Official Website:
With the proliferation of online bidding sites and comparison pages, many customers fail to take the most basic step towards saving money: actually looking at a hotel's official website. Many establishments offer special deals to those customers who visit their site, and others will email deals to those who sign up. This can save you a lot of money, so take advantage of it when it's offered.
Compare:
A lot of people make the mistake of getting fixated on one particular comparison website. Since all of the sites have access to the same information, customers assume that they all have the same rates. This is far from the case. You could spend much more by booking through one site as opposed to another. Make sure you hit all of the popular booking sites and check the rates before you settle into a price. You might be surprised at how disparate the rates can be. These sites go to great lengths to get special rates from hotels, and some of them may have a better relationship with the one you're interested in than others.
Special Deals:
If you look around, you can often find websites that offer deals and discounts to area hotels for using their service. As an extreme example, there are plenty of companies that offer free rooms in the Orlando area for looking at a timeshare seminar. Will you be subjected to a high-pressure sales pitch? Of course! But if you are the type of person that can easily deflect this kind of pressure (or if you are truly interested in what they are selling anyway), then it might be worth it to get the deals.
Particularly in lesser-trafficked towns, hotels are desperate for vacationers to choose them for their lodging arrangements. By spending some time on research
, you can find some great deals that will allow you to stay at a nice place without spending a fortune.
