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Under the Lodging Category, you'll find links to Hotel Review sites as well as to sites for Booking Hotels. There are pointers on booking at Hotel Discount Sites and links to signing up for Deal Alerts from Hotels. You'll also find links to directories for Other Types of Lodging, such as Bed and Breakfasts and Vacation Rentals as well as a list of Hotels Chains.

You can also browse and book hotels on our site. We have designed our website to make it easy for you to read hotel descriptions and look through photos and virtual tours. Our rates are comparable to all major booking sites. On our site, there is no need to enter travel dates so it's a good place to gather ideas before you make your final decision. To access hotel profiles, you can choose a city from the sidebar or enter keywords in the search box.

Top 50 most requested Hotel Hot Spots

To evaluate how the various travel booking sites compare in terms of rates, we conducted searches on these sites for Westin St. Francis in San Francisco on a weekend more than 3 weeks away from the search date. All the sites had the exact same rate for a standard room: $349. But the total was a bit different due to service charges. Expedia and Hotels.com had the same rate of $821. The rate on Travelocity was $815, and the rate on CheapTickets and Orbitz was $814. Priceline (not through bidding) was the lowest at $800. The rate was the same on Westin's own site, except that because there's no service charge, the total was the lowest at $796. The total was the same on SideStep and Kayak since they are linked to Westin's website.

Another test search was done for Hotel Sofitel in New York. Again, all the sites had the same rate of $289. With service charges, Expedia and Hotels.com had the same total of $683. Travelocity was again a bit cheaper at $677. Orbitz and Cheaptickets found the hotel, but the total is paid to the hotel directly, and not Orbitz or Cheaptickets. Hotels.com charged a $5 service fee whereas Orbitz did not. Hotel Sofitel's website listed the same rate, but the total was $669, which was a bit lower. Sidestep produced similar results, except that the offer is through Hotels.com rather than through Sofitel. Kayak linked to Sofitel directly but erroneously listed the rate as $335 on the search results page, although the error was corrected once on Sofitel's site.

On Expedia, you can sort the results by price, hotel class, traveler opinion and others. You can also enter a hotel name on the results page to search for a particular hotel. Expedia has reviews from travelers who have stayed at the hotel, although only 25 of the most recent are shown. On the hotel profile page, there are photos of the property, and in some cases, there are virtual tours and floor plans with square footage available. The floor plans are useful in getting a sense of the size and layout of the room, which is hard to see from photos. The virtual tours indicate the source of the tour, so you know whether you are looking at a standard room or a deluxe room.

On Orbitz, the hotel results page has a map that shows you neighborhoods and where the hotels are located. In New York, you can see Upper East Side, Lower Manhattan, Times Square, ... etc. You can then click on the map to choose where you would like to stay. There's also a price grid that allows you to see at a glance what the lowest price is for each star level in each of the neighborhoods. There are photos and virtual tours (for some properties) on the hotel profile pages. You can also read user reviews.

Sidestep is a search engine that searches hotel websites as well as some travel booking sites. They appear to search Hotels.com, CheapTickets, and Orbitz but not Travelocity or Expedia. After you select your hotel, you are then directed to another site to book. If you are directed to a hotel's site to book, then you generally don't have to pay a service charge. However, since it's a search engine that searches multiple sites, the search does take longer. These travel search engines will sometimes provide you with a lower rate, but the downside is that you are booking through different a site each time so you have to learn different systems and enter your profile information, such as reward program numbers, each time.

Travelocity's interface is relatively easy to use. If you are searching for a specific hotel, you can enter the name of the hotel directly on the results page. You can also compare up to 4 hotels side by side so that you can comapre amementies, user rankings, price, ... etc. Travelocity also has user reviews, but anyone can write reviews, so the reviews don't necessarily come from travelers who have booked through Travelocity. In addition to the photos, there may be videos or virtual tours for some properties.

CheapTickets has photos, user reviews, and videos. The videos and virtual tours are similar to those on Travelocity.

Hotels.com has photos, user reviews, and virtual tours. The virtual tours are similar to the ones on Expedia

Kayak is a travel search engine that's similar to Sidestep.

