I talk about hotel booking websites here quite often and that’s because I book a lot of hotel rooms. I don’t believe in loyalty, because hotels sure haven’t showed loyalty to me with their continued devaluations and poor customer service. Instead I just focus on getting the best cash discount possible.
In the past I’ve used Hotels.com for most of my bookings, that’s because they offer 7% cash back through TopCashBack (Chase has removed it from their portal) and they also have their own rewards program which gives you a free night for every ten nights you stay.
Reader, Audrey let me know about Venere and the fact they offer 10% cash back through TopCashBack and also have a coupon for 10% off that can be used in conjunction with this. This gives us a total cash discount of 20%, compared to a maximum discount of 17% with Hotels.com (it’s actually a bit lower as you won’t be able to get full value out of your free night and you also won’t receive the discount on that free night either). Venere does not offer any loyalty program.
[Read: Get more than the standard cash back rate by using a cash back portal’s cash back guarantee]
This seems to be a pretty easy comparison 20% is more than 17% after all. There are a few things to consider: Hotels.com often offers coupon codes on Topcashback as well (at the moment they are offering $40 off a stay of $300+, but you must be a new customer). The other thing to consider is what the base price is, it’s great to get another 3% cash discount but if Venere is 5% on average more expensive then you’re loosing out.
I decided to do a few test bookings to see how Venere prices compared to Hotels.com (in the past I’ve found that Hotels.com prices roughly the same as booking direct and is usually cheaper than other OTAs). For all of the stays I selected a one night stay on February 27th, 2015.
| Hotels.com | Venere | |
| Conrad Hotel Hong Kong (Superior, no breakfast) | $294.49 | $Â 294.49 |
| Park Central New York (King Room) | $167.82 | $167.26 |
| RAMADA Hotel Berlin Alexanderplatz – Berlin (Comfort double or twin) | $82.46 | $81.73 |
| Hotel Mandarin Oriental, Paris (Deluxe Room) | $1,051.26 | $1,054.68 |
As you can see the prices were pretty similar, Venere was actually cheaper twice and Hotels.com cheaper once and one dead draw. Once you add in the extra 3%+, Venere is the clear winner. I’m going to do most of my hotel bookings on Venere from now on, but that might change depending on what coupons Hotels.com decide to offer and if the 10% Venere coupon continues on.
What do you use for your hotel bookings? Make sure you follow us on Twitter, that way if there is a good hotel booking discount or deal we can let you know about it instantly. You can read our reviews on the various hotel booking websites below:
- Agoda
- Rocketmiles
- PointsHound
- Kaligo
- Rocketmiles vs PointsHound vs Kaligo
- RoomerTravel
- HotelEngine ($25 Bonus)
While venere’s search features are pretty limited/deficient, it does have a “vacation rental” option that, while hit or miss, sometimes has some interesting offerings. Also, venere is apparently part of the expedia group so prices are usually the same as the more well-known sites.
Hotels.com are quite scummy actually, I noticed when I’d go do a booking by clicking through a portal, the rates would be slightly higher than without the portal…almost the amount of the cashback.
I wouldn’t be surprised if other hotel sites pull similar tricks, so always double check against the hotel directly and with same website visited without a portal click.
atxtravel, as usual, YMMV, but anecdotally, I haven’t observed this. I always start my search without going through a portal and then only go through a portal once I’ve found the room/rate I want. It doesn’t usually change after viewing it through the portal.
I don’t know…it wasn’t a one-time fluke. I would always see slightly higher prices by using two different browsers. I usually used the Chase UR portal…maybe it’s unique to that one.