Online Travel Assistance

Taking a trip? No matter where you're going, there are at least a dozen online companies that will get you there. I usually use a travel agent; Justin Hall at UniGlobe travel. No matter what anyone says, travel agents have access to information the rest of us don't, and they're willing to slog through piles of stuff in order to find that good deal.

But I usually fly on trips, and this time we were driving.

First to Monterey, where we would stay one night and visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium, then on to Disneyland. Five days at the resort, and we would drive back north and stay one night at San Simeon and visit Hearst Castle. There were five of us.

So we divided up the browsing chores, and went to work. Maika found us a two-bedroom suite with a sofabed alcove at The Desert Palms Hotel for a great price. We got five-day passes to Disneyland for the price of three days, during their special Christmas promotion.

I started to look for a reasonable hotel in Monterey. It's an expensive area, but I was determined. I started with hotels.com, simply because I'd recently seen one of their commercials on television. They found me the Days Inn for a great price -- less than $60 a night per room. Then I decided to try some of the others. Maika swore by Travelocity, so I tried them. But Travelocity didn't have anything in the same price range; they offered a page full of choices, but none of them as good as the Days Inn...their quote for a Super 8 was higher! I've never stayed at a Super 8 and don't plan to in the future.

Priceline.com has a strange system -- you can't choose your hotel. You put in your destination and the dates you want to stay, your price range and then, before they will tell you what hotel has been chosen for you, you are required to give your credit card information. And once you've done that, you are obligated to the choice they've made for you. The spectre of the

Super 8 raised itself in my mind once again...

HotWire hsa the same system...I wonder how popular it is to buy a hotel stay without knowing which hotel you'll be staying at?

After I had booked our hotel in Monterey, we changed our overnight stay to San Luis Obispo, another hour south, so we could visit friends in Cambria. hotels.com came up with The Rose Garden Inn in Pismo Beach, Santa Maria or San Luis Obispo. Our first choice, Santa Maria, was sold out due to that weekend in December being the end-of-semester parties at the university. But they had space at the Rose Garden Inn in San Luis Obispo; a room with two double beds for $59.00 a night or two queens for $69.00 a night.

I checked Expedia, and they offered the same hotel starting at $114.00 a night! Proof positive that it really pays to check more than one site.

I was able to cancel the original reservation for Monterey and book the new room in San Luis Obispo with no problem whatsoever. So for this investigation, hotels.com won the gold star.