I’ve been doing quite a bit of research into the world of travel websites and how best to save money on vacation travel. Of particular interest is trying to find the best hotel deals online.

Of course travel is a huge category at search engines like Google and Live Search, and there are tons of websites that offer to help us find the best pricing. Some are well known because of all their advertising on TV and elsewhere. But there are lots of websites that I had never heard of, all of them wanting to set me up with hotel reservations or other services.

I have come to the opinion that there is no magic source for travel deals, but there are numerous great sources that will help us get the best possible pricing assuming your brother-in-law isn’t the CEO of say Starwood Hotels.

One option is to use a website that runs your search on several other travel sites and airline sites; they basically organize the search for you. That’s helpful to a point, but since major websites like Travelocity offer a low-price guarantee, you’re not likely to see big differences in price most of the time, even when checking a lot of other competing sites.

Some of the websites will monitor prices for you over time, to grab any great travel deals or airfare discounts that come along. That works OK if you start early enough in advance of your trip to let them watch for you. And, of course, you can look for last-minute deals at nearly all the major websites; they usually have a page or more just for such specials. That option requires that you have quite a bit of flexibility in your travel plans.

It might be best to find a major travel site that offers all the important search options, last-minute deals, price guarantee, etc., and also has a well-established track record of top-notch customer service. A great deal on a hotel room doesn’t mean much if the reservation is lost or the hotel doesn’t know anything about the special price you found online. So my inclination is to stay away from the secondary travel sites for the most part.