Otel.com Compared With Octopus.com: Hotel Booking Sites Reviewed

Otel.com and Octopustravel.com are both hotel booking sites worth checking out but each caters for the needs of a specific type of traveler as well as those with more general hotel requirements. When deciding which of these two hotel booking sites to use consider the following: do you want to book for a group over 9 people; are you looking for the lowest rates; do you want to search for your hotel accommodation by theme and of course you should consider the various customer reviews about service and booking charges.

Both Octopustravel.com and Otel.com offer reviews by Trip Advisor; search by hotel name or destination; no booking fees; low hotel rates and an easily navigated site. Neither Otel.com nor Octopustravel.com offers other essential travel tools and both have negative reviews concerning cancelations and booking charges.

Compared with the other numerous online hotel booking sites Otel.com offers the standard features such as a selection of languages and currencies, search by location or hotel name and advanced search options including star ratings and proximity to landmarks. What sets Otel.com apart and makes it preferable to OctopusTravel.com are a few special features:

• You can book group travel on Otel.com where as Octopustravel.com does not offer group booking.
• Search hotels by theme - honeymoon, family, golf, casino, spa, beach, ski, romance, adventure, luxury or business.
• Otel.com has "secret hotels" which are International hotel chains offering hotel accommodation at up to 70 % discount, however the deal is so competitive that the hotel's identity is only revealed after you receive your payment confirmation voucher.
• There are no booking fees on Otel.com.
• Otel.com has a loyalty program whereby with every booking you earn a 5% discount on your next booking.

However there are some negative issues with using Otel.com:

• Otel.com states that there are no cancelation fees but in the fine print you will discover that although the site has no cancelation fee the hotels may have and their cancelation policies apply.
• There are several customer off-site reviews claiming that Otel.com charges for the hotel booking and only then checks and confirms availability. If the hotel room you have booked is not available your credit card is still charged. The reimbursement process then has to begin. On Measuredup.com Avoid Otel.com states:" Took money off my card straight away, a couple of pounds more than quoted, they said it was exchange rate difference. Two days later then sent me email to say could not honar hotel, was fully booked....... It took 10 days for the money to go back onto my account". Other customers mention that all transactions are made through a Turkish bank so even if you are booking from the U.S. for U.S. travel, you will be paying international transaction fees. Otel.com Consumer Complaint says: "I had no warning that there would be a fee for an international transaction."

The bottom line for most travelers is the price and when comparing Otel.com rates with Octopus.com, Otel.com was 12GBP cheaper than Octopus.com for the Pennsylvania Hotel New York; 44GBP cheaper for the Chancery Court Hotel London, U.K. and 2GBP more expensive for the Royal Plaza Hotel, Hong Kong.

Like Otel.com OctopusTravel.com offers the standard travel site features including customer ratings and reviews from Trip Advisor, however there are some significant differences between the two sites which will help you decide where to book your hotel.

In OctopusTravel.com's favor:

• One of the advanced search options on Octopustravel.com is according the Trip Advisor ratings and these ratings are extremely reliable, more so that many hotel booking site ratings.
• For some of the hotels it is possible to pay using PayPal, this is an incredible plus point as most travel sites do not include this option.
• Under the Octopustravel.com Special Deals section you can find "Latest Deals" which include "sports fixtures" and "front row rooms" among other latest offers. Under the sports fixtures section you can browse dates and venues of sporting events and from there choose your destination and hotel, the same goes for concerts.

OctopusTravel.com is the U.K. homepage for this travel site, you can however change to a site specific to your location. The location specific sites which you get directed to have a different layout and also offer more diverse travel services. The drawback is that the currency shown is only for that country. In other words you can only see rates in GBP on the U.K. site. If your country is not listed as an option then you will be using the U.K. site and only be able to see rates in GBP. Other cons include:

• It is advisable to open a free account when making your booking as cancelations can only be made online if you have an account with Octopustravel.com otherwise cancelations must be made by phone.
• Group bookings above 9 people are not possible on OctopusTravel.com.
• Customer reviews on Ciao.co.uk complain of the travel services offered by Octopustravel.com's location specific sites but as far as hotels are conserned there are fewer unsatisfied customers than on Otel.com. Some dissatisfied customers report that: Octopustravel.com - "Any problem and you are on your own. The Octopustravel booking takes 48hours for confirmation, during which time you have to wait or risk multiple credit card billing."

Comparing prices between Otel.com and OctopusTravel.com does not uniformly come up with the cheaper rates but for example with Prima Hotel, Tel Aviv, Israel, OtopusTravel.com is an amazing 82 GBP cheaper than Otel.com and at Toronto, Canada's Strathcona Hotel OctopusTravel.com is 28 GBP more expensive than Otel.com.

Different hotel booking sites suit different travelers use Otel.com if you are looking for:

• Making a group booking.
• Booking your hotel by theme.
• Trying one of the secret hotels.
• If you book hotels online regularly and want to make use of their loyalty program.

Use Octopustravel.com if you want to:

• Pay for bookings using PayPal.
• Search for hotels according to their Trip Advisor rating.
• If you want to make use of their location specific sites which offer a wider range of travel tools.
• If you are traveling to a sports event or concert.

As far as lower rates are concerned you need to search on both sites as neither one consistently offers the lowest hotel rates. Most importantly when booking with either of these sites is to make sure you read and reread the small print, terms of use and booking details.