Online Hotel And Car Booking: How To Get The Best Bang For Your Bid

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Tastemaker: Terry Gardner, The Los Angeles Times

We worry a lot about the cost of airfare, but travelers often don't pay enough attention to hotel and car rental rates, which can add up to quite a bit more than your passage from Point A to Point B.

That's why I book my hotels and car rentals online with the opaque sites Hotwire.com and Priceline.com.

I have used both sites successfully and frequently, Hotwire more often for rental cars and Priceline for both. I arrive at my travel destination with more cash in my pocket by paying as much as half off a hotel room rate and at least 25% less for rental cars.

There are downsides to using these sites, of course, and the clue is in the descriptor "opaque." You're taking a chance. You don't know all the details -- mainly, which company you're booking with or, in the case of a hotel, where exactly you'll be staying.

Read the entire story here.