Hotel Booking Sites are Not the Final Answer for Deals

Go direct to the hotel if booking sites claim there's no room at the inn

The Society of American Travel Writers upcoming convention is in Germany. My husband and I signed up for a pre-convention hiking trip in the Black Forest. We are flying into Frankfurt, arriving on a Sunday, with the trip starting in Baden-Baden on Tuesday. We decided to come in a day earlier, spend an additional night in Baden-Baden and hop over the Stuttgart for a day. My husband was stationed in nearby Ludwigsburg and hasn't been there for 30-odd years, and I have never visited Stuttgart at all.

I started looking for hotels. The Hotel Neuer Karlshof was the obvious choice, since it is situated at the railway station and we are coming in from Frankfurt by train and will take the train to Stuttgart and back. The process of checking so-called discount booking sites was an odyssey through the Internet that kept looping me around.

First I tried TVTrip, which links to Booking.com, a Priceline company. When I checked two days ago as research, yesterday to reserve a room and today to write this post, upon entering our arrival and departure dates, I got the identical message that the last room was booked "1 day, 23 hours, 38 minutes ago!" The page did not volunteer a nightly rate. Priceline UK itself replied, "No rooms available. Sorry! Sold out [our requested date went here]".

TripAdvisor also uses Booking.com as the booking engine, so same reply. RealTravel, which quotes a $62.41 rate, also kicks back to Booking.com, which this time reports, "1 Hotel found, 0 Available." What? Trivago also uses Booking.com and of course reports, "Currently no offers can be found." Trying Maplandia landed me back on the RealTravel page, which quoted room rates as "from €55 (approx. £46)". Etc., etc., etc. I tried Agoda, saw that the hotel's rates start at US$76 but also had no availability that night. TravBuddy came back with, "Sorry, this hotel had no rooms available for those dates." ActiveHotels reports that the Neuer Karlshof has "rooms from €55," but informed me that "Unfortunately, this hotel does not have enough rooms available."

Hotels.com claims 90,000 hotels around the globe, but the hotel I wanted wasn't of them. It did offer links to four other hotels, two (Neuer Markt and Neuer Weg) actually in Baden-Baden, the Neuerweg in Wört and totally inexplicably, a link to "Atlanta, Georgia, United States." Expedia and Orbitz don't list the Neuer Karlshof at all. Travelocity automatically brought up IgoUgo, which both told me "We're sorry but we cannot identify the location that you entered" and also boomeranged to a Travelocity Black Forest page with more hotels outside of Baden-Baden than in Baden-Baden.

None of the booking sites that actually offered the Hotel Neuer Karlshof included a link to the hotel's own website, but I did eventually find it through the straightforward, multi-lingual Baden-Baden Convention and Visitors information website. It lists the city's hotels in order of standards from five-star luxury properties to simple unrated guesthouses. For each the site shows a picture, gives an address, indicates the price range for single and double rooms, whether breakfast is included and if so what kind of breakfast, gives the distance from the autobahn and airport, shows amenities and has click-to links to each hotel's website, further information and booking request.

For the record, the Neuer Karlshof website is http://www.hotel-neuer-karlshof.de/. It was renovated recently, reopening in January 2008. We have a reservation for the night we want at €69, which is not out of line when rates are quoted "from €55" on these book sites that proved to be dead ends when it came to actually getting a reservation. The website says that each room is equipped with television/DVD, free Internet access, iron/ironing board, safe and more, and the on-site Cafe Fellow means that we will not suffer from caffeine deprivation if we want to use it to readjust time zones. The breakfasts and the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff were praised numerous times on user reviews, and I don't need a user review to tell me the convenience of a hotel at a railroad station.

If you are frustrated by navigating through numerous booking sites that all seem to use the same hotel-supplied images, the same price quotes and in our case, the same unavailability, and whose main differences seem to be page design, go straight to the hotel's own website. Book online or pick up the telephone and call. A lot less hassle and often more satisfying results.

Heathrow's Terminal 5 is a Terrible Mess

Mountains of lost bags, canceled flights, frustrated travelers and a public relations fiasco

The dedicated website for Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5 cooed into cyberspace, "At London Heathrow Terminal 5 we’ve created a natural, logical journey that’s so calm, you’ll flow through. It shouldn’t take long to get from Check-in to Departures. Transferring and arriving are just as simple and calm. Spend the time you save enjoying the excellent range of shops, cafes and restaurants. Or simply relax and be wowed by the world class architecture."

