How to avoid overpaying for a hotel. Five checks before you pay.
Updated November 9, 2026: To avoid overpaying for a hotel, check your exact hotel and dates on every booking site before you pay, compare the totals with taxes and fees, and confirm it is the same room. Underbook's free web price checker and its extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox do the comparing for you.
For Thanksgiving week 2026 (November 25 to 29, priced November 3, 2026), another site listed the same hotel and dates 5% or more below Booking.com at 74 of 76 hotels we compared, a median 22%, about $40 a night; for Christmas week (December 23 to 27, priced November 4, 2026), at 74 of 79.
The five checks
1. Check the same hotel and dates on every site
Google Hotels lists a median of 17 per hotel in our data, more than anyone opens by hand. No site is lower every time: in our 16 price snapshots of September 25 to October 10, 2026, in 12 of the 18 pairs we measured, the two prices were within $2 a night at more than half the hotels where both were on the same tax footing, and which one was lower depended on the hotel. At busy times the gaps can be wider, as the holiday figures above show. See the sites compared, pair by pair.
2. Compare the total, not the first price
A rate before tax next to a rate after tax tells you nothing. Compare the same footing: our checker shows each price all-in where the sites report taxes and fees, which they did at 4,062 of 5,830 hotels (70%) in our data, and marks the rest as a listed rate. A resort or destination fee may be extra, so read the total on the site before you pay.
3. Confirm it is the same room
A lower price for a smaller room or a prepaid rate is a different thing to buy. Read the room name and the cancellation terms on both pages. When the names match, that is strong evidence, not proof. Our blind tests found it right 84% to 92% of the time. More in how to tell if a lower price is the same room.
4. Look at the hotel's own site
Direct is not always lower, and neither is a booking site. In our prices of September 25 to October 10, 2026, the hotel's site was within 1% of the lowest big booking site at 48% of hotels, lower at 17%, higher at 35%. See how to find out if the hotel's own website is lower.
5. Pick a rate you can cancel, then check again
If the rate can be cancelled free, you can book it and keep looking; if a lower price shows up, book that and cancel the first, after reading both sets of terms. Lower prices usually held when we went back: 19 of 20 lower prices held within 5% for a Thanksgiving stay checked November 3, 2026, and 17 of 20 lower prices held within 5% for a Christmas stay checked November 5, 2026 (the audit). Already booked? See what to do when the price drops after you book.
This page is by Underbook, which makes one of the tools named here. Where our figures come from: how Underbook works.
Common questions
How do I avoid overpaying for a hotel?
Check your exact hotel and dates on every booking site before you pay, compare the totals with taxes and fees, confirm it is the same room, look at the hotel's own site, and pick a rate you can cancel if you can. Underbook's free web price checker at underbook.co/hotel-price-checker does the comparing for one hotel and your dates.
Is one booking site always lower?
No. Across the pairs we measured the big sites usually landed close, and which one was lower depended on the hotel, so check your own hotel and dates rather than trusting a rule.
How do I know if I am overpaying for the hotel I found?
Type that hotel and your dates into a comparison such as Underbook or Google Hotels and look at the totals. If another site lists the same room for less, read its total and terms before you switch.
What have you not measured?
We have not tested private browsing, clearing cookies, VPNs, phoning the hotel or member rates you must sign in for, so we make no claim about them. We report only what we priced, with the dates we priced it.
What does Underbook cost, and how does it earn?
It is free, with no account. If you book through a site we link to, we may earn a commission, which never changes the order of prices.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The web price checker runs in the browser on a phone, a tablet or a computer. The form is at the top of this page. The extension is for Chrome, Edge and Firefox.
Real prices, hotel by hotel
Every site's price at 5,970 hotels in 368 cities
From our price snapshots of September 25, 2026, September 28, 2026, September 29, 2026, September 30, 2026, October 1, 2026, October 3, 2026 and October 10, 2026: each hotel's page lists every booking site Google Hotels showed, the going rate, and whether the lowest-priced listing named a room, with a button to check today's price for your own dates.
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Every site Google Hotels lists, on the page you are on.
Underbook shows the other booking sites' prices for the hotel and dates you are viewing, all-in where the sites report taxes and fees, and says whether a lower one names your room. Free on Chrome, Edge and Firefox.
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