Priceline has a nice interface with photos as well as user reviews.

Many hotels send out email alerts of their current special offers. Some are listed here.

Emails with news and offers.

Email offers.

Email offers of special deals.

Email offers of special deals.

Large hotel chains often provide comprehensive information on their properties, which can include a list of amenities, photos, and virtual tours. Sometimes, the rates on the hotels' sites are as competitive as rates on one of the travel booking sites such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity. A list of Hotel Chains is included at the bottom of this page.

Hotel Discount Sites, such as Priceline, can offer substantial discounts, especially for weekend stays in a business hotel. Depending on the city and neighborhood, it's possible to get a 4-star level hotel for under $100. BiddingForTravel is a message board with successful bids from other travelers that might help you in your bidding process.

BiddingForTravel is a message board about Hotwire and Priceline where users post their successful bids. To find how much you should bid on Priceline for a particular star level, you can navigate to your destination on the board and browse through the successful bids in your desired quality level. The top post for each destination lists the hotels in each star level that you may get when you win a bid.

Bidon Travel offers tips on bidding for air, hotels, car, and vacations on Priceline. For hotels, the site offers tips such as checking only one neighborhood at a time so that you can place another bid within 24 hours if your first bid fails. For Hotwire, the site lists the airlines and the hotels that Hotwire uses so that you'll get an idea of the quality of the airlines and hotels.

Hotwire.com is a discount site where you choose a hotel based on star level and neighborhood, but you don't know the actual hotel until you've booked. Bidon Travel provides strategies on how to book on Hotwire. For some major cities, the site also provides a list of typical hotels in each star level. BiddingForTravel is a message board with posts by travelers on what hotels they actually got through purchases with Hotwire.

You can access the bidding section of Priceline by clicking on the Name Your Own Price link. With Name Your Own Price, you place a bid for a hotel by selecting the neighborhood and the star level, and Priceline will let you know in a few seconds if you've won the bid. With the Name Your Own Price feature, you can sometimes obtain substantial savings over the rate charged by travel booking sites and the hotels themselves. This is especially true if you are looking for a hotel for a weekend in an area that's not mainly visited by tourists (such as Las Vegas) because many business hotels have vacancies on weekends. You can find tips on bidding on Bidon Travel and see other's winning bids on BiddingForTravel

Name Your Own Price Hotel - See Winning Bids in Top Cities!

Many websites offer hotel reviews by other travelers. Often, these reviews provide more current information than guide books. Also, since the reviews are written by fellow travelers, the reviews may mention details such as nearby dining options and whether the pool is heated. Some sites allow anyone to post reviews. With these sites, there are no guarantees that the reviews are posted by a guest of the hotel (and not hotel management!). Other sites only permit reviews from travelers that have booked through their site. Tripadvisor is a great place to read hotel reviews because of the volume of reviews and because the site allows travelers to post candid photos.

Cheap Tickets is a general travel booking site that also has hotel reviews. Like all reviews sections of travel booking sites, you first enter your travel dates to get a list of matching hotels, and then you select the desired hotel before you can read the reviews. To find a particular hotel, you need to click on Expand Search Options first, then enter the hotel name. Like Expedia, the site permits reviews only from travelers that have booked through their site. The interface is slightly more cluttered than Expedia. Another bonus with travel booking sites such as CheapTickets is that there are ample information on hotels, such as list of amenities, room types, hotel photos, virtual tours, ... etc. There is a link to Frommer's review if the hotel is a Frommer's recommended place. If you are planning to book your hotel through the site, the hotel reviews section is useful since you don't have to go to another website to get the reviews.

Expedia is a general travel booking site that also has hotel reviews. The site allows reviews only from travelers that have booked through their site. To find reviews, you first enter your travel dates to get a list of available hotels. If you are looking for reviews of a particular hotel, you then enter the name of the hotel. Unlike Tripadvisor, the site does not have candid photos from travelers. But, the site has the advantage of having all the information, such as hotel photos, amenities list, and rates, all on one site. The interface is easy to use.