Instead, travelers using the new £4.3 billion ($8.7 billion) T5 were wowed by utter chaos that began almost as soon as the new facilitiy. In its first four days of operations, at least 250 British Airways flights were canceled, stranding thousands of passengers. At least 15,000 and perhaps 20,000 pieces of luggage that reportedly were not loaded onto the planes need to be "repratriated" to their owners who had, in fact, taken off while their bags were still on the ground. Computer problems were blamed.

In a story called "Flight Club at Heathrow T5," the Sun newspaper reported of a brawl among 30 baggage handlers. BA could be libel for compensation up to a stunning £5,000 per passenger, it was further reported. At the very least, the airline had to arrange for and pay for emergency accommodations for armies of stranded passengers. Image-conscious Brits are have a cow, and the tabloids are having a field day.

Long-haul flights were said to be operating close to schedule today (Sunday). Domestic (i.e., within the UK) flights and flights to the European continent have been most affected. "We are endeavoring to do everything we can to get the operation back to normal," said an unnamed but clearly beleaguered spokeswoman for British Airways. Of course. The airline claimed that 400 employees volunteered to work on Sunday to help with what the BBC described as "mountains of suitcases stacked up in the terminal after passengers were unable to reclaim them or were forced to fly on to their destinations without their luggage, and which the BBC continued "could take weeks to sort out."

The flying public will have to take their word for it, because BBC also said that "it had been banned from filming at the terminal, where hundreds of passengers were facing long delays. Sky News television also said it had been locked out." Go to the Telegraph's online story, scroll down to "In Pictures" and we wowed by the slide show of the mess.

Even when the chaos has been straightened out and T5 is humming as promised, Heathrow will remain an incredibly congested airport. It is the world's third-busiest airport (after Chicago/O'Hare and Atlanta/Hartsfield) and has just two runways, meaning that delays are endemic, even without a snafu like T5's opening days. In wisdom that matches US automakers' foresight, US-based Delta, Continental Airlines, Northwest and United began flights into London's chronically constripated Heathrow Airport on Mar. 30, even as their BA brethren were still struggling under mountains of luggage. At least the American carriers won't be using T5.

Addendum from the Monday, March 31, report in the Telegraph:

"The debacle, which is estimated to have cost BA £20 million already, will mean the airline has been forced to scrap more than 450 flights since the opening of the £4.3 billion Terminal last week. The chaos would have been even worse had the airline not decided to continue operating the bulk of its long-haul operation from Terminal 4."

European Airline Consolidation Continues

You can't tell the airlines without a scorecard anymore. Mergers, consolidations, bankruptcies, start-ups, alliances and code shares make the airline industry very confusing -- more so with each day's headlines. The US led the way, and Europe is recently followed.

In the US, airline consolidations go back a long way, but consolidation fever . The present Continental was forged from an agglomeration of old carriers such as the original Frontier, Eastern, People Express and New York Air. Merger fever, economies of scale, Wall Street paper moving and so on have essentially left us with United and its current partner, U.S. Airways (that long ago took over the old Mohawk and Allegheny and recently AmericaWest), Delta (including Northwest) and American (which absorbed TWA) -- plus fast-growing, customer-friendly Southwest that currently seems to be the smartest carrier in the American skies. Along the way, other legacy domestic carriers disappeared. Think Pan Am (which had previously absorbed National) and Braniff. And these are just the ones that came to mind.

Similar consolidations, mergers and takeovers have raked European flag carriers too, but there, things are dicier because national pride is emblazoned on fuselages that are hard for airlines to relinquish, even as they are in dire financial straits. A merger between Belgium's SABENA and the former Swissair imploded or exploded after the national airline of Switzerland not only had its own financial problems by mismanaged SABENA. Brussels Airlines rose from its ashes but is a shadow of its predecessor

Air France and KLM (above right) are part of the same Dutch-controlled operating group that also owns 25 percent of Alitalia. Lufthansa, Germany's airline, owns SWISS, which succeeded Swissair after that carrier's bankruptcy; is a large stakeholder in Brussels Airlines and could take it over completely by 2011; bought BMI, and has just announced their takeover of Austrian Airlines. I could make a tasteless joke about an Anchluss in the air, but let's pretend that I didn't. There's also talk that Lufthansa might buy or merge with SAS -- or something. Stay tuned.

