Saving Money on your next Hotel Stay

Domo in Italy

I  dislike reserving a hotel prior to traveling because I obsess about getting the best deal in the best location.  One website that is great for saving money on hotels is priceline.  William Shatner is the spokesperson but don’t let that fool you as there are substantial savings to be had through using their site.  From personal experience I have found that  you can save an average of 40 to  50 percent (from the current internet rate, NOT the standard room rate) using priceline and the following tips:

1) Name Your Own Price – To get the best deals you must bid “blind” on a hotel based upon a star rating and location and only find out what hotel you are staying at if someone accepts your offer.

2) Use Forums – The good news to naming your own price is that there are forums (http://www.betterbidding.com/) where people discuss the hotels and rates that are being accepted, allowing you to get better idea where you will be staying.  The site has good information on bidding strategies (read them before bidding) so I won’t go into them here.  Browse the forum for the location you will be staying and see what hotels people have been getting for a given price, star rating, and location.

3) Place a Bid – Armed with information from other betterbidding.com place a reasonable bid and do something for the minute or two it takes for priceline to come back and tell you if you have a hotel reservation.  A word of warning; you have to submit your bid with a valid credit card and if a hotel accepts your offer your card will be charged and if your bid is rejected you will have to change one piece of your criteria to bid again (such as star rating or location).

4) Be Happy – When your bid is accepted don’t second guess if you could have gotten the room for $X cheaper if you had just bid lower.  If you have done your homework you should have gotten a great deal, so leave it at that (yes, Amber has had to tell me to do this on multiple occasions).

To show you the savings for bidding blind I just booked two nights in Boston for a total of $234.94 ($100/night + taxes).  The exact same hotel on priceline and every other website (travelocity, orbitz, the hotel’s own website) would have been at least $412.94 ($189/night + taxes) if I had made my reservation selecting that specific hotel.  Priceline helped me save $178 (47%), that is a lot of clam chowder!

What websites do you use to book hotel stays?