Individual consumers can’t compete with the resources and computing power of the travel companies, but there are a few ways they can improve their odds of getting a good fare or room rate.

Gary Leff, founder of the travel blog View From the Wing, advises travelers to avoid booking hotel room rates that cannot be refunded or changed, even if the price is slightly lower than a more flexible rate. He recommends instead that travelers periodically check for lower rates on the hotel website or other sites that the hotel might match. Members of some groups like AAA can often get a rate as low as the nonrefundable rates without the restrictions, he said.

In addition, many travel agents can offer discounted hotel rooms and airfares, passing along savings they get from working with consolidators who buy blocks of airline tickets and hotel rooms at discounted fees.

Travelers can also try to learn more about the hospitality ecosystem in places they like to visit, said Fred Lalonde, chief executive of Hopper. Large cities like New York, Boston and Chicago that have a high proportion of business travelers and a large hotel selection often have relatively stable pricing three to six months in advance, Mr. Lalonde said.

Prices begin to drop sometime in the last three months ahead of check-in, so travelers can generally find the best deals then, he said, although they may not get the exact hotel or neighborhood they prefer.

There are also more companies that track pricing, predicting if a price will rise or fall and sending alerts. In August, Google started including “insights” in its Google Flights travel booking feature, displaying, for example, airfares that were lower than average in green and airfares higher than average in red, for some routes. In the fall, it briefly tested a “low price guarantee” service that promised anyone who booked a flight on Google that it would monitor the fare and pay the difference if the fare dropped before the flight took off. The company said in an email last week that it wasn’t sure if it would run that feature again.

Hopper said it analyzed 10 years of airline pricing, monitored hotel pricing around the world and tracked customer behavior to offer travelers advice on the timing of hotel room and airfare purchases and optimal routes. It also suggests alternatives to save money. The company said it had about 45 million customers in 120 countries.