Bargain Hotel Deals – Just Ask!
Bargain hotel deals are not a myth, but you have to be “in the know” to get them. There is a limited supply of hotel rooms and a fluctuating but hungry demand for cheap deals. Luckily for us, most people are in the dark when it comes to cheap hotel rates. The thing to remember is:
Ask And You Shall Receive Lots Of Bargain Hotel Deals!
Cheap hotel rates come to those who ask. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. One man’s discount hotels are another man’s expensive hotels. It’s all a question of supply and demand and knowing how the system works.
I’ve stayed in hotels on many occasions where I’ve been paying half of what the guy in the next room is paying
The Best Five Ways To Get Cheap Hotel Rates:
- Find A Good Discount Website. Book through selected (and that’s the key here) specialist hotel discount websites and never via your chosen hotel’s own website . I personally get the best deals though DHR and Hotelopia.
- Be Prepared To Travel (a little). Don’t tie yourself down to a specific location. Check out the area you want to stay at. Right in the centre of town may be the convenient option, but most often you’ll find the bigger bargain hotel deals a few miles out. Just be careful. New York, for example, is a huge city and you can easily eat up your savings on cab and rain fares – not to mention your valuable time. Weigh these things up before you book.
- Don’t Get Stuck in a Dump. Sometimes there’s a reason why discount hotels are discount hotels. Look at reviews and pictures to decide what a place is really like. And if the picture looks very 1980s, it might well be an old one. A lot can happen in 30 years and not all of it good!
- Book Online. In 99% of cases, online is the place to find bargain hotel deals.
- Request A Free Upgrade. Even after you’ve booked, there may be a deal available. When you check in, discreetly ask the receptionist if a free upgrade might be available. If not try for free parking, breakfast or dinner. They can’t shoot you for asking and they may well say “yes!”. I’ve had around a 50% success rate with this.
The Bargain Hotel Deal Motto: “Always Ask!”
Bargain Hotel Rates – The Inside Track
Get Your Bed For Less
Bargain hotel rates are within anybody’s grasp. Provided you know where to look and how the system works.
Be Flexible
The best hotel prices are available when you can be loose about your arrangements: not only about where you want to stay but when. If you have to be in a certain town or city but there’s no fixed timescale, then it should be fairly easy to get a good deal. If you have to be somewhere specific on a certain date, then it’s much harder.
Choice + Competition = Bargain Hotel Rates
Generally speaking, you have a much greater chance of getting discount hotel rates when there’s an element of competition and choice. This can be best illustrated by looking at hotel prices at a popular holiday resort: book in the height of summer and you’ll pay through the nose, but go to the same hotel in the middle of winter and you can expect to pay a fraction of the price.
What Is The Best Rate?
To get a bargain, you first have to know what the “going rate” is. For example, a price of $100 would be cheap for a five-star Hilton, but expensive for a basic motel. You might have an idea of where you want to stay, in which case this will not take a huge amount of research to find out what you should be paying.
Your first stop should be the hotel’s own website. What price are they quoting per room per night? Then check out a well-known hotel booking website such as hotels.com and see what they are offering. But (and this is very important) to get the bargain hotel rates you are looking for, do not book on one of these big websites. I’ll explain why in a later post but take it from me – they are very very rarely the best way to get a bargain hotel room.
So, the prices you get from the big website and the hotel’s own will give you an idea of a price to beat. But remember to compare like with like: make sure the prices you are looking at all include (or exclude) breakfast and local taxes.
More useful information about Bargain Hotel Rates in the next post.