Imitation: the sincerest form of flattery. This week, Travelocity rolled out an opaque price search for hotels: “Top Secret” hotels.

The pitch: Travelocity says they’re “the first major online travel site to offer unpublished (or “opaque”) hotel deals and regular hotel rates all in one search window, without the hassle of bidding.”

Priceline and Hotwire have been doing opaque bookings for over a decade. And other, smaller sites, such as EasyClickTravel, have been offering opaque bookings within a list of search results for some time. So Travelocity isn’t doing anything new here — and if you parse their proclamation, you’ll see that they’re not even saying they’re innovating.

I’m thinking that Hotwire and Priceline might actually be winners here. By adopting opaque this way, Travelocity may be validating the model for customers who might otherwise have avoided it in the past. Which would make Hotwire and Priceline “safe” for those who feared it before…

But that success would depend on Travelocity’s “Top Secret” hotel deals actually being a deal. Or bookable. I’ve got a potential trip to Chicago in the cards, and I checked for a deal using the “Top Secret” engine, but nothing came up for either set of dates. Nothing! That struck me as odd. Hotwire and EasyClickTravel have several opaque options for the same dates. I realize my test is hardly comprehensive, but it’s Chicago! Still, maybe this is just a “soft opening” for Travelocity.

(Perhaps coincidentally, Hotwire has started incorporating selected rates from their sister company hotels.com into their opaque rates.)

If anyone books a Travelocity Top Secret hotel, post your results in the comments!

I realize that the online travel agencies see hotel bookings, and packages that include hotels, as their path to profits. But this attempt by Travelocity to upsell the consumer to a $72,382 hotel + flight package seems a bit much.

(Yes, yes, I’m sure it’s an error…)

Click on either image to view the full screen.

(via reddit)

Ric Garrido of Loyalty Traveler, the blog devoted to maxing out hotel points and value for the frequent guest, picks up on my post last week on Travelocity’s prepaid hotel rate guarantee.

Ric argues that hotel companies’ own best-rate-guarantee programs are superior to the new Travelocity program, for three reasons: 1) Travelocity caps the number of claims to 5 per customer per month. Hotel chains typically don’t place such a limit. 2) Group rates, such as AAA rates, aren’t covered by the Travelocity guarantee. 3) The loyalty benefits of booking through the hotels’ own sites exceeds the value of the potential rebate via Travelocity.

Ric’s argument may make sense for the high-frequency traveler with high frequent-guest program status — and established loyalty to a given brand, as his blog name implies. But the Achilles heel of the hotel chains’ programs remains their timeframe for making a claim. If you only have hours after purchase to find a lower rate, that’s not a really meaningful guarantee. To Travelocity’s credit (and, to a lesser extent, Orbitz’s credit) the agency’s rebate lasts days, weeks, or even months. And the five-claim limit per month won’t be a problem for all but the most high-volume travelers.

The Travelocity guarantee is far from perfect, as I’ve argued. But it’s not worth dismissing wholesale in favor of the hotels’ own programs.

Travelocity is upping the ante in the ongoing wars between the major online travel agencies. The agency is offering refunds if a hotel rate drops between the time you book a room and the time you stay at the hotel.

Here’s their pitch:

While competing sites offer price protection on hotel bookings only when lower prices are found on their respective sites, or only within the supplier`s cancellation window, Travelocity customers who find the same hotel booking for less elsewhere online (excluding hotels booked using a name-your-own-price service) any time prior to the day of check-in, can notify Travelocity and receive a refund for the difference in price. Additionally, as a special offer to introduce the hotel price match guarantee, between now and Dec. 31, 2009, customers will also receive a $50 discount toward future travel.

The new guarantee is aimed at two competitors: the hotels’ own lowest-price guarantees, and Orbitz.

Hotel websites typically offer a 24-hour window for filing a claim if you can find a lower rate. (See Hyatt’s terms, for example.) That’s not that impressive.

Orbitz offers an automatic refund (“Price Assurance”) if another customer on Orbitz books the same room for the same dates at a lower rate. Those are some slim odds. Yes, it’s automatic, but again, the odds are against your ever seeing a penny.

