OT: booking hotels

Anyone here ever book a room via hotels.com or any other online booking service? I want to book a room in Pittsburgh for the weekend and these services seem to offer much better rates. I've always been more comfortable with calling the hotel and actually speaking to someone, though. Can anyone tell me what sort of experiences they've had with these sorts of services? Thanks! Lisa

I've booked through expedia.com and hotels.com several times. It's been a good experience each time. I even had to cancel one time and it was pretty smooth. So, knock-on-wood, I haven't had a bad experience yet and I will continue to book hotels through these websites. In fact, I'm going to Florida next week and I just booked through Orbitz.com. This is the first time I've booked through Orbitz.com, so we'll see how it goes. Jeannette

A trick I have learned as an administrative assistant (who often has to book rooms for travelling execs). Find the cheapest rate you can find (searching all the well known sites) THEN call the hotel directly. Tell them about the rate and where you found it (you will need to give the web address of the rate so that they can confirm). More often than not...the hotel will match the rate for you. (it doesn't work ALL the time, but if you are sweet about it and just ask why the rate is so much cheaper and if there is anyway they can match it....they usually will go to bat for you).

Nope never tried it lol. But I agree with what someone else says. Find the price you like at that hotel online, make the reservation and then CALL and verify it. You can always cancel it later. Good luck!! Felicia

I have and haven't had any problems, but just as often I have found that if I go to that hotels website they are offering the exact same price so I book through the hotel's website quite often. Plus you will find if you join their rewards programs (free usually) then the rates are cheaper than their normal rates and if you stay enough you will end up with a free night down the road.

I've never booked with hotels.com, but I have bid on rooms at priceline.com and gotten GREAT deals! The problem is that you cant always select the hotel you want, but you can choose an area of the city, and how many 'stars' you want. I got an oceanview room in Hawaii for $45 a night, and a 4* hotel in downtown Milwaukee once for $35 a night...both were better deals than anything else I could find online... Good luck!

Thanks for all the advice! As it turns out, the sites I tried didn't have what I was looking for...I called the Shadyside Inn, in Pittsburgh, which specializes in "suites for less than hotel prices." They didn't have any studio suites available, so offered me a 1 bedroom at a studio price. Cool! I'm very excited, as I will be seeing my oldest friend; I haven't seen him in years! Leaving Friday and returning Monday. Lisa