Deal or no deal?

Christopher Elliott Travel columnist • Profile • E-mail

Carol Hodes thought the “special” $209 room rate offered as part of an upcoming convention at the Bellagio Las Vegas was a reasonably good deal — about $10 a night off the regular price.

“Then the group holding the event announced two weeks ago that the price had been lowered to $159,” she said. Skeptical, she ran an online search and found that rooms were going for as little as $119 a night.

All across the travel industry, people who thought they were getting deals are discovering that they aren’t. As airlines slash their fares, passengers with advance reservations are finding that their tickets weren’t bargains. The “low” hotel rates? Turns out they had a lot lower to go. Ditto for cruise tickets and rental cars.

Fortunately, Hodes hadn’t booked her room at the Bellagio yet, so she easily locked in a lower price. “I’m almost afraid to look and see if the price has been lowered again,” says Hodes, a writer who lives in Old Bridge, N.J.

Others aren’t so lucky. Many hotels refuse to refund a rate difference once a reservation is made. Most airlines balk at giving cash refunds when their prices fall, preferring to offer a credit and sometimes adding a hefty change fee, too. Maybe the only exceptions are car rental companies, which still allow you to cancel and rebook your reservation without penalty.

Erik Hastings, a syndicated talk show host who declared 2009 the “year of the travel deal” says most of the bargains are on the up-and-up. “There’s been a tremendous increase in packages and deals since the beginning of the year,” he told me. “I think 90 percent of them are the real thing.”

But how do you know? Here are a couple of tips:

1. Be a deal-watcher
“One of the best way to know what a deal is — or isn't — is to monitor specials over a period of time,” says Matthew Cheng, the founder and president of eCoupons.com. For example, if you want to go to Jamaica, you might sign up for the Air Jamaica and Sandals electronic newsletter a few months before making your reservations. If you did, says Cheng, you would see that one-way fares from New York to Montego Bay have fallen from $164 in November to $119 in December to $92 in January. “Meanwhile,” he adds, “Sandals has offered promotions of up to 60 percent off and three nights free.” By getting an idea of what is — and what isn’t — a bargain, you can steer clear of the non-bargains.

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2. If it looks too good to be true, it is
This is the cardinal rule for deal-finders. Many fake bargains are literally incredible. When a travel agent offered Lee Houskeeper a “deal” of $100 a night at a bed-and-breakfast near the end of the Light Rail during the presidential inauguration, “I said, ‘Book it, Dano’ — without looking at a map,” he recalls. Housekeeper, an editor who lives in San Francisco, had scored last-minute tickets to the inauguration and was grateful to get any accommodations close to Washington. Big mistake. It turned out the inn was a little bit further out of town. He had to pay a $100 cab fare to take him to the train station. Lesson learned? If it looks too good to be true, chances are, it is.

3. Beware of the bait-and-switch
It’s a favorite game of travel companies that are desperate for your business. “Look for phrases like ‘certain restrictions apply’ or ‘subject to booking fees’,” says Ellie Kay, author of “Living Rich for Less.” For example, one restaurant Web site offered a $25 gift certificate for only $2. Unbelievable? Yes. While some participating restaurants had only a few stipulations — like “dining in only, not good for carry out” — others were far more restrictive. In extreme cases, they limited the coupon to “one per party, per month, per restaurant” or “valid with a minimum food purchase of $40, excluding alcohol, 18 percent gratuity added to full bill,” according to Kay. That’s no deal. It’s an elaborate way to get you in the door and then hit you with a full-price meal.

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