A summertime grab bag of bargains

With the summer travel season approaching, here are some ways to save on hotels, airfares and more.

* Just when it seems that Japan is hopelessly expensive, along comes a new chain of low-cost hotels with rates of $80 to $90 for doubles in Tokyo and even less in other large Japanese cities.

Toyoko Inns are like Europe’s cut-rate Ibis hotels: modern, high-rise structures near railroad stations, offering compact rooms with private bath but no big public facilities or services, such as conference rooms or ballrooms, large restaurants or room service.

The chain boasts that almost all its hotels are operated by women (improves the atmosphere, it says) and that single rooms go for $45 to $60 a night with breakfast, and it promises to create an even lower-priced group of Toyoko Junior hotels out of refurbished older hotels. To find a room at the 100 or so existing Toyokos, log on to www.toyoko-inn.com/eng.

* If you have a student in the family eager to travel, make sure he or she knows that the Canadian student travel organization, Travel Cuts, has plunged into the American market with a range of low-cost fares and packages out of U.S. cities. Get details from www.travelcuts.com or (866) 246-9762.

* Experienced visitors to Orlando, Fla., have always known that the tourist office there issues a valuable discount device known as the Orlando Magicard. Trouble was that you either had to write long in advance to get the card in time for your trip or visit an inconvenient Orlando outlet to get one. Now you can print out a version of the Magicard on your home computer. Go to www.orlandoinfo.com, click on the box referring to the Magicard, then look for the words “click here” in the text. With a Magicard, you can save up to $500 on hotels, restaurants, shops and attractions.

* Where do you go for the best rates at the familiar chain hotels?

To the big hotel search engines such as Hotels.com or Quikbook.com? To the large hotel departments of Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz? Or to the websites of the major hotel chains like Marriott.com, Sheraton.com, Holiday-Inn.com and the like? In this battle of titans, it appears that the chains have gained a clear price advantage over the general hotel-searching websites. The smart consumer pays less, generally speaking, at a chain hotel -- sometimes considerably less -- by reserving a room at the chain’s own website.

The competition began two years ago when Intercontinental Hotels Group (which represents Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Candlewood Suites, Staybridge Suites and Intercontinental Hotels) announced that it would no longer permit general hotel websites to offer lower prices than the rates appearing on the Intercontinental Group’s own sites.

That policy has been followed by virtually every other major hotel chain (Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton, Choice Hotels, Cendant Hotels). Customers are guaranteed a matching rate -- plus a bonus of $50 at Hilton Hotels or a 25% discount at Marriott Hotels and others -- if they find an outsider charging less. Such a policy means that the general hotel booking engines no longer undercut the chain websites. In my experience, the general hotel search engines are now almost always higher per room than the prices you find on the chains’ websites.

Many general hotel websites add a surcharge for “taxes and service fees” that makes their prices $15 to $30 higher, on average, than the chains’ websites. These “service fees” are not paid to the hotel; they are simply an additional charge imposed by the general hotel booking engines.