Am I getting a better deal if I use Shopback to book a hotel room? (Part 2)
In my previous blog post, I was reviewing booking hotels via online booking agents such as, Agoda on Shopback that would allow me to get cashback and attractive hotel rates at the same time. Then, I concluded booking on Agoda directly offers a better deal than linking it through Shopback. On the other hand, booking.com offers a better deal with Shopback, as the price does not change before and after the activating cashback function of the app. Expedia has the most expensive rates with or without Shopback.
This week, I noticed Shopback has upsized cashback for booking.com and Expedia but normal cashback rate for Agoda. So first, I visited the booking.com app on my phone to check out the rate without the Shopback tracking activated. I used Vista LIC Hotel, Best Western Premiere located in Long Island, New York, USA, as an example. Before Shopback tracking, the price for one king bedroom non-smoking that comes with free cancellation and no upfront payment at the time of booking is $441 per night. After I activated Shopback, the price remained the same. Similarly, I did the same thing on Expedia. Both returned the same price at $513 per night. Do note that to earn cashback, one has to book within the Shopback app environment. In the case of Agoda, I encountered the same phenomenon, where the price increased after Shopback has been activated.
From the comparisons above, Expedia is generally more expensive among the online booking agents. On the other hand, booking.com remains the best site/app cause it offers one of the cheapest rates with cashback. However, one should not rule out Agoda. Besides Agodacash as a form of rebate for booking a hotel stay with them, it now provides cash rebates. In the example below, I booked a room at Swissotel Stamford at a recent weekend, which I will do a review in the next blog post. I noticed Agoda will give me a cashback reward 60days after I have completed my stay. My room cost $848 and the offer, which would be about 6% cashback. Even though on Shopback does offer upsized deals of up to 10% on certain days, it is still more worth it to book direct with Agoda.
There you go, a better deal may come from booking directly on the online booking agents rather than on Shopback. Sometimes, it always good to do a comparison with or without Shopback activated.