How To Book a Cheap Hotel Room

Guide Note:

You're paying too much for that hotel room! If you want to travel in style, but don't want to put yourself into debt, you're going to need to do a little bit of digging. Here, in How To Book a Cheap Hotel Room, we're going to tell you the best way to find cheap hotel rooms, without getting stuck in the Bates Motel. Table of Contents:



Introduction

You deserve a comfy room at a low price. (Creative Commons photo by Dan Taylor)
You deserve a comfy room at a low price. (Creative Commons photo by Dan Taylor)
  • Depending on how you find it, the rate for a single hotel room can vary wildly. Your job, as a savvy traveler, is to find the best room at the cheapest price. If you go into this process blind, then you are almost always going to pay more. Here, we're going to give you suggestions on how you can use the awesome, unharnessed power of the Internet—and also your own charm, persuasion, and moxie—to find the room of and for your dreams.

Step 1: Check price comparison sites

  • Price comparison websites such as SideStep, Yahoo! Farechase and Kayak will check multiple websites, including hotel consolidators and booking services, for hotel room prices. They will then tell you the lowest price found.
  1. Go to the websites SideStep, Yahoo! Farechase or Kayak.
  2. Input the name of the city and your dates of travel into the appropriate fields.
  3. Click on "Search".
  4. Note the lowest price you have found for the hotel(s) you are interested in, as well as the name of the website offering that price.

Step 2: Call the hotel

  • By calling the hotel directly, you can frequently get a lower rate than the one advertised on the web. However, you must call the hotel itself, not the national 800 number, to get these rates.
  1. To look up the phone number of the specific hotels you've noted in Steps 1 and 2, go to Google Maps and click on "Find Businesses".
    Image:HotelGoogleMaps1_ng_07192007.jpg
    Figure 1: Google Maps main page
  2. Type the name of the hotel into the "What" box.
  3. Type the city the hotel is located in into the "Where" box.
    Image:HotelGoogleMaps2_ng_07192007.jpg
    Figure 2: Google Maps Find Businesses page
  4. Click "Search Businesses".
  5. Check to make sure it is the same hotel you found in Steps 1 and 2: some chains have multiple hotels with similar names in the same city.
  6. Call the local number of the hotel. It will be the number that does not have the "800" area code. You will get a better rate by speaking to the hotel directly than by calling their national 800 number.
  7. Ask what their rate is for the dates you wish to stay there.
  8. If you are a frequent guest of a specific hotel chain, booking through the hotel chain will garner points and amenities that booking through a third-party web service will not.

Step 3: Ask for a discount

  • Always ask for a discount when you speak to the hotel. If they don't offer you a discount, ask them if they will upgrade you to a better class of room at that rate.
  1. While speaking to the hotel, ask, "Is it possible for me to get a discount?" or "I was hoping to pay a little less." Don't say, "I found a better rate on the Web"; they'll just tell you to book it on the Web.
  2. Some specific rates you can ask for: rate for a death or major illness in family, church rate, government rate, weekend rate (if the hotel is not full, you can get this on weekdays as well), reunion rate. Don't ask for a student rate or AARP rate; students have a bad reputation, and AARP rates are not much lower than full price. Corporate rates can be good, but it depends on the corporation and the hotel.
  3. Be nice. The nicer you are, the more likely you are to get a better rate or an upgrade.
  4. Call after the reservation office has closed for the evening; the front desk clerk, if he or she is not busy, is more likely to give you a lower rate than the reservation office or the hotel manager is.
  5. If the clerk is busy, offer to call back; being considerate of the clerk's situation may also help you get a discount.

Step 4: Ask if they will match the lowest rate

  • Most hotels will match the lowest rate you've found online. Additionally, many chains have programs in which they offer big discounts if you find a rate lower than their lowest rate.
  1. If their lowest rates aren't as low as the one you found online, ask if they will match the rate you found.
  2. Many chains have a Lowest Rate Guarantee program. If you find a rate lower than the lowest one they offer on their website, they will give you an even more deeply discounted rate. See below for several chains' programs. Remember to read the fine print!

