MSN Money often recycles older personal finance articles for its front page. I don’t really mind since I might have missed one in the past. They don’t date their articles so you never know when something was originally posted.
They are featuring an article on finding deals on hotel rooms. They give some examples, but here’s the bottom line procedure:
* Start your search on Expedia, Orbitz or Travelocity. Each site will give you a different mix of results.
* Pick one hotel you like and visit that hotel’s website (or the hotel chain’s website) to find a lower rate.
* Call the hotel, ask for the lowest rate, and then negotiate using the familiar line, “Is that the best you can do?” Calling the hotel on Sunday gives you a better chance to get someone who’s free to negotiate on price. Call again at the last minute. Some rooms may have opened up or prices may have changed.
* If your web search returns “no availability” for a particular hotel, check the hotel’s website anyway.
The article has further suggestions for upgrading hotel rooms or aiming for super non-refundable rates through sites like Hotwire and Priceline (PCLN) but that can be risky.
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For cheap hotel rooms, I used to go that route but now I always Priceline for the best price if I’m in or near a major city. Biddingfortravel.com is a forum where users share the hotel deals they’ve gotten for a particular class of hotel in an area. I’ve stayed at all kinds of really nice 4-star NYC hotels now for $60-$80 per night by doing this. Best of all, I usually booked things last-minute and paid less than half of what the hotels were quoting directly.
Put down another vote for Priceline and the site Biddingfortravel. They have lists of what hotels in an area fall into which star category, so you can score some nice hotels for really cheap. Using Biddingfortravel for information is absolutely clutch.
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