Best Rooms, Best Prices

BetterBidding (www.betterbidding.com) — With sites like this, there’s no reason to pay list price for hotels (domestic or international), flights, rental cars, cruises, travel packages. Betterbidding offers the latest state-by-state database of winning bids from Priceline and Hotwire, along with hotel reviews and photos. A must-visit.

Farecast (www.Farecast.com) – The site is not only unique in predicting the rise and fall of domestic and international airfares, but the beta version of FarecastHotels has now pulled back the veil on hotel rates and lets users know if a rate is a good deal or not. Farecast’s database lets you shop for more than 90,000 hotels in cities worldwide. The site links to online booking partners for reservations.

Hotwire (www.hotwire.com) — Hotwire may be a less-recognized travel aggregator than Priceline, but lawyers around the country love it for its great hotel and rental car deals in every circuit court district and all the jurisdictions in between. Unlike Priceline, Hotware shows you the price upfront … but it, too, only reveals the name of the hotel after you’ve provided your credit card information. Also available, flights, cruises, and travel packages.

Priceline(www.priceline.com) — When you have William Shatner (aka Boston Legal’s Denny Crane) making your case in primetime, it’s no wonder Priceline is one of the most popular hotel discount sites. It’s this simple: you submit a bid on a room after specifying a “star” class (e.g., three-star, four-star), your travel dates, and the district you want to stay, and within minutes you’re told if your bid is accepted. The catch, of course, is Priceline doesn’t disclose the name of the hotel until you’ve booked it. Not to worry; often you get a three-star hotel for $100 or less except in the largest metro areas. Also available, flights, rental cars, cruises, and travel packages. Note: before you book your hotel, make sure to visit www.betterbidding.com to improve your Priceline bid.

Tripkick (www.TripKick.com) — Ever spent top dollar on a hotel, only to get stuck in a crummy room? Launched in May 2008, Tripkick solves this dilemma by telling you which floors are best and which rooms to avoid. Say you want to stay at the Las Vegas Hilton. TripKick tells you not only which rooms have the best view, but also which are too close to the elevators and noisy vending machines. Travelers can also add their own room ratings. For now, TripKick covers some 300 hotels in 20 U.S. cities. The site — one of Time Magazine’s Top 50 sites in 2008 — borrows its concept from SeatGuru, the air travel rating service that provides seat maps of commercial jets.