Avis Uses Bait, Switch and Upsell Tactics

Car rental firms jack up rates when using AmEx points

I use frequent flyer miles for flights whenever possible, expedient and/or wise, but I've been hoarding American Express points for car rentals for a long time. We are soon going to Hawaii -- first to Maui for a wedding and then to the Big Island for a vacation. Two rental car opportunities seemed like a good use of points. I started with the Big Island, because that will be the longer stay.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the Avis website trying to figure out what promotion/coupon codes I could use for Avis, so I finally phoned. The AmEx system is that I could redeem points for several coupons to be used toward (but not in full payment for) the rental, which for one week with Avis was going to be more than $450. I was too shocked to write down the exact quote, but it was high. The reservation agent told me that I would be better off not using the coupon at all. He quoted an economy car rate of $242 for seven days, with unlimited mileage and no extra charge for the second driver. Sold.

Then he told me about a service that Avis offers which would net me a $20 gas coupon and 5 percent cash back on the rental. I asked whether this happens automatically when renting, and instead of answering, he switched me to a fast-talking sales type who "upgraded" the service which I could try for a month for "only one dollar" and "cancel any time." The carrot he dangled over the telephone was a $20 gas coupon plus that 5 percent rebate, but first, he said, I had to sign up. When I balked, he told me that he "has been authorized" to raise the gas coupon to $40. I told him my name, address, etc., but when he asked for my date of birth, I refused and said I wasn't interested in providing personal information. He huffed, "I'm not asking for your Social Security number." I said I didn't want to provide any more personal information, so he hung up on me.

Avis indeed seems to be trying harder -- trying harder to sell a "service" that I didn't really want (although a $40 gas coupon would be nice). No matter what they tried, they succeeded in annoying me. Because I knew that the AmEx coupons would not make sense for Maui either, I simply made the reservation online and ignored the "offer" for the same service that the phone folks tried to force on me.

Airlines Report Profits and Spend Millions on Mergers

The current cost of doing business as airlines consolidate

Repainting planes, merging headquarters, introducing new uniforms, ordering new stationary, integrating staffs....these are some of the issues that came to mind when airlines merge. Associated Press reported good news/bad news related to Republic Airways' takeover first of Midwest and then of Frontier last year. The good news was that second-quarter revenues grew by 113% to $683.3 million; the bad news is that income fell by 82%. Republic's merger-related costs were reportedly close to $20 million in items that hit the bottom line related to merger costs. "They ranged from $18.5 million of expenses related to the integration of the branded businesses and return of leased aircraft, $6.4 million in negative adjustments for fuel hedges and prior period fuel excise taxes; and a $5.2 million positive adjustment due to a reduction in lease obligations for Midwest aircraft and office facilities," according to AP, which also noted that Republic now owns Chautauqua Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Lynx Aviation, Midwest Airlines, Republic Airlines and Shuttle America.

Republic's numbers are small potatoes compared with the imminent Continental-United merger, which is expected to be consummated this fall.  According to an annotated report on Wikinvest.com, "For the second quarter of 2010, the company reported its first quarterly operating profit since 2007 of $430 million, an improvement of $751 million since year ago second quarter." Continental, meanwhile, Thursday posted second-quarter earnings of $233 million, reversing a similar loss of $213 million loss a year ago. Comparing revenues with profits is an apples-and-oranges mix, but those are the numbers that I found -- but in a sense, they do demonstrate the differences in scale. If Republic's merger costs were $20 million, imagine what the United-Continental union will cost. 

Merging or not, US carriers, which have been aggressively trimming costs, mothballing aircraft and charging passengers for formerly free services, are reporting second-quarter profits almost across the board. Three big legacy carriers -- Delta, United and US Airways -- among them earned a cool $1 billion in the second quart (April through June). At Alaska Airlines, JetBlue and Southwest, revenues also rose and black showed on balance sheets. Among the biggies, only AMR, American's parent company, bucked the trend ans was down compared with 2009.

