Between the time you book a trip and the time you take it, there's a good chance that the hotel, rental car company or airline will have lowered the price. These websites watch your purchase and rebook you at a lower rate automatically, or alert you that you're entitled to an airline price drop voucher.
Hotels: Tingo.com
Once you book a hotel room, the rate often will go down between reservation and arrival, as I discovered last year. Needing to book an additional night's stay in London, I rechecked my reservation (made on Expedia.com) a week before my arrival and discovered that the daily rate had fallen by $75, saving me $750 on a 10-night booking.
Just launched in late March, Tingo.com will do the price-check-and-refund work for you automatically, rebooking you at the lower rate, and checking for further drops up until the day of your arrival or until the rate becomes nonrefundable (usually a day or two before arrival). Each time the rate goes down, Tingo sends you an e-mail with a new booking number at the lower price.
Airlines: Yapta.com
Yapta.com allows consumers to enter their flight details on several airlines and receive an alert. The site works only with Alaska, American, AirTran (until it's fully merged with Southwest, which doesn't participate), Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue, United, US Airways and Virgin America. And, only Alaska and JetBlue (and for a few more months, Airtran) will give you back the entire amount of a fare drop refund, in the form of a voucher good for future travel up to a year from the original booking, with no fee. The other airlines mostly deduct $150 from the value of any voucher issued for a domestic fare, and up to $250 on an international fare, which often wipes out any savings. Even so, Yapta has helped saved users millions of dollars since its founding.
Rental cars: Autoslash.com
Autoslash.com will track your rental car booking and rebook you automatically if the price falls before you pick up the car. Not only that, but the site will apply any discount coupon codes you might be eligible for, further lowering the cost. There's no need to issue a refund because you usually haven't paid for the rental in the first place. A caveat: The site works only with Hertz, Thrifty, Sixt, Dollar, Advantage, Europcar, Payless, E-Z and Fox. So far, other companies (Avis, Enterprise, Budget, National, Alamo) have refused to participate.
