I was chatting with Stephanie from Graduated Learning about how to minimize costs for wedding travel the other day and figured I’d make a post about it.
Above, you see the view from my hotel room in Paris. I stayed in a small boutique hotel in a great neighborhood not too far from the opera house for a mere $63/night including taxes, less than 40% of the average nightly rate of $161. My guidelines are below.
If the precise location or specific amenities of your hotel are important to you:
- Go to RetailMeNot and search for codes for Priceline, Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotwire, Expedia, Cheaptickets.com, Hotels.com, etc. Write this information down as you will need it later. I saved $10/night on my Expedia booking this way.
- Ignore your friend when she chastises you for looking for Expedia coupons. She is a hater.
- Search the aforementioned sites (or Kayak) for hotel rooms. Read the reviews carefully and take advantage of their sales and promotions (which may not be on RetailMeNot…promotions may only apply to particular hotels for a certain minimum number of nights). I saved an additional 15% by booking my room for 3 nights.
- The default is to search for a room for 2 adults. If you are traveling alone, change this to 1 adult. You may find a cheaper room with a single bed.
- Once you find a hotel, check to see if they have a twitter account and if there are any promotions listed there.
- Once you find the lowest possible rate and/or hotel of choice, call the hotel.
- Ask them for their best rate
- Ask if they have discounts (ex. AAA)
- Ask what their online rate match policy is. Most major hotel chains (and Expedia) will not only match the price, they will give you an upgrade or additional discount. As a bonus, you will not have to deal with the no-cancellation policy some sites have.
- Tell them the price you found online and where you found it.
If you are flexible about the location:
- Get a general sense of the neighborhood in which you want to stay and the prices of hotels by visiting the online booking sites.
- Visit BetterBidding.com, an unofficial Priceline and Hotwire bidding forum. You can use their maps and lists of Priceline and Hotwire hotels to identify which hotels are actually options when you bid. Utilize this site to guide how much you should bid when using the “you name your price” sites. Users post their bidding and winning strategies to help you get a sense of how low you can go. For instance, this hotel in Boston is usually $219 a night, but this guy got it for $96.
- Using guidance from BetterBidding.com, start bidding! I like to:
- Start with the highest star level possible
- Start bidding at 40% of the Priceline price for a hotel. Sometimes you will get a message that says, “There’s no way your bid will be accepted. Try bidding at least $x,” but stay strong. I still don’t bid the suggested amount unless I am desperate.
- Don’t check off a bunch of neighborhoods on the first bid
- If you bid is rejected, you can rebid within 24h if you expand your star levels or neighborhood. Read this post about rebidding on the same day.
Generally, there’s no formal algorithm for how I go about booking hotel rooms. You need to comparison shop and try different combinations of promotions/coupons. If I’m bidding on a hotel, I start the process early so I have time to raise my bid in (embarrassingly) small increments.
Other comments:
- It is extremely difficult to figure out where to put coupon codes on Expedia. MoneyNing tells you where to look.
- Priceline bidding only guarantees double occupancy; Hotwire can accommodate up to four people.
- Bidding early allows you to bid many times, but bidding late could get you better prices. How early you bid depends on how risk-averse you are.
- If hotels are still too pricey for you, consider a hostel or B&B. You can get a private room in a hostel for cheaper than a hotel without sacrificing privacy.
- There are “daily deals” for hotels on sites like SniqueAway. Are there others?
Unfortunately, saving money takes time and you have to search around, but I think it’s worth it! Sometimes you end up in a Residence Inn or in a business district, but I’ve also gotten amazing boutique hotels too. My sister once got a rental car for $8/day!
Does anyone else have any other cheap hotel strategies?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Such great tips! But now I have the travel bug…uh oh.
You should go!