USA hotel booking - online £ or with travel agent £££?

[Pigment84]

We have already booked flights and car hire for a 2-3 wk trip to the states but we are struggling with the cost of hotels. We are a party of 5 and we can source them online for about £4500 but a travel agent can do most of it for £6k. This seems a lot more but she has scared me with talk of protection and the knock on effect if things go wrong - hotel folds etc - by doing it ourselves. Any thoughts?

I have used online booking for US hotels for many years and have never had any problems with hotels folding. I can make my own requests directly to them ,for instance room on a higher floor and away from the elevators.

Have used chains like Hilton (they have a lot of suite based hotels chains in the US) and Holiday Inns. If you pay by credit card (rather than debit) as well you have protection that way also.

That seems an awful lot extra to pay. I've never used a travel agent since the 1990s and the internet and always book directly or via booking.com or similar. How many hotels of you hear of folding to be worth an extra one third cost? Wouldn't insurance cover most eventualities anyway?

We booked with a travel agent this year and they mucked up both hotels we did not have the number of beds we required.consequently we had to sort it out ourselves both times directly. We contacted the agent who said it was our problem they hadn't even requested it. In my opinion we gave them a budget and they down graded our rooms to fit as neither hotel had any record of our request but both upgraded us for free at check in !

I always book hotels on line rather than with a travel agent. Although I do generally use large chain hotels. Paying by credit card should give you a bit more protection.

Thanks for the replies. We are going in the summer hols when it is expensive but will probably do it ourselves.

I always book myself and never had any problems in many years of roadtripping in the US. Just book reputable chains such as Hilton, their Hampton Inns are usually good value. Also they have a pretty decent loyalty scheme.

Hi we book direct or through booking.com. Just check the cancellation policies before booking having said that if you book through a travel agent you probably won't be able to cancel.

We have just got back from the US, having booked all our hotels through Booking.com. No problems.

Surely travel insurance will cover you if something goes wrong? Or just stick to the large chains!

I always recommend Hotels.com as you get an extra night for free after you've stayed 10 nights. We used them for booking a big trip to the USA last summer - no problems at all. You usually get free cancellation included as well.

We use hotels.com as well, booked in New York, Washington, Orlando, the keys, Miami no problems.