If you are looking for a cheap hotel, there’s a very good chance that you sort your search results from the hotel booking sites by “lowest price”. Have you ever wondered how the big hotel booking sites compare to one another when you sort by lowest price? That’s what I decided to find out in a case study.

Here’s how this experiment was conducted: From each of the big hotel booking sites (Hotels.com, Travelocity.com, Priceline.com, Orbitz.com), a list of 10 hotels was obtained with the following search parameters used on each site: a stay for 2 adults for 1 room from May 27, 2009 to May 29, 2009, with search results sorted by lowest price. I then found out the lowest price of each hotel from the following sources…

1) the original site from which the list was obtained
2) the remaining 3 hotel booking sites
3) the website of the hotel itself
4) a call to the hotel

To make an apples to apples comparison one room type was used in determinng the price for each room. In all cases, this same room type was also the lowest priced room type from each of the booking sites as well as the individal hotel sites.

How did the prices listed on each of the hotel booking sites compare to the competition? (to see the full results, check the bottom of the page)

Hotels.com: Had the lowest price for 4 out of the 10 hotels from its list

The hotel’s own sites had the lowest price on hotels.com’s “lowest priced” 10 hotels, 5 out of the 10 times. Orbitz.com beat out hotels.com for one of the hotels from hotels.com’s list.

Orbitz.com: Had the lowest price for 2 out of the 10 hotels from its list.

The hotel’s own sites had the lowest price on Orbitz’s “lowest priced” 10 hotels, 6 out of the 10 times. Hotels.com beat out Orbitz for 2 of the hotels from Orbitz’s list.

Priceline.com: Had the lowest price for 1 out of the 10 hotels on its list.

The hotel’s own sites had the lowest price on Priceline’s “lowest priced” 10 hotels, 4 out of the 10 times. Hotels.com beat out Priceline for 2 of the hotels from Priceline’s list, as did Orbitz. Also, Hotels.com and Orbitz had the same exact lowest price for one of Priceline’s hotels.

Travelocity.com: Had the lowest price for 1 out of the 10 hotels on its list.

The hotel’s own sites had the lowest price on Travelocity’s “lowest priced” 10 hotels, 5 out of the 10 times. Orbitz.com beat out Travelocity for one of its hotels. Hotels.com beat out Travelocity for 2 of its hotels. Hotels.com and Orbitz.com had the same lowest price to beat one of Travelocity’s hotels.

The findings are not very impressive from the hotel booking sites’ point of view. Does this mean that the hotel booking sites have bad prices all the time? No, most of the hotels from the lists of each of the 4 booking sites were linked to Choice Hotels, which, at the time, this article was written, was having a 15% off sale. In my Omaha Hotels Case Study, Orbitz and Hotels.com dominated in terms of pricing.

If we only look at pricing, for most of the results for the Colorado Springs area, Hotels.com, Orbitz.com, and the hotel websites differed in pricing within a $1 range! From what I’ve seen so far, you’d be safe booking with either Hotels.com or Orbitz.com in terms of pricing (although I’d use Cheaptickets.com over Orbitz because it has the same prices but a better price assurance policy). Travelocity.com typically has a price which is $3-$4 higher than the other 3 options. Priceline’s price’s are just way above everyone else.

But what about cancellation policies?

Although Priceline’s pricing was not impressive compared to everyone else, it should be noted that Priceline allows to you cancel your hotel without penalty for all of its listings. It allows you to cancel your stay for a full refund as long as you cancel the day before your first day in the hotel. Most of hotels.com’s, Orbitz’s, and individual hotel website’s low rates were low in the first place because they were “advance purchase rates”. Low prices have a lot to do with cancellation policies. This makes sense from the hotel industry’s point of view, they reel us in with a low price and get guaranteed money.

If you want a low price and don’t mind making a non-refundable purchase, Hotels.com, Orbitz.com, and the individual hotel websites will give you low price, non-refundable deals. If you are not firm whether you are staying at a certain place or not, I suspect that Priceline, Hotels.com, Orbitz, and the individual hotel websites will give you similar deals, although another case study has to be completed to see how similar they would be. Although Travelocity did not fare too well in this case study, it might give you lower prices for another area.

Hotels.com

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Orbitz.com

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Priceline.com

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Travelocity.com

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www.percussion.com

Hotwire is virtually the same as Priceline with three main differences:

1. Hotwire’s prices are already displayed for you.
2. With Hotwire, you see the amenities you’ll get.
3. With Hotwire, you can specify how many people there will be in your party.

The general consensus over on betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com is that Priceline has lower prices, but that Hotwire still provides good deals as well. Because Hotwire’s prices are already predetermined it is not surprising that Hotwire’s prices tend to be a little higher. However, you might feel safer using Hotwire if you have, say, kids, who would really like a pool. With Hotwire, you know what amenities you’ll be getting, unlike Priceline. Hotwire also allows you to specify how many people there will be in your party. Although it is unlikely, Priceline users might find that the hotel puts them in a tiny room even though their party has a lot of people in it.

There are a lot of complaints over at these forums that Hotwire overestimates the star level of their hotels. Although there are a lot of complaints by users, Hotwire does a good job of refunding those who want refunds. This is not surprising considering that Hotwire, according to J.D. Power and Associates, has been the best in terms of customer satisfaction for 3 years in a row (2006-2008). For 2008, Priceline ranked second behind Hotwire in customer satisfaction.

