Orbitz Has Earned My Business
Written: Jul 19 '04 (Updated Jul 22 '04)
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We are notorious last minute road-trippers. It's quite often we just look at each other and decide it's time. On the few occasions that I know we will be going out of town in advance, I do my research thoroughly to find the best possible deal. This usually involves browsing the various travel sites and narrowing things down to one or two hotels and then the intensive search for the best price at one of those.
Usually I can narrow it down at Hotels.com, then find the lowest price somewhere else, like yellowpages.com. I was amazed this time when planning our trip to Boston to find that my usual routes were not the best at all. No, this time Orbitz beat absolutely everyone.. and by at least 50 bucks, with no added/hidden fees. Score!
Being smart and all I suspected the ol' too-good-to-be-true scenario, so I checked good ol' Epinions and found that over-all Orbitz is ranked pretty high by many reviewers I have come to love and trust. Ok then. Let's book it!
Orbitz is going to become one of my main go-tos not simply because of the low hotel price though. I found their website very easy to navigate and pleasing to my old eyes. It took me literally seconds to find what I was looking for, and was given several other options in the area as well.
Now, what happens is that these on-line travel sites book blocks of rooms at various hotels at a given price. Once those are gone, they're gone. Even if the hotel is 50% empty you are not going to get that deal no matter what you do. So when I saw that there were only 3 suites left at AmerSuites Boston Medford at $94.15, I jumped on it. Imagine my disappointed when it came back with an error message. This error message was not one listed in their FAQ so I emailed to inquire about it. I was answered within the hour: That rate was no longer available, but was advised to try again in a bit because sometimes they do get more in their block after they fill, or someone cancels. I did try again about 2 hours later. It went through this time! YES! Very good customer service on their part.
Booking is all very straight forward. You pick your desired dates, ask for any special requests (smoking in our case), then fill in your billing info. Easy breezy. you are then given a confirmation page, which I printed out. They also email you a confirmation in case you didn't think to print the first one.
Once you've booked a room or anything else with them, you have a permanent account that will track your travels and rates for you. Next time I log in all my billing info and preferences will be filled in for me, which I really like.
Orbitz is more than just hotel rooms though. You can search Airline Flights, book a rental car, or even find things to do in your destination city and pre-buy admission to the sites of the city. Very cool. They even suggest a few things you might like to do once you book your room and give you the opportunity to go ahead and add those activities on.
The final question with on-line booking is what will happen when you arrive at your destination? For us, everything went smooth as silk. We had no problem at all when we arrived at our hotel. Our special request was met, and all we had to do was hand over a CC for incidentals. Checking out was no problem either.
I'll still do my thorough price checks when I need to book in advance, but you can bet Orbitz will be my first stop from now on, and everyone else will have to try to beat them. heh.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Hotel in Boston
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Epinions.com ID:
drdevience
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 - Top 50 |
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Member: Lori Leidig
Location: Sweden
Reviews written: 647
Trusted by: 780 members
About Me:
Game over.
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