Hotels

Planning a trip? Whatever the budget for a trip or vacation, most people would like to save a little - or a lot - of money when booking hotels, airfares and other trip necessities.

At Travel-Like-A-Pro.com, we specialize in helping people save money when booking their trips and vacations. This section is all about helping you find the perfect hotel for your needs, and saving money on the room rate!

In the following article, you will find tips for booking a hotel and making the reservation as smooth and affordable as possible.

• USE THE INTERNET: Search for hotels or resorts of your choice by using online travel-specific search engines such as Expedia or Orbitz. These sites contain powerful engines which will do the legwork for you, looking for the best deals to be found online. Just type in your destination of choice, your dates and pereferences, and they do the comparisons for you. You can even search by your own specific priorities, such as price, hotel star rating or proximity to attractions.
• DO YOUR HOMEWORK: By investing the time and effort to do some research and learn what your options are, you are ten steps ahead of someone who just calls their travel agent and says ‘take care of it for me’. That being said, once you know what you want…
• MAKE YOUR TRAVEL AGENT YOUR FRIEND: It pays to develop and maintain a relationship with a reputable travel agency, as you will then become a ‘preferred’ customer of theirs, and can take advantage of the best pricing available. They may even have an online or physical mailing list they can put you on to be notified immediately of great deals.
• ASK: Your travel agent, the booking agents at the hotels you are considering, your friends or family who have been to the city or country you are going to visit; ask everyone for discounts and/or ideas on how to get them. It’s amazing what you can get when you simply ask, and it’s amazing how many people don’t bother!
  

  Example: Once you have narrowed down your choices, consider calling the hotel/s yourself. Be straightforward and polite, and ask if there are any discounts you can take advantage of, and ask if they can do any better, offer you an upgrade, anything they can do. Many hotel clerks have confided that they have the authority to offer complimentary upgrades or discounts to clientele, but they will not do so unless they are directly asked. He who asks, receives! Try calling two of your top choices and mention that you are down to these last two choices, and see what the best offer is…sometimes a little competition (without threats) can induce a reservation employee to do a little better for you.

• CLUBS & MEMBERSHIPS: Join the Last Minute Club or some similar travel savings club. Also check any associations you may be a part of: your discount warehouse, your credit card companies and your car insurance are just a few examples. Many organizations offer savings on travel-specific services, and some even reserve blocks of tickets and hotel rooms and can offer better rates because of this. They also have buying power with hotels and airlines because they frequently send them business, and thus can offer you savings over retail, especially, as you might expect, on ‘last-minute’ trips.
• TRAVEL ID: Consider getting a Travel Agent ID Card. This is a tool your travel agent may not appreciate you knowing about, but it can easily be done, and you will save many thousands of dollars on hotels, airfare, car rentals and more over your lifetime. A successful local Realtor tells us, “My wife got a Travel Agent ID several years ago, and it has paid for itself many times over. We’ve saved thousands over the years and it was definitely a worthwhile investment.”. There are courses you can take and other ways to obtain this powerful little card. For more information, do your own research, and also try Travel Industry Secrets as a starter guide.
• BIDDING: If you have some flexibility, a sense of adventure and have done your homework, you can get even deeper discounts by using sites such as Priceline.com and Hotwire.com. CLICK HERE for a more comprehensive outline of these great resources, and for tips on using them to your best advantage.

Never pay inflated travel rates again! With these tips, you can be the envy of all your friends and save more of your money for spending on fun things while you are away.