Who has the best hotel discounts?

[Chuckanut]

I usually end up booking through hotels.com. Spend 10 nights in hotels booked through them and they'll give you a free night worth 1/10th of what you spent. I do check the rates at the hotel websites and will book directly if it's really cheaper, but even the ones that have a best price guarantee are rarely 10% less than what I find on hotels.com.

I will book directly with the hotel, especially if is a locally owned mom-and-pop hotel. Booking.com is very useful, but they take a big chunk of the profits from the little guys and gals. Often there is an unwritten benefit booking directly - you may get a better room than the person who books through a large booking site, since they are making more money on you.

 

[Chuckanut]

We took advantage of a stay three nights and get a 'free night' promotion from one of the big chains and found that what we got was about 7000 points - enough for a free room at only a fraction of the hotels owned by the big chain. I normally go for the best deal and treat points as a possible bonus. Possible because points can be devalued at the drop of a hat, any hat.

 

[Drake3287]

Here's the best advice for getting a great rate on a future hotel stay if you're willing to plan, it's worked incredibly well for us. Decide on where you plan to go on vacation in 2020 and then pick several of the better then usual hotels that you'd love to stay at.

From there go to each hotels Facebook site and "follow" them. Most of these hotels will end up having a 24 hour Cyber Monday online sale on Dec. 2, 2019. The last 2 years we've had great luck in getting incredible rates at places in Europe that we would never have typically stayed at.

Simply price check your dates prior to Cyber Monday so you know what kind of deal you're getting. Most US hotel's also play this game.

 

[brett]

When we did car trips we did this on numerous occasions. We have also done it with downtown hotels.

First we get an understanding of what a good rate is. Then we select a few target hotels that look good. If we were driving (not downtown of course) we would drive by and check out how busy the parking lot was.

Then, DW would get on her cell (at 4:30 ish or later), call the front desk. She would tell them that we were 10 minutes outside town and ask what their best rate was on a room for the night. The person on the end of the phone was usually smart enough to realize that they only had one crack at this and would typically provide a good price as long they had available rooms. This worked for us! For downtown we would simply call or walk in and request the best rate possible. Always when no one else was at the counter or within earshot. The best one was a hotel in Kelowna, BC late one evening. The rate we were offered at the front desk dropped from $199 to $149 in about 20 seconds. It dropped again to $89. about 15 seconds later when it appeared we may walk. Sold.

We never bother calling the reservation centers. Always the hotel/motel front desk.

 

[Retired Expat]

AirBnB can have it’s drawbacks and you have to be careful about the real cost with cleaning fees, service charge and hospitality tax, if the city/state charges one. But savings on food can be substantial where as in a hotel everything you eat is either restaurant or high priced prepared foods

Hotels can come with other “hidden” costs. Parking, Resort fees whether or not you use the pool, minibar when you get thirsty as 3 am and the Tap water tastes like you drained it from your cars radiator.

Being able to do laundry, cook, sit on the sofa and drink a beer from the supermarket, versus going out to a pub or bar really adds up.

For savings become a member of Hotels.com and basically earn 10% back for future hotel stays.

 

[athena53]

I normally go for the best deal and treat points as a possible bonus. Possible because points can be devalued at the drop of a hat, any hat.

I found this out yesterday. I'm a Lifetime Hilton Gold but I see more and more properties offering only "premium" rooms for Reward stays, although from what I've read the rooms are pretty ordinary. Years ago you could get a room in a Hilton in a major city in Europe for 50-60,000 points a night. Try reserving a room in central Paris now- 300,000 points per night for "premium room rewards".

It's happening in less-glamorous properties. I'm taking my granddaughter to Chicago and she's gotten spoiled with the Hilton O'Hare- LOVES watching the action at the airport across the street. I had only 55,000 points but wanted to stay 2 nights. A regular room with one King was something like 55,000 miles plus $390 for 2 nights. The site offered an "upgrade" to two beds (which we prefer) and a runway view for $20/night more. That would be 55,000 points plus about $700 for 2 nights. That cost included the cost of more points because that was a "premium room" and 128,000 points/night. I booked both nights for cash because the "upgrade" made my points virtually worthless.

I may have to have a talk with my granddaughter before the next trip. The last 2 times we've been able to get a room on the side we wanted to check-in and maybe we just need to try our luck.

 

[jpeter1093]

AirBnB can have it’s drawbacks and you have to be careful about the real cost with cleaning fees, service charge and hospitality tax, if the city/state charges one. But savings on food can be substantial where as in a hotel everything you eat is either restaurant or high priced prepared foods

Hotels can come with other “hidden” costs. Parking, Resort fees whether or not you use the pool, minibar when you get thirsty as 3 am and the Tap water tastes like you drained it from your cars radiator.

Being able to do laundry, cook, sit on the sofa and drink a beer from the supermarket, versus going out to a pub or bar really adds up.

For savings become a member of Hotels.com and basically earn 10% back for future hotel stays.

We recently booked a 2 bedroom apt for just my wife and I for a month in Denver. We asked the host if he would be willing to give us a break on the daily price since we were staying for an entire month. He was - can't hurt to ask