For those that travels often, you would have known that there are often many planning to do once you have decided on your next dream destination. I have travelled to many parts of the world and have went through all the different kind of experiences that i think i can fill up the entire Tripadvisor with reviews!
From deciding on my preferred airlines (reliability, comfortableness and how attractive the frequent flyer program is) to the nitty-gritties such as researching on the places of interest and where are the places for me to shop, eat and play!
There is one thing i pay special attention to. Hotels.
Hotels may be something that most people overlook and find it unimportant as most of the time you would be exploring the different attractions and will only be back at night! So why pay for something that is not the most important part of the travel?
But look, whether my holiday is a do or break depends on the hotels i book when i travel. After a long day of activities, what i’m looking forward to is a comfortable room and bed for me to retreat to before starting the next day being revitalized and recharged. (It would be a plus if i can take a nice hot bath in a bathtub!)
As a result, i often spend the bulk of my time planning and researching on hotels to make sure i get a quality room.
Of course, quality room could also means that i may have to increase my budget.
Recently, Money Digest (a Singapore-based site that help you save money) has introduced a hotels search engine that compare across thousands of hotels sites including aggregators! I’m sure you have heard and have used some of the hotels aggregator sites such as Expedia, Hotels.Com and Agoda.
How Money Digest’s Hotels Search Engine is different is they combined the individual hotels together with the aggregators and list down all the hotels for your comparison!
What does it means for travellers? You get very competitively priced hotels!
Too good to be true? Let’s pick some hotels and try it.
1. Hong Kong
- Date: 21 Feb 2015 – 24 Feb 2015 (3 nights)
- Hotel: Mingle By The Park
- 2 adults in 1 room
Money Digest’s Hotel Search Engine
Double room at $774 for 3 nights (inclusive of taxes and fees) – by HotelClub
Hotels.Com
Same room at $912.66 for 3 nights (inclusive of taxes and fees)
The price is not competitive to the rest and that could also be the reason why it was not listed on Money Digest’s Search Engine.
2. Paris
- Date: 1 Mar 2015 – 6 Mar 2015
- Hotel: Le Marcel
- 2 adults in 1 room
Money Digest’s Hotel Search Engine
Double Standard room at $849 for 5 nights (inclusive of taxes and fees) – Booking Direct
Agoda
Same room at $821.99 for 5 nights (exclusive of taxes and fees)
(Costs $904.19 after 10% hotel tax)
3. Best Price Guaranteed Feature
One attractive feature is the best price guaranteed option being offered to customers. What does it means?
If you find the hotel that you booked is cheaper elsewhere, let them know within 24 hours and you will be refunded with the difference! *Terms and conditions apply
With this feature, you can almost certainly be sure that you are getting the best deal around in the market.
Conclusion:
- Money Digest’s Hotels Search Engine(MD HSE) is more transparent as it includes hotel tax and fees in its listing
- MD HSE offers more choices with more listings
- MD HSE offers a best price guaranteed feature
As a result, provide more competitively priced hotels for travelers like you and me!
It works out to be a lot savings accumulated over a year if you travel a lot. You may even be able use the savings to purchase another air tickets to Hong Kong or Bali!
This article is contributed by Money Digest.