Both Priceline and Hotwire will give you amazing deals. You’ll end up paying a little more for Hotwire, but with a better idea of what kind of hotel and hotel room you’ll be getting.

After type in “Colorado Springs” and enter your check in, check out, and number of rooms for your stay, you’ll see that Priceline gives you 4 zones. They are

Colorado Springs Airport (COS)
Colorado Springs North
Colorado Springs South
Northeast Colorado Springs

Also notice that there are 5 star levels:

3 1/2 star upscale-plus
3 star upscale
21⁄2-Star Moderate-Plus
2-Star Moderate
1-Star Economy

If you click and unclick on each zone, you’ll find out the highest star level offered for each zone:

Colorado Springs Airport (COS): 3-Star Upscale
Colorado Springs North: 31⁄2-Star Upscale-Plus
Colorado Springs South: 31⁄2-Star Upscale-Plus
Northeast Colorado Springs: 3-Star Upscale

Keep this information in handy, you’ll know why you do this a little further in the article.

Before we make our first bid, now would be wise to see what the winning bids for other users were for the Colorado area. Check out betterbidding.com and bidtotravel.com to see what type of winning bids other users got.

When you go to betterbidding.com, scroll down to the Colorado forum and then click “Priceline – Colorado”. If you look at the “Priceline – Colorado” forum you’ll see that users have posted their winning bids, with each post including the winning bid amount, the zone, the date of their stay, and the specific hotel. For example, one poster on bidderbidding posted that for a $50 winning bid they got a Marriott Colorado Springs in the North Zone with a star rating of 3 1/2 star upscale-plus. Other winning bids for the same zone and star level ranged from around $45-$50.

Biddingfortravel.com also lets you see the winning from other users for the Colorado Springs area. Simply go to the “Colorado – all other cities” forum. Although there weren’t many recent posts there for the Colorado Springs area, at the time this article was written, there might be some more by the time you read it. Despite the lack of posts I noticed that users got 3 1/2 star upscale-plus hotels for around $45.

You can use both websites to help you decide how much to bid for a particular zone and star level. Because I have already collected information for 3 1/2 star hotels in the North Zone of Colorado (You can get a winning bid for around $45-$50), I’ll use that as my example in telling you how you should bid on Priceline. Because users routinely got winning bids from $45-$50 for 3 1/2 star hotels in the North Zone, I’ll start my bid at $40. What should my highest bid amount be? I’d go over to hotels.com and check out the rates they have for 3 and 1/2 star hotels. Although Priceline’s and Hotel.com’s star system is not the same, this should give me a good idea of what the typical rate would be if I book with a booking site. I see that hotels.com has 3 and 1/2 star hotels for around $100-$150. This tells me that the closer I get to this range when I bid up, the worse deal I getting. However, it is highly unlikely I’d ever reach this point considering that other users got winning bids of around $45.
For my first bid I select Colorado Springs North for my zone and 31⁄2-Star Upscale-Plus for my star level. Let’s say that my $45 bid gets rejected. End of story? Priceline gives me a screen which lets me bid again if I change something: If I add a zone, add a star level, and/or change my check in or check out date. Otherwise I can only rebid after 24 hours. Who wants to wait that long? Because I don’t want to change my star level (I want a 3 and 1/2 star hotel!) nor my dates, the only thing that’s left is changing my zone. Remember the list of zones and their respective highest star level, which I showed earlier?

Colorado Springs Airport (COS): 3-Star Upscale
Colorado Springs North: 31⁄2-Star Upscale-Plus
Colorado Springs South: 31⁄2-Star Upscale-Plus
Northeast Colorado Springs: 3-Star Upscale

…we can use this list to bid again.

I can add one of the 3-Star Upscale Zones (say Colorado Springs Airport) to rebid for a total of 2 zones. Because my star level is still 31⁄2-Star Upscale-Plus, I know I won’t end up staying at Colorado Springs Airport. If my rebid with the additional zone fails, I’d rebid again by starting a new bid with a different 2 zone combination (Colorado Springs North and Northeast Colorado Springs). How do you start a new bid? At the rejection screen simply click on the Priceline link up at the top. If my rebid with Colorado Springs North and Northeast Colorado Springs does not work, I can rebid by adding an additional zone at the rejection screen for a total of 3 zones, Colorado Springs North, Northeast Colorado Springs, and Colorado Springs Airport.

To summarize, if you want to bid on a 31⁄2-Star Upscale-Plus hotel, bid the following way…

A is the zone which you want to stay in, in Colorado Springs it would include either Colorado Springs North or Colorado Springs South.

Bid 1) A
Bid 2) A+ Colorado Springs Airport
Bid 3) A+ Northeast Colorado Springs
Bid 4) A+ Northeast Colorado Springs+ Colorado Springs Airport

(a nice post over at biddingfortravel.com by verkuilb allowed me to display the fourth bid)

For bids 1 and 3, you’re going to have to start a new bid by clicking at the Priceline logo at the top of the rejection screen. You’ll have to start a new bid because the rejection screen only allows you to add additional zones, not have a brand new zone combination, which is what you need to rebid again.

If you happen to run out of rebids for the 31⁄2-Star Upscale-Plus level, you can bid on a 3-Star Upscale hotel one more time using the same method for either the Colorado Springs North or Colorado Springs South zone. Simply bid with only one zone selected (either the North or South zone) and select “3-Star Upscale” as your star level.

A big thanks to biddingfortravel.com and betterbidding.com!