Hotel Deals?

I have never heard of that site before - thanks. I use skyscanner, travel supermarket, and anything and everything that will give me a discount voucher on topcashback, etc. I do a lot of crosschecking of sites before I ever book anything. Have heard Holiday pirates are good, but I don't have the patience to find ut if the deals are still available or not, as it's not always available by the time I get to it

Use any you like, then check if you're getting the best price here: http://hotelscomparison.com/

This is an independent hotels comparison service that checks and compares prices on lots of travel sites automatically.

Then it's worth contacting the hotel direct and seeing if they will match, or improve on, whatever deal you have found.

I have found that when there's a problem with your hotel room on arrival, (dirty, smelly, no sea view etc) if you have booked direct the hotel will make a lot more effort to put it right than if you have booked through an agent, and you will usually get moved to a better room pronto, with a smile.

Also large hotels tend to reserve the best rooms in each room category for their own direct bookings.

If you chat in a friendly way to the hotel reservations staff and ask for their advice about what room to choose and why, you'll often strike gold. This room is a bit larger than most and has a balcony, this one doesn't, the sixth floor rooms are above the treeline and have a fabulous seaview, the fifth floor rooms are the same price but the view is obscured by trees...and so on.

Some online booking agents like Superbreak and Agoda have deals with credit card companies (e.g Mastercard / Visa) and banks (e.g. HSBC) where you can get an extra 7-15% off their published online prices. Also it's worth investigating if you are eligible for hotel booking discounts by virtue of being a customer of your home buildings or contents insurer (such as Legal & General).

For holidays further afield another trick is to book hotels direct with package operators like Kuoni or Premier Holidays (listed in their Worldwide brochures) as very often they have '8 nights for the price of 5' type deals, or free breakfast when you stay a minimum of 3 nights type deals - and buy your flights separately. This can often work out cheaper than buying online through expedia, booking.com etc.

It can also be worthwhile paying to join hotel chain frequent users programs such as AccorPlus or Hilton Premium Club - which will typically get you one free hotel night, cheaper room deals, and 50% off dining in the hotel.

I'm a big fan of LuxuryEscapes - a free to join members club (based in Australia). Which often has excellent package deals for hotels without flights.

If you sign up, my top tip is to let their computer think you are living in Australia - you'll get more email offers that way. Luxury Escapes don't care where you live, but their email server seems to!