Those on a tight budget know that lowering travel costs is key. One way to achieve this when travelling is finding cheap flights, there are many approaches you can take. With a good travel insurance and sufficient funds in place, you can now look into other ways to cut costs. One of the best ways to save money is by booking a cheap hotel.
Keep reading for our top tips.
Use online search engines
The best way to find a good deal is by conducting an online search for the cheapest flights. There are many websites like Kayak or Expedia that will assist you in your search. Instead of browsing the web and comparing each hotel individually, which is time-consuming, an aggregator will list all hotels in the area with their price, rating and location. Use these search engines to find and compare hotels easily. There are other search engines like booking.com that focus on offers on discounted hotels, so there’s no need to look around individually to try and find the best deal.
Try to arrive late in the day
Hotel room rates are often heavily discounted towards the end of the day, as the hotel in question will usually have plenty of unoccupied rooms and will be looking to fill them for additional revenue. As such, the hotel may make deals with their customers towards the end of their shift to sell them an upgrade or a room at a discounted price. Either way, you’ll be able to plan your visit more effectively.
Try to avoid ‘peak times’
The alternative to this is to try and travel outside the most popular time of year. This isn’t always possible, but it can help, for example by travelling on days that are more off-peak when hotel prices are at their lowest. Travelling mid-week or after a busy period is the ideal time to search for low hotel rates.
Ask to see the room first
Many hotel managers will let you see many rooms and often, after you leave, the overall price is lowered. This is most common in Asian countries where locals have been using it for a while now.
Look for hotels that don’t appear in the top search engine listings
If the big search engine sites don’t have anything for you, it could be time to take a spin in the opposite direction and find a hotel that doesn’t appear on aggregator site listings. Because plenty of businesses shut down during the winter months, it’s likely the remaining ones will offer hefty discounts to keep their customers happy. Contact them directly and discuss their rates. Don’t be surprised if you find a great deal on offer when you contact them in person.
Beware of false economy
While it may seem like a fantastic deal to stay in a hotel in the middle of nowhere, you will have to consider how you are going to visit the local places of interest. If public transportation is a little unreliable, and you will need to take a private car or taxi every time you want to leave the hotel, then suddenly your budget becomes a lot more rigid. When you would like to stay in a central location near attractions like museums, theaters, galleries and the likes, it may be more expensive than the suburbs. But factor in what you could save by not having to allot money for public transport or taxi rides.