Booking engines have revolutionized the travel industry, giving us the power to search for the best rates without having to go through a travel agent. Never a holiday goes by that I didn’t use their services to book flights, hotel, cruise, or even car rentals because, really, why settle for full price when you can get it for considerably less?

A couple of weeks ago, I was in the process of planning a business trip to attend a tradeshow in Los Angeles when a colleague recommended that I try Hotwire.com to book my hotel. Until then, I hadn’t considered taking this booking engine out for a spin, and I must say that I walked away a satisfied customer. When Hotwire advertises that you can book your 4-star hotel at 2-star rates, they truly weren’t kidding!

Booking with Hotwire.com is a little bit different than your average travel booking engine. You still will have to choose your travel dates and then select hotel preference – 2 to 5 stars. Hotwire.com will not disclose the name of the hotel until the payment has been processed, but will guarantee that you will get one of several listed brands.

The first two nights of my stay in LA, I booked a 3.5 star hotel at $85.00 a night. When my hotel confirmation came, I was so surprised that I was booked at the heart of downtown Los Angeles at a Sheraton. This alone gave me savings of almost close to $40.00 per night. For the next few nights, I experimented quite a bit and booked two different 2.5 hotels at $39.00 per night, one a block a way from Disneyland and another a 5 minute away drive from the Los Angeles airport. The best part is, I also booked my car rental through Hotwire and ended up paying $13.95 per day for an SUV with Hertz. I still can’t get over the fact that if I booked directly with Hertz, they would have charged me $160.00 for five days!

Well …. all that money saved went to my spending allowance for my trip. I came home with a brand new suitcase to fill all the nice goodies I picked up shopping at Disneyland and downtown Los Angeles. Now, I just can’t wait to go on another holiday.