Five ways to get the best deal booking a hotel online

Last week’s announcement by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that it was launching an investigation into hotel booking websites – including Booking.com, Trivago and Expedia – highlighted some important issues about digital marketing.

But I think these issues run much deeper than hotels – they impact how holidays are sold online generally, and have long been an issue in travel. 

The CMA’s primary concern is that sales techniques used by hotel comparison sites may mislead customers and put undue pressure on them to book.

Are the sites skewing search results to favour hotels paying the highest commission? Has the growth in pressure sales techniques – such as those flashes claiming a hotel is in “high demand” and there is only “one room left on our site” – started to generate unfair pressure on customers, rushing them into making a booking which may not be right? Indeed, are such claims even true? 

Then there are issues around the promotion of discounts, which are ubiquitous on these sites. Are they real or exaggerated? On what basis are they calculated, and has this been done in a way which complies with UK law?

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While I welcome the CMA’s inquiry, it is important to put the issue into context, and there are three key things to remember.

First, these sales techniques are hardly new. They are merely an extension of the way that travel and many other goods and services have been sold since time immemorial. Any salesman knows the psychological power of suggesting that they have another buyer who is on the point of committing. Every market trader’s vocabulary is littered with words like “bargain”, “discount” and “special offer”. Do supermarkets ever price goods high for a while, so that they can discount them later? Are pigs pink?

In the days when you used to walk into a travel agent’s shop to make your holiday booking (perhaps you still do), did you ever consider the motives behind the advice you were being given? Did you think through the fact that the desk clerk may have possibly been incentivised to steer you towards a particular tour operator?

Second, pressure sales techniques are not limited to hotel booking sites. What about airlines and rail companies? Recognise the phrase “only two seats left at this price”? 

Such claims may well be true on the day that you are making the booking. If those seats are taken, then the fare will ratchet up to the next level. But, equally, they may well be cut again at a later date if sales slow. Is that unfair or just clever marketing?

And let’s not forget the extraordinary power of Google – the site where the vast majority of us start our holiday searches. The first results it lists are often headed by a series of sponsored entries. Third, we must remember the positive side of these booking sites. They have liberated independent travellers and – despite the questions over the way deals are presented – they have made pricing much more transparent. Through customer reviews and ratings, they allow us to see what other guests think of hotels.

We need the CMA to keep them honest, but we can also be canny when using them. Here’s how.

1. Stay focussed

Don’t get distracted by anything that attempts to rush you into a booking. Applying some basic maths often helps. For example, if a hotel has 100 rooms, the fact that 20 have been sold on a site in any one day might sound like a lot, but it doesn’t actually suggest that they are selling very fast.

2. Think price not discount

Always think about the price in isolation, not the discount it supposedly represents. Write it down separately. Are you happy to pay that amount for a hotel of that standard?

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3. Cross-check

Try at least two different booking sites, and then go on to check the hotel’s website to see what price is being offered there. You may find different rooms or other deals.

4. Be savvy with dates

Take your travel dates into account. If you are staying a Sunday night in low season, for example, you can be confident that there is no need to rush to book. A bank holiday weekend is another matter – you will need to act quickly to get a decent deal.

5. Sort searches by price

Never trust the order of the first search results presented to you, often on the basis of what the site “recommends” or its “favourites”. They may be skewed by commission rates. Sort instead by price or rating.