel’s websites, however, a standard search on the corporate-branded websites does not automatically return the lowest available rates for your stay.  You must specifically search special rates like AAA, Senior, and Promotional rates. 

The code is M11 for the $129 special offer for the Renaissance Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach.  Marriott.com automatically uses the M11 code if you click through the rate search using the special offers page link.

Keep in mind when planning your hotel travel that Kayak.com and OTAs are useful tools, but the best discounts for your hotel stay are often hotel special rates and offers unlikely to be found by these sites.  Even using the hotel-branded websites like Marriott.com will often keep these low rates hidden when searching hotel rates.

There are great hotel deals all the time.  Knowing where and how to find them is the challenge.

 

If You’re Going to San Francisco,

Be Sure to Where Some Flowers in Your Hair,

And also check for the $134 special offer rate for the Renaissance Stanford Court on Nob Hill:

 

http://www.marriott.com/specials/mesOffer.mi?marrOfferId=358706&displayLink=true

 

Online Hotel Reviews

Travelers place a lot of faith in consumer-generated hotel reviews. I trust FlyerTalk.com content because there is a large community of travelers who provide opinions and feedback on each other’s comments. Most major upscale hotels around the world have user comments and reviews from the 100,000+ members of the FlyerTalk.com community.

I believe the self-monitoring independent community of FlyerTalk.com provides more accurate hotel reviews than what is typically found on TripAdvisor.com, particularly when it comes to the experience for elite frequent guests in the major hotel loyalty programs.

Social Media Co-Opted by Corporate Media

The best social media websites with consumer generated comments and hotel reviews have been co-opted by corporate media. Social media websites where users generate the content for free has been a successful marketing partnership for major travel industry players. What in many cases started out as independent, organically developed networks of people creating content for free to help other travelers has developed into the current condition of the major global travel reservations corporations like Expedia.com and Travelocity.com owning social network sites like TripAdvisor.com and IgoUgo.com as corporate subsidiaries.

Meta-search engines like Kayak.com who own TravelPost.com, and bulletin boards like FlyerTalk.com and Cruisecritic.com are not sellers of travel, but make money on an advertising model based on travelers frequently interacting as a community creating new content.

Major Online Hotel Reviews and Their Parent Corporations

IgoUgo.com hotel reviews and hotel rate meta-search engine = Travelocity.com (Parent Company)

TripAdvisor.com for hotel reviews and hotel rate meta-search = Expedia.com (Parent company)

Hotels.com has a large database for hotel reviews. Hotels.com is also an Expedia company. Hotel guests must have booked stay with Hotels.com to post a review and most of the reviews do not have any written comments. A point scale survey on Hotel Service, Hotel Condition, Room Comfort, and Room Cleanliness are used to give the hotel a rating on a 5 point scale. This website offers a quick snapshot of customer satisfaction for hotel.

TravelPost.com for hotel reviews and Kayak is a meta-search = Kayak.com (Parent Company)

Orbitz.com generates its own database of user-generated hotel reviews based on hotel guests booking through Orbitz.com and responding via e-mail to a post-stay request for a hotel review.

Yahoo! Travel uses a couple of different hotel review databases. When conducting hotel searches through the Yahoo Travel homepage the results use Travelocity and the hotel reviews are the same as Travelocity. When using Yahoo Travel Guides or FareChase for hotel searches the hotel reviews are a different set.

“I Want to Believe” TripAdvisor

A recent article TripAdvisor Staying Ahead of the Pack from Compete.com, the web traffic analysis site, and a blog post by the same writer Ryan Carrigg “TripAdvisor Poised for Success”, shows the dominance of TripAdvisor.com for user-generated content in the online travel research sector. The article states “TripAdvisor.com averaged over 6 million US unique visitors” per month for the year from May 2007 to May 2008. The traffic on TripAdvisor.com has seen 34% growth from May 2007. A finding in this report states that 1.08% of users of TripAdvisor.com had posted content over the past year.  TripAdvisor has hotel reviews, restaurant comments, and general travel forums for destinations.

This TripAdvisor data had me wondering about the hotel review content on other popular websites. I have made a simple analysis of online hotel reviews from several common websites by counting the actual number of hotel reviews for a small sample of hotels in San Francisco.