With revenues rising and on the ledgers showing profits for the first time in three years, I still wonder how the cost of big mergers will impact the balance sheet, and down the road, whether more monopolistic merged companies will keep the money rolling in with continued add-ons. I don't know what the second-quarter revenues were, but in "Lawmakers Consider Taxing Airlines' Fees" regarding a Congressional hearing on these add-ons, the Wall Street Journal reported, "Airlines collected $1.3 billion from fees for checked baggage and reservation changes in the first three months of this year, a 13% increase over the same period in 2009, government data show."

Silly me. Why am I even asking the question. What will probably happen is that the add-ons will be locked in or perhaps even increased to help the airlines cover the merger costs and their top exectives' bonuses -- and the payment to law and accounting firms for effecting the mergers.

Lady Liberty's Crown to Reopen

Closed since 9/11, the crown again will welcome a limited number of visitors

Especially after the recent ill-conceived recent photo op of a "spare" Air Force One flying low over New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty, it is refreshing that the crown will reopen to visitors on July 4. It has been closed since September 11, 2001. The official reason was given as "fire safety," but most of us believe that it was part of the previous administration's promoting an ongoing climate of fear. The airport threat level, after all, has been "orange" since this silly recorded alert was introduced.

Former Colorado senator and now Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced,“This Statue of Liberty really is about hope and optimism for America, it’s also about jobs that come with tourism all over this country, and it’s about President Obama’s agenda. So today we’re announcing that on the Fourth of July, we will open up the crown of the Statue of Liberty here in New York and New Jersey to the entire people of America in a way that we’ll be able to manage the crowds that come into this place."

Just to cover bases staked out by the paranoid, he said,“We have conducted a very comprehensive life-safety review for the statue itself and for the pedestal and there are improvements that are gonna have to be put in place. We’ll put some of those in place before we open it up on the Fourth of July. We’ll then go through a two-year period where the crown will be opened up, where the public — it will be about 30 people an hour that can come up here, it will be managed. And then following that, we’re going to go through a more major rehabilitation that ultimately will increase the number of people who can come up here to about 200,000.”

Timed passes will be distributed on a lottery-style basis, and access is ranger-guided. Even access to the statue's pedestal has been seriously limited to those who have a applied in advance for free monument pass and pick up the morning of the visit. Call 866-STATUE-4 or 212-269-5755. Oh, how unfortunately different this is from my childhood in Connecticut and young adult years in New York, when access to the pedestal and the statue was limited only by visitors' willingness to stand in line and climb a lot of stairs.

The ferries to Liberty Island board their last passengers well before the park's daily closing. There is no entrance fee to the park, which is open from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Park Service passes are not good for ferry fares. Due to the park's security procedures, visitors are advised to allow ample time for their visits. Ferry ticket prices from Battery Park are adult, $11:50; senior (62 and over), $9:50; child (4-12), $4.50, under 4, free.

Eat, Pray, Love -- and Watch Your Tail

Travel journalist Bruce Northam urges intuition when soloing

Julia Roberts is all over the tube these days promoting the movie, "Eat, Pray, Love," based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling bookabout her soul-searching odyssey to mend a broken heart. My travel-writer colleague Bruce Northam (left) wrote "Eat Pray Love, and Be Cautious," as the title implies, a cautionary but not paranoid piece on Huffington Post. He began, "The book Eat Pray Love issued no travel warnings; nor does the movie. However, somebody needs to remind women traveling alone that Halloween-night-style caution is always necessary. I'm the only guy I know who read Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert's wildly successful travelogue-cum-romance novel that's now a movie starring Julia Roberts portraying the lovesick and soul-searching editor who met her second husband in Bali."

I'm not paranoid when it comes to travel, and I don't advocate that travelers always leash themselves to a tour guide either, but caution and precautions make sense -- not just for women traveling solo but sometimes even for men as well. Northam is a believer in following your instincts about what is safe and what is a silly flirtation with trouble.  Read his piece and the practical tips he includes from two well-traveled women writers, Carla King and Lisa Alpine. The more adventurous and out there the traveler, the finer line between reasonable caution and folly. Northam is just sayin'