Question about booking onsite hotel through 3rd party

[5 Disney Fans]

Hi All,

We are looking to book two rooms for two nights for the beginning of August. (7 people in total traveling). Either Royal Pacific or HRH.

Both Universal Site and Undercover Tourist are showing the same totals $3267 which shocked me a bit (it's been a while since we visited!)

If I go to Hotels.com or Expedia the same rooms come up as a total of $2538 and it is fully refundable. I was thinking of booking with Expedia and if a better deal comes out closer to our dates I can cancel and rebook. I was also considering just calling the hotel since their site claims they have the best rates to see if they would match.

If I book HRH through Expedia, we still get express pass, right?

 

[hhoope01]

Yes, you will still get the EPs as it doesn't matter how you make a reservation. You should be OK as long as your 3rd party reservation really is cancellable. Also, you might want to check what, if any, the pre-payment charges are. Sometimes other booking sites will require you to fully pre-pay the reservation.

I've not invoked the Loews Best Rate Guarantee. So I can't really comment on it other than for you to attempt to invoke it and see what happens. Since your 3rd party reservation is cancellable, there shouldn't be any risk in trying to invoke the guarantee and see what happens.

 

[jasongrimme]

We've booked with Expedia before and have had no problems cancelling, I'd do that to lock in the room.

It looks like the resorts all bumped up their rack rate last night, but a few of the 3rd party sites still have access to rooms at the old rate, so we booked our rooms via expedia and booking.com (neither site had both the room types we wanted). We had to pay for the first night, but again, will be fully refunded if we cancel by the date noted when making the reservation (both sites require cancellation 48 hours in advance for me).

And yes, regarding the Express Pass, your room key for those resorts is your express pass, so be sure to include all the people who are going to be in the room in the reservation, DO NOT FORGET TO ADD ANY KIDS! It won't affect the price, but I don't know how the EPs would be handled when you showed up. I'd guess they'd just add the kids to the reservation when you arrive, but I wouldn't want to bother or risk it then.

 

[5 Disney Fans]

thanks so much for the quick responses. It makes sense now why I was finding better rates on Expedia etc.. and I appreciate the advice to book now to lock in the price. I'll hope that as my dates draw near that I get a better rate but I'm happy with the Expedia price vs. the rack rate!