Comments on: Save Money on Hotels

By: Christy

Christy — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:09:51 +0000

We are Starwood Preferred Guests members and are returning to Vancouver in June. We discovered that a poshe hotel up the street could give us $70 a night cheaper for a better room than our preferred hotel from the Starwood Group, and they would throw in a $60 food and beverage credit.

So I called the SPG hotel and asked for the Reservations Mgr. I kindly explained our dilemma – how we wanted to stay at his hotel, but in terms of cost, it wasn’t even a contest. I asked of there was a promotional or other price he would consider giving us.

To my surprise, he gave is the cheapest, internet price on a regular room, upgraded us to a deluxe room and threw in our internet for free.

Over 4 nights, that room saved us $260.00.

It pays to ask.

By: Kristy @ Master Your Card

Kristy @ Master Your Card — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:07:28 +0000

Seems lots of people are talking about saving money at hotels recently.

I travel from Texas to L.A. at least once a quarter and after reading your post and a couple of other posts, I’m totally not getting the “good deals” I thought was getting! I had no idea Retail Me Not had coupons with Marriot and that’s where I stay. I love Marriot. I’m going to get the Marriot Amex card just so I can rack up points to travel with! But, I’m glad you posted on this because I’m getting ready to plan another trip and I want to save money on it where I can. Do you know if Retail Me Not has codes that work with Travelocity or Expedia? I usually use these sites to book with, so I’m just curious.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:20:53 +0000

kind of off-topic, but which conference is your wife going to? APhA or ASCP? (I’m a pharmacist, and always trying to decide which conferences are most worth the very expensive registration fees).

Nicole

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 13:20:38 +0000

If using hotels.com, book thru ebates .com for cash back rewards.

By: Writer's Coin

Writer's Coin — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:27:37 +0000

I would throw Kayak.com into the mix, they’re pretty good

By: MLP

MLP — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:45:16 +0000

I recently had a work conference and stayed at the Signature at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Booked through Expedia and got a great deal with airfare and hotel combined. In this economy deals are to be had! It was a beautiful room and the service was excellent. Sure beats the Imperial Palace where we usually stay!
Nice post.
MLP

By: Rafiq

Rafiq — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:29:28 +0000

You can also find deals on hotels, airfare and traveling by looking at websites that search and compile all the deals taking place online. One particular website that I’ve enjoyed using is called Cheaptweet. It scours the fast-growing world of Twitter for any deals and coupons that are being tweeted about and compiles them on their website.

By: Blake

Blake — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:29:36 +0000

“My biggest pet peeve is that the more expensive, luxury hotels love to stick you with a $10 a day Internet access fee.”

No joke! We stayed at a Hilton in Minneapolis for a school event, and I was PO’d that they charged something like $12 for 24 hours internet access. What a rip!

By: Erica Douglass

Erica Douglass — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:06:37 +0000

I try to stay at Hiltons so I can pick up the reward points. So far I’ve reached their “Silver VIP” level (not that hard) and picked up one free night. By the end of next month, I will have enough points for 2 more free nights. I usually stay at Hampton Inn (a Hilton subsidiary) if at all possible. Their hotels are decent enough and have free Internet access and free breakfast.

Sticking with one chain as long as it’s economically feasible is worth it to get the free nights over the long term.

-Erica

By: kosmo @ The Casual Observer

kosmo @ The Casual Observer — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:02:03 +0000

Tripadvisor is great. Some people really let loose with info about negative experience (such as my wife after a recent nightmare stay in KC) and this can tell you a lot – especially if multiple users are having the same experience.

You may also inquire about the availability of bacon for breakfast. Because if you don’t have bacon, what do you really have?

Seriously, though, the free breakfast can save a lot of money. What would it cost to buy breakfast for a family of 4? Plus there is the convenience factor – you don’t need to make an extra trip to a restaurant. You can eat restaurant at the hotel and then when you jump into the car, you’re heading toward your main destination.