When looking for great deals on hotel rooms, many people point their Internet browsers to the "big three" online travel agencies — Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity. But there are some other little-known Web sites that are worth bookmarking.
Groople (www.groople.com) helps groups get away at great rates by booking rooms (and other travel products) in bulk. It stands out from other booking services, which typically limit the number of rooms you can book at once. Expedia restricts you to three rooms, for example, and Orbitz allows only two. Travelocity uses Groople to book reservations of five or more rooms.
Luxury Link (www.luxurylink.com) offers discounted prices on stays at upscale hotels and resorts. A recent example: three nights for two at the PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. The best price at www.pgaresort.com was $1,119, but Luxury Link had it for $629.
The site also offers many packages weekly by online auction. You can hunt by destination and travel month. One downside to all of the deals at Luxury Link is that you must be flexible about your travel dates — which you pick from a limited range after you pay.
Quikbook (www.quikbook.com) covers only about 1,000 hotels, mostly upscale, in 74 cities. Using Quikbook became easier in 2004 with the introduction of a "search by neighborhood" option. Another perk: Any deal that you must prepay is marked "Prepay" on first sight.
For example, a $195 room at San Francisco's Campton Place was recently marked "Pay When You Stay," instead of "Prepay." Travelocity.com offered the same room for $250, and it did not clearly say up-front that you had to prepay to book its rate.
Sidestep (www.sidestep.com) baldly rips off the rates offered on most of the sites you might otherwise visit (plus dozens more) and automatically lists them from lowest to highest. Copycat Web sites, such as Kayak, Mobissimo and Qixo, also turn up deals, but they search fewer sources.
TripAdvisor (www.tripadvisor.com) is the best site we've found for reviewing and rating hotels. The site traffics in reviews from travel professionals, such as Fodor's, and ordinary customers. It also lets you find rates at specific hotels by searching many online agencies simultaneously. Plus, travelers use its message boards to swap tips on countries from Albania to Zimbabwe.