Tips for the Best Hotel Travel Deals
- As with flight searching, you search several sites for your hotel information. The aggregators will search several online travel agencies and branded sites at the same time, and can dramatically cut your research time. Travelaxe.com and hotelscombined.com are aggregators that specialize in collecting hotel pricing information, but a tremendous amount of information can be had from the other major aggregators.
- When narrowing down your choices, go to the brand web sites for the hotels that you are considering.
- Some days, the best travel deal will be on one site, and the next day on another. That is why it pays to visit several sites to compare.
- Join a customer loyalty program. This may allow you to earn free nights, upgrades, or other discounts. In addition, other perks such as express check in or late check out, free internet, free phone calls, or other miscellaneous perks may be available.
- Booking through the brand site of the hotel may get you more from their frequent traveler programs, and you will not have to pay the small transaction fee from the online travel agencies.
- Be flexible with your schedule if possible for better rates. Try to avoid weekdays and holidays. Hotels implement higher rates during the week for business travelers. Budget hotels however will tend to be more crowded on the weekends.
- If you can book early with an unrestricted reservation at a hotel at a good rate, you can do this then check the hotel one or two days before you go. If there are vacancies and the rate has dropped, you may be able to cancel the original reservation and rebook at the lower rate.
- When calling a hotel, ask for the lowest rate. Though this sounds obvious, be sure that you do this. The lowest rates are usually the internet rate or the corporate rate, and you don’t have to be on business to qualify for that.
- Do not be afraid to speak up, and negotiate the rate or an upgrade in person when you arrive. Though hotels have higher bookings than in the past, there are still a lot of vacancies out there. As they say, it does not’t hurt to ask!
- The best room for you may not necessarily be the cheapest. Factors such as more flexible cancellation policies and better rewards may drive the decision.
- A positive prior stay with a chain counts for a lot in many people’s opinions, and this can take you directly to the brand’s web site. Knowing what to expect by way of service may make this the best travel deal.
- Be aware of the hotel’s “best rate program” before you book directly on the brand’s site. Find the best rate out there, and then dig through the brand’s site if you must to find their best rate policies, and take advantage of them. Very few consumers look at the best rate policies on a brand’s web site.
- Be sure to double check the price at booking with your search result to be sure that the rate is correct. Sometimes the search results lag, and can be frustratingly misleading, so just be sure you are getting what you expected.
Knowing what you want by way of accommodations on your trip, and doing your homework ahead of time will pay off for you by getting you the best deal on your hotel room.
