Travel sites the same?

[Cappaccinodagreat]

I normally book my hotel stays directly through the hotel itself, or once in a while, priceline (name your price). So, those of you with experience using independent travel sites, help me out here.

Seems that when I look up my dates, I get 99% the exact same hotel rates on expedia, hotels.com, travelocity, bookit & travelnow. With the exception of bonuses like, coupon books, drink coupons, meal credit or club passes, the rates are the same.

I never use these sites to actually book, just to compare, because I hate having to pay it all months in advance, and not being able to make changes or get a refund if needed.

So those that use these sites, are they all the same? Pulling rates and info from the same database? Is either of them known to produce lower rates?

[GP7787]

I never use these sites to actually book, just to compare

This is exactly what I use them for unless they have a crazy rate that I can't pass up. I actually booked using Expedia recently to secure a good deal and was able to cancel without any fee( found a better deal through Cosmo itself).

I have found that when Expedia, Hotels.com and any other travel site has a sale it usually translates to a sale through the hotel itself unless it's a Hotwire style sale.

[BBB]

I've found bookit.com to have the best deals. They often have deals that are exclusive to their site.

[zed65]

I've used everything from booking directly, to travel sites, HotelsTonight, AirBnB, and Priceline. If you're thinking about Hotwire, this is a gem: the Hotwire Hotel List for Vegas, it's worth checking out to help you identify your hotel. It's essentially a list of hotels known to be on Hotwire as reported / shared by travellers.

Basically, my recommendation is to look around because prices can very quite significantly from one source to another.

[gamepube]

In my experience finding a promotion through broadwaybox or smartervegas and booking through the hotel almost always beats third party sites. Plus you have the ability to change/cancel your reservations after only putting down a deposit. I always make sure to check casino promotions for any clubs that I am a member of, even if you are not a big gambler you stand a decent chance of getting a casino rate or a mid-week comp if it's a slow week.
I use sites like expedia and travelocity as a barometer when I am interested in getting a birds-eye view of a specific weekend or time frame.