For hotel deals, touch that dial

In a recent column, I said that if you use one of the well-known Internet booking engines -- Hotels.com, Expedia, Travelocity or Orbitz -- to make reservations at a chain hotel, you will nearly always pay more than if you had gone directly to the website of the hotel chain.

That’s because many hotel chains (accounting for at least half of all U.S. hotels) have determined that their own websites won’t be undercut in price by the booking engines. The hotel websites require that the other websites match their prices and have forced those better-known booking engines to add so-called service charges (which go to the Internet booking engine, not to the hotel chain). These charges, which you avoid by dealing directly with the hotel chain, can add as much as $40 a day to the cost of a hotel room.

Walter M. Hamer, a longtime hotel executive, wrote to me to say you often can do even better by phoning the individual hotel directly instead of relying on a website for your reservations.

“The dimension I would have liked to have seen in your article is that there is an even better way to assure the best rate for a hotel room, and that is the old-fashioned way.... Contact the hotel itself.

“As I’m sure you are aware, most chain hotels are not owned by the chain but are franchised to individuals or corporate owners. As franchisers, the chains provide name recognition and central reservations services to their franchisees, for which they are paid hefty fees. But it is the individual franchisees who ultimately determine the prices at which their hotel rooms are to be sold and the ... services and amenities to be provided.

“Here, then, is the truly savvy shopper’s technique: First, shop the Internet for a hotel in your destination city that suits your requirements and that is offering suitable rates. If you access Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz, you will probably have seen all that is worth looking at.

“Then, contact the selected hotel, not the chain’s reservations office, either by telephone or via its website, if it has one. Inquire about its Internet matching price and whatever incentives it might provide to get your direct booking.”

Even if they do nothing but match the Internet price, he wrote, you may benefit from the following. Keep in mind that there are, of course, exceptions to these general rules:

* You may get to pay for your room at the time of service. (Rooms booked by Internet usually are prepaid.)

* You may get a better room. (Internet rooms sometimes are less desirable than others.)

* If you’re eligible, you may get an additional discount through membership in such groups as AAA, AARP, etc. (Internet rooms often are not discountable.)

* You can cancel your reservation in accordance with the hotel’s general cancellation policy. (Internet room reservations often are nonrefundable or come with a cancellation fee.)

* You should get your reservation confirmation directly from the hotel. (Internet reservations sometimes are made by an exchange of faxes between the hotel and the site, which can result in errors.)

* You should find out about any packages or special offers that might be available.

* You may be able to talk your way into something extra, such as a complimentary breakfast, a couple of drinks at the bar or an invitation to the manager’s reception. These perks probably will not be available to people who call a chain hotel’s reservations number.

“I’m writing in the interests of explaining a situation that is not generally well-understood by most travelers,” Hamer wrote, “and in the hope that you might want to pass on information that could be of real benefit to your readers.”