CHEAP HOTELS. When you start to search for a cheap hotel in an online booking engine, you realize that it is very difficult to make a choice of one, especially in a big city like Chicago where there are more than 700 hotels. There are many reasons for that, as it depends not just of the hotel room rate, but also on tons of different kinds of charges, including, taxes, fees, car parking, Internet, phone calls and other features.
Today a hotel market has seven classification systems and each of it can give you different facts about a particular hotel. If you look on a star ranking system, which is the closest hotels classification system today, it does not give any help for choice you need to make. Sometimes three star hotels in one place can be different to some other just couple of blocks ahead. With this method, it is impossible to make some right-minded choice.
Therefore, the only way to choose a particular hotel in online booking engines is with help of the hotels loyalty or reward program. The most rewarding loyalty program with room rate according to your requirements is the best hotel choice for you.
Loyalty or reward program is like special community, which gives you personal touch, prestige and comfort. Even when you present yourself to the cheap hotel as its loyalty program member, the hotel staff recognizes you as an intelligent customer who did not choose the hotel just by the price, star ranking or online advertisement. They know that you did some research work before booking. If you are new member and this is your first visit in this particular hotel, it is even harder the hotel staff, as this particular stay will be as a reputation test for the entire hotel chain.
If something happens and you are disappointed with the hotel services, as a loyalty program member you will have a better chance to get the response on your claim. You can even receive some discount for your next holiday. But, if you are customer, who booked a cheap hotel by luck of a list in the online booking engine, the hotel personal will not pay so many attentions to you.
I am sure that the hotel professionals will disagree with me and will tell how they care about each customer. It could be true. However, in reality, hotels employee is simple people, who make judgments and value each customer according to first look..
The suggestion above is good if you book a hotel via online booking engine. However, the best and cheapest way to make reservations is with help of your travel agent. A good travel agent will ask you several questions in order to make balance between your wishes and the budget. The questions are important, as cheap hotels in online booking engines frequently turns out to be expensive in real life.
