Has anyone used the travel site - otel.com

[Fear The Spear]

I never heard of this company, until they came up as the lowest hotel rate, in a search through the trivago website.
I then did a search of customer reviews on them, and found some very mixed results.
Has anyone here had experience using this particular travel site ?
And that's not a typo - it's actually spelled otel.com

If not, which site do you prefer, when booking hotels ?

 

[Miles Monroe]

I tend to use Trip Adviser to find what I'm looking for, then compare pricing on travelocity and expedia. Then I book the best deal I can. The last trip I planned was to Italy, and booked everything directly, as the big sites didn't have the rooms or dates I needed. The prices were as good if not better then the big travel sites.

Trip Adviser seems to cater to British tourists who tend to be... lets say... a bit fussy at times Ya just really need to shop it around. Even years ago, we booked our honeymoon directly, and were able to get exactly what we wanted instead the normal package deal disney cruise. In that case, we did pay about 250$ more then the package, but If ya saw the state room we had, you'd agree it was worth it.

 

[Fear The Spear]

Yea, Trip Advisor is definitely my go-to place for reviews, when trying to decide on a place. They have thorough, and seemingly accurate and un-biased reviews, for the most part.
I just havn't yet settled on which place to do the booking, for the best service and best price.

 

[Miles Monroe]

I use them for more then reviews, and use the direct links to the hotels to get pricing, then compare. The big travel sites get blocks of rooms and dates, and are pretty much locked in, and not always getting the best price for you. Booking direct gives the flexibility and control. It's saved us thousands over the years.

Don't understand why people are apprehensive to book directly, and feel the need to use one of the "big travel" sites.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

I'd avoid gimmick sites like 'otel.com' and stick with established, respected sites. If there's a problem with your reservation, you may never be able to contact anyone from that site.

Pete is right about direct booking also - you can save a ton of money. Usually online is the best deals, but sometimes if you even call their booking centers, they can give you really good rates if you are nice. And most of the time they'll tell you if you can get a better rate through their website.

 

[Fear The Spear]

Don't understand why people are apprehensive to book directly, and feel the need to use one of the "big travel" sites.

Only because I'm booking at a small hotel, that's actually behind in technology, and they don't even have a website.
So, I like the security and convenience of getting an immediate confirmation by using a big travel site.

 

[Miles Monroe]

Only because I'm booking at a small hotel, that's actually behind in technology, and they don't even have a website.
So, I like the security and convenience of getting an immediate confirmation by using a big travel site.

Understood.