New hotel sites help you get best deal online
Several of the major hotels have decided to team up a la the airlines' Orbitz to provide discount rooms on the Web and try and benefit from the market created by Hotels.com and Expedia etc. according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):
The site, Travelweb.com, is controlled by five hotel companies that are normally the fiercest of rivals: Marriott, Starwood (which includes the Westin and Sheraton brands, among others), Hyatt, Hilton, and Six Continents (owners of Holiday Inn and InterContinental)....
There are now ways, however, to take some of the guesswork out of the process. Many travelers, for instance, consult Biddingfortravel.com (www.biddingfortravel.com), a site where people post their recent successful bids. One traveler claims he landed a room at the Beverly Hilton (home of the Golden Globe awards) in mid-February for $86 a night on Priceline.