Accomodation - Its All Here

Jet Luxury Resorts

We used Jet Luxury Resorts for the first time a few weeks ago for a stay at the Trump SOHO in NYC. Their prices are definitely better than most other sites, including “flash sale” sites, like Vacationist, Luxury Link, etc. Another advantage Jet has is that you don’t need to “prepay” for your reservation. Your credit card is only charged three days prior to your arrival date, giving you plenty of time to cancel prior to your trip. The inventory of rooms they have at each of their offered locations are somewhat limited, so if you find availability on their site for dates you’re looking to travel, book quickly. Since Jet has specific rooms at each property, you’ll actually be assigned a room number when you book. That’s unique compared to other booking sites.

Before our arrival, we did have to make a change in our reservation. On our first couple attempts to reach them at their 800 number, we were placed into the automated answering loop. The next day, we tried again and reached a live person on the second ring. While they were very helpful, the agents don’t sound like the company image Jet wants to project.

When we did arrive at the hotel, there was a problem with one of our reservations. While we had booked for three nights, the hotel desk reservation indicated we were staying only one night. Because of Jet’s special relationship with each property, it’s Jet that handles all of the payment and booking and passes that information along to the hotels front desk for check-in. In our case, the information wasn’t transmitted correctly. Only then did we find out that the front desk couldn’t help us. They indicated they were only going by the information they received and we would have to call Jet to resolve the issue. We were checking in at 10:30PM ET and Jet’s help and reservation line closes at 10PM ET. We thought for sure we were out of luck and wouldn’t be able to resolve the issue until the next day. Not something you want to deal with while you’re on vacation. Luckily, someone was still at Jet and answered the phone. To their credit, the person immediately phoned the hotel and within about 10 minutes the problem was resolved.

This is probably our only main complaint. If there’s an issue with your booking and you’re checking in after hours, you may be out of luck and getting it resolved until the next business day. in our opinion. they definitely need to offer a 24 hour problem resolution line.

Overall, we were pleased with Jet Luxury Resorts and we’d use them again. If they can get their act together a bit more on their reservation line and make sure assistance is available 24/7/365, we’d give them 5 stars instead of 4.

Vacationist & Luxury Link

Specialty: Both sites owned by Travel & Leisure, LuxuryLink is an “auction-style” discount site and Vacationist is similar to Jetsetter and others, where you have discounts for a short period of time.

Website: www.luxurylink.com and www.vacationist.com

LuxuryLink has been around for a few years, where Vacationist started just a few months ago. Both sides offer upscale hotels at discount prices. LuxuryLink takes an “auction style” approach where you bid for the deal they’re offering. Their deals also tend to be longer periods (think a 5 to 7 day stay), and you have to give three alternative dates for travel. If you’re looking for a very specific date, that may or may not be good. LL also tends to offer more “package” type trips. This is great if you want your airfare, hotel and activities all rolled into one price. Vacationist is more traditional where you have a great price for a limited amount of time. They tend to have a wide variety of properties in a wide variety of locations. A bit more so than other similar sites. We’ve used LuxuryLink before and haven’t had any issues. We haven’t had the opportunity to give Vacationist a try.

Upside: A chance to book a 4 or 5 star vacation or hotel for a great price.

Downside: Minimum stay and date stay restrictions on Luxury Link.

Travelzoo

Specialty: Limited time deals on airfare, hotels, vacation packages, cruises and entertainment around the globe.

Website: www.travelzoo.com

We’ve used Travelzoo almost since the day we began traveling together. We’ve booked many deals listed on their website (mostly hotels) and have never had any issues and have always been very pleased. Every week, Travelzoo lists their Top 20 deals, but you can also search the site by location and what you’re looking for (hotel,airfare,etc.). When you subscribe to their newsletter, you’ll get notified once a week (usually on Wednesday) when new deals are announced. When you get two of your friends to sign up for their newsletter with your invitation, you’ll become a VIP member which allows you early access to deals before they send out their weekly announcement.

