Wotif.com

Wotif.com is a special site that deals mainly in finding places to stay. They do short term, vacations and even apartments. They pride themselves on having secret locations only they know about and have the information listed. I found that to be mostly true. They started in Australia and from what I heard, that is where the majority of the secret listings are. But the Toronto office worked great for me.

It was a last minute decision to take a temporary position there, and I had looked everywhere. Once I contacted the office and they told me where to look, I found a small place with a short rental agreement that wasn’t listed anywhere else, even my friends there hadn’t found it and it was in their neighborhood! It was a great deal with plenty of space and everything included in a reasonable monthly payment. So, far from Australia, the secret deal was definitely in my favor.

The Wot bonus actually worked pretty well for me too. At first I wasn’t seeing any listings with the special stripe that gets you bonuses. They either “pay” some of your booking costs if the place takes it, or they send you vouchers for ‘cashback’ that you can use like gift cards at specified locations. Mine took the credit off my last week’s payment, so I didn’t have to look around for other places that take it. But you have 6 months to use it and it can be put toward a future trip. I ended up saving a lot, so if you see the blue band, definitely look into it.