TripAdvisor Hotel Reviews – What Percentage of Guests Write TripAdvisor Reviews?

(There are a number of unknown variables which makes this analysis a very rough estimate at best.) 

Le Meridien San Francisco TripAdvisor popularity index #14/238 hotels;

197 total hotel reviews; 38 reviews from 2008; 79 reviews in past 12 months;
oldest review from April 26, 2002 when hotel was a Park Hyatt.

360 rooms at Le Meridien San Francisco
Assume a rather low 50% average nightly occupancy or 180 rooms booked per night.
180 rooms x 365 nights = 65,700 room-nights.

65,700 room-nights / 79 hotel reviews = 832 room-nights per hotel review.
1 hotel review for every 832 room-nights could be as few as 1 hotel review per 832 hotel guests (if each guest only stayed 1 night) at Le Meridien Hotel San Francisco.  Assume, on average each guest stays 2 nights and the ratio would increase to 1 hotel review per 416 guests. 

If hotel occupancy averaged 65% for the year, then the proportion of guests writing a review decreases. If more than one guest is in the room, then the proportion of hotel guests writing a review decreases.  There are lots of variables.

It seems to me that the actual range of guest hotel reviews on TripAdvisor.com is probably about 1 out of every 1,000 to 2,000 guests posts a hotel review for most major hotels.

360 rooms x .65 occupancy = 234 rooms/night are occupied.
234 rooms/night x 365 nights = 85,410 room-nights (some rooms will have more than one guest and some guests will stay more than one night)
85,410 room-nights/ 79 hotel reviews = 1,081 guest occupied rooms for every hotel review posted on TripAdvisor.com

1 hotel review is posted for every 1,081 guests at Le Meridien Hotel San Francisco if the hotel averaged 65% occupancy over past year.

Hyatt Regency San Francisco is a larger hotel with 805 rooms. Assume 50% occupancy for past year.

TripAdvisor has 37 reviews in 2008 and 66 reviews from past year.

Several floors of this hotel were remodeled in past six months and a newly remodeled Regency Club lounge opened in March.

805 rooms x .50 occupancy = 403 rooms/night occupied.
403 rooms/night x 365 nights = 147,095 room nights (guests) in past year.
147,095 / 66 hotel reviews = 2,229 guests at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco for every 1 review posted on TripAdvisor.com.

Hotel reviews are one strategy for choosing a hotel. I typically look at TripAdvisor to get opinions when I have a couple of hotels to choose from in the same price range. Unfortunately, my elementary analysis of the data indicates that even with the high number of hotel reviews on
TripAdvisor.com there is still only about 1 guest review for every 1,000 guests in the good cases and may be as few as 1 review for every 2,000 guests for other hotels.

When I read a review I wonder what the other 1,999 guests thought of their hotel stay experience for that same property? This is why a site like FlyerTalk.com with the ability to respond to other people’s hotel comments or ask questions provides more consumer-user-friendly content than many of the reviews on the major sites like TripAdvisor.com. Hotel corporate representatives even respond at times on FlyerTalk.com threads about hotels.

Online Hotel Reviews By the Numbers

The data below shows TripAdvisor rules the online hotel review sites for the depth of consumer-generated hotel reviews.

Methodology:
Hotel Reviews for 8 hotels in San Francisco were searched on 6 leading websites including Expedia.com, Kayak.com, Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com, Hotels.com, and Yahoo!Travel .com

1. The total number of hotel reviews for a hotel is given on each of the hotel review sites.

2. I counted the number of reviews posted in 2008 since recent reviews are generally most valid for a reader. For example, Travelpost.com listed the Crowne Plaza Union Square San Francisco as one of their top 5 hotels. The Crowne Plaza changed to Hotel 480 six months ago and is no longer part of the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) hotel brands.

3. The number of reviews posted since July 1, 2007 was counted. This also shows the number of reviews older than one year. A popular site for submitting hotel reviews several years ago may have a high number of total hotel reviews, but a low number of recent reviews for hotel stays in the past year. This observation can be seen with Yahoo Travel Guides.

