How to Book Cheap Hotel Rooms
Whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure, you probably want to save as much money on your hotel room as possible. Fortunately, there are a few cards up your sleeve that you can use to save a minimum of 10% on the room of your choice. While they won’t work 100% of the time, they are definitely worth a shot. So, let’s get started!
Step #1: Open Up a “Private” Browser
When making hotel reservations online, your goal should be to do it from a protected browser that doesn’t allow the booking site to track you. Hotel reservation websites, or all websites for that matter, use “cookies” to track visitors.
This allows them to keep track of unique visitors to the site. By constantly “clearing” your cookies (which can easily be done from the home screen of your browser), or by using an “incognito” browser, you’ll ensure that the hotel reservation website doesn’t overcharge you for the room.
Step #2: Compare Prices on Multiple Travel Sites
Here are the popular ones to use:
- Priceline
- Expedia
- Travelocity
- CheapTickets
- HotelClub
- Kayak
Some of these websites will actually do the comparisons for you, which saves a lot of time. Make sure that you’re comparing the prices while in your “private” browser. Although rare, you might be able to find better deals on the actual hotel’s website. Once you find a few potential options, write them down and move on to step number three.
Step #3: Do a Google Search For Discount Codes
Open up Google and search your hotel along with the phrases “coupon codes” or “promo codes”. So if you’re staying at the “Days Inn”, then you would type in Days Inn coupon codes, and if that doesn’t work, Days Inn promo codes. You won’t get a match 100% of the time, but it’s worth a shot. Sometimes you can save up to 30% on a room by taking this one simple step. If step three doesn’t work, it’s time to try step four.
Step #4: Contact Live Chat Support
If you don’t manage to snag a good deal on step three, then you’ll need to resort to step four – chatting with a customer service representative. Simply ask them, “Can you provide me with a better deal?” This is a very effective way to get between $10 and $20 off of your stay per night.
Step #5: Sign Up For a Cash Back Membership Program
Once you’ve been able to acquire a good deal, you’ll want to further increase your savings by signing up for cash back membership site. Basically, this will allow you to receive anywhere from 8% to 15% cash back on your stay. So, let’s say that you manage to get a $150 room for $100. With 10% cash back, you’ll actually only be paying $90.
Additional Ways to Save
The five steps above can save you at least 10% on your hotel stay. Most of the time, you’ll end up saving a lot more. For instance, on a five-day trip, you could easily end up saving between $50 and $150 just by using the steps above. Here are a few other strategies to consider including in your arsenal:
- Check Out Yapta.com: This website will send you alerts when prices drop for the hotel of your choice. So rather than continually check the website for price changes, you can have them automatically send to your email. It’s a rather powerful tool that not a lot of travelers are familiar with.
- Call The Actual Hotel: In most cases, the steps above will work for you at saving money. If they don’t, here’s what to do: call the hotel that you want to stay at and tell them if they can lower their price. In 99% of chain hotels, the front desk employee will have the power to cut your price right on the spot.
With a little effort, and some luck, you’ll be able to save a lot of money on your vacation. The days of overspending on hotels are over!