The big name travel sites like the ones you named only really promote their travel specials. Travelzoo sorts many promotions (thru credit card companies, secondary sellers, direct from property, ect). And you can search directly by property name.

Hotwire has good deals and you can filter down to a general area (like Wailea), but theres a bit of "blind faith" that goes along with it since you can't see the property name (only ammenities, star rating, and general area). But you can cross reference a site called Betterbidding (they list properties by state, then city) to research what property likely correlates w/ the description. They also have a message board, where people verify what they got, what they paid & their dates. They're also very helpful w/ ?s.

Hope that helps-

A hotel will cost more than the condos, for the reasons you state. The GW and FS tend not to discount to lower the price, instead offering things like free nights or upgrades. The Prince does have deals, try calling them directly to see the best they can do for you--we did that for this past January and were offered a better room with breakfast for less than the rate we saw on their web site. We had joined the Prince club--they get better offers.

I'm going in October and did a lot of research online for special deals. The best rate that I found for the Sheraton was on the AAA web site. If you're a member, you get some good discounts and it pays for the membership in one sitting!

Someone else mentioned TravelZoo and Hotwire - those are the best in my opinion too.

A lot of people also use Costco for travel booking - you may want to check out their site for info.

Aloha!

Check with some travel agents, too.

They work with wholesalers that can usually save you money. Sometimes, you have to add car or a hotel to the booking.

Bryan Brown

BBrown9825@aol.com

Most of the time dealing direct with the bigger hotels is best. Do research first, and if you find better prices then what they offer let them know. Sometimes they'll met or match so you'll book with them.

I've found that the travel sites are hit and miss. you have to keep going back because it seems the prices change.

If you have Costco they're running a special right now for the Grand Wailea. They do specials on the hotels that change every couple months. They're prices also include rental cars and other add-ons (lei greetings) that you can keep or remove.

I fly Hawaiian, so when I book my ticket I always check their lodging prices. Sometimes they have good deals as well.

Also might want to check vacation packages that include air/hotel (and car if you desire). You get deep discounts on air if you book a package. We always get great deals through American Airlines (aavacations.com). Last trip, air in the package was $300 r/t from LA, which was $300 cheaper than their air outside the package. Worth a try.

p.s. www.bookit.com has some great hotel discounts as well.

Check out AAA. We're found some GOOD deals. Look at the Hyatt and the Sheraton on Ka'anapali as well.

Join a loyalty club for one or two of the hotels chains ... like Starwood for Sheraton/Westin or the loyalty club for the Hyatt or Prince or others. They should have discounts! Hyatt is good about throwing breakfast in the deal -- which can really save some $$$.

In the past I had always used a travel agent on the mainland and things always worked out OK but I thought that someone right there on Maui might actually do better since they were there. I was right. You may wish to contact Kay Ryan. She lives and works daily on Maui. The e-mail address to reach her is kay@mauikay.com

Give her a chance to see what she can do for you. I don't think you'll be dissappointed either.

Best of luck to you.

Web-site for the above is mauikay.com