Consumer Written Hotel Reviews on Popular Websites
for a Selection of San Francisco Hotels

Le Meridien San Francisco, 360 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 38
Past year = 79
Total = 197

IgoUgo(Travelocity)
2008 = 2
Past year = 5
Total = 9

TravelPost(Kayak.com)
2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 18

Orbitz.com
2008 = 6
Past year = 8
Total = 11

Yahoo Travel Guides
2008 = 1
Past year = 4
Total = 12

Hotels.com
2008=122
Past Year = 191
Total = 223

Palace Hotel – The Luxury Collection (Starwood Hotels), 552 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)

 

 

 

2008 = 47
Past year = 83
Total = 211

Hotels .com (Expedia)

2008 = 85; 127 reviews in past year; 161 total reviews;

94% recommend; 4.5 average rating

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 4
Past year = 9
Total = 17

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 0
Total = 13

Orbitz.com

2008 = 4
Past year = 4
Total = 4

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 3
Total = 33

 

Westin St. Francis; 1,195 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 67
Past year = 128
Total = 463

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 13
Past year = 23
Total = 43

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 95

Orbitz.com

2008 = 18
Past year = 31
Total = 61

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 4
Total = 163

Hotels.com = 14 reviews in 2008; 28 reviews in past 12 months; 68 total reviews
Hilton San Francisco; 1,896 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 48
Past year = 110
Total = 232

Hotels.com (Expedia)

85 reviews in 2008; 200 reviews in past 12 months; 373 total reviews; 86% recommend; 4.2 average rating

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 11
Past year = 41
Total = 75

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 1
Past year = 1
Total = 82

Orbitz.com

2008 = 7
Past year = 18
Total = 39

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 4
Total = 93

 

 

Hyatt Regency San Francisco; 805 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 37
Past year = 66
Total = 203

Hotels.com (Expedia)

39 reviews in 2008; 63 reviews in past 12 months; 91 total reviews;

93% recommend hotel; 4.3 average rating out of 5

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 2
Past year = 6
Total = 11

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 93

Orbitz.com

2008 = 0
Past year = 8
Total = 20

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 4
Past year = 7
Total = 63

 

Grand Hyatt San Francisco, 685 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 44
Past year = 82
Total = 238

Hotels.com (Expedia)

26 reviews 2008; 54 reviews in past 12 months; 120 total reviews; 84% recommend, 4.2 average rating

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 3
Past year = 18
Total = 45

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 2
Past year = 2
Total = 17

Orbitz.com

2008 = 4
Past year = 21
Total = 44

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 3
Total = 15
J.W. Marriott San Francisco, 337 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 19
Past year = 44
Total = 214
IgoUgo(Travelocity)
2008 = 3
Past year = 10
Total = 16

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 1
Past year = 2
Total = 24

Orbitz.com

2008 = 2
Past year = 2
Total = 2

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 44

Hotels.com

5 reviews in 2008; 12 reviews in past year; 78 total reviews; 88% recommend; 4.2 average rating

Marriott San Francisco; 1,498 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 34
Past year = 75
Total = 206

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 2
Past year = 13
Total = 30

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 0
Total = 10

Orbitz.com

2008 = 5
Past year = 6
Total = 17

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 0
Past year = 2
Total = 36

Hotels.com (Expedia)

50 reviews in 2008; 97 reviews in past year; 138 total reviews; 90% recommend; 4.4 average rating
 

The advantage of Hotels.com is the large number of recent reviews and the display provides a quick snapshot of guest satisfaction.

Expedia is definitely the leader in the hotel review market as owner of the two largest databases in Tripadvisor.com and Hotels.com.

[Loyalty Traveler note: The text of this post was edited September 19, 2008 when I reviewed the piece for a new article about TripAdvisor.com and I realized I had incorrectly interpreted the data from Ryan Carrigg's post with respect to the number of hotel reviews posted to TripAdvisor.  I originally wrote that I estimated TripAdvisor had about 90,000 new hotel reviews in May 2008.  The 90,000 figure actually reflects any user-generated content posted to TripAdvisor.com for May 2008 and only a fraction of this content are hotel comments.  There were also errors in the assumptions used to estimate the proportion of hotel guests who post TripAdvisor reviews. 

The main idea to take away from this post is the dominance of TripAdvisor.com, hotels.com, and their parent company, Expedia.com, in the online hotel reviews market segment.]