Travelzoo has deals in all price ranges, categories and destinations. We’ve saved a lot of money over the years using the deals they’ve advertised. One thing we have learned is that when a deal comes out, jump on it. Their deals can sell out quickly and sometimes they last only a matter of days.

Upside: Great deals that are hard to match elsewhere. For hotel deals, you don’t always have to prepay as you do on other sites.

Downside: Deals go fast, so you can’t delay. For some destinations, there can be a “deal drought” for a few weeks without any specials.

Home Away

Specialty: Similar to VRBO, house, apartment, condo and flat rentals for your vacation.

Website: www.homeaway.com

We’ve never used Home Away, but it’s certainly another website worth checking out if you’re thinking about renting something when you travel. We’ve left it unrated, but utilize it as another resource in your search for a place to stay.

Home Away has a much better presentation of rental properties than VRBO. Searching is essentially the same, however you’ll find many more photos for each property, as well as a map and much better property details. If a property has reviews, you’ll also find those listed as well.

Upside: Very detailed information about each listed property, along with numerous photos.

Downside: If you inquire about a property, Home Away automatically uses your email address for it’s own marketing purposes.

VRBO

Specialty: Homes, apartments, flats and condo’s worldwide that you can rent for your vacation.

Website: www.vrbo.com

We’ve used VRBO several times, both for domestic and international vacation rentals. We’ve had great luck each and every time. Renting houses or flats make sense for longer stays and for larger groups. It also allows you to “live like a local” and have a much better travel experience. VRBO is simply a listing service, so for the actual rental transaction, you’ll be dealing directly with the owners of the property. Searches are easy. You can search by country, region or city. Each property listing usually has a few photos of each property, the price per stay and a calendar of availability.

Many places on VRBO have minimum rental periods. Some also charge cleaning fees, so make sure you factor in all of the charges into your planning. Reviews can be hard to find for some properties, so double check with search engines to see if you can find feedback on the properties your considering. Remember, you’re dealing direct with property owners, so always make sure listings are legitimate before sending money.

Upside: Renting a house or flat gives you more room to spread out and enjoy living like a local.

Downside: Longer rental periods than hotels and it may be more difficult to find reviews.

Snique Away

Specialty: Great deals and deep discounts on hotels & resorts via limited time sales.

Website: www.sniqueaway.com

Snique Away is a new player in the business of providing 4 and 5 star accommodations at rock-bottom pricing. What makes Snique Away unique, is that it offers only hotels and resorts that are highly rated on TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor’s ratings are driven by real travelers who have stayed at each property. Snique Away is an “invitation-only” website, similar to Jetsetter and Vacationist. An advantage to sites like this is that hotels can promote “rock bottom” deals, without having the general public be aware of them. Snique Away, at least at this point, tends to have fewer deals rotating each week. We have noticed, however, that their deal availability tends to have a slightly longer window, giving you more time to make a decision. As with all of the “invitation-only” sites, you have to prepay for your stay and you can’t reschedule or get a refund. But, if your flexible and know that nothing is going to interrupt or change your plans, these are great deals. You can click the website link above for a free invitation.

Upside: As with most invitation only sites, these deals can’t be beat.

Downside: Your travel plans need to be rock solid and there’s no refunds if things change.

ALERT: Special Savings Link for 15% off through 8/12/11. Go here.

Jetsetter

Specialty: Significant savings on great places to stay.

Website: www.jetsetter.com

Jetsetter was one of the first “invitation-only” websites to offer exclusive deals on 4 & 5 star properties at significantly reduced rates. Unlike hotel auction sites, prices are predetermined and all you need to do is select and book. Hotel deals are usually valid for around 60-90 days and require full prepayment for your stay. Since Jetsetter usually has deals that aren’t likely to be matched anywhere, there’s also no refunds or cancellations. If you can’t go, you’re out the money. Before using Jetsetter or any similar type of invitation only hotel site, you need to be reasonably sure nothing will affect your opportunity to travel on the dates you select. As always, we highly recommend buying trip insurance that has adequate coverage for hotel cancellation should something unexpected arise.

