Tag Archive for: Hotels.com

Don’t Leave Home Without It? How Americans Really Feel About Taking a Smartphone on Vacation

Passport, smartphone and sunscreen are the top three items in order of importance Americans say they pack when they go on vacation. (Travel insurance comes in at the bottom of the list.)

But given a choice, a majority of Americans say their preference is to holiday without a mobile device, according to Hotels.com’s Global Disconnect Survey of 2,495 respondents from 28 countries. Indeed, just 35 percent of Americans said they were unwilling to ditch their electronic devices on a vacation. Read more

Looking for a Hotel Bargain? Try New York (Yes, New York)

Since this item posted Stayful, a site that brought Priceline strategies to boutique hotels, has joined the many sites that have fallen (details here). A shame. It was a neat idea.

No joke. The year is young, but so far 2014 New York hotel prices are trending lower than industry observers expected.

“Hotels in New York are not experiencing as high levels of occupancy as last year, at least from what we’re hearing anecdotally,” says Cheryl Rosner, co-founder and CEO of Stayful, a bidding website specializing in boutique hotel deals. “We were forecasting higher rates, but we’re not seeing them.” Read more

Bribing the Guests: Hotel Offers Cash for Good Reviews on Tripadvisor

I like Tripadvisor for the most part and use its reviews the way my daughter’s middle school French teacher computed quarterly grades – throw out the top and bottom scores and add up the rest.

Still, a recent post on The Consumerist (via Hotelchatter) gave me pause. Read more