Discount Hotels Frequently Asked Questions

1. What does 'discount hotels' mean?

Discount hotels is a term used by hotel reservation service companies to inform you that they sell the same hotel accommodations at the same hotels for less money than you would have to pay by booking your room directly with the hotel. Actually, "discount hotels" is a misnomer. The hotel is not discounted, the hotel room rates are discounted. On the Internet the phrase discount hotels is commonly used by people looking for discounted hotel room rates through a search engine query. It is a convenient phrase not lost in translation. So convenient that on average 35,000 people type in "discount hotels" on search engine queries every day.

2. How do I know I'm getting 'discounted hotel room rates' for my reservation?

When our system displays the rates for a given itinerary it also shows the discount percentage. The discount percentage is calculated from the difference between our rate and the hotel's rack rate. That percentage represents the average savings for all room-nights associated with your itinerary.

3. What if I found lower rates than yours on another site before booking through you?

First, make sure it is for the same hotel, the same room type, the same number of people and the same dates, and that your information is up to date; meaning, that you are comparing against rates you saw today. Second, check for their service fees, which are often hidden within the room tax and not displayed until just before final booking (we do not charge service fees). Then contact us right away. Tell us the web site name where you found the lower rates. We will verify the information and if indeed we find our total cost to you is higher, we will do everything we can to adjust our rates so booking with us is to your benefit. If, on the other hand, we can't adjust our rates, we will advise you properly, i.e., "Book it."

4. What if I find lower rates than yours on another site after I book through you?

If within 24 hours after booking your hotel reservation through us, and if your arrival date is greater than 30-days from right now, and you find a lower rate on another site: (1) Make sure it is for the same hotel, the same room type, the same number of people and the same dates. (2) Check for their service fees, which are often hidden within the room tax (we do not charge service fees). (3) Contact us right away. Tell us the web site name where you found the lower rates, your itinerary, the hotel name and room type. We will verify the information and if we find our total cost to you is higher, we will credit your account the difference, or cancel your reservation without penalty if we can't offer a credit, at your option. Note: This does not apply during holiday, convention or special event periods.

5. How can I be sure I'm paying the lowest rate?

See #3 and #4 above. Otherwise, unless you shop-until-you-drop every hotel and every travel site on the Internet, of which there are thousands ... you can't be 100% sure. Why? Because it is impossible to predict what every supplier or every hotel is going to do, rightly or wrongly, every moment of every day for every room type in existence at every hotel in the world. What we do is contract with hotels far in advance and negotiate the lowest cost for every room type, for every day of the year. We then sell our inventory to the open market for a price. The sell price then is key to ensuring the rate you pay is less than the rate you would pay if you booked your reservation directly through the hotel or through any other source. Thus are you paying a discount rate for your room. The savings to you can be up to 75% or more off the hotels rack rate.

6. Why don't you offer a "Lowest Rate Guarantee" like all the other major reservation web sites on the Internet?

Because we don't participate in deception or manipulation. Read any claim of 'lowest rate guarantee.' There is where you will find all the disclaimers and convoluted back-peddling imaginable. In fact, it makes you wonder why they even said it, especially sense they put the entire effort on you to search all the other web sites (many of which they own or are affiliates of theirs offering exactly the same thing anyway). How many people have that kind of time? The fact is, those who claim it don't want you to read it, they just want you to believe it, like saying something over and over again until it becomes true. But if you do read it, they don't want you to really understand it, because if you really do understand it you will see what it really guarantees—not much. And then you might ask the rhetorical question: 'Why are you trying to manipulate me?' The fact is, the Internet is all about instant gratification. We are always going to try to satisfy that gratification instantly, but we're not going to deceive or manipulate. See #3 and #4 above.

7. Why don't you handle all hotels in the world like some of the other large hotel reservation companies?

Have you noticed all the T.V. ads those guys have running 24/7? Is there anywhere on the Internet, in the papers or magazines where your not bombarded with it? Have you noticed the major search engines tend to favor those big spenders too? Those ads are not free. Who do you think pays for it all? You do. Still believe in lowest rate guarantees? They have the same net rates from the same hotels we handle. But those companies didn't become major players by not spending millions on advertising and software. They became major players by spending all those millions to make you believe it's all for free.

8. How does your service differ from all the rest?

We are a lean company able to offer the best services for the cities we handle compared to any other reservations service in the world. Period. We keep it real and we keep our prices low because we are small. Those other larger guys cannot compete with us in either regard. Why? Because they're too big. It is a basic axiom of organizational dynamics that says when you add layer upon layer of complexity to an operation you may gain sales, but your costs increase exponentially, and your ability to provide quality personal services drops exponentially, plus the number of human errors you have to deal with increases exponentially. The fundamental service of this business is to make hotel reservations. It's ain't free, but it ain't rocket science either. Being the "Biggest" is all about ego and the money needed to feed it. No thanks, we'd rather be the best at what we do than the biggest egos in town. What would you prefer?