Jetsetter runs between 3-5 deals every few days. Most deals are available for a 5-7 day window, so you need to do your research and buy quickly. You can verify your dates of travel before making your reservation, so you can be assured of availability before you book. Jetsetter can be a fun way to book a “spur of the moment” getaway. We were looking for somewhere to go in March. With no specific destination in mind, we just let the featured hotels on Jetsetter be our guide. We’re traveling to Garza Blanca Resort in Puerto Vallarta, MX on a deal we found on the site in January. The Jetsetter rate was about 60% off the rack rate and almost 20% less than rates on competing “deal” sites.

We’ve used Jetsetter for several stays and have been very satisfied. A plus with the site is they do a good job of laying out the pros and cons of each property. That still doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do your own research. We’ve checked their reviews with reviews from other independent websites and their reviews were similar to those we found on Jetsetter. We give Jetsetter a high recommendation.

Upside: Unbeatable rates on four and five star luxury hotels and resorts.

Downside: While deals rotate quickly, you may have to wait for a favorite destination to become available. No cancellation or refunds on these great deals.

Trip Advisor

Specialty: Reviews of hotels, along with destination information.

Website: www.tripadvisor.com

Trip Advisor is pretty much our “bible” for travel reviews. We use it to find reviews for almost every hotel and destination we travel to. In most cases, we’ve found that most of the ratings you find for places are accurate…many times much more accurate that travel sites such as Expedia, Orbitz, etc.

We’ve learned a few things over the years with TripAdvisor that may help you make the most of the reviews that are listed.

See how many actual people have reviewed the place you want to find out more about. If there’s only one or two reviews, that may not be enough to give you a true picture of the place itself.
Don’t believe everything you read. If there are numerous good reviews, with a few “less than stellar” reviews sprinkled in here and there, go with the majority. Everyone travels differently and has different perceptions as to what a place should be like.Read a few of the negative reviews in detail. We often find that the negative items can be very “nit picky” or not even pertain to the place itself. You can then decide how much consideration you want to give to those reviews.
If there are a few negative reviews, especially for hotels, we look to see if management has responded to the review. If so, we almost always view that as a positive. At least management is responding to the complaint and reading reviews that are posted about their property. These places are much more likely to take action so that the problem doesn’t happen again.
You shouldn’t use just TripAdvisor alone. We still check a couple of other review sites, just to make sure that other reviews are consistent. You spend a lot of money on vacation and a few minutes of extra research can really payoff and make sure your trip is an enjoyable one.

Don’t forget you can use TripAdvisor for more than just hotel reviews. TripAdvisor has a lot of information about your destination and things to do once you get there.

Upside: Accurate reviews, along with reviewers actual photos. Ability to search for reservations at top rated hotels directly from review.

Downside: None.

Kayak

Specialty: Searching multiple travel websites at once for rates on airlines, hotels or rental cars.

Website: www.kayak.com

Of the mainline travel reservation sites, we don’t use Orbitz or Expedia much. Our preference is Kayak.. Kayak searches Orbitz, Expedia and other lesser known sites all at once. That not only saves you time, but makes it much easier to compare rates from multiple sites at once. We use Kayak when we need a quick review of airfare, hotel or car rental rates in a given location. You get multiple results on one page, plus control over where Kayak searches for the rates.

For hotels rates, you can quickly sort and filter results numerous ways, plus share your possibilities with others, all from the results screen. On airfare, Kayak does a good job of putting together “multiple carrier” options, to find lower rates. If you don’t minding traveling on multiple airlines to or from your destination, this can be a great money saver. Kayak is also great for finding international rate options on hotels, airfare and car rental.

Kayak also allows you to save searches. When we’re doing research for a trip, this can come in very handy if we’re going to be looking at a lot of different options over a period of time. It’s our favorite alternative to booking directly on hotel, airline or car rental sites.

Upside: Quickest way to search for deals from multiple websites on one screen. Ability to save searches can save you time.

Downside: Won’t search special rate or promo codes for individual hotel/airline sites. You still may get a better deal if you’re a frequent flyer or frequent hotel member by checking individual websites.