What is a Hotel Consolidator?

A hotel consolidator is a business that buys up blocks of hotel rooms in top destinations and then offers the rooms at discounted rates to its customers. Using hotel consolidators is a great tool for finding discounted rooms at hotels, as their entire mission is to buy in bulk and then pass the savings on to their customers.

Large hotel consolidator businesses usually offer discounted rooms in nearly every major city and resort destination. Some consolidators, however, only focus on a particular geographic area, so be sure to check around and do some research before selecting a company.

Using hotel consolidators, you can save significant amounts of money on hotel rooms. Hotels usually have a published rate for each of their room levels. This rate is often very high and is rarely what the hotel actually charges its customers. That's because these days there are so many ways to get discounted rooms that hotels are actually in a constant bidding war against each other.

They know that if they charge too much for a room, their competitor hotels will win their customers. That's why so many hotels are willing to sell room blocks to consolidators, because they know that discounted rooms means more business in the long run and thus a greater profit.

Individuals can call hotels and ask for discounts, and this usually works. However, it is rare that customers can wrangle the same deep discounts that consolidators can, and that's because there's strength in numbers. Hotels are willing to offer dramatically reduced room rates to consolidators because they know it will yield a greater number of reservations.

It's not a bad idea to try to negotiate a discount directly with the hotel you wish to stay at, but make sure that you also check with a few consolidators and compare the discounts. Remember that no matter what rate you pay for a room, you will still get the same level of service as you would if you were paying full price. So don't be afraid to really shop around until you've gotten the lowest room rate possible.