I have used them. I like they do not take all the money upfront. So they are the only discounter I use to book early deals. Usually I end up cancelling and rebooking as I find better deals or free offers. They support easy cancellation.
This year I booked the El Cabana suites for November, making a five night reservation and another 3 night reservation. It was just as the El Cortez was starting the "resort fee after 7 nights" policy.( ya know, to get rid of all those cheapskate, brokeass, small potaotes, flea gambler like me as well as the flocks of homeless crowding into the Cabana rooms for the $34 dollar a night specials)
So I was booked with confirmation when someone at the El Cortez told booking.com that the EC would not honor my second booking. I liked how booking.com got in touch with me, offered explanation, gave me people to follow up with a phone call, and were clearly as annoyed as I was with this midstream change in policy and reversal of a confirmed booking.
Then the EC was just limiting booking to 7 nights. Soon afterwards, I guess they decided that they had to do too much oversight and they just passed the extra fee of $25 on for any booking over 7 by a person or a spouse in a single calendar month.
That way they did not set adrift any person's bookings that slipped through the net, but they still did not have to honor the original agreement of price.
Booking with a discounter always adds a middle man, but in my view booking.com passed the middle man test.
Oh, also they had a problem with a calendar on one of their pages. I wrote them. They wrote me back, wondering if I was making the mistake. So I walked them through the problem, and very soon it was fixed and they thanked me.
In contrast, I have written about 8 emails and made phone calls to Hotels.com/Expedia in reference to the way they handle the Gold Spike. Basically, they collect the "resort fee" up front, but won't admit it. They call it a "service fee" Then in the fine print it says that the "resort fee" (equal exactly to the "service fee") will be collected by the hotel. Well, I have asked Gold Spike over two years about that at least a half dozen times. The Gold Spike does not collect any resort fee from Hotels.com or expedia booked people because that fee already has been collected.
I trust the Gold Spike version of reality. It actually hurts the Hotel.com sales because if booking.com matches the same price, it looks cheaper.
So when compared with Hotels.com (and I like their service fine in most cases) booking.com also does not collect the $9 a night resort fee up front either. So you can book for insurance of price, and then look for direct booking deals, but not have hundreds of dollars tied up in the first booking.
Also, I may be imagining this, but every call to booking.com has me taking to someone who might even speak English as a first language. I would never book at Hotels.com on the phone. Once they canceled one booking, made another for the wrong month, and then I booked what I really wanted. Meanwhile they held up a thousand dollars and told me that it might take a full billing period for my credit card to be credited. Hey, it takes a few seconds to be charged.
Now here is the disadvantage of all these discounters. You may be able to cancel without a fee (not so by the way at i4vegas, they charge you) However, you can't catch a sale one month for say 7 days and then drop 2 of those days and keep the same price. You must cancel and rebook at what then will probably not be sale prices.
So I quickly switched to the Gold Spike when I caught a better deal I booked 9 nights in a row (take that El Cortez bean counters) and then I got 2 free nights at the Orleans. I wanted to drop to 7. The rooms I booked for $12 plus resort fee on that day were $80 and on a sale day later were $45. But after a bit of a hassle, the Gold Spike dropped the last 2 nights but let me keep my rate. In May I did the same with Sam's town. Booked on B -connected for 9 nights at $10 a night, and twice dropped nights to end up with just 6 when I got free rooms in other places.
So, whenever you can book directly.
Even then, the best strategy for long bookings is to book in bits of 2 or 3 nights and have a few connecting reservations. Then you can cancel one of those easily, right on line, with no confusion, if you get late free offers.
Finally, if you use any discounter, call the hotel directly a few days before you are going to arrive and confirm they know you are coming and confirm the dates so that they agree with what you booked. This means that if they have to communicate with the discounter because the paperwork has been mixed up (three mix ups in my experience) it will not be done in line at the check in when you are tired and waiting for a room, but while you are still home. Once I was in the middle of the desert driving to the Stratosphere from California and I called from there to confirm. Good thing. They had no record of me coming. Three hours later when I got to the Stratosphere all the paperwork was clear and check in was easy. The lines were huge. It would have been a nightmare.
