True bargains exist, but finding them takes lots of legwork

Even as hotel prices increase, “the number of not-good-deal packages is at an all-time low,” said Bjorn Hanson, New York-based hospitality consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, an international accounting company. You can thank the Internet and yourself for that. “Guests can do research so easily,” Hanson said. Hoteliers, he explained, are wary of alienating customers.

Amy Ziff, editor at large for online travel seller Travelocity , put it this way: “Travelers are pretty savvy. They know the game.” In this contest, your best weapon is a calculator. “People have to do the math,” Ziff said.

You’ll need patience too. Evaluating packages can be tedious. With rates shifting by the minute and information available from multiple outlets, such as third-party sellers, the hotel’s reservations number and its website, Hanson said, “guests have more work to do now than ever before.”

But the work can be worth your time or worth paying a travel agent to do. In my research, I found packages that saved quite a bit, a little or nothing.

"Free" nights: These may not be the cheapest deal.

The Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Casino in St. Martin, for instance, advertised a "Fourth Night Free Special," good through Oct. 31, on its website. With that special, the four-night tab for Sept. 29 to Oct. 2 totaled $630 for a Supersaver King room.

The package beat the hotel's "best available rate" total of $760. But I could have paid only $500 using the resort's $125-per-night "Web rate."

No. 1 lesson: It's not the "free" night; it's the cost of the paid nights that counts. Effectively, I would pay $157.50 per night under the free-night special.

No. 2 lesson: "Best available rate" isn't always the cheapest.

Breakfast included: If you want to eat at the hotel, you may save at least modestly with a bed-and-breakfast package.

At the Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa, for instance, which is rated Four Diamonds by AAA, the "Bed & Breakfast Package" for two was listed as $329 per night for Sept. 29 to 30. That was $15.90 per night less than the cost of separately booking the "best available rate" ($309) and buying two buffet breakfasts ($17.95 per person). If you booked the AAA room rate ($299), savings fell to $5.90.

Golf, anyone? The price of the "Endless Fairways Golf Package" at Hilton Waikoloa Village on Hawaii's Big Island depended on the class of room and number of golfers. Either way, you would save.

For a king lanai golf-view room from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2, the package was $354 a night for one golfer and $454 for two. Essentially, the hotel added $100 per golfer to the "best available rate" of $254. The nonrefundable "Net Direct Rate" was even less, $234. Because greens fees, bought separately, were $130 per guest, you would save $30, or $60 per room, depending on the number of golfers.

Math class: The $299 "Back to School" special at Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa included a $50 certificate for Office Depot to buy school supplies.

[Source from latimes.com]