There are lots of travel sites and travel engines, all claiming in their commercials to provide you the best rates on hotels - Expedia, Hotels.com, Trivago, Kayak, Priceline, etc. (all by the way, which we have specials linked to on our site, www.mybetterbenefits.org/profilestravel.htm ). Were you aware, however, that they are all owned at the back end by two major players (one company controls 65%+ of the market) and they all draw from the same database? What rates are presented first on the sites are merely a function of the commission business structure of that particular search engine.
Over time, we've promoted one entity over all others to our membership and their families and friends - HotelPlanner. It's not a big name in the business; they don't advertise but instead work with organizations like ours to promote the best travel deals. It keeps their commission structure low, which means lower rates to you, and their database of 800,000+ hotels worldwide far exceeds that of the other players who focus on venues that provide them higher rates of return.
You can search by location and price point as you do with the others but you can also search by hotel brand if you're loyal, say, to Hilton Honors or Marriott Rewards. We've found them to consistently offer the best rates, the greatest # of options, and great back in, U.S. based customer service.
And yes, HotelPlanner shares with us a small commission on completed bookings. And as a charitable not-for-profit supporting underserved children in the communities we operate in, a portion of that goes right back into making things better where you live.
Posted by Tami Mitchell and John Brian Mount
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