IGoUGo is a review site organized in what IGoUGo calls a travel journal, which is a collection of reviews by an author during a trip. A journal may have reviews of hotels, restaurants, nightlife, ... etc. There aren't as many reviews on hotels on IGoUGo as on Tripadvisor, but because travel journals are written in a trip report format detailing an author's favorite experiences, it's a great place to browse to get travel ideas. To get to hotel reviews, you first find your destination by using the search box or the map. Then, you click on Hotels. After you select a hotel, the reviews are presented one per page. If you like a particular author's style, you can click on Journal to see what other reviews the author has posted about the same trip. In short: Good if you are interested not in just hotel reviews but also reviews on restaurants, attractions, experiences, ... etc. as well as learning about the authors.

MyTravelGuide is a general review site with reviews on hotels, restaurants, and attractions. The reviews also rank a hotel on cleanliness, staff and location. There are not as many hotel reviews on MyTravelGuide as there are on Tripadvisor, but if you are looking for reviews on restaurants and attractions as well as hotels, this site may be useful to you. Also, if you find a hotel or a restaurant that you like, you can choose "Add to My Places" to group all the places together. In short: Good if you are interested not in just hotel reviews but also restaurants and attractions.

Orbitz is a general booking site with reviews of hotels. Like all reviews sections of travel booking sites, you first enter your travel dates to get a list of matching hotels, and then you select the desired hotel to read the reviews. To find a particular hotel, you need to click on Expand Search Options first, then enter the hotel name. Like Expedia, the site permits reviews only from travelers that have booked through their site. The reviews are the same as those on CheapTickets. There is a link to Frommer's review if the hotel is a Frommer's recommended place. As with the other travel booking sites, there are photos, virtual tours, lists of amenities, ... etc.

Priceline is a general travel booking site that also has hotel reviews. Like the other travel booking sites, you first enter your travel dates to find matching hotels. Hotel information such as amenities are presented in a clean and pleasant interface. The site links to Zagat reviews. Zagat rates hotels based on room, service, dining, facilities, and cost.

Unlike other travel booking sites, Travelocity allows any user to post hotel reviews on their site. The interface is relatively pleasant and simple to use. There is a feature that makes it very easy to compare up to 4 hotel amenities and price. Like all the other travel booking sites, there are comprehensive information on hotels, such as amenities list, photos, rates, ... etc.

TravelPost is a review site that is focused mainly on hotel reviews, although it also has blogs by other travelers. Being a review site, anyone can post reviews. The hotel reviews are primarily of US hotels, although the site is starting to collect reviews on hotels located abroad. TravelPost collects information on the reviewers so you can select reviews posted by travelers with the same background, such as business travelers, travelers with luxury budgets, and travelers in your age group. On top of each review, you can read profile information about the reviewer, such as "45 year old woman with a moderate budget, traveling for leisure." There are user-posted photos on the site.

Tripadvisor is a review site that has a great amount of reviews for hotels all over the world. Anyone can post reviews, but because of the volume of reviews on the site, most of the reviews are likely to come from genuine travelers. The site also has candid photos from travelers as well as what the site calls goLists, which are lists of travelers' favorite hotels, experiences, attractions, ... etc. The site ranks the hotels by popularity, with prices posted next to the ranking.

Virtual Tourist is a general review site that not only has hotel reviews but also reviews in a diverse number of categories: things to do, local customs, tourist traps, packing list, ... etc. There aren't quite as many hotel reviews on Virtual Tourist as there are on Tripadvisor. When you are on the city page, the categories of reviews are neatly presented, and it's easy to browse through the list of review topics and find something that may be interesting, such as boat cruises or shopping.

Epinions is a general review site with reviews on an extensive list of items. It also have reviews on hotels.

General travel site with hotel reviews.

There are a number of directories on the Internet for Vacation Rentals and Bed and Breakfasts. Many Bed and Breakfasts are uniquely furnished and can make for interesting weekend getaways. Vacation Rentals are appealing options for families that require spacious accommodations and cooking facilities.

Vacation Rental Directory

B&B Directory

B&B Directory

B&B Directory

B&B Directory

Vacation Rental Directory

Booking site for hostels

B&B Directory

B&B Directory

B&B Directory

Vacation Rental Directory