Intro: 6 Ways to Find the Best Hotel Deals & Hotel Discounts
There is nothing worse than traveling to a strange, foreign city, arriving late at night, and then having to spend time trying to find hotels for you and your family.
You never know when some obscure convention may be in town leaving you with the choice between a dirty motel and spending the night huddled in the back of your van.
Luckily, there are a number of different ways to book hotels online and find the best hotel deals and hotel discounts from the comfort of your home before hitting the road.
But not all hotel search engines are made equally, and your best bet to book a hotel that your family will love might not even be through the Internet.
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Pretty much every hotel finder on the Internet promises that it is hands down the best way to book hotels. So how do you know which hotel search engine to use, and how do you settle on the best way to book a hotel?
In this brief article, Advisory HQ will let you know why searching for hotel discounts is not a waste of your time.
We’ll then go on to offer our top six tips that will help you find the best discount hotel sites and determine the best way to book hotels so that your future travels won’t leave you stuck in a grimy, overpriced hotel room during your next last-minute trip.
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Why You Need to Search for Hotel Discounts
Hotels make a lot of money on the random traveler who stops in late at night without a reservation. At that point, the hotel knows that the traveler has no way to search for a discount and is willing to pay the full price.
Had that traveler spent just ten minutes earlier in the day searching hotel discount sites, he or she most likely would have saved quite a bit of money.
Planning saves you money in pretty much every aspect of life, and the same rings true when you book a hotel. In today’s Internet-driven world, most hotels almost always offer discounted prices for their rooms to the travelers who take the time to use a hotel finder in their search for the best hotel deals.
Like any business, hotels want to sell at full capacity, and the best way to do that is to have customers make reservations beforehand. In order keep their businesses fully booked ahead of time, most hotels offer hotel discounts for clients who take the extra time to book hotels online.
Furthermore, why stay at a two-star hotel when you can stay at a four-star hotel for the same price and have the benefits of a complimentary mini-bar, pool and sauna, and free hot breakfast for the same price? Searching hotel discount sites for the best hotel discounts will allow you to get more advantages and comforts for the money you pay for a hotel room.
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Top Six Tips to Help You Find the Best Way to Book Hotels
At the last minute, your boss decided to send you (instead of a co-worker) to a three-day conference out of town.
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Your company has designated $60 per night for lodging, but they have left you with the responsibility to book a hotel for your stay. You only have a couple of hours before your flight leaves, and you want to quickly discover the best way to book hotels so that you don’t have to be wandering around deserted streets at night looking for a place to stay.
Besides doing a quick Google search for the best discount hotel sites, what else can you do to make sure that you get the best hotel deals and get the most out of the lodging allowance your company budgeted for you? Below you’ll find six tips on the best way to book hotels.
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1. Use Hotel Search Engines
The most obvious way to find hotel discounts when you book hotels online is to use hotel search engines. When people book a flight, in today’s modern world, hardly anyone calls up the airline anymore.
Rather, a number of online flight sites have replaced the role of more traditional travel agents. The same principle is occurring with people who want to book a hotel.
There are literally hundreds of hotel search engines on the Web, though some do offer you more options than others.
The best hotel search engines allow you to enter a variety of search options including price range, distance from the airport, and more. We have listed three of the top hotel finders that offer some of the best hotel deals out there.
According to reviews.com, this hotel finder “offer deals on vacation rentals, hostels, and bed-and-breakfasts, as well as many other hard-to-find property types.” If you’re looking for a wide variety of options when it comes to hotel discounts, this hotel search engine will give you the widest array of options.
Their easy booking process is another added benefit if you don’t have a lot of time to book a hotel.
The name of this hotel finder says it all. If you’re a frequent traveler, you can apply for their Welcome Rewards Program, which offers a free night at a hotel for every 10 bookings you do through them.
Furthermore, they also offer fantastic hotel discounts for last-minute trips, which comes in handy for procrastinators.
This powerful hotel search engine is great for folks who are searching for the best hotel deals and who also want a little help planning out their trip or vacation.
Besides helping you find the best hotel discounts, this website will help you find the cheapest hotels in your vacation region as well as let you know when the best time to travel is.
