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Does Calling the Hotel Get You a Better Deal?

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 49-499 Eisenhower Drive [map], La Quinta, CA, United States, 92253
July 6, 2009 at 4:38 PM | by | Comments (0)

There's a very good chance that in the future, we may not be making our next hotel reservation online. Why's that? Because recently we were quoted a rate by a human reservations agent that was more than 50 percent off the hotel's online rate and a rate found on a third-party booking site. And there was no begging, pleading or threatening involved at all.

Let us walk you through a recent booking experience at the La Quinta Resort & Spa in Palm Desert, Calif. We decided we wanted to get out of LA for a while and spend our Fourth of July weekend at the desert resort. We also didn't want to just shack up in any old room at the place. You see, we got spoiled last year when we stayed in a Spa Villa suite which had a full kitchen, a couple of balconies and access to a semi-private pool.

The only problem was that when we checked online, the suite was going for about $475 a night, not including the daily $27 resort fee.

Over at Expedia, the priced dropped almost $100 to $379. But that was still too high for us — especially since last year we paid $94 on Hotwire and then received the suite as an inexplicable upgrade.

We did, however, have a few questions about the room so we decided to call the hotel to speak to a human. The hotel's reservation agent answered all of our questions and then stunned us by saying the suite was available with a AAA discount for only $206 a night. Throw in the $27 resort fee and that's only $233 a night (and some more in taxes.) Score. We booked it immediately.

Sadly, the story ends there. Our plans for the weekend ended up getting changed more than the plans for Michael Jackson's public memorial and when we left for the desert on Friday, we were still going to stay at the resort on Saturday night. That didn't happen, but we did manage to swing by the resort and check it out. We'll have more on the changes at La Quinta tomorrow but until then, tell us:

Do you find a better deal when you call the hotel in person? Or does booking online, either through the hotel or another site, always give you the lowest rate you are looking for? Tell us your thoughts in comments below.

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