Tips for cheaper hotel room for 3?

[vafoodie]

Just returned from a 15 day trip to Scotland and England, and when my husband told me what we spent (9K), I wasn't happy. Feel free to convince me that was a bargain. Flights were mostly on points as were at least two nights of hotels. Maybe I'm not being realistic. We aren't budget travelers, but we aren't extravagant either. We are new retirees, and our trips are longer, so maybe I haven't fully adjusted to the price jump for these longer trips.
On this trip we took our adult child, who paid for a lot of her own way, but we absorbed the cost of her lodging, which I think drove the price up because we had to book rooms to accommodate 3 in Europe--no easy feat. A suite or apt was usually required. When traveling in the US, we've usually been able to get a foldaway bed that we could fit in a larger room for a nominal add on. Is this entirely impossible in Europe or abroad? Should I have contacted hotels directly to see if they had some kind of arrangement? Are there any cost-cutting hotel tips you have for a family of 3? We need one at least queen bed and a cot or foldaway couch?

 

[nphx]

Search "hostel" on booking.com for the area. Many (not all) of these hostels are modern gen x clean efficient and affordable places. Usually the location has a few options with a private bath for a few dollars more.

 

[pacergal]

I dunno, $9000 for two weeks for 3 doesn't sound too outrageous to me for air, lodging, food, ground transport, etc all included?

 

[Chuckanut]

There’s been a huge increase in hotel prices this year, IMO. Apparently, we are all out and about traveling here and their and everywhere to make up for the year or two we all stayed home during Covid.

My favorite hotel chain used to rent a very nice room with a hot breakfast in the morning from $99 a night for off season in a small town to maybe $180 a night for high season in a more expensive city. Now I am seeing prices from $140 a night to nearly $325 a night for the same rooms in the same chain.

Thankfully, I’ve been able to offset a lot of this cost with points I accumulated and did not use during Covid. I work my hotel chain’s point system to the max. A thousand extra points here, two thousand bonus points there, another 1700 points for using their affinity credit card, and now and then I get a free room. My CC also gives me one free stay a year. Of course, free rooms have to be booked well ahead of time during the high seasons. Hotels only offer so many of them. Or, travel during the off season and bring a sweater and umbrella.

I can see some future dating app that instead of listing one’s height, weight, hair color, work status, religion, etc, we simply list all our airline, hotel and bank travel points to see we can match up with for a nice trip.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I don’t think you are being realistic. Last year I spent 6k going to Ireland for 11 days and that included airfare. I have a trip booked to France in 2025 and that’s 7500 for a 11 day tour. It doesn’t include all the meals so in the past I usually spend an additional 500 between those and the few gifts I buy.

 

[brett]

Just returned from a 15 day trip to Scotland and England, and when my husband told me what we spent (9K), I wasn't happy. Feel free to convince me that was a bargain. Flights were mostly on points as were at least two nights of hotels. Maybe I'm not being realistic. We aren't budget travelers, but we aren't extravagant either. We are new retirees, and our trips are longer, so maybe I haven't fully adjusted to the price jump for these longer trips.
On this trip we took our adult child, who paid for a lot of her own way, but we absorbed the cost of her lodging, which I think drove the price up because we had to book rooms to accommodate 3 in Europe--no easy feat. A suite or apt was usually required. When traveling in the US, we've usually been able to get a foldaway bed that we could fit in a larger room for a nominal add on. Is this entirely impossible in Europe or abroad? Should I have contacted hotels directly to see if they had some kind of arrangement? Are there any cost-cutting hotel tips you have for a family of 3? We need one at least queen bed and a cot or foldaway couch?

I cannot comment on the UK. We do travel extensively-usually two 7-9 weeks trips per year. Europe, Africa, South/Central America, Australia, SE Asia.

We avoid NA style hotels in favor of smaller, locally owned hotels, condos/self contained, B&B's. We use booking.com, agoda, expedia, etc but usually as guides only. We also use tripadvisor however in some countries you need to read between the lines and know that some reviews appear to be more than a little biased.

We attempt to contact the lodging directly. Rightly or wrongly, and through experience, I judge them by how quickly they respond to email etc. We find that be getter better rooms, better pricing and better options like transport or meals by dealing direct. We also get discounts for cash. Some of our favorite places that we return to when snow birding have been found this way. Not just the accommodation and pricing...we have had some great experiences and travel advice from owners and guests. Price is a factor, but after years of travel we find that the experience is as or more important.

We are also independent/spontaneous travelers. If we are not certain, we book for one night, or two. If we like the hotel, etc. or the area we stay for a longer. We have done this on multiple trips to Mexico, Thailand, Greece, etc. It always seems to work out.

We have seen many families traveling this way...more often with one or two younger children. My guess is that they did what we do...contact the accommodation directly.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

There’s been a huge increase in hotel prices this year, IMO. Apparently, we are all out and about traveling here and their and everywhere to make up for the year or two we all stayed home during Covid.

That is undoubtedly a part of it, but let's not forget how tight the labor market has been since COVID, too. To try to keep it apolitical: employers in many industries are finding they have to pay more than they used to in order to get the same work done. It's probably more than those two factors, too, but those might be the main ones, IMO.

 

[OldShooter]

AirBNB? We hate hotels; having to stay in one is a planning failure. We are usually looking for an apartment for two people but often find ourselves in properties with two bedrooms.

 

[Aerides]

Just returned from a 15 day trip to Scotland and England, and when my husband told me what we spent (9K), I wasn't happy. Feel free to convince me that was a bargain.

You had an international vacation with your daughter who very likely won't want to go along with you in a couple more years. That should make it a bargain right there.

Despite your use of miles, that sounds like an economical trip to me. I budget anything international for $1k per day and then don't pay any attention to that.

