How to Get a Lower Hotel Room Price

Posted by rlashea on July 13, 2010

When you’re on vacation, you shouldn’t have to spend all of your money on the necessities. As travel and lodging costs start to add up, your vacation mad money goes plummeting. That can mean visiting fewer area attractions, enjoying fewer sumptuous meals and bringing home a few less souvenirs. Every dollar you can save on your vacation accommodations adds to your spending money, so why not try for a lower hotel room price?

Make your hotel reservations online. The lowest room price is almost always the one listed on the hotel’s website these days. If you walk into a hotel without a reservation and get quoted a $300 per night room rate, use the hotel’s free Wi-Fi, or pop into a nearby coffee shop with free Wi-Fi and pull up the hotel’s website. You can often book the room online and get it at half the quoted price.

Use a discount online booking system. While many hotel chains have started price-matching popular discount sites, like Expedia and Hotwire.com, at some you can still get a deal. Priceline.com , for instance, allows you to bid on a hotel room. If the hotel accepts the bid, you pay the price you would like to pay for the room instead of the going rate.

Prepay for your hotel rooms. Nearly all online booking systems, including hotel booking systems and discount booking sites, offer the option of prepaying for the room. The rate when prepaying for a room can be anywhere from $10 to $50 less per night than if you do not prepay. The downfall of prepaid rooms, however, is that they cannot be canceled, so if you have to cancel your vacation, you are out of luck and out the money.

Find out if you get hotel discounts through an organization you belong to. Travel groups, such as AAA, for instance, offer discounts at thousands of hotels. Federal employees and veterans are often eligible for discount rates, and some large companies are given discounts with specific hotel chains. If you work for a well-known company, you may want to check with someone in Human Resources to find out if employees are eligible for discounts at any hotels.

Book with a specific credit card. Some hotel chains have credit card companies with whom they are associated or even have credit cards that are linked with their reward programs, such as Holiday Inn’s Priority Club credit card. Using a credit card associated with the hotel can often score you a small discount.