Booking hotel rooms pre-cruise

[Oldie55]

Looking for a room in Vancouver pre-cruise. We usually like to book directly with the hotel. 
these hotels are very expensive and noticed you can now book rooms directly thru Trip Advisor. 

has anyone used this option with good results? Or other sites like booking.com? Always worried about issues & don’t want that right before sail off.  Thanks

[Mary229]

If the price is right and the reservation is cancellable I book with any reputable website.  If you are staying for only one night and want cheaper look closer to the airport.  

[Mr. Boston]

Check out the Sylvia Hotel on English Harbor. We had a lovely four night stay there several years ago.  It was reasonable, had a nice restaurant and lounge overlooking the bay and was adjacent to Stanley Park.  I’d definitely stay there again.

[Host Kat]

3 hours ago, Oldie55 said:

Looking for a room in Vancouver pre-cruise. We usually like to book directly with the hotel. 
these hotels are very expensive and noticed you can now book rooms directly thru Trip Advisor. 

has anyone used this option with good results? Or other sites like booking.com? Always worried about issues & don’t want that right before sail off.  Thanks

 

Hello @Oldie55

 

Thank you for your new thread on the Holland America Line forum. However, your inquiry was off topic there since it concerns a specific North American departure port.

 

To help you out, your new thread has been moved to the North American Homeports - West Coast Departures forum where it will be on topic. The majority of your fellow Cruise Critic members that live there or have sailed to/from there frequent this forum and provide feedback here. Browse through the thread titles in this forum looking for threads of interest. You may find your fellow Cruise Critic members have already posted questions and received answers that may be of interest to you. Also, your thread may be helpful for other members seeking the same information.

 

Hope this will be helpful and glad to have you aboard Cruise Critic! 

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat

[zgscl]

As someone who has worked in hotels for 11 years it is generally better to book direct - the prices should be the same in most cases (sometimes that is not true internationally but I believe Canada usually has rate parity also), but sometimes 3rd party bookings will run into issues such as the wrong room type, etc. if the hotel is oversold you are the first to get the short end of the stick. You are not really the hotel’s customer, you are Expedia or booking.com’s customer. If you want to make a change to your booking outside of the cancellation terms you are basically out of luck. 3rd parties are a great way to find the hotel/price you want and then go direct for booking. The one exception where you might get a better rate is if you book something non-refundable or with different cancellation terms than the hotel has (like 5 days vs 48 hours). 
 

All that being said many people do like 3rd parties and as long as you are using a reputable, well known company it is not necessarily a problem. Expedia, booking.com, Priceline, etc. It is definitely buyer beware, when searching for a hotel the third parties pay a lot of money to be the first search results. Pay close attention to what the actual web address is I have had many people who thought they were booking direct booked through another company and not even realize it until they tried to cancel and couldn’t. 
 

Specific to Vancouver, I have had good luck in Metrotown. There are a couple hotels very close to the metro stop and it is an easy ride to the airport as well as to the pier (about a block and a half away if you take the right exit which I usually don’t). If you aren’t planning to do anything in Vancouver, the airport hotels  may offer better pricing than downtown as well. 
 

since you are sailing with Holland America, take a look at their pre-cruise hotel option. Generally, it is a tad bit more expensive than booking the hotel directly, however, there are a couple of great inclusions. Holland America will have someone meet you at the airport, your transportation to the hotel is included, and transportation in the morning to the ship is included. Generally, you leave your luggage tagged in your hotel room, and they take care of transporting it to the ship for you. As I mentioned, it is a bit more expensive, but it is absolutely stress-free and when you factor in all the transportation I often find it worth it.

 

 

[lx200gps]

I use Tripadvisor at the start of a hotel search, as I love its map function. Choose a date, zoom in on your chosen area, and it will show you approximate pricing for many hotels in that specific geographic area. You can then dismiss the ones you are not interested in, too expensive etc, and settle on a few hotels for further investigation. Tripadvisor consolidates and displays rates for a number of sites like Expedia, Hotels.com etc but most of the time, as other have said, it works out best to go with the hotel site (which Tripadvisor also usually shows). With few exceptions, in our case at least, going direct with Marriott and using their senior's discount will match most other's rate, gives us Marriott points and doesn't require pre-payment, a huge no-no for me.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

I'll agree on the Sylvia. It is my mother's favorite Vancouver hotel.

 

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

On 11/23/2024 at 7:55 PM, KeepCalmBearOn said:

I'll agree on the Sylvia. It is my mother's favorite Vancouver hotel.

 

It's a beautiful hotel and I just looked for our July cruise and the prices are very reasonable even for a two room suite.  However, no A/C and not sure I want to chance that in July.  Granted 76 is the average and the record high was 98, with my luck we would be there for the new record.    

[Milhouse]

Yep, the Sylvia is in a pretty prime location by English Bay with a lot of shops and eateries nearby.  I love walking in that neighbourhood in the morning along the seawall towards Stanley Park but it can get pretty busy in the evenings during the summer.

 

5 hours ago, ATSEAMYLIFE said:

However, no A/C and not sure I want to chance that in July.  Granted 76 is the average and the record high was 98, with my luck we would be there for the new record

 

We had a heat dome in late June/early July a few years ago and it scarred me.  😀

That said, it is cooler by the water.  

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

On 11/27/2024 at 9:32 PM, Milhouse said:

Yep, the Sylvia is in a pretty prime location by English Bay with a lot of shops and eateries nearby.  I love walking in that neighbourhood in the morning along the seawall towards Stanley Park but it can get pretty busy in the evenings during the summer.

 

 

We had a heat dome in late June/early July a few years ago and it scarred me.  😀

That said, it is cooler by the water.  

Went to Rome last summer and it almost hit 100, most of the week was mid-90's.  Paris year before in September and it was around 90.    Not doing without A/C again.  

Edited Friday at 11:41 PM by ATSEAMYLIFE

[Milhouse]

Oooh, I'm on the same page. The heat dome was the impetus to get A/C for the house (and even drove the government to provide subsidies to low income households to get A/C).

And, when we were in Paris in late June of 2019, it ended up hitting 35C/95F, creating a sauna in our room at a budget hotel.  That also scarred me. 😀 I made the missus promise me that going forward, we wouldn't stay at any place without A/C if there was a reasonable chance I would melt.

[a.madruga]

On 11/22/2024 at 5:55 PM, Oldie55 said:

Looking for a room in Vancouver pre-cruise. We usually like to book directly with the hotel. 
these hotels are very expensive and noticed you can now book rooms directly thru Trip Advisor. 

has anyone used this option with good results? Or other sites like booking.com? Always worried about issues & don’t want that right before sail off.  Thanks

call Auberge direct great location Jessica will help