Some Lowest Rate Guarantees

Step 5: Bid for a hotel room

  • If you are flexible about the specific hotel, bid for a hotel room on Priceline or Hotwire. The hotels are deeply discounted, but you won't know what specific hotel you're staying at until your bid is accepted. There are many strategies you can use to get an exceptionally deep discount.
  1. Go to the sites Bidding For Travel or Travelgoop (Priceline-only information) and Better Bidding (Priceline and Hotwire information).
  2. Look in the forums for the area in which you are staying. Both sites have forums for states, as well as for specific metro areas.
  3. The top post in the forum is a list of hotels that Priceline and Hotwire book users into, listed by area and star rating. This will give you an idea of the kind of hotel you can expect to stay in.
  4. Review the posts in the forum to get an idea of the winning bids for the area you are staying in, around the dates you are staying there. This will give you the information you need to make an informed bid, as well as an idea of the hotels you might be booked into.
  5. Go to Priceline or Hotwire. You will have to pay if your bid is accepted, so make sure to use only one site at a time to avoid double-booking.

How to Bid for a Hotel on Priceline

  1. Go to Priceline.
  2. Click on the Hotels tab.
    Image:PricelineStep2_ng_07192007.jpg
    Figure 1: Priceline.com's Hotels tab
  3. Click on the "Deeper Discounts - Name Your Own Price" button.
    Image:PricelineStep3_ng_07192007.jpg
    Figure 2: Priceline.com's "Deeper Discounts" button
  4. In the pop-up window, enter the destination, check-in and check-out dates, and how many rooms you would like.
  5. Click "Next".
  6. Choose the area you want to stay in, and the star level of hotel you would like to stay in. Remember, if your first bid doesn't work, you will be able to add areas or lower (but not higher) star levels and bid again, so it's best to aim high and narrow-focus on this round of bidding.
    Image:PricelineStep6thru9_ng_07192007.jpg
    Figure 3: Priceline.com's "Name Your Own Price" page
  7. Review the recent winning bids for that area and star level on Better Bidding, Travelgoop and Bidding For Travel in order to make an informed bid.
  8. In the "Name Your Own Price" field, enter your bid.
  9. Click "Next".
  10. Enter your initials on the next page.
  11. Click "Next".
  12. Fill out your purchase information.
  13. You will either be told immediately that your bid is accepted, or receive an email telling you whether or not your bid is accepted.
  14. If your bid is not accepted, you can re-bid by adding a zone or reducing the star level. Make sure to adjust your bid accordingly: prices can vary widely depending on both zone and star level.
  15. If you add a zone, you can add a zone that does not have hotels at the star level that you're looking for, and change your original bid. Since the new zone has no hotels at your chosen star level, you will only get hotels in your original zone if you place a winning bid.

How to Bid for a Hotel on Hotwire

  1. Go to Hotwire.
  2. Click on the Hotels tab.
  3. Under "Destination", type in your destination city.
  4. Enter your check-in and check-out dates.
  5. Select how many rooms you want, and how many people will be staying in them.
  6. Click "Find a Hotel".
  7. Review the hotels presented. Remember, star ratings on Hotwire can be misleading!
  8. Cross-check the location, star ratings and amenities of the hotel(s) you are interested in with the information listed on Better Bidding to get an idea of which specific hotel it might be.
  9. In Hotwire, click on the "Continue" button for the hotel you have selected.
  10. After reviewing the information provided, click "Continue" again.
  11. Type in the name of the guest in the appropriate fields.
  12. Click continue.
  13. Enter your payment and other required information.
  14. Click "Book Trip".

Conclusion

  • While there are many sites on the Internet that will tell you that you can get the best rate through them, in the end, the best way to get a hotel room on the cheap—that isn't a dump—is to do some sleuthing on your own. Nothing beats the persuasive power of a phone call to the hotel itself. Remember: it never hurts to ask. Of course, you can also make out like a bandit by bidding on the room you want. No hotel wants their beds empty.

Resources for How To Book a Cheap Hotel Room

Hotel and Travel Search Sites

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