HotelChatter

Bad Rate

Bad Rate: Radisson Nassau for $736 Per Night All-Inclusive

March 20, 2007 at 11:51 AM | 0 Comments

[Ed. Note: Welcome to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same city and decide which one most deserves your hard-earned benjamins. Rates quotes here were valid for the dates of March 15 to 19, 2007 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]

In this week's Good Rate example, we scored four nights at the Radisson Cable Beach in Nassau, Bahamas for $215 a night, all-inclusive, through Hotwire. Had we just trusted the common hotel line that their sites have the best rates, we would have paid at least $736 per night (see screen shot here from the hotel's booking site). Who is crazy enough to pay that much for a hotel that is under renovation, where half of the pool area is closed and there is no beachfront bar or restaurant open?

Probably nobody, because when we used Kayak.com, we found two listings at around $335 a night all-inclusive, which is about half of what the hotel's own site had listed. Still, even compared to that, our Good Rate at Hotwire saved us $427, or 31 percent. The savings over the official rate at the Radisson's site was over 100 percent.

The lesson is an oldie but a goodie: shop around. Despite all the meta-search sites and the hotels' claims that booking direct is best, reality is that the best deals are lurking in different places on different days. In this case though, booking direct with the hotel would cost you dearly. For $736 a night, there are better places to stay in Nassau--including ones that aren't under construction.

Related Stories:
· Good Rate: Hotwire's $215 All-Inclusive Rate for the Bahamas [HotelChatter]