Did you have a great time?

 

[Out of Steam]

Just returned from a 15 day trip to Scotland and England, and when my husband told me what we spent (9K), I wasn't happy.

My wife and I budgeted $11K for the 12 day trip to Alaska with our adult daughter that we just finished. That doesn't include her airfare or a zipline excursion she did. Given the quality of a couple of our rooms, I would have been happy to add $1K to that budget.

I haven't run the numbers, but suspect the budget wasn't far off. It was our most expensive trip ever by a significant margin.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I agree that traveling with three adults in Europe is frustrating. In addition, I refused to put my SIL into a sofa bed.

On a recent trip, I had a modicum of luck with two strategies. One was using AirBnB, as OldShooter points out. The other was just tediously searching on a few sites (hotels.com, etc.) that allowed one to filter by number of people, and carefully checking whether one of the beds was a sofa bed.

Sometimes it was cheaper to rent two rooms than one triple, but that was rare.

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

I think it depends what kind of hotels you are using. There is a large amount of difference between US-style hotels and some of the smaller, often family-owned hotels in Europe. I found traveling in Europe to be very inexpensive compared to the USA, but there is no real cheap way to cross the Atlantic, unless you sign up for some airline credit cards. Travelling like a European is cheaper than traveling like an American.

 

[jollystomper]

When our kids were young, we did so much travel crowded into a hotel room or a suite with roll-away beds that DW and I decided, when they reached adult age, to go the BTD route and book a separate room for the ones traveling with us, or book a suite/apartment with separate bedrooms.

We value our privacy, and it is our way of treating them as adults.They appreciate it, when we have done this usually one night the ones traveling with us have treated us to a meal. Sometimes, depending on the length of the trip, they have chosen to pay for their room as we are picking up the other travel costs.

We have a lot of hotel points (Hilton) so this has helped with the cost. We have found that the cost of everyone having ability to go to some type of their own "space" as needed makes the trip go smoother.

 

[Sunset]

OP - Tell us the name of the hotel in Scotland and England.

We had planned a trip to Scotland, but it was cancelled due to Covid, and haven't crossed the pond since before then. I do recall it was difficult to find reasonable priced places. Even the European rooms were going to be very small and cramped with no elevators and the price was a lot more than USA prices.

So you may have done everything right... It's just expensive to go there.

I do consider 2 wks an absolute minimum, as the travel there and back is expensive and a pain to fly.

 

[rodi]

We have just started traveling sans kids post COVID since they are at University. When it was the four of us we did vacation rentals through VRBO and Airbnb. Often significantly cheaper than a hotel with more space... Added advantage that you can eat breakfast in your jammies vs going to a restaurant prior to the first coffee.

For a data point on expenses we did 28 days in Italy this April/May. We had a good deal on airfare combining premium economy there and business return ($5685 for two people). It was our largest expense. All in, including all spending was around $12k.

We traveled by train (and ferry) rather than renting a car. We had two hotels, 1 b&b, and the rest were apartments. Hotels were definitely more expensive than apartments.

 

[athena53]

I travel solo but I'll second (or third) Airbnb. I've rented 3 times. My first, in Reykjavik, was definitely cheaper than a hotel, even for one person, and had 2 bedrooms. The owner just bunked with her daughter nearby when she rented it out so it was well-equipped and had her artwork and cookbooks and a pretty garden at the back. The other two were definitely solo/couple places but were clearly labeled as such: a very stripped-down apartment in Edinburgh, clearly meant for rental only, and a lovely studio in Munich belonging to a young woman whose parents lived nearby. All were as described. The one in Edinburgh had no microwave, no coffeemaker (except a french press) and no paid TV subscriptions, but then they didn't promise any of that, either.

I'll be using then to find a house for rent when I take DS, DDIL and the 3 kids to Charleston next year. The 6-year old immediately noticed ads for some with swimming pools. Yeah, we can do that!

 

[vafoodie]

OP - Tell us the name of the hotel in Scotland and England.

The hotel in Edinburgh was called The Native. It was lovely, and the staff was terrific. Reminded me a bit of a Residence Inn type room. A bedroom with a door then a twin bed in a sitting area with a kitchen. In Inverness, we had a 2 bed, 2 bath apt through Inverness City Suites. About a 1/2 mile walk from the city center. In Glasgow (which I could have skipped) we were in a Marriott with no AC during unseasonably warm days.

 

[marko]

I dunno, $9000 for two weeks for 3 doesn't sound too outrageous to me for air, lodging, food, ground transport, etc all included?

Heck, I once paid $3800 for a two night weekend in NYC.

$9,000 divided by 3 divided by 15 days? $200 a day each? What's the problem? I suspect that the main driver was the third person, forcing room upgrades which can get pricey in Europe/UK

 

[NoiseBoy]

$9,000 divided by 3 divided by 15 days? $200 a day each? What's the problem? I suspect that the main driver was the third person, forcing room upgrades which can get pricey in Europe/UK

Averaged across 13 trips to Europe to meet my girlfriend, who lives over there, our long term daily cost is $517 per night. That's for everything. We stay in largish AirBnBs (2 Baths), eat in often, and always use public transportation. I'd say you did just fine, a bargain even. I do think it helps to break it down on a cost per night or even cost per person basis. We met in May in Krakow and, if I just looked at the total cost of that trip, it would rank as the second most expensive on my list. But, we stayed for 15 nights, so it was actually the second cheapest trip we shared. Krakow is lovely by the way and I highly recommend it. Especially to anyone looking for a travel bargain.

I've started doing a little early shopping for a trip this fall and I'm not having much luck finding AirBnBs that are available, and affordable, for a two week stay in late September or early October. I was hoping things would open up after school starts, but that doesn't appear to be the case so far.