When you repeatedly find hotel rooms on sale, it’s easy to get spoiled.
I once paid $ 57 / night to stay in Beverly Hills, just one block from expensive Rodeo Drive. A few weeks earlier, I paid $ 48 / night to stay in the heart of Chicago, one block from expensive Michigan Avenue.
These are clean, three-star, national chain hotels. I am not a special guest who is offered friendly rates because I write travel articles. You could do just as well or even better!
Interested? There are at least five ways to do it. Not all ideas will work for all travelers, so there is no attempt to classify techniques here. Still, at least two will likely work for you!
Technique # 1: offer for a room
Priceline.com lets you decide what price you want to pay for a hotel room. As always, there is a downside: they choose the hotel, which is paid without being seen with a non-refundable payment by credit card.
But if your plans don’t call for a precise location, it might be the best way to save a lot of money on a nice room.
Before bidding, be sure to take advantage of websites like BiddingForTravel.com or BetterBidding.com for strategies. Bidders post successful (and unsuccessful) bids in their destination city. It really pays to have a Priceline bidding strategy.
Hotwire.com will also allow you to pay, unseen, for a low-cost room. Again, you must take some risk.
What’s for hotels? These are rooms that they cannot sell or are unlikely to fill. They would rather get something for the room than leave it sitting unoccupied.
With that in mind, the room offering doesn’t always work out well. I discovered that Priceline was not very helpful in Las Vegas at the time of a big convention. Very small cities may not show up on Priceline or Hotwire inventories.
But if you’re heading to an expensive destination, it’s worth a serious look.
The fear of empty rooms works beyond auctions. Click “next” on the right and read about it.
Priceline.com isn’t the only place they specialize in selling empty hotel rooms.
In fact, the more vacant rooms you find, the better your chance of landing a bargain.
Technique # 2: Consult a Consolidator
These are the people who also negotiate empty airplane seats. They fill a space that would not generate income with travelers paying a fraction of the prices paid by those around them.
Consolidators can be found online or on the classified page of the travel section of your newspaper. Often times, the headline will read something like “last minute deals” or “available this weekend.”
Not everyone is delighted with this branch of the travel industry. Some find the service end of the equation to be very poor. Others complain that the “offers” do not always live up to expectations.
Just remember to read the fine print very carefully.
Technique # 3: make the hotel an offer
This idea is not for the faint of heart.
Actually, I am suggesting that it is possible, in certain situations, to go to a hotel and politely offer the manager much less than the price he or she will quote you.
It works later in the evening when the parking lot is half full and there are literally dozens of empty rooms at a given hotel.
It doesn’t work in big cities where there is always the possibility of a late group filling up some of those rooms. It is not effective in smaller cities where there is a major event or attraction nearby.
You also need to be sure that you can go elsewhere to get a room for the night or be willing to “swallow your pride” and pay what is asked of you. Nobody wants to see you sleep in the car!
Just remember that you are unlikely to see these people again. If your offer is rejected, what do you really have to lose?
Of course, in most cases, you will make reservations when you travel. Planning ahead is a basic and effective way to save money on hotel rooms. Click “next” on the right and find out more.
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Some people are not “members.”
They find frequent flyer clubs and room rewards clubs to be unpleasant and generators of junk mail or spam.
I suggest that those people spend more money to travel than they should!
Technique # 4: Sign up as a preferred customer
There are many ways to earn free stays at nice hotels.
Business travelers often sponsor a chain while on the expense account, accumulating points for free vacation stays.
But you don’t need to travel frequently for these clubs to pay handsomely.
There are credit cards you can use that will give you points for every dollar you spend – money that you will spend anyway on milk, laundry detergent, and other mundane necessities.
There are special offers that only club members receive: discounts between them. Not all clubs are hotel-based. Ask any AARP or AAA member if they get hotel discounts.
What you will have to buy to get a free stay will vary by hotel chain. As an example: the Holiday Inn Priority Club offers a free stay at their Express locations after maybe six or seven nights.
Remember that if you use Priceline, most hotels will not award points.
Technique # 5: Take advantage of search engine sales volume.
Here’s another way the internet has improved our lives – you now have access to dozens of markets where hotels are available at discount prices.
Many of these search engine operations will link you to the hotel’s website or show you a synopsis (complete with photos) that they have prepared.
It can be Kayak, Orbitz, Travelocity, or Expedia. Maybe you are a fan of Trivago. Maybe his last good deal came from Hotels.com.
These services are spread out in volume, which sets them apart from the consolidators we’ve already discussed. Here, you are likely to pay a little more than what the consolidators will charge. In return, you get more options, more dates, and perhaps a better mechanism for complaints if they arise.
There are volume distributors who specialize in Asia or Europe. Some cater to business travelers or vacation plans.
Take a look at all of them, even if you intend to use one of the other techniques. They often establish a good base travel budget for shopping.
Buy is the keyword. Any place you want to visit has hotel rooms that are expensive and expensive. You must find the last one without getting stuck with the first.
Next page: More money-saving features
