Let's start by saying I'm old. I can't get an honest price quote online. The page may say $189.00/a night, then when selecting a room the cheapest is $249.00, then at check out it is $314.00!! Ii know, taxes, fees etc but! I wonder if calling the hotel asking for reservations desk is still a thing?

Any tips on how to avoid the scams and just get a final price up front?

Make sure you are booking directly with the hotel! I was trying to book a room a few months ago, and I knew what the price should have been (I had priced it out on my laptop). I had to be somewhere, so I decided to complete the booking on my phone.

When I googled the hotel name on my phone, the first search result that came up was NOT the hotel website. It was some third party site that was charging significantly more (like $3000+ vs low $2ks for 7 nights) but the link I clicked looked very much like it was the actual hotel. Had I not known what the price should have been, I would have probably completed the booking not realizing the issue.

These third party sites must be paying to have their websites come up first in a search, and they go to a lot of trouble to make their websites look like the hotel website.

I also always book fully refundable and keep checking back to see if the rate drops. If it does, I either rebook, or call the hotel to get the lower price. It's not uncommon for the nightly rate to change in your favor. I also never pay in advance except under very specific circumstances.

I agree with the above you have to be very careful of the Webb address you end up on. The name will be very convincing hotelreservations.com or whatever but it's not hilton.com marriott.com etc.

Like you, I've been fooled a couple times until I realized I need to check the web address.

Straight Talk said:

---

Let's start by saying I'm old. I can't get an honest price quote online. The page may say $189.00/a night, then when selecting a room the cheapest is $249.00, then at check out it is $314.00!! Ii know, taxes, fees etc but! I wonder if calling the hotel asking for reservations desk is still a thing?

Any tips on how to avoid the scams and just get a final price up front?

---

As others mentioned, book direct on the hotel's web site is usually going to be the best option.

I usually book with Marriott and it is very common to see:
Tonight's Rate - X
The night you want to stay - Y
Click through to choose the rooms and see that there are taxes and fees to bring it up to - Z
Then, there might even be resort fees on top of that.

And after all that, you find out that the promo rate was only for pre-paid, no refund, maybe even no changes.

So yeah, it might take clicking through a few times and I don't really know any way around it.
And I'll usually book the refundable or cancellable rate if there's even the slightest possibility that I'm not going to make it.

TXTransplant said:

---

Make sure you are booking directly with the hotel! I was trying to book a room a few months ago, and I knew what the price should have been (I had priced it out on my laptop). I had to be somewhere, so I decided to complete the booking on my phone.

When I googled the hotel name on my phone, the first search result that came up was NOT the hotel website. It was some third party site that was charging significantly more (like $3000+ vs low $2ks for 7 nights) but the link I clicked looked very much like it was the actual hotel. Had I not known what the price should have been, I would have probably completed the booking not realizing the issue.

These third party sites must be paying to have their websites come up first in a search, and they go to a lot of trouble to make their websites look like the hotel website.

I also always book fully refundable and keep checking back to see if the rate drops. If it does, I either rebook, or call the hotel to get the lower price. It's not uncommon for the nightly rate to change in your favor. I also never pay in advance except under very specific circumstances.

---

Very good information. Thanks!

Another thing is if some goes wrong, your going to be late, need a change, hotel is full, etc. if you book with the hotel directly you can talk directly with them.
If you book third party "looking for deals" if anything goes wrong you have to work through and get any refund from the 3rd party.
Same with airfare.
Ive fount hilton is one of the more confusing websites while Marriott is more straightforward l, but in the end you will see the full price per night.

As the above, I would also say to book using the hotel's website. An easy way to find hotels and their websites is map.google.com. Go to the area in which you want to stay, zoom in a bit, click on the hotels that appear on the map. A window will pop up that will have the hotel's website that you can click on. It's nice to know exactly where any particular hotel is located anyway, and this is a particularly good way to find out what other businesses/sights are in the area of the hotel, and what streets might be preferable to get there if you are driving.

When researching possible hotels, I will often use Expedia.com as well. You can punch in the location and dates and it will pop up with most of the possibilities. The nice thing about going this route is that it will show you a great number of hotels, and you can click on a hotel and it will give you quite a lot of information. Once you find a few good possibilities, go to their respective websites and book directly. Occasionally Expedia will have a better price by a few dollars, so I will book through them when this happens. Never had a single issue at all going through the Expedia website.

I'm an old too, but this works for me.

C

Sign up with at least Hilton and Marriott to get a member number. Use their website to book once you know better where you want to stay.

Use google maps to search out hotels and locations then you can figure out a price strategy. You can put in dates and google will help you narrow down location and prices.

Another reason to book direct is the increase in these super sketchy resellers popping up on a legit travel search site like Google Travel, kayak, etc.

Who is vio.com, goseek.com, dealbase, super.com? I think these are the resellers mostly putting out BS rates that are $10 a night cheaper but if something goes wrong you are in trouble. They are usually non-refundbale rates are zero chance you are ever seeing that money again.

I always book either chase travel (points) or direct with the hotel.