Never done that before, so I’m wondering if it is cheaper?
try booking the flight, without the room then bail when they ask you to pay. The try it again with the room. Usually you will save money.
Never done that before, so I’m wondering if it is cheaper?
No.
Sometimes but you will have to do some comparrison shopping. Most of the time I would say no.
When you book your hotel through an online travel agent (Orbitz, Hotels.com etc) it’s prepaid. So if you need to change your dates or anything the hotel has no obligation to work with you. They’ve already been paid. Also, the hotels’ own website will often have a best rate guarantee. They can actually be charged by their brand for offering a rate on an OTA lower than the rate on the brands website (Marriott is very strict about this). So you don’t come out much better.
That having been said, I had luck with a super sketchy looking site to get a stupid good deal at a Sheraton last year. Oh well.
(this is related to my work, for what it’s worth)
I’ve always shopped around before booking both through any travel site. I found Orbitz to be hell. I had a problem with the hotel on a trip, forgot the exact circumstances, and since it was already paid for there was no refund or changes available. I won’t use them again.
I usually find booking them separately gets you just as good of a deal.
My girlfriend’s uncle runs a smallish privately owned hotel in Orlando. I asked him this question. His response, after going on a brief but well argued tirade about the evils of Orbitz etc: You will almost always get the best deal by calling the hotel and talking to someone actually at the hotel. This may only or usually only apply to the smaller hotels, but it seemed like good advice that I will follow next time I travel.
There is a hotel where I stayed probably 20 times on business travel. After they got to know me, they told me that if I would call them - they would give me the same deal as Expedia. Reason being they didn’t have to pay a percentage if I called them directly.
I wonder if one of the reasons that hotels don’t refund money when booked through other websites, is so they can offer the same price but with cancellation if you book through the hotel - thus saving them that percentage again.