travelnews: TRAVEL TIPS: How to do a Hotel search

[BAO news for travel administrators]

Good Afternoon Travel Coordinators:

Have you ever needed to book a hotel that is sold out?  Or a hotel is suggested to your traveler that is well over allowable per diem?  Or maybe your traveler is going to a workshop, or university and needs to stay in a hotel nearby, but you aren't sure what choices might be available.

Today's Travel Tips discusses an easy way to quickly check prices and availability for a large number of hotels.  No need to pick up the phone!  First locate the street address of the sold out hotel, workshop or university.

Next go to Hotels.com http://www.hotels.com/ and type in the street address.  Put in the correct dates, number of rooms and how many guests.

The next screen allows you to fine tune your search.  If you have a per diem allowance, limit the search to 2-3 stars.  The resulting search appears in order of distance to your address.  You can further define the search:

*         High to Low pricing or Low to High pricing

*         "Distance to City Center" which lists landmarks in the area

*         Ratings:  you can select "Favorites" which gives you best sellers, "Star Rating" for industry rankings or "Guest Rating" based on guest reviews

You can either book on this site, call your travel agent, or call the hotel reservations department to make a reservation.  Keep in mind that the prices you see are discounted when not touched by a reservations person.  You may pay a bit more for human assistance.

Pretty easy right?  Here is a more complicated scenario:  Your traveler is flying to meetings in two locations about an hour's drive apart.  How do you determine where they should stay?

Find the two addresses either from a search engine or from the meeting host.   Go to Mapquest http://www.mapquest.com/ and look up directions from one meeting location to the other.

Let's say they are about 45 miles apart and one city allows IRS Low City per diem and the other IRS High City per diem.    Use the  Hotels.com address search discussed above to run a search for each address, checking hotel options and pricing.

What should you consider?  Where is your traveler doing most of their business?  What are the transportation options between the two points - train, air, rental car?  How close are the hotels choices to the meeting address? What other costs may be associated with the lodging location choice - parking, road tolls, taxi  expense, and is breakfast included?

The answers to these questions will help you select the best lodging option for your traveler.  You might find that the suburban Low City option may not only save money, but might land you a nicer hotel versus a "lesser" hotel at the High City per diem.

Happy Travels!

Laurie Jacoby, CTC
Travel Manager
Business Affairs Office
University of Oregon
lajacoby at uoregon.edu<mailto:lajacoby at uoregon.edu>
541-346-3158 - Voice
541-346-8078 - Travel Fax


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