Author: The Traveling Professor/Tuesday, January 16, 2018/Categories: Travel Tips, General Travel
Here are The Traveling Professor's best tips for booking hotels:
Book Directly with the Hotel: Avoid hotel booking sites like Expedia, Trivago, Booking.Com, Orbitz, etc. Hotels have a love/hate relationship with booking sites since they take as much as 20% in fees. Bypassing these sites and going directly to the hotel cuts out the middleman and can result in saving for the consumer. Also, when booking directly with a hotel, sometimes rates for parking, breakfast, and check-in/check-out times are more easily negotiated.
Never Use a Booking Site but Booking Sites to Your Advantage: For example, Marriott hotels have a lowest price guarantee. If a Marriott hotel is booked directly and a lower price is found elsewhere within 24 hours, Marriott promises to match the lower rate PLUS an additional 25% off. This worked for me when booking a hotel in New York last year when I found a price $35 lower on Trivago. I got the $35 off my rate booked directly with Marriott PLUS an additional 25% off.
Guarantee Payment: Hotels hate it when guests cancel. So, I offer to guarantee my payment. That means no refund if I cancel. This can result in significant savings.
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