Happy Trails To You

If you're thinking about taking a vacation this summer, you had better plan carefully. Otherwise, you could wind up paying a lot more for airfare, hotel and, especially, gasoline and you might get stuck with some extra charges.

As a frequent traveler, I've spent a great deal of time trying to find the best hotel and airfare rates online and the only thing I know for sure is that you can't depend on any one site to get you the least expensive rates along with reasonable terms.

Sometimes I find the cheapest prices on Expedia; other times I've done better on Travelocity or Orbitz. I've found great prices at Hotels.com, but on occasion, other sites have beat them. Often, the best deal – and in some cases, the only option – is to go to the hotel or airline's own web site.

Some hotel and airlines web sites guarantee that the rate they quote will be lower than what you can get from any other site. Ramada Worldwide, for example, offers its "Best Rate or It's Free" program, promising that "If you find a lower publicly available rate for the same hotel accommodation and date on another web site, we'll give you your first night free!"

Of course there are all sorts of conditions, but the bottom line is that Ramada wants you to book from them instead of from a travel agent. They don't say why but my guess is that they don't want to pay commissions and, if you shop only on their site, you're not going to find competitive deals from other hotel companies.

American Airlines also makes a "best price" promise, pledging that "If you find an American Airlines fare for at least $5 less for the exact same flight and itinerary on another website, American will refund the difference in fare and give you a $50 Discount Code to be used toward a future flight purchase."

Then there are discount airlines that don't even offer travel through other sites, such as JetBlue and Southwest. Expedia.com also has a "best price guarantee" on flights, hotels, rental cars and other items, subject to all sorts of terms and conditions. A big one is that it doesn't include corporate or other discounts. I frequently save money on hotels and rental cars by using my AAA (auto club) discount.

When using any site be sure to check for "gotcha!"s. Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz, for example, charge a booking fee for flights that you won't usually pay if you book directly with the airline. Also, some sites, including Expedia, will show the fares with tax and fees included while others will tease you with the basic rate and later show you the total amount you'll pay by the time you add everything in.

Another thing to look for is the cancellation charge. Regardless of how you book, most hotels require a credit card to guarantee the room and will charge for the first night if you don't cancel within a certain time frame. Some booking services have an additional charge. Hotels.com, for example, will charge you $25 even if you cancel long before the hotel company's cancellation deadline, although in some cases they may be able to apply the fee to a new reservation.

One strategy for getting a flight is to start by using a site like Expedia to get the lay of the land and basic prices. Make a note of a few good choices and then go directly to those airlines' sites to see what they offer and at what price. That extra research may wind up saving you money on the fare itself as well as any service fees but – again – maybe it won't.

One thing I love about Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz is that you can find hotels by neighborhood, which can be pretty important in large cities like New York or Los Angeles. Travelocity has the added feature of letting you type in a street address, in case you want to find the closest hotel to a particular location.

Speaking of close, I sometimes attend conferences on my own nickel. Rather than spending a fortune to stay at the conference's official fancy hotel or resort, I'll look up the street address of that hotel and then use Google or Yahoo maps to find a less expensive nearby hotel or motel.

I recently attended a meeting at the very swanky Four Seasons Aviara Resort in Carlsbad, California. But instead of having to take out a second mortgage to afford the rate, I used Google maps to find "hotels near 7100 Four Seasons Pt, Carlsbad, CA 92009" and found a number of very nearby hotels for a fraction of the price.

Sometimes you can save money by using two or more sites for the same booking. I recently spent several days at the Century Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles. Both Expedia and the hotel's own site had rooms for $119 a night, but Expedia was willing to give me a fourth night free which brought the average price down to $99. I thought I might stay two more days but I wasn't sure, so instead of booking those two days on Expedia and risking a $25 cancellation charge, I booked those extra days on the hotel's site, which had a more liberal cancellation policy.

The sites that crawl other sites can save you money by giving you comparison prices. For example, SearchParty.com will look at rates from a large number of hotel sites (not including Expedia and Travelocity) to show you a variety of rates. In addition to its web site, the service also offers a downloadable program for Internet Explorer that looks over your shoulder as you shop for hotels on other sites and tries to find a lower price than the one that the site has found.

Sidestep.com does a similar search for flights, hotels and cars and is able to locate nearby airports.

Orbitz can also help save you money with alternate airports. Instead of flying into New York's Kennedy Airport, for example, it might be cheaper to fly into nearby Newark. Travelers to Washington can sometimes save by flying into Baltimore, just as Oakland fares can sometimes be cheaper than San Francisco.

Even when using other sites, you can broaden your search in some case by specifying the area rather than the airport. Instead of typing in DCA for Washington Reagan National Airport, type in WAS to broaden your search to also include Dulles and Baltimore. For the New York area, type in "NYC" to broaden the search to Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark.

Finally, there is that unpleasant issue of gas prices. Whether you're hitting the road or staying at home, you can locate the cheapest prices in your area by visiting GasBuddy.com and using the onscreen map to find a station nearby or on your route.