Accommodations are an important part of your travel planning as they become your home away from home. We opt to stay in hotels for their location, cleanliness, service, and access to amenities. It is reassuring to know that your room is taken care of during your stay so you can rest and recharge after a busy day of sightseeing.
While this will be one of the biggest costs of your trip, choosing one doesn’t have to be difficult. By following these steps we can help you find the best price for your hotel on your next vacation.
Hotel Search Engines…Fastest
Meta hotel search engines are the quickest way to find the best price for your next trip. This method will filter and search through the many hundreds of hotel offers from other sites and hotel brands such as booking.com, hotels.com…etc.
To ensure you get the best price possible, a Meta hotel search engine will find the latest discounts available to you. Check out some of the options from our partner site Travel Deal Time. Plus, some of the best hotel room prices can be found at hotellook.com and Trip.com.
Tip: We always make sure to set up our email or text alerts for any price drops. This way if you haven’t made up your mind yet, you can jump on a deal right away.
You can look for discounts on your own!
Many companies will offer discounts and coupons during the year. Typically we have noticed that these deals pop-up around Christmas, Easter, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. Both CAA and AAA members are regularly offered good discounts throughout the year. Military personnel, teachers, students, hospital staff, and many different credit cards will also offer their customers deals to save money.
Get the Best Price by Booking During Shoulder Seasons
During the summer months, prices for various accommodations will always be the most expensive as this is a peak travel time. Easter weekend, Christmas and the school holiday of spring break are also busy and expensive times to travel. Special events such as large conventions can also book up many hotel rooms in an entire city, where you will see prices skyrocket compared to the normal booking rates.
Ultimately it comes down to supply and demand…hotels will book up quickly during these times. We tend to book our trips during the shoulder season or off-peak times such as the early fall, late spring, the beginning of December, and the middle of January when we have been able to get the best prices.
If you can…Book in Advance
Planning your travel and work vacation dates is a very important task and if you must book a trip during the peak periods mentioned above, you should always book well in advance. This will ensure you receive the accommodation that you want, such as a specific location or room with a view. You will avoid the last-minute price increases that often happen with less availability.
We know that you will be inclined like us to keep checking the prices from time to time. Hotel prices will fluctuate when you book far in advance, but they won’t end up too far off of what you originally booked for. We prefer to have peace of mind that our reservation is booked ahead of time, instead of trying to time our booking with the very best deal out there. As well, if you are returning to a destination that you have been to before and want to stay in a tried-and-true accommodation, booking in advance works well.
Booking with points
Many hotels have loyalty programs where you can use points to either get free rooms or allow you to bring down the cost of the booking by using partial points and money.
Some credit cards also have great points programs that can be used to book accommodations. Take a look at some travel credit cards and see what programs they offer.
Personally, we have chosen a Visa card with Aeroplan rewards which allow us to collect points with each purchase. In turn, we have been able to use these accumulated points for flights as well as hotels.
We once booked a room for one night in Miami before a cruise with all miles and also had the option to pay for taxes on our own (which was very little) or with a few more miles. In the end, we definitely felt like we received good value for our miles.
All reward programs are different when it comes to redeeming, but in this instance, it really helped bring down the total cost of our trip. We knew we needed to be in Miami the night before but were worried about the additional cost of the vacation. By saving on our accommodations we were able to have a nice dinner on Ocean drive right on Miami Beach!
Other Options?
There are other options to get the best price for your accommodations. You can use bidding sites such as Hotwire and Priceline. While these options are not our favourites due to the fact that we are very particular about the property and location we want to stay at.
With Hotwire you are just given the general area that you could be staying, star rating, guest rating, and price. No hotel names are used, but you are given a choice between a few hotels and their distances from the local attractions.
With Priceline, they have a new feature: Pricebreakers. They group together 3 hotels with one price and a savings of up to 50% off. You can search for the area you wish to stay in and pick the price that you’re willing to pay. This method will allow you to get the best price that you were willing to pay. They also have an option to choose Express Deals where you can save up to 60% off your room. As an added bonus, many times they offer coupon deals that are valid on orders of a certain level.
Booking Directly with the Hotel
While this initially may not be the way to get the best price for your stay, you need to consider it. By booking directly with a hotel, you will acquire loyalty in some form. This could be in the form of points or nights stayed with a single hotel or hotel chain.
Loyalty programs with hotels can be a very important tool for future travel. Signing up for the programs is as easy as entering your email and a few details. When you acquire loyalty with a hotel or chain, you build up your status and as mentioned above. You can earn free stays, upgrades on rooms, and other perks such as free breakfast.
Booking directly with a hotel will allow you to take advantage of their discounted member room rates. They also offer promotions for bonus loyalty points for booking directly with them. You will receive emails with special deals on a regular basis.
We are currently members of the loyalty programs Accorhotels, Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott hotels and try to use these programs as much as possible.
We hope our tips on booking accommodations allow you to get the best price for your trip! Remember there are many options are out there and the research before your trip is critical.
Please leave any comments, tips or questions you have below.
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links above may be affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, we earn a small commission if you make a booking or purchase.