What Business Travelers Should Know Before Using Online Travel Booking for Hotel Reservations
Business travelers – especially small business travelers – know the importance of finding the best online travel booking rates when making reservations for hotels, airlines and car rentals. And many recognize that the Internet is one of the best sources for finding the best rates on hotel reservations at business destinations throughout the U.S. and even international travel. But how do business travelers know they are really seeing the best rates available that day? They frequently don’t.
This is understandable because business travelers may not realize that many of the thousands of specialty web sites on the Internet are partnered with one of the major booking engines to provide their services: Travelocity, Expedia or Priceline.
That is, travel booking sites that provide specialized information about travel destinations typically focus on delivering excellent information about their particular topic. However, business travelers should not always assume that the booking engine of a site is based on direct negotiations from the owners of the site itself. That’s left to the third party partners. What does this mean for the price of business travel?
Online Travel Booking Fees May Vary
Well, as travelers become savvy purchasers of online travel, they need know that fine print may exist behind those nightly rates that are shown in the initial search results. Let me explain.
Most business travelers and others who use online travel booking are searching for the lowest daily rate for their guest stay. And those who provide booking tools for hotel reservations, car rentals and other services know this. Many business travelers and others will frequently assume they have found the best price from a site they trust and/or wish to support, and continue with their purchases.
Upon confirmation, business travelers and others who are selecting a hotel or travel service will be provided with updated information upon confirmation that also includes taxes and fees. Because tax rates and local fees at destinations may vary, those who book their travel may assume that those fees may be specific to the hotel or destination; however, extra service fees are sometimes added at this stage, and they can quickly increase the cost of travel.
Such hidden fees can drive up the cost of a hotel stay beyond a traveler’s expectations – by as much as $30 per day, but a common amount tends to be in the range of $10-$15 per day so that it seems like a standard set of charges.
These fees are not just limited to hotel reservations. Optional fees may be loaded into other travel booking services, including auto rental, airlines, cruises and more.
Travel Booking Sites May Not Present All Options
During the last several years there has been a significant increase in the number of specialized websites that serve a particular niche or interest. This is a marketing strategy that helps allow the travel sites to provide their particular, specialized expertise to customers.
But remember, their booking engines are partnered with the larger travel companies that frequently have contracts with tens of thousands of hotels and travel services. So this means that those specialized sites are probably only showing a fraction of the available options to travelers. That is, travelers may not be seeing the complete inventory of hotels in a particular destination because they are not part of that interest.
While it’s valuable to narrow choices and make recommendations, it’s more valuable to know all the options so that travelers make an informed choice.
But that’s not all. It’s also important to take a closer look at the hotel room rates presented. Online travel booking sites have the option to show or hide some portions of discounted options. For example, travelers who pay in advance for their rooms will frequently find the best rates available on the Internet. Such options are important to travelers, but travel booking companies earn money based on a commission scale of the room rate selected…
Last, even though a booking engine may be affiliated with one of the largest online travel booking sites, some hotels may simply not agree to participate in a travel network’s booking inventory. This is a bit more concerning for business travelers who prefer to stay at more upscale hotels.
Choose Travel Booking with Business Travel Destinations
For the Business Travel Destinations’ online travel booking engine, we selected to partner with the Travelocity travel booking tools because it seemed to meet our criteria to include the greatest number of hotels that business travelers choose around the world. And we have made the business decision to waive all non-essential fees for those who rely on our online travel booking resources.
This means that the pricing you see reflects the best rates and options available in the Travelocity network, and reflects their rates and policies. By not adding any additional fees beyond the required basics, unlike other booking sites, business travelers and others who wish to support us will be viewing the best travel rates that we can share with you.
We also made the choice to show customers all of the hotels, room types and pricing options they may consider when choosing hotel and other reservations. (Learn more about our Travelocity travel booking here.)
So the next time you’re considering travel booking on a specialty site, including our online travel booking at Business Travel Destinations, look beyond the cheapest daily rate option for the style of room you prefer and take the time to confirm the total price of the booking before making the reservation.
Learn More:
- Finding Hotel Deals and Discount Hotel Rates
- Finding Last Minute Travel Deals
- Finding Vacation Packages
