Are you paying too much for your hotel room? The short answer is, most likely. If you are like most travelers and only shop at one of the leading online travel sites you are probably paying too much.

Yes, its true that Expedia or Travelocity may offer the best rate for a specific hotel in a specific destination. However, if you do not comparison shop, you wont know if you are getting the best rate possible. Travelocity and Expedia can be very valuable, but if you were buying a car would you only go to one dealership? Let me answer that for you. No, you wouldnt and thats because you know you save money when you create competition. The same holds true for hotel rooms.

Visiting only one travel booking site before buying travel products is typical behavior. Travelers become loyal to that one site or may not know that other options exist. However, recent data released by hotelicopter.com shows that if you book your Thanksgiving holiday hotels at one of those sites, you will pay on average 23% more than if you comparison shop through a hotel search engine.

What does this mean to your wallet? According to hotelicopter.com, if you are planning to spend 4 nights in a NYC hotel this Thanksgiving and only seek rates through one leading online travel booking site, you will pay on average $62 more per night ($248 for a 4 night stay) than what you would find by comparing rates across up to 30 different sites.

Here are some other savings you could experience for the upcoming Thanksgiving week:

- Los Angeles hotels: save $37 per night (30%)

- San Francisco hotels: save $32 per night (28%)

- New York hotels: save $62 per night (23%)

- Chicago hotels: save $39 per night (22%)

hotelicopter found the same pattern holds true for Christmas break as well. In NYC alone, you could save, on average, a whopping $86 per night (36%!) off the rates found on one leading booking site. Thats almost a $350 savings for a four night stay. Whats the moral to this story? Comparison shopping for hotels can add up to big savings.