Best hotel search engines reviewed

Posted on March 23rd, 2012. Written by bookingbusinesstravel.

Several new hotel booking companies have emerged online and we review a selection here.

We’ve considered three questions:

Is the website quick, friendly and easy to use?
How many hotels are featured?
Are the rates competitive?

We searched for hotels in some obscure European towns to compare content major cities to compare actual hotel rates

The first two companies are “Hotel Booking Agents”. That is, they sell hotel accommodation.
The third and fourth companies compare rates from over 50 hotel booking agents and then you are free to make your choice.

Roomkey

A good name for a hotel booking engine and the site is quick but when we searched for hotels in smaller towns, only one or two hotels were offered, whilst as fifteen options are provided by our recommended search engine. Hotels featured appear to be those of the major international chains only.

BBT summary: A nice site but lacking in content

Tingo

From Tripadvisor, Tingo offers to refund your credit card if the price drops. That sounds like a good idea but…
Patterns of travel bookings nowadays are to book at fairly short notice. The price-drop feature would only be meaningful if you booked well in advance, allowing sufficient time for any reductions to take place,
Also, the price-drop offer doesn’t apply to all the hotels room types.
And how do you know that you have the best rate in the first place? You’d need to use our recommended comparison site.
Rates are displayed in USD and the prices excluded taxes and fees until selected on a subsequent page, which makes comparison difficult. We found some hotel rates to be competitive but not all, because we believe that the rates offered come from just one company, Expedia. For that reason, only 4-5 hotels were offered when we know that 15+ exist

BBT Summary – A novel concept but lacking in substance and content.

Hotelicopter

A slick website when it works, Earlier today we took a look and found that the site lacked content in Europe. It appears to be more US centred but claims to have 160,000 hotels in its database. We have tried a more detailed review but the search form is not responding when we try various cities. We’ll take another look tomorrow.

HotelsCombined

We feature this company on our hotel search page. The reason for our choice is not based on the website design so much as the accuracy of the information, the range of hotels and sheer number of hotel booking agents offered.

The site “it does what it says on the tin” It searches all the relevant sites, hotel booking agents and the major hotel chains.
Even in obscure towns e.g. Liberec in Czech Republic, a selection of all 20+ hotels and quality pensions are offered.

We have corporate clients who use this search engine every day and we frequently hear of the savings they are achieving.
I personally saved over £200 booking an all-inclusive resort in Morocco, despite working for a travel agency at the time!

Frequently, availability is found even when the hotel itself has sold out of rooms. This is because some of the agents featured hold “room allocations” This can be essential to business travellers.

Another plus is there is usually a choice of payment in advance, (preferred by holiday makers) or pay at check-out (preferred by Business Travellers, providing additional flexibility) Several companies allow you to hold a room and cancel without charge. A real bonus.

BBT Summary: The best search engine for content, rates and availability. Try the site here and save the webpage to your favourites.

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