Booking hotel through ship or independently

[Monty'sMomandDad]

Trying to figure out if I should book my hotel through RCCL or independently. Rccl is charging almost double that of the hotel's website. (Hotel Regina) Are there hidden direct booking hotel charges? Thanks, I am a newbie to European cruising.

[riffatsea]

Just book the hotel on the web site like you would do for a hotel in the USA!

There should not be any hidden fees. In fact your credit card should just be used to hold the room and you will pay when you arrive. Read the rates carefully as sometimes the web site has specials and you have to click on them to get them.

IF the rate is one where you have to pre pay then it will tell you that also. Many times it is not necessary to take the rate with breakfast as that may make it extra expensive but of course if your family are BIG breakfast eaters it may be easier for you.

DON'T book transfers through the cruise line either!!! Normal taxi prices will be just fine when you are there.

[D&N LUV 2 TRAVEL]

Do it yourself as Riffatsea suggested. Check the current price on the hotel's website and then go to roll calls from previous cruisers for the same time of year and see what kind of prices they paid and you can use that as a bench mark. Just make sure you can cancel and rebook if necessary.

In my situation for next Sept the hotel quoted me initially 216 E a night and it is now at 140 E a night and people paid this past Sept 105 to 113 E per night.

 

Trying to figure out if I should book my hotel through RCCL or independently. Rccl is charging almost double that of the hotel's website. (Hotel Regina) Are there hidden direct booking hotel charges? Thanks' date=' I am a newbie to European cruising.[/quote']

[cruiseluv]

The so called hotel "packages" from the cruise lines are a big rip off. Find a hotel you like in Europe and book it through their website or via e-mail. There is no big mystery to reserving hotels in Europe. What city are you looking for, Barcelona?

[Monty'sMomandDad]

The so called hotel "packages" from the cruise lines are a big rip off. Find a hotel you like in Europe and book it through their website or via e-mail. There is no big mystery to reserving hotels in Europe. What city are you looking for, Barcelona?

 

Yes, Barcelona end of May. RCCL had us at the Regina which I have since canceled per everyones suggestions. The hotel does seem to be nice though. Thanks

[KirkNC]

Having seen the up charge on your hotel you can now imagine the amount the cruise line makes on excursions and airport transfers. One of my favorite examples is in Florence where HAL wanted $99/pp for a bus ride to the edge of downtown Florence when a 5 minute walk to the train station and a $9 train ticket put you one block away from the Duomo :eek:.

 

Kirk

[cruiseluv]

The location of Regina is good. It gets mixed reviews on Tripadvisor. I have stayed at the Atrium Palace , a couple of blocks from Plaza Catalunya. I liked it at the time (2008) but have recently read mixed reviews. If you do a search on this forum you will find many hotel recommendations for Barcelona.

[financialgrl]

Now that you've already booked, for future use remember that booking hotels thru the cruiseline usually costs a couple hundred dollars per person. Booking the hotel directly you will pay so much per room for two people. Same with cab rides - it's per ride to the pier, not per person. Cruiseline hotel rooms/transfers will be on someone else's schedule and it usually involves a group of people that need to meet at a certain place at a certain time for a ride to the ship and there is always some inconsiderate person holding up everyone else.

[wcook]

There should not be any hidden fees.

Excellent advice all around. I just want to point out that if you pay a foreign hotel directly with your credit card, you card may charge you a small foreign transaction fee. Capital One is the only major card I know that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees.

 

Of course, the fee is a pittance compared to the cruise line markup, I just don't want it to be a surprise.

[D&N LUV 2 TRAVEL]

Check travel sites that charge in Cdn or US $'s. Expedia was the best site for us booking a room in Venice for next Sept. They charged me in Cdn $'s and when I did the conversion at the time I was saving 13% versus what the Euro was costing at the time.

 

 

Excellent advice all around. I just want to point out that if you pay a foreign hotel directly with your credit card, you card may charge you a small foreign transaction fee. Capital One is the only major card I know that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees.

 

Of course, the fee is a pittance compared to the cruise line markup, I just don't want it to be a surprise.

[riffatsea]

You should always inform your credit card company and your ATM card bank that you will be traveling to Europe.

You should familiarize yourself with the fees they charge for ATM withdrawals and for foreign conversion fees when you pay in euros.

I always pay in euros at the hotel because I have no idea what sort of currency price these web sites might give me.

I will have to research more to see if D&N LUV 2 Travel's experience is generally true or if it was a one time sort of fluke that they got a better exchange rate.

It is an interesting idea??

[cruiseluv]

Just be aware that with some of these booking sites you have to prepay and there are cancelation penalties. Unless I'm booking close to the trip I like to have the flexibility of being able to cancel until right before the trip.

[Hlitner]

We have had a lot of good luck using Venere.com for European and Asian hotel bookings (they are like the European Expedia) and like the fact that you can pull-up maps that show all the hotel locations. In some cases they also seem to have terrific prices.

 

Hank

[cruisemom42]

I would also like to point out that in my experience, you will often find the best rate by emailing the hotel directly, rather than going through a travel website. Unfortunately, this seems to be less true of Spain than Italy and France.

 

All of the major US booking sites (expedia, hotels.com, etc) do charge a small fee in addition to the hotel rate. Venere.com does not.

