19 Nov 20
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Looking to score a great deal on a hotel room? Then you've come to the right place! As someone who travels frequently, I often get asked how do I afford to take so many trips all the time. That's because I'm a smart traveler. After airfare, hotels and accommodations are usually the second biggest expense of any trip. However, there are ways you can find cheaper hotel rooms. SPEND LESS, TRAVEL MORE. You can definitely travel on a budget and I'm going to show you exactly how. Here are my 7 tips and tricks on how to book cheap hotel rooms:
Table of Contents
1. BE FLEXIBLE
If possible, be flexible with your trip. Most people usually travel on a weekend, around big holidays or during the summer (peak season for traveling). However, by staying midweek (Monday-Thursday) or travel during an off season - you can hundreds of dollars.
So hotels will have different rates on their rooms depending on the day of the week and time of year. When looking at a hotel's booking calendar, it'll usually show you the daily rates so you can look ahead and compare the rates on different days.
Take a look at the price summaries above. The left shows the total amount for a room booked for Friday-Sunday and the right shows the total for a room booked for Monday-Wednesday. They both reflect a 2 night stay at the same hotel for the same exact room. However, by staying midweek instead of the weekend, you can see that it's a little bit cheaper.
Keep in mind that each hotel is different so the difference between a midweek daily rate and a weekend daily rate will vary. I've seen differences as high as $100 per night so this can really save you a lot of money.
2. PRICE MATCH
When using third party booking sites, many of them will offer price matching. So if you find a hotel room for a cheaper rate, they'll refund you the difference. However, there are some rules:
It's important to note that you first have to book the hotel accommodation through the booking site first (such as Booking.com or Hotels.com) and then if you find the same hotel room at another booking site or the original hotel's website, then you can request the price match. I love price matching as it can help save you some money but it's not always a guarantee.
Price matching has worked for most of the time but there are rare occasions when they will deny your request - they'll usually explain why your price match request was denied. So this should only be an option if you're willing to pay the rates as booked in case your price match request gets denied. On average, I've saved about $100 from price matching.
3. BOOK A NON-REFUNDABLE OR PREPAID RATE
If you're certain that your plans won't change, then I definitely recommend booking a non-refundable or prepaid rate because they are usually a much better deal. Although most hotels and third party booking sites will have a "free cancellation" option, you can save a few extra dollars this way since you won't need to cancel.
Most hotels will provide a discount if you a book a longer stay. The type of discounts will vary but generally the longer you stay, the bigger the discount will be. Some hotels will offer a weekly rate that are much lower per night compared to their regular nightly rates. Also, there are hotels that will give you a free night if you book a certain number of nights. So if you are flexible with your travel dates, perhaps look into a longer stay so you can get a better rate per night.
5. SERVICED APARTMENTS (AKA APARTMENT HOTELS)
This is one of my favorite tips. I actually didn't know about serviced apartments until a few years ago when I was traveling through Southeast Asia and was looking for affordable accommodations. They're perfect for families or if you're traveling in a small group. They're so much cheaper than your typical hotel room and they usually have the same amenities (or more) as hotels.
Serviced apartments are are much better than typical hotel rooms in my opinion because they're generally larger in size, often comes with a kitchenette and you don't have to pay for those extra resort fees. Most hotel rooms generally charge a daily resort fee to cover the costs of wireless internet (even though they advertise it as free wi-fi), use of their gym/pool, laundry, etc. If you're like me and don't really use any of those things other than the wireless internet, it doesn't make sense to pay for things that you don't use. So by ditching the resort fees, you can save a ton especially if you're staying for several nights because those fees add up.
Here are a few examples of serviced apartments so you have an idea of what to look for:
- https://www.sonder.com/
- https://www.barsala.com/
- Third Party Booking Sites (You can use sites like Booking.com, Hotels.com or other hotel booking sites and filter by apartment hotels in your search)
6. DELETE YOUR COOKIES/HISTORY
Not many people know this but you should be using a different browser and/or go incognito each time you are looking up hotels on a particular booking site that you used previously. The websites store your search data/history so when you go back to a particular site, their algorithm picks that up and will increase the prices hoping that you'll book because you're afraid the prices will increase again.
Please note that this doesn't happen all the time nor does it happen immediately but it does happen so I recommend just avoiding it all together and go incognito each time you are researching hotels.
7. BE PATIENT
The biggest tip I can offer you is to be patient and do your research. It's rare that I book a hotel room after researching for just a few hours. I definitely do not find the best deals during my initial search. I spend several days searching and comparing prices to ensure that I'm getting the best deal. If you really want the best deals, you have to be patient with your search so I recommend searching as early as you can so you have time to do your research.
Last but not least, you should be comparing the amenities offered at each hotel during your research. You want the best bang for your buck so look out for amenities that you know you'll be using during your stay such as a kitchen, washer/dryer, gym, continental breakfast, free parking, airport shuttle, etc. (preferably without paying for those resort fees).
➤ BEST BOOKING WEBSITES
So I usually book hotels through a third party booking site 80% of the time. However, there are a lot of fake third party booking sites that have no affiliation with the hotels and are SCAMS. Unfortunately, I got scammed once a long time ago from using a third party booking site so please be careful and do your due diligence to make sure that the sites you are using are legit. Below are most of the booking websites that I use (the ones with asterisks* are my go-to sites):
- https://www.southwest.com*
- If you're not on any flight rewards program with an airline company, I definitely recommend you join one. I love love love Southwest Airlines so I've been loyal to them since forever. I have their credit card which helps me get a ton of points to redeem for flights when I book flights, hotels, and car rentals through them. Lots of airline companies offer hotel discounts so definitely check out the different airlines, especially the ones you fly with most. Also, sign up for an airline credit card because that's how I basically fly for free. I've accumulated so many points that I can redeem for flights at no cost (except for the 9/11 taxes).
- You actually don't have to be a T-Mobile customer to use this site as it's affiliated with Booking.com. You can save up to 40% off of hotel rooms and even car rentals. However, based on my experience, that's not always the case. There's usually a handful of really good deals listed on the website but you'll need to compare the prices with other booking sites to confirm. It takes a lot of time going though the site but there are some really good deals on there.
- People generally use AirBnB to find rooms or homes to stay in. However, you can also find hotel rooms and the apartment hotels that I talked about previously. My friend and I actually booked a hotel room through AirBnB when we were in Hawaii last year for a fraction of the cost. The original rates for the hotel room was really expensive so by booking through AirBnB, we saved a lot of money.
- Google offers a great way to browse different hotel rooms and it compares the prices among the different third party booking sites for you. It's a huge time saver. It also has a map of the locations of the hotels so it's really helpful in determining where you want to stay. I usually use Google first as it helps set up ideas on where I want to stay and what hotels I should be looking out for in my search.
- Hotel Tonight is really great for finding last minute hotel rooms. When people are unable to use the room(s) they booked and can't cancel them, they list them on Hotel Tonight at a much lower rate so that they make some of their money back.
I hope these tips and tricks are helpful. If you have any questions or need any clarifications, let me know in the comments below or you can message me on Instagram @phvongtrvn :)
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