Travelocity’s guarantee is stronger than both of these offerings, insofar as the rate simply has to drop, and in a huge window of opportunity. But since you have to do the legwork and call Travelocity in order to get the refund, they are effectively betting that you won’t be tracking rates on a regular basis.

To be clear, this is only relevant (and possible) for prepaid reservations anyway. A cancelable reservation can always be replaced with a new reservation at a lower rate, after all, should the price drop. Travelocity calls their prepaid rooms “Good Buys” so look for that label to be covered by the new guarantee.

So, how DO you track rates once you’ve booked? Bring in Yapta.

Yapta allows you to receive updates when rates drop for specific hotels’ rooms (they do it for airfare, as well). So if you book a hotel room on Travelocity, you should immediately run a search for that specific hotel on Yapta, then select “track price drops.” If the price goes down, you get an e-mail. Then, contact Travelocity. Collect refund.

I don’t believe Travelocity was counting on customers using automated assistance when they launched this. But they’re about to find out if this is a feature they can actually sustain.

Related:
- Orbitz Price Assurance re-examined: Real savings or gimmick?
- Check in the mail: Orbitz refunds airfare price drops, but is it worthwhile?
- Less Choice: Expedia excluding hotels from searches
- Track airfare before and AFTER you buy?

Today, Travelocity dropped its booking fee for airline tickets. A week ago, Expedia did the same.

Both agencies are promising that the fees will be on hiatus until May 31, 2009. But bringing the charge back may be tough: Back in 2007, Priceline and Hotwire dropped their booking fees “temporarily,” and they still haven’t brought the fees back.

That leaves Orbitz as the lone holdout among the biggest U.S. travel agencies. So when will Orbitz, the biggest holdout, throw in the towel on fees?

Consumers should welcome the rollback of these add-on booking charges. But this episode shows how brutal the online travel marketplace is right now. If online travel agencies want to collect a surcharge, they’re going to have to get creative, and earn it. Simply offering price comparisons and a few online alerts — which are free elsewhere — won’t cut it. And Travelocity, Expedia, Priceline, and Hotwire have admitted that.

Sure, Orbitz may counterargue that they provide value-added with their price guarantee, but since that service is of relatively limited value, I wouldn’t pay a premium for it (though maybe it’s worth the $6.99+ gamble for someone else…)

Travelocity is even poking a stick in Orbitz’ eye by copying their “Price Assurance” model and bringing it to vacation packages under the name “PriceGuardian.” If someone else books the same package as you, and the price has dropped, you get a check for the difference. Yeah, good luck with that.

What we may see is a shift to voluntary fees for add-on services, much like the airlines are going a-la-carte themselves. Want a price-drop guarantee? Pay a few bucks up front. Want text message alerts? A few more bucks. That I could see happening. But the standard one-size-fits-all fee is history at the mainstream agencies.

Reader Julie writes:

I’m looking to buy tickets from Newark to San Francisco for the holidays, and Expedia has the lowest price for tickets on United. (Even lower than united.com) Can I upgrade these tickets if I buy them from Expedia? Thanks!

You’re in luck! For travel within the United States, most every airline allows upgrades if the tickets were purchased from online agencies like Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, CheapTickets, etc. As long as the booking class is legally upgradable, it doesn’t matter where you buy it.

(The exception: If you bought “opaque” tickets from Hotwire or Priceline, i.e., you didn’t select the airline and/or flight times when you made your purchase, then you can’t upgrade.)

For international tickets, upgrades are generally a little more complicated. Not all booking classes are upgradable, either with miles or certificates. But again, as long as the ticket you buy conforms to the upgrade rules of the airline, then it shouldn’t matter where you buy the ticket. As long as you are buying a “published” fare, you should be fine. (And even then: I’ve upgraded a ticket purchased from a consolidator. But it’s up to each airline to set such rules.)

Buy the ticket from Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, or wherever it’s cheapest. And good luck getting the upgrade!

P.S. In theory, you could buy the ticket from United and invoke their low fare guarantee by pointing to the lower fare on Expedia to get $50 in credit, but it’s probably not worth the trouble…
(image)