How to Get a Cheap Hotel

Posted by Nick on March 8, 2010

Whether you are traveling for pleasure or for business, hotel costs can quickly become unmanageable if you do not attempt to get a discount deal. Stretching your dollars by getting a cheap hotel can result in more money for other aspects of your trip. Getting a cheap hotel is not difficult, you just have to know how to go about doing so. It may take a little extra work to get a cheap deal on a hotel but the savings can really add up.

** Check hotel chain websites for unadvertised specials. For example, for Hilton chain hotels, which includes Hampton Inn and Doubletree hotels, go to the Hilton website at Hilton.com to see if there are any cheap deals going on. Often the best prices on hotel chain websites require prepayment so be sure to check the rate details before booking a room.

** Look for special discount offers on the Travelzoo website, which is a site that specializes in offer the best travel deals available. Usually the discounts you will see on Travelzoo are only available for a certain number of hotel rooms or you have to book by a certain date. This means that if you do not book early you could miss out on a deal. For example, hotel deals posted the last week of February 2010 include 40 percent off the nightly rates at a four-star hotel in Prague, almost 70 percent off the nightly rates at a St. Lucia resort and 50 percent off nights at the famous four-star Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

** Bid on a hotel room using Priceline.com. With Priceline’s “Name You Own Price” option you can enter in the amount that you want to pay for a room and see if any hotels accept your bid. The way that this works is that you enter in your destination and preferred area to stay in and the star-rating you want the hotel to have. You enter in your payment details and place your bid. If you bid is accepted you are charged in full for the hotel booking immediately. Only then is the name of the hotel revealed to you.

** Use Hotwire.com to get a cheap hotel room. Hotwire.com is a little different from Priceline as you are shown results for the city that you search for a hotel room in and you can see the star rating as well as amenities at the hotel. You do not see the name of the hotel until you pay. A quick look at BetterBidding.com to see previous Hotwire.com users results can help you to decode the listing and figure out which hotels you are looking at. Once you pay for your hotel the name of it is revealed to you.