Actually, I try to confirm a couple weeks after booking and I confirm again just before I go to see that my confirmation phone calls have not been confused
This year I booked the El Cabana suites for November, making a five night reservation and another 3 night reservation. It was just as the El Cortez was starting the "resort fee after 7 nights" policy.( ya know, to get rid of all those cheapskate, brokeass, small potaotes, flea gambler like me as well as the flocks of homeless crowding into the Cabana rooms for the $34 dollar a night specials)
So I was booked with confirmation when someone at the El Cortez told booking.com that the EC would not honor my second booking. I liked how booking.com got in touch with me, offered explanation, gave me people to follow up with a phone call, and were clearly as annoyed as I was with this midstream change in policy and reversal of a confirmed booking.
Then the EC was just limiting booking to 7 nights. Soon afterwards, I guess they decided that they had to do too much oversight and they just passed the extra fee of $25 on for any booking over 7 by a person or a spouse in a single calendar month.
That way they did not set adrift any person's bookings that slipped through the net, but they still did not have to honor the original agreement of price.
Booking with a discounter always adds a middle man, but in my view booking.com passed the middle man test.
Oh, also they had a problem with a calendar on one of their pages. I wrote them. They wrote me back, wondering if I was making the mistake. So I walked them through the problem, and very soon it was fixed and they thanked me.
In contrast, I have written about 8 emails and made phone calls to Hotels.com/Expedia in reference to the way they handle the Gold Spike. Basically, they collect the "resort fee" up front, but won't admit it. They call it a "service fee" Then in the fine print it says that the "resort fee" (equal exactly to the "service fee") will be collected by the hotel. Well, I have asked Gold Spike over two years about that at least a half dozen times. The Gold Spike does not collect any resort fee from Hotels.com or expedia booked people because that fee already has been collected.
I trust the Gold Spike version of reality. It actually hurts the Hotel.com sales because if booking.com matches the same price, it looks cheaper.
So when compared with Hotels.com (and I like their service fine in most cases) booking.com also does not collect the $9 a night resort fee up front either. So you can book for insurance of price, and then look for direct booking deals, but not have hundreds of dollars tied up in the first booking.
Also, I may be imagining this, but every call to booking.com has me taking to someone who might even speak English as a first language. I would never book at Hotels.com on the phone. Once they canceled one booking, made another for the wrong month, and then I booked what I really wanted. Meanwhile they held up a thousand dollars and told me that it might take a full billing period for my credit card to be credited. Hey, it takes a few seconds to be charged.
Now here is the disadvantage of all these discounters. You may be able to cancel without a fee (not so by the way at i4vegas, they charge you) However, you can't catch a sale one month for say 7 days and then drop 2 of those days and keep the same price. You must cancel and rebook at what then will probably not be sale prices.
So I quickly switched to the Gold Spike when I caught a better deal I booked 9 nights in a row (take that El Cortez bean counters) and then I got 2 free nights at the Orleans. I wanted to drop to 7. The rooms I booked for $12 plus resort fee on that day were $80 and on a sale day later were $45. But after a bit of a hassle, the Gold Spike dropped the last 2 nights but let me keep my rate. In May I did the same with Sam's town. Booked on B -connected for 9 nights at $10 a night, and twice dropped nights to end up with just 6 when I got free rooms in other places.
So, whenever you can book directly.
Even then, the best strategy for long bookings is to book in bits of 2 or 3 nights and have a few connecting reservations. Then you can cancel one of those easily, right on line, with no confusion, if you get late free offers.
Finally, if you use any discounter, call the hotel directly a few days before you are going to arrive and confirm they know you are coming and confirm the dates so that they agree with what you booked. This means that if they have to communicate with the discounter because the paperwork has been mixed up (three mix ups in my experience) it will not be done in line at the check in when you are tired and waiting for a room, but while you are still home. Once I was in the middle of the desert driving to the Stratosphere from California and I called from there to confirm. Good thing. They had no record of me coming. Three hours later when I got to the Stratosphere all the paperwork was clear and check in was easy. The lines were huge. It would have been a nightmare.
Actually, I try to confirm a couple weeks after booking and I confirm again just before I go to see that my confirmation phone calls have not been confused
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