Are ski packages actually good deals?  The answer:  It depends.  Stay four nights, get the fifth free.  Pay for three days at the hotel, get free skiing.  It’s hard to tell if you’re saving money or getting scammed.  The worst part is that amazingly discounted deals do exist, but it takes time to research.       

This week we came across DealBase.com, who claim to be the world’s best place for hotel deals.  Not sure if it’s true, but we love the interface.  Users submit deals, DealBase checks them out, and then breaks down the deal to see if you actually saved any money.

Does Dealbase work? We’re taking a late January roadtrip to Utah (yes, we travel loads…part of the job) Marriott had sent an email featuring a ski package in action-packed Ogden for $209. It included:  

• A room with two beds or one king
• Two lift tickets to the resort of your choice (Powder Mountain, Snow Basin or Wolf Mountain)
• Breakfast for two
• Transportation for two

But is this package a deal? We plugged it into Dealbase (see screenshot below).  Their future computers reckoned that we would save $122 night. Bonus points for Dealbase explaining it like we’re third graders.  

We also appreciate that Dealbase lets you know if you are getting ripped off.  Our final conclusion: Dealbase is definitely on our rader for scoping out the hundreds of deals that land in our inbox.