 

So I suggest, if saving money is important, that you investigate all avenues before booking and don't forget to email the hotel directly -- I have often gotten better rates than even those shown on the hotel's own website.

[jotabecu]

Most of the time I book through Venere or bookings.com and when I check the hotel sites it is often more expensive.

That has been my experience.

[hubofhockey]

Hotel Regina offers its best rates directly on their website. There is no need to go to other websites or through cruiselines.

[Hlitner]

We do actually agree with the previous posts. We will often do a search on Venere (we love their map options) and find a few hotels and prices. We then check directly with the hotel (via their web site or e-mail) and compare the rates. Low price gets our business. This sounds complicated but probably does not take more then 15 min of our time.

 

Hank

[UKBayern]

Most booking sites charge the hotels in Europe commission fees of 10% up to 25%. Expedia/Hotels.com is the big one, and the customer also pre-pays, which leads to the hotel having to wait up to 6 weeks after departure to get its money. Hotels have to be on Expedia to attract American guests, but of course are not happy about the fees. If you see a hotel you like on Expedia, send the hotel an email direct and just plainly say "I know you have to pay Expedia a lot if I book there, can we do a deal direct?" Most hotels will do you a deal, give you a free upgrade or throw in a free breakfast or whatever. At the very least you do not end up in the smallest room.

 

Venere.com is an Italian website that has recently been taken over by Expedia, but up to now charges the hotels less. You do have the reliability of a big organization. They are especially big in Italy. For Europe, you can also try Booking.com. If you are looking for a reasonably priced hotel, you can also look at budgetplaces.com. They are Spanish and have simple hotels up to 3 stars. They also have great travel films and tips on Barcelona on their site.

 

NEVER book on a website that charges YOU booking fees/administration fees or whatever, as mentioned by cruisemom. You can rest assured that the hotel also has to pay commission in the same percentage range as they would to all the other free booking sites. It is just a double rip-off, and does not have any extra advantage for the guest.

 

The rates on a hotel website are often the same as on travel website, because that is in our contracts: we are not allowed to underbid Expedia, Venere, Booking.com or whoever. That however does not mean that the same rate is applicable if you email or call, especially if it is low season or the hotel can fill a gap inbetween 2 other reservations you might get a better deal.

[riffatsea]

I did not know that Expedia had bought Venere.

The difference is on Venere you do NOT pre pay!

I also use Venere to search and then go to the hotel web site.

I have never found better prices on Venere than on the hotel site itself. I rarely find better prices on Expedia either.

Maybe I am just not looking at the right time?

[iancal]

We book with the hotel chain web site whenever possible and we monitor the prices for changes. We find that that have a much better chance of a room upgrade when we do this rather than booking through one of the web booking sites. We also use Priceline, Hotwire, and Laterooms.

 

If you are there over a weekend, many of the large hotels frequented by business people often have great specials for weekend stays. We got a fabulous deal at an Nh hotel...so good in fact that we swithed hotels to go there for three nights of our our five night stay.

[Andym]

We always use hotelscomparison.com A quick search for AC Diplomatic (Barcelona) for 13 May for 1 night gives

 

116.70 euros Quick Rooms - includes breakfast

118.86 euros Alpha Rooms - includes breakfast

199.80 euros Venere - No breakfast

 

Then on Expedia

199 euros Expedia - No breakfast

 

Then Hotel direct

199 euros Hotel website direct - No breakfast

 

I know which I'll be booking

 

Andy

[riffatsea]

On hotel web sites in Spain they have "special offers" listed separately and you have to click on them to see them and to see the lower prices.

IF you do that you will find an early booking rate for the AC Diplomatic that includes breakfast.

They also have a guarantee on their home page that says you will find the "lowest " prices if you book through them sooo

IF you don't fine their "special rates" and you find a lower rate on a 3 rd party web site you can e-mail the hotel and ask them to honor it.

You may end up with a nicer room if you do it that way.

[iancal]

riffatsea...absolutely correct. More often than not the better prices are listed seperately. We usually check several chains inclunding Nh, Melia, Sofitel, and one other that I cannot remember. I know from people in the business that the hotels are much more likely to upgrade, or respond to an upgrade request (we always ask) if the room has been booked directly with them or their reservation center. We belong to a few of European frequent sleeper hotel programs and this seems to help as well. It is also helpful to understand if the breakfast is continental or full buffet.

 

More than once, after making a reservation, we have phoned the hotel on the day of arrival and asked the desk what their best rate is. Sometimes this rate is better than any special on the web so we change to this. No downside to this practice. We do the same at home.

[UKBayern]

I know from people in the business that the hotels are much more likely to upgrade, or respond to an upgrade request (we always ask) if the room has been booked directly with them or their reservation center.

 

Ummm...just a hint from somebody "in the business": I know it is quite normal in the States to just ask for an upgrade, but it can really rub hotel staff in some European countries the wrong way sometimes. Especially if the room you would like to be upgraded to was advertised to you at the moment of booking, the staff will think "what a nerve, he wants it free, but does not want to pay for it", and will give the upgrade to somebody else.

[iancal]

I hear you on the upgrade issue. We never ask for an upgrade per sae, we phrase it in another way. To date, when checking into of the large hotel chains (something we do very infrequently on vacation since we much prefer the smaller, family run establishments) we have found that Meridien and Hilton are the best for good upgrades.