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2. Book Hotels Online as a Vacation Package
Most products are usually cheaper in bulk, and the same is true when you’re planning your vacation. Many flight search engines also include a hotel finder. These all-inclusive travel search engines allow you to book your flight, rent a car, and book a hotel room all on the same site.
Many of the bigger airlines have partnered with participating hotels and sometimes offer competitive hotel discounts if you book your flight with them. Spirit Airlines, to name just one example, regularly offers deals of up to 50% off hotel packages when you also book a flight. Kayak.com is another great search engine where you can find the best hotel deals together with cheap flights.
3. Check Internet Forums on Hotel Discount Sites
Despite spending millions of dollars on publicity, word-of-mouth is still a pretty important and effective way for the hotel industry to gain recognition.
There are a number of Internet forums where people can review and rate their experience at a hotel. Finding the best hotel deals isn’t only an economic decision. You also deserve to be treated with respect and courtesy.
Trip Advisor is one exceptional and popular website that brings together frequent travelers in a forum where they can share their experiences at hotels around the world. After reading through dozens of reviews and viewing other clients’ photos of the place you’re planning to stay, you can also book a hotel through this website.
4. Consider Alternatives in Your Search to Find Hotels
If you’re tired of the traditional hotel and find it to be too stale and ordinary, consider the more traditional bed-and-breakfast. Hotels, in fact, are a rather recent invention to the traveler. For hundreds of years, bed-and-breakfasts run by families would dot the roads around the country. If you are a younger traveler and can’t find what you’re looking for on hotel discount sites, you could also consider a youth hostel.
Many hotel finders simply won’t list bed-and-breakfasts or hostels because they are smaller and more personal in nature. Luckily, there is a website where you can search millions of hostels, bed-and-breakfasts, and privately run lodging businesses.
Airbnb is the Facebook of bed-and-breakfasts. As an online marketplace, it brings together travelers and hosts and allows you to find fantastic deals on a truly unique lodging experience.
They also offer a useful app to help you quickly and efficiently find what you’re looking for. According to Wikipedia, “In addition to the Airbnb website, the company offers mobile applications for iOS and Android customers; also (from September 2014) a version for the Apple Watch.
These offer geolocation and much of the functionality of the website, including (which allows faster response times) private messaging. As of September 2012, users had downloaded the mobile application over 1 million times, and bookings made via the app accounted for over 26% of the company’s overall traffic.”
5. A Simple Phone Call May Help You Find Hotels with the Best Hotel Discounts
Nobody uses the phone anymore to book a hotel, right? While most people do prefer to book hotels online, there can be advantages to simply making a quick phone call. If you have a hotel that you frequently visit, it might be worthwhile to simply make a call a few hours before you’re planning to show up.
When hotels aren’t booked full, they often will lower their prices or offer hotel discounts to last-minute travelers.
6. The Best Hotel Deals May Not Necessarily Be Published
In this day and age of hundreds of discount hotel sites, it might seem contrary to logic to search for the best hotel deals by simply stopping in at the front desk of a number of hotels around town.
Though most hotels (and many bed-and-breakfasts and hostels) do have an online presence, there are still treasures to be found outside the world of the Internet.
If you are planning on booking a room at a chain hotel, then hotel discount sites online are probably your best bet.
But if you are looking for a smaller, lesser-known, perhaps family-run hotel or inn, and you enjoy the adventure of finding a hidden gem, then you might want to take a leisurely drive around the town you’re staying in to see what you can find.
For international travelers, the best hotel discounts and the most unique experiences often come from those rare moments of luck. Ask fellow travelers where they’ve stayed during their travels, and you might just find a place you’ll want to come back to time and time again.
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Conclusion—How the Best Hotel Deals Can Improve Your Travel Experience
Spending time away from home can be difficult for anyone. We’re all used to the comforts of home and the familiarity of our own bed.
Nothing is worse than spending a night in a strange city on a lumpy mattress while trying to sleep through the wail of sirens and loud music next door.
Taking the time to use hotel search engines when you book hotels online can save you a lot of trouble and a lot of money. Finding the best hotel discounts and the best hotel deals doesn’t take a professional travel agent.
With hundreds of hotel finders on the Internet and helpful Internet forums, you can improve your travel experience by simply taking an extra ten minutes to find hotels that are the right fit for you.
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