How to find the cheapest hotel prices

Before you even start searching for hotels research the areas you want to stay in, this is particularly important if you are staying in a city as there is likely to be hundreds of hotels to choose from. This will ensure you focus your search and don’t get bogged down trawling through lots of unsuitable option. Once you have a rough idea where you want to stay then it’s time to hit the comparison sites.

Firstly start with the big name travel brokers such as Expedia, Hotels.com, Ebookers, Lastminute and Travelocity. You’ll often find these come back with very competitive rates that are hard to beat elsewhere. You’ll quickly notice that the number of stars hotels has varies by website so don’t pay too much attention to them as it’s a flawed system of rating hotels online. Instead check reviews on Tripadvisor which is a site that allows past guests to rate and review hotels. If there are plenty of good reviews then you have probably found a good hotel, but its worth remembering that everyone has a different view of what makes a good hotel. For example if you are looking at European hotels you will probably find plenty of Americans complaining about small room sizes, it’s not that the rooms are particularly small but more often just a case of them being used to far larger hotel rooms back at home.

Once you have found a couple of good hotels it’s time to see just how low you can get the nightly rate. I always start by looking at last minute prices as if I was going in the next week as these are usually the lowest possible prices you’ll ever be able to get. Armed with this information it is worth contacting the hotels reservation manager direct asking if they would let you book a room at this rate for the particular dates you want. Unless you are going at a particularly busy time then you’ll usually be able to negotiate the nightly rate down close to the lowest rates you have found for other dates as the reservations manager is normally authorised to go to this level.

If the hotel is not willing to negotiate the price you pay then ask for a free room upgrade or breakfast to be included etc. The value of this to you is far more than they pay for it and if it gets them a booking they’ll normally agree. Remember if you have found several suitable hotels then each individual hotel needs your booking more than you need them!

Finally if you are on a tight budget then consider staying in hostels as they may not have all the facilities of a hotel but they are usually well located and are a great option if you just need a bed to sleep in every night.