Should I buy at a website offering Cheap Hotel Rates
A lot of people out there do not understand how these website offer cheap hotel rates online, even cheaper than the hotel. How do these sites work and is the hotel rate really cheap or is it just a ploy to get your business?
I can tell you, because I own one of the sites, that the cheap hotel rates you find on these sites are real. There are several factors that go into why the sites are able to sell the hotel at a cheaper rate than the hotel itself.
The main reason we are able to offer such cheap hotel rates is because we buy in bulk. We promise to fill a certain number of rooms every night to a hotel. We do hae some special methods to predict what kind of rooms we will need. We look at things like special events, when people travel, and other factors to decide how many rooms our site will book.
We then enter into a contract with the hotel and have them reserve our rooms. For assuring them that we are going to fill them they offer us a large discount off of the rooms. This discount brings us to what is known as the wholesale rate, a rate given to suppliers of lodging not available to the public. This rate is even lower than the cheap hotel rates we display on our site.
We then add a markup to the rates, so that we make money, and sell it to you less than you could get it from the hotel. Since we pay up front for the rooms, these cheap hotel rates are only available to you if you are willing to do the same. This is simply because we have prepurchased the rooms at the wholesale rate up front from the hotel.
There is no catch to these websites besides prepayment. More and more properties these days are charging a deposit up front anyway to hold the room. So if you want to save a lot of money then you can buy in advance with these websites. Most of the sites offering cheap hotel rates will match a competitors price anyway. This is because we all want customers and market share and hope to build loyal customers.
Tags: Beach Vacation, california, condos, Florida, hotel, las vegas, Spring Break, travel, vacation, Vacation Homes, Vacations
January 27